United States, The
UNITED STATES, THE, the short title usually given to the great federal republic which had its origin in the revolt of the British colonies in North America, when, in the Declaration of Independence, they described themselves as " The Thirteen United States of America." Officially the name is " The United States of America," but " The United States " (used as a singular and not a plural) has become accepted as the name of the country; and pre-eminent usage has now made its citizens " Americans," in distinction from the other inhabitants of North and South America.
The area of the United States, as here considered, exclusive of Alaska and outlying possessions, occupies a belt nearly twenty degrees of middle latitude in width, and crosses North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The southern boundary is naturally defined on the east by the Gulf of Mexico; its western extension crosses obliquely over the western highlands, along an irregular line determined by aggressive Americans of Anglo-Saxon stock against Americans of Spanish stock. The northern boundary, after an arbitrary beginning, finds a natural extension along the Great Lakes, and thence continues along the 49th parallel of north latitude to the Pacific (see Bulletin 171, U.S. Geological Survey). The area thus included is 3,026,789 sq. m. [1]
[1] The following are the states of the Union (recognized abbreviations being given in brackets): Alabama (Ala.), Arizona (Ariz.), Arkansas (Ark.), California (Cal.), Colorado (Col.), Connecticut (Conn.), Delaware (Del.), Florida (Fla.), Georgia (Ga.), Idaho, Illinois (111.), Indiana (Ind.), Iowa (la.), Kansas (Kan.), Kentucky (Ky.), Louisiana (La.), Maine (Me.), Maryland (Md.), Massachusetts (Mass.), Michigan (Mich.), Minnesota (Minn.), Mississippi (Miss.), Missouri (Mo.), Montana (Mont.), Nebraska (Neb.), Nevada (Nev.), New Hampshire (N.H.), New Jersey (N.J.), New Mexico (N. Mex.), New York (N.Y.), North Carolina (N.C.), North Dakota (N. Dak.), Ohio(O.), Oklahoma (Okla.), Oregon (Oreg.), Pennsylvania (Pa.), Rhode Island (R.I.), South Carolina (S.C.), South Dakota (S. Dak.), Tennessee (Tenn.), Texas (Tex.), Utah, Vermont (Vt.), Virginia (Va.), West Virginia (W. Va.), Washington (Wash.), Wisconsin (Wis.), Wyoming (Wyo.); together with the District of Columbia (D.C.).
I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Coast. The Atlantic coast of the United States is, with minor exceptions, low; the Pacific coast is, with as few exceptions, hilly or mountainous. The Atlantic coast owes its oblique N.E.-S.W. trend to crustal deformations which in very early geological time gave a beginning to what later came to be the Appalachian mountain system; but this system had its climax of deformation so long ago (probably in Permian time) that it has since then been very generally reduced to moderate or low relief, and owes its present altitude either to renewed elevations along the earlier lines or to the survival of the most resistant rocks as residual mountains. The oblique trend of the coast would be even more pronounced but for a comparatively modern crustal movement, causing a depression in the northeast, with a resulting encroachment of, the sea upon the land, and an elevation in the south-west, with a resulting advance of the land upon the sea. The Pacific coast has been defined chiefly by relatively recent crustal deformations, and hence still preserves a greater relief than that of the Atlantic. The minor features of each coast will be mentioned in connexion with the land districts of which the coast-line is only the border.
General Topography and Drainage. The low Atlantic coast and the hilly or mountainous Pacific coast foreshadow the leading features in the distribution of mountains within the United States. The Appalachian system, originally forest-covered, on the eastern side of the continent, is relatively low and narrow; it is bordered on the south-east and south by an important coastal plain. The CordiUeran system on the western side of the continent is lofty, broad and complicated, with heavy forests near the north-west coast, but elsewhere with trees only on the higher ranges below the Alpine region, and with treeless or desert interment valleys, plateaus and basins, very arid in the south-west. Between the two mountain systems extends a great central area of plains, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico northward, far beyond the national boundary, to the Arctic Ocean. The rivers that drain the Atlantic slope of the Appalachians are comparatively short; those that drain the Pacific slope include only two, the Columbia and the Colorado, which rise far inland, near the easternmost members of the Cordilleran system, and flow through plateaus and intermont basins to the ocean. The central plains are divided by a hardly perceptible height of land into a Canadian and a United States portion; from the latter the great Mississippi system discharges southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The upper Mississippi and some of the Ohio basin is the prairie region, with trees originally only along the watercourses; the uplands towards the Appalachians were included in the great eastern forested area; the western part of the plains has so dry a climate that its herbage is scanty, and in the south it is barren. The lacustrine system of the St Lawrence flows eastward from a relatively narrow drainage area.
Relation of General Topography to Settlement. The aboriginal occupants of the greater part of North America were comparatively few in number, and except in Mexico were not advanced beyond the savage state. The geological processes that placed a much narrower ocean between North America and western Europe than between North America and eastern Asia secured to the New World the good fortune of being colonized by the leading peoples of the occidental Old World, instead of by the less developed races of the Orient. The transoceanic invasion progressed slowly through the 17th and 18th centuries, delayed by the head winds of a rough ocean which was crossed only in slow sailing vessels, and by the rough " backwoods " of the Appalachians ; which retarded the penetration of wagon roads and canals into the interior. The invasion was wonderfully accelerated through the 19th century, when the vast area of the treeless prairies beyond the Appalachians was offered to the settler, and when steam transportation on sea and land replaced sailing vessels and wagons. The frontier was then swiftly carried across the eastern half of the central plains, but found a second delay in its advance occasioned by the dry climate of the western plains. It was chiefly the mineral wealth of the Cordilleran region, first developed on the far Pacific slope, and later in many parts of the inner mountain ranges, that urged pioneers across the PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY)
dry plains into the apparently inhospitable mountain region; there the adventurous new-comers rapidly worked out one mining district after another, exhausting and abandoning the smaller " camps " to early decay and rushing in feverish excitement to new-found river fields, but establishing important centres of varied industries in the more important mining districts. It was not until the settlers learned to adapt themselves to the methods of wide-range cattle raising and of farming by irrigation that the greater value of the far western interior was recognized as a permanent home for an agricultural population.
The purchase of " Louisiana " a great area west of the Mississippi river from the French in 1803 has sometimes been said to be the cause of the westward expansion of the United States, but the Louisiana purchase has been better interpreted as the occasion for the expansion rather than its cause; for, as Lewis Evans of Philadelphia long ago recognized (1749), whoever gained possession of the Ohio Valley the chief eastern part of the central plains would inevitably become the masters of the continent.
Physiographic Subdivisions. The area of the United States may be roughly divided into the Appalachian belt, the Cordilleras and the central plains, as already indicated. These large divisions need physiographic subdivision, which will now be made, following the guide of " structure, process and stage "; that is, each subdivision or province will be defined as part of the earth's crust in which some similarity of geological structure prevails, and upon which some process or processes of surface sculpture have worked long enough to reach a certain stage in the cycle of physiographic development.
The Appalachians. The physiographic description of the Appalachian mountain system offers an especially good opportunity for the application of the genetic method based on " structure, process and stage." This mountain system consists essentially of two belts: one on the south-east, chiefly of ancient and greatly deformed crystalline rocks, the other on the north-west, a heavy series of folded Palaeozoic strata; and with these it will be convenient to associate a third belt, farther north-west, consisting of the same Palaeozoic strata lying essentially horizontal and constituting the Appalachian plateau. The crystalline belt represents, at least in part, the ancient highlands from whose ruins the sandstones, shales and limestones of the stratified series were formed, partly as marine, partly as fluviatile deposits. The deformation of the Appalachians was accomplished in two chief periods of compressive deformation, one in early Palaeozoic, the other about the close of Palaeozoic time, and both undoubtedly of long duration; the second one extended its effects farther northwest than the first. These were followed by a period of minor tilting and faulting in early Mesozoic, by a moderate upwarping in Tertiary, and by a moderate uplift in post-Tertiary time. The later small movements are of importance because they are related to the existing topography with which we are here concerned. Each of the disturbances altered the attitude of the mass with respect to the general base-level of the ocean surface; each movement therefore introduced a new cycle of erosion, which was interrupted by a later movement and the beginning of a later cycle.
Thus interpreted, the Appalachian forms of to-day may be ascribed to three cycles of erosion : a nearly complete Mesozoic cycle, in which most of the previously folded and faulted mountain masses were reduced in Cretaceous time to a peneplain or lowland of small relief, surmounted, however, in the north-east and in the south-west by monadnocks of the most resistant rocks, standing singly or in groups ; an incomplete Tertiary cycle, initiated by the moderate Tertiary upwarping of the Mesozoic peneplain, and of sufficient length to develop mature valleys in the more resistant rocks of the crystalline belt or in the horizontal strata of the plateau, and to develop late mature or old valleys in the weaker rocks of the stratified belt, where the harder strata were left standing up in ridges ; and a brief post-Tertiary cycle, initiated by an uplift of moderate amount and in progress long enough only to erode narrow and relatively immature valleys. Glacial action complicated the work of the latest cycle in the northern part of the system. In view of all this it is possible to refer nearly every element of Appalachian form to its appropriate cycle and stage of development. The more resistant rocks, even though dissected by Tertiary erosion, retain in their summit uplands an indication of the widespread peneplain of Cretaceous time, now standing at the altitude given to it by the Tertiary upwarping and post-Tertiary uplift; and the most resistant rocks surmount the Cretaceous peneplain as unconsumed monadnocks of the Mesozoic cycle. On the other hand, the weaker rocks are more or less com- :letely reduced to lowlands by Tertiary erosion, and are now trenched y the narrow and shallow valleys of the short post-Tertiary cycle. Evidently, therefore, the Appalachians as we now see them are not the still surviving remnants of the mountains of late Palaeozoic deformation; they owe their present height chiefly to the Tertiary upwarping and uplifting, and their form to the normal processes of sculpture which, having become nearly quiescent at the close of the Mesozoic cycle, became active again in Tertiary and later times.
The belts of structure and the cycles of erosion thus briefly described are recognizable with more or less continuity from the Gulf of St Lawrence 1500 m. south-westward to Alabama, where the deformed mountain structures pass out of sight under nearly horizontal strata of the Gulf coastal plain. But the dimensions of the several belts and the strength of the relief developed by their later erosion varies greatly along the system. In a north-eastern section, practically all of New England is occupied by the older crystalline belt; the corresponding northern part of the stratified belt in the St Lawrence and Champlain-Hudson valleys on the inland side of New England is comparatively free from the ridge-making rocks which abound farther south; and here the plateau member is wanting, being replaced, as it were, by the Adirondacks, an outlier of the Laurentian highlands of Canada which immediately succeeds the deformed stratified belt west of Lake Champlain. In a middle section of the system, from the Hudson river in southern New York to the James river in southern Virginia, the crystalline belt is narrowed, as if by the depression of its south-eastern part beneath the Atlantic Ocean or beneath the strata of the Atlantic coastal plain which now represents the ocean; but the stratified belt is here broadly developed in a remarkable series of ridges and valleys determined by the action of erosion on the many alternations of strong and weak folded strata ; and the plateau assumes full strength southward from the monoclinal Mohawk valley which separates it from the Adirondacks. The linear ridges of this middle section are often called the Alleghany Mountains. In a south-western section the crystalline belt again assumes jmportance in breadth and height, and the plateau member maintains the strength that it had in the middle section, but the intermediate stratified belt again has fewer ridges, because of the infrequence here of ridge-making strata as compared to their frequency in the middle section.
The middle section of the Appalachians, rather arbitrarily limited by the Hudson and the James rivers, may be described first because it contains the best representation of the three longitudinal belts of which the mountain system as a whole is e *"*" composed- The mountain-making compression of the A PP ala heavy series of Palaeozoic strata has here produced a c " ians - marvellous series of rock folds with gently undulating axes, trending north-east and south-west through a belt 70 or 80 m. wide ; no less wonderful is the form that has been produced by the processes of sculpture. The peculiar configuration of the ridges may be apprehended as follows : The pattern of the folded strata on the low-lying Cretaceous peneplain must have resembled the pattern of the curved grain of wood on a planed board. When the peneplain was uplifted the weaker strata were worn down almost to a lowland of a second generation, while the resistant sandstones, of which there are three chief members, retained a great part of their new-gained altitude in the form of long, narrow, even-crested ridges, well deserving of the name of Endless Mountains given them by the Indians, but here and there bending sharply in peculiar zigzags which give this Alleghany section of the mountains an unusual individuality. The postTertiary uplift, giving the present altitude of 1000 or 1500 ft. in Pennsylvania, and of 2500 or 3500 ft. in Virginia, has not significantly altered the forms thus produced ; it has only incited the rivers to intrench themselves 100 or more feet beneath the lowlands of Tertiary erosion. The watercourses to-day are, as a rule, longitudinal, following the strike of the weaker strata in paths that they appear to have gained by spontaneous adjustment during the long Mesozoic cycle; but now and again they cross from one longitudinal valley to another by a transverse course, and there they have cut down sharp notches or " water-gaps " in the hard strata that elsewhere stand up in the long even-crested ridges.
The transition from the strongly folded structure of the Alleghany ridges and valleys to the nearly horizontal structure of the Appalachian plateau is promptly made; and with the change of structure comes an appropriate change of form. The horizontal strata of the plateau present equal ease or difficulty of erosion in any direction ; the streams and the submature valleys of the plateau therefore ramify in every direction, thus presenting a pattern that has been called insequent, because it follows no apparent control. Further mention of the plateau is made in a later section.
The crystalline belt of the middle Appalachians, 60 or 80 m. wide, is to-day of moderate height because the Tertiary upwarping was there of moderate amount. The height is greatest along the inner or north-western border of the belt, and here a sub-mountainous topography has been produced by normal dissection, chiefly in the Tertiary cycle; the valleys being narrow because the rocks are resistant. The relief is strong enough to make occupation difficult; the slopes are forested ; the uplands are cleared and well occupied by farms and villages, but many of the valleys are wooded glens. With continued decrease of altitude south-eastward, the crystalline belt dips under the coastal plain, near a line marked by the Delaware river from Trenton to Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and thence south-south-westward through Maryland and Virginia past the cities of Baltimore, Washington and Richmond.
The Pennsylvania portion of the crystalline belt is narrow, as has been said, because of encroachment upon it by the inward overlap of the coastal plain; it is low because of small Tertiary uplift; but.
still more, it is discontinuous, because of the inclusion of certain belts of weak non-crystalline rock; here the rolling uplands are worn down to lowland belts, the longest of which reaches from the southern corner of New York, across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into central Virginia.
The middle section of the Appalachians is further distinguished from the north-eastern and souni-western sections by the arrangeDralnagc. ment of its drainage : its chief rivers rise in the plateau belt and flow across the ridges and valleys of the stratified belt and through the uplands of the crystalline belt to the sea. The rivers which most perfectly exemplify this habit are the Delaware, Susquehanna and Potomac; the Hudson, the north-eastern boundary of the middle section, is peculiar in having headwaters in the Adirondacks as well as in the Catskills (northern part of the plateau) ; the James, forming the south-western boundary of the section, rises in the inner valleys of the stratified belt, instead of in the plateau. The generally transverse course of these rivers has given rise to the suggestion that they are of antecedent origin; but there are many objections to this over-simple, Gordian explanation. The south-east course of the middle-section rivers is the result of many changes from the initial drainage; the Mesozoic and Tertiary upwarpings were probably very influential in determining the present general courses.
For the most part the rivers follow open valleys along belts of weak strata; but they frequently pass through sharp-cut notches in the narrow ridges of the stratified belt the Delaware water-gap is one of the deepest of these notches; and in the harder rocks of the crystalline belt they have eroded steep-walled gorges, of which the finest is that of the Hudson, because of the greater height and breadth of the crystalline highlands there than at points where the other rivers cross it. The rivers are shallow and more or less broken by rapids in the notches; rapids occur also near the outer border of the crystalline belt, as if the rivers there had been lately incited to downward erosion by an uplift of the region, and had not yet had time to regrade their courses. This is well shown in the falls of the Potomac a few miles above Washington; in the rapids- of the lower Susquehanna ; and in the falls of the Schuylkill, a branch which joins the Delaware at Philadelphia, where the water-power has long been used in extensive factories. Hence rivers in the Appalachians are not navigable; it is only farther down-stream, where the rivers have been converted into estuaries and bays such as Chesapeake and Delaware bays by a slight depression of the coastal plain belt, that they serve the purposes of navigation. But the Hudson is strikingly exceptional in this respect; it possesses a deep and navigable tide-water channel all through its gorge in the highlands, a feature which has usually been explained as the result of depression of the land, but may also be explained by glacial erosion without change of land-level ; a feature which, in connexion with the Mohawk Valley, has been absolutely determinative of the metropolitan rank reached by New York City at the Hudson mouth.
The community of characteristics that is suggested by the association of six north-eastern states under the name " New England " The North- ' s m ' ar e measure warranted by the inclusion of eastern Ap- a " these states within the broadened crystalline belt palachlaas ^ *he north-eastern Appalachians, which is here 150 m. wide. The uplands which prevail through the centre of this area at altitudes of about 1000 ft. rise to 1500 or 2000 ft. in the north-west, before descent is made to the lowlands of the stratified belt (St Lawrence-Champlain-Hudson valleys, described later on as part of the Great Appalachian valley), and at the same time the rising uplands are diversified with monadnocks of increasing number and height and by mature valleys cut to greater and greater depths; thus the interior of New England is moderately mountainous. When the central uplands are followed south-east or south to the coast, their altitude and their relief over the valleys gradually decrease; and thus the surface gradually passes under the sea. The lower coastal parts, from their accessibility and their smaller relief, are more densely populated ; the higher and more rugged interior is still largely forested and thinly settled ; there are large tracts of unbroken forest in northern Maine, hardly 150 m. from the coast. In spite of these contrasts, no physiographic line can be drawn between the higher and more rugged interior and the lower coastal border; one merges into the other. New England is a unit, though a diversified unit.
The Appalachian trends (N.E.-S.W.) that are so prominent in the stratified belt of the middle Appalachians, and are fairly well marked in the crystalline belt of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are prevailingly absent in New England. They may be seen on the western border, in the Hoosac range along the boundary of Massachusetts and New York ; in the linear series of the Green Mountain summits (Mt Mansfield, 4364 ft., Killington Peak, 4241 ft.) and their (west) piedmont ridges farther north in Vermont; and in the ridges of northern Maine: these are all in sympathy with Appalachian structure; so also are certain open valleys, as the Berkshire ( limestone) Valley in western Massachusetts and the corresponding Rutland (limestone and marble) Valley in western Vermont; and more particularly the long Connecticut Valley from northern New Hampshire across Massachusetts to the sea at the southern border of Connecticut, the populous southern third of which is broadly eroded along a belt of red Triassic sandstones with trap ridges.
But in general the dissection of the New England upland is as irregular as is the distribution of the surmounting monadnocks. The type of this class of forms is Mt Monadnock in south-western New Hampshire, a fine example of an isolated residual mass rising from an upland some 1500 ft. in altitude and reaching a summit height of 3186 ft. A still larger example is seen in Mt Katahdin (5200 ft.) in north-central Maine, the greatest of several similar isolated mountains that are scattered over the interior uplands without apparent system. The White Mountains of northern New Hampshire may be treated as a complex group of monadnocks, all of subdued forms, except for a few cliffs at the head of cirque-like valleys, with Mt Washington, the highest of the dome-like or low pyramidal summits, reaching 6293 ft., and thirteen other summits over 5000 ft. The absence of range-like continuity is here emphasized by the occurrence of several low passes or " notches " leading directly through the group; the best-known being Crawford's Notch (1900 ft.).
In consequence of the general south-eastward slope of the highlands and uplands of New England, the divide between the Atlantic rivers and those which flow nofthward and westward n . into the lowland of the stratified belt in Canada and ' New York is generally close to the boundary of these two physiographic districts. The chief rivers all flow south or south-east: they are the Connecticut, Merrimack, Kennebec, Penobscot and St John, the last being shared with the province of New Brunswick.
The drainage of New England is unlike that of the middle and south-weste/n Appalachians in the occurrence of numerous lakes and falls. These irregular features are wanting south of the limits of Pleistocene glaciation; there {he rivers have had time, in the latest cycle of erosion into which they have entered, to establish themselves in a continuous flow, and as a rule to wear down their courses to a smoothly graded slope. In New England also a wellestablished drainage undoubtedly prevailed in preglacial times; but partly in consequence of the irregular scouring of the rock floor, and even more because of the very irregular deposition of unstratified and stratified drift in the valleys, the drainage is now in great disorder. Many lakes of moderate size and irregular outline have been formed where drift deposits formed barriers across former river courses; the lake outlets are more or less displaced from former river paths. Smaller lakes were formed by the deposition of washed drift around the longest-lasting ice remnants; when the ice finally melted away, the hollows that it left came to be occupied by ponds and lakes. In Maine lakes of both classes are numerous; the largest is Moosehead Lake, about 35 m. long and of a very irregular shore line.
The features of a coast can be appreciated only when it is perceived that they result from the descent of the land surface beneath the sea and from the work of the sea upon the shore line thus determined ; and it is for this reason that throughout this article the coastal features are described in connexion with the districts of which they are the border. The maturely dissected and recently glaciated uplands of New England are now somewhat depressed with respect to sea-level, so that the sea enters the valleys, forming bays and estuaries, while the interfluve uplands and hills stand forth in headlands and islands. Narragansett Bay, with the associated headlands and islands on the south coast, is one of the best examples. Where drift deposits border the sea, the shore line has been cut back or built forward in beaches of submature expression, often enclosing extensive tidal marshes; but the great part of the shore line is rocky, and there the change from initial pattern due to submergence is as yet small. Hence the coast as a whole is irregular, with numerous embayments, peninsulas and islands; and in Maine this irregularity reaches a disadvantageous climax.
As in the north-east, so in the south-west, the crystalline belt widens and gains in height; but while New England is an indivisible unit, the southern crystalline belt must be subdivided The So(l< /,. into a higher mountain belt on the north-west, 60 m. wes tera Apwide where broadest, and a lower piedmont belt on the na i ac hian<i . . . f t . T , . . f, , /J.//.1C///.//J.S.
south-east, 100 m. wide, from southern Virginia to South Carolina. This subdivision is already necessary in Maryland, where the mountain belt is represented by the Blue Ridge, which is rather a narrow upland belt than a ridge proper where the Potomac cuts across it ; while the piedmont belt, relieved by occasional monadnocks stretches from the eastern base of the Blue Ridge to the coastal plain, into which it merges. Farther south, the mountain belt widens and attains its greatest development, a true highland district, in North Carolina, where it includes several strong mountain groups. Here Mt Mitchell rises to 67 1 1 ft., the highest of the Appalachians, and about thirty other summits exceed 6000 ft., while the valleys are usually at altitudes of about 2000 ft. Although the relief is strong, the mountain forms are rounded rather than rugged; few of the summits deserve or receive the name of peaks; some are called domes, from their broadly rounded tops, others are known as balds, because the widespread forest cover is replaced over their heads by a grassy cap.
The height and massiveness of the mountains decrease to the south-west, where the piedmont belt sweeps westward around them in western Georgia and eastern Alabama. Some of the residual mountains hereabouts are reduced to a mere skeleton or framework by the retrogressive penetration of widening vaJleys between wasting spurs; the very type of vanishing forms. Certain districts within d Engraved by Jutui P*rth,Goth.,G*rniiy.
the mountains, apparently consisting of less resistant crystalline rocks, have been reduced to basin-like peneplains in the same time that served only to grade the slopes and subdue the summits of the neighbouring mountains of more resistant rocks; the best example of this kind is the Asheville peneplain in North Carolina, measuring about 40 by 20 m. across; but in consequence of later elevation, its general surface, now standing at an altitude of 2500 ft., is maturely dissected by the French Broad river and its many branches in valleys 300 ft. deep; the basin floor is no longer a plain, but a hilly district in the midst of the mountains; Asheville on its southern border is a noted health resort.
The rivers of the mountain belt, normally dividing and subdividing in apparently insequent fashion between the hills and spurs, generally follow open valleys; there are few waterfalls, the streams being as a rule fairly well graded, though their current is rapid and their channels are set with coarse waste. The valley floors always join at accordant levels, as is the habit among normally subdued mountains; they thus contrast with glaciated mountains such as the Alps and the Canadian Rockies, where the laterals habitually open as " hanging valleys " in the side slope of the main valleys. It is a peculiar feature of the drainage in North Carolina that the headwaters lie to the east of the highest mountains, and that the chief rivers flow north-westward through the mountains to the broad valley lowland of the stratified belt and then through the plateau, as the members of the Mississippi system. It is probable that these rivers follow in a general way courses of much more ancient origin than those of the Atlantic rivers in the middle Appalachians.
The piedmont belt may be described as a maturely dissected peneplain over much of its extent; it is indeed one of the best examples of that class of forms. Its uplands are of fairly accordant altitude, which gradually decreases from 500 to 1000 ft. near the mountain belt to half that height along the coastal plain border. The uplands are here and there surmounted by residual monadnocks in the form of low domes and knobs; these increase in height and number towards the mountain belt, and decrease towards the coastal plain: Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia, a dome of granite surmounting the schists of the uplands, is a striking example of this class of forms. The chief rivers flow south-eastward in rather irregular courses through valleys from 200 to 500 ft. deep; the small branches ramify indefinitely in typical insequent arrangement; the streams are nearly everywhere well graded; rapids are rare and lakes are unknown.
The boundary between the mountains and the piedmont belt is called the Blue Ridge all along its length ; and although the name is fairly appropriate in northern Virginia, it is not deserved in the Carolinas, where the " ridge " is only an escarpment descending abruptly 1000 or 1500 ft. from the valleys of the mountain belt to the rolling uplands of the piedmont belt ; and as such it is a form of unusual occurrence. It is not defined by rock structure, but appears to result from the retrogressive erosion of the shorter Atlantic rivers, whereby the highlands, drained by much longer rivers, are undercut. The piedmont belt merges south-eastward into the coastal plain, the altitudes of the piedmont uplands and of the coastal plain hills being about the same along their line of junction. Many of the rivers, elsewhere well graded, have rapids as they pass from the harder rocks of the piedmont to the semi-consolidated strata of the coastal plain.
There is one feature of the Appalachians that has greater continuity than any other; this is the Great Valley. It is determined The Great structurally by a belt of topographically weak limestones Valley anc ' sna ' es ( or slates) next inland from the crystalline uplands; hence, whatever the direction of the rivers which drain the belt, it has been worn down by Tertiary erosion to a continuous lowland from the Gulf of St Lawrence to central Alabama. Through all this distance of 1500 m. the lowland is nowhere interrupted by a transverse ridge, although longitudinal ridges of moderate height occasionally diversify its surface. In the middle section, as already stated, the Great Valley is somewhat open on the east, by reason of the small height and broad interruptions of the narrow crystalline belt', on the west it is limited by the complex series of Alleghany ridges and valleys; in the north-east section the valley is strongly enclosed on the east by the New England uplands, and on the west by the Adirondacks and Catskills (see below; ; in the south-west section the valley broadens from the North Carolina highlands on the south-east almost to the Cumberland plateau on the north-west, for here also the ridge-making formations weaken, although they do not entirely disappear.
A striking contrast between New England and the rest of the Appalachians is found in the descent of the New England uplands The Atlantic * an ' mmec 'i a te frontage on the. sea; while to the south Coastal ^ New York harbour the remainder of the AppalaPlaln. chians are set back from the sea by the interposition of a coastal plain, one of the most characteristic examples of this class of forms anywhere to be found. As in all such cases, the plain consists of marine (with some estuarine and fluviatile) stratified deposits, more or less indurated, which were laid down when the land stood lower and the sea had its shore line farther inland than to-day. An uplift, increasing to the south, revealed part of the shallow sea bottom in the widening coastal plain, from its narrow beginning at New York harbour to its greatest breadth of no or 1 20 m. in Georgia: there it turns westward and is continued in the Gulf coastal plain, described farther on. The coastal plain, however, is the result, not of a single recent uplift, but of movements dating back to Tertiary time and continued with many oscillations to the present; nor is its surface smooth and unbroken, for erosion began upon the inner part of the plain long before the outer border was revealed. Indeed, the original interior border of the plain has been well stripped from its inland overlap; the higher-standing inner part of the plain is now maturely dissected, with a relief of 200 to 500 ft., by rivers extended seaward from the older land and by their innumerable branches, which are often of insequent arrangement; while the seaward border, latest uplifted, is prevailingly low and smooth, with a hardly perceptible seaward slope of but a few feet in a mile ; and the shallow sea deepens very gradually for many miles off shore.
South Carolina and Georgia furnish the broadest and most typical section of this important physiographic province: here the more sandy and hilly interior parts are largely occupied by pine forests, which furnish much hard or yellow pine lumber, tar and turpentine. Farther seaward, where the relief is less and the soils are richer, the surface is cleared and cotton is an important crop.
A section of the coastal plain, from North Carolina to southern New Jersey, resembles the plain farther south in general form and quality of soils, but besides being narrower, it is further characterized by several embayments or arms of the sea, caused by a slight depression of the land after mature valleys had been eroded in the plain. The coastal lowland between the sea arms is so flat that, although distinctly above sea-level, vegetation hinders drainage and extensive swamps or " pocossins " occur. Dismal Swamp, on the border of North Carolina and Virginia, is the largest example.
The small triangular section of the coastal plain in New Jersey north of Delaware Bay deserves separate treatment because of the development there of a peculiar topographic feature, which throws light on the occurrence of the islands off the New England coast, described in the next paragraph. The feature referred to results from the occurrence here of a weak basal formation of clay overlaid by more resistant sandy strata ; the clay belt has been stripped for a score or more of miles from its original inland overlap, and worn down in a longitudinal inner lowland, while the sandy belt retains a significant altitude of 200 or 300 ft. overlooking the inner lowland in a well-defined slope dissected by many inland-flowing streams, and descending from its broad crest very gently seaward, thus giving rise to what has been called a " belted coastal plain," in which the relief is arranged longitudinally and the upland member, with its very unsymmetrical slopes, has sometimes been called a " cuesta." This is a form of relief frequently occurring elsewhere, as in the Niagara cuesta of the Great Lake district of the northern United States and in the Cotswold and Chiltern hills of England, typical examples of the cuesta class. The Delaware river, unlike its southern analogues, which pursue a relatively direct course to the sea, turns south-westward along the inner lowland for some 50 m.
There is good reason for believing that at least along the southern border of New England a narrow coastal plain was for a time added to the continental border; and that, as in the New Jersey section, the plain was here stripped from a significant breadth of inland overlap and worn down so as to form an inner lowland enclosed by a longitudinal upland or cuesta; and that when this stage was reached a submergence, of the kind which has produced the many embayments of the New England coast, drowned the outer part of the plain and the inner lowland, leaving only the higher parts of the cuesta as islands. Thus Long Island (fronting Connecticut, but belonging to New York state), Block Island (part of the small state of Rhode Island), Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (parts of Massachusetts) may be best explained. Heavy terminal moraines and outwashed fluviatile plains have been laid on the cuesta remnants, increasing their height as much as 100 ft. and burying their seaward slope with gravel and sand. Moreover, the sea has worked on the shore line thus originated, reducing the size of the more exposed islands farther east, and even consuming some islands which are now represented by the Nantucket shoals.
The same Palaeozoic formations that are folded in the belt of the Alleghany ridges lie nearly horizontal in the plateau district next north-west. The exposed strata are in large part _. resistant sandstones. While they have suffered active j.-a/ac/i/aii dissection by streams during the later cycles of erosion, pi^ teau the hilltops have retained so considerable an altitude that the district is known as a plateau; it might be better described as a dissected plateau, inasmuch as its uplands are not continuous but are nearly everywhere interrupted by ramifying insequent valleys. The unity and continuity of the district, expressed in the name Appalachian plateau, is seldom recognized in local usage. Its north-easterri part in eastern New York is known as the Catskill Mountains; here it reaches truly mountainous heights in great dome-like masses of full-bodied form, with two summits rising a little over 4000 ft. The border of this part of the plateau descends eastward by a single strong escarpment to the Hudson valley, from which the mountains present a fine appearance, and northward by two escarpments (the second being called the " Helderberg Mountains ") to the Mohawk Valley, north of which rise the Adirondacks; but to the south west the dissected highland continues into Pennsylvania and Virginia, where it is commonly known as the Alleghany plateau. A curious feature appears in northern Pennsylvania : here the lateral pressure of the Palaeozoic mountain-making forces extended its effects through a belt about fifty miles wider than the folded belt of the Hudson Valley, thus compressing into great rock waves a part of the heavy stratified series which in New York lies horizontal and forms the Catskills; hence one sees, in passing south-west from the horizontal to the folded strata, a beautiful illustration of the manner in which land sculpture is controlled by land structure. Altitudes of 1200 ft. prevail in Pennsylvania and increase in Virginia; then the altitude falls to about 1000 ft. in Kentucky and Tennessee, where the name Cumberland plateau is used for the highest portion, and to still less in northern Alabama, where the plateau, like the mountain belt, disappears under the Gulf coastal plain. Through all this distance of 1000 m. the border of the plateau on the south-east is an abrupt escarpment, eroded where the folded structure of the mountain belt reveals a series of weaker strata; but in the north-west the plateau suffers only a gradual decrease of height and of relief, until the prairie plains are reached in central Ohio and southern Indiana and Illinois, about 150 m. inland from the escarpment. Two qualifications must, however, be added. In certain parts of the plateau there are narrow anticlinal uplifts, an outlying effect of mountain-making compression ; here a ridge rises if the exposed strata are resistant, as in Chestnut ridge of western Pennsylvania ; but here a valley is excavated if the exposed strata are weak, as in Sequatchie Valley, a long narrow trough which cuts off a strip of the plateau from its greater body in Tennessee. Again, in Kentucky and Tennessee, there is a double alternation of sandstone and limestone in the plateau-making strata; and as the skyline of the plateau bevels across these formations, there are west-facing escarpments, made ragged by mature dissection, as one passes from the topographically strong sandstone to the topographically weak limestone.
In the north-east (New York and Pennsylvania) the higher parts of the plateau are drained by the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers directly to the Atlantic; farther west and south-west, the plateau is drained to the Ohio river and its branches. The submature or mature dissection of the plateau by its branching insequent streams results in giving it an excess of sloping surface, _usually too steep for farming, and hence left for tree growth.
The Superior Oldland. An outlying upland of the Laurentian highlands of Canada projects into the United States west and south of Lake Superior. Although composed chiefly of crystalline rocks, which are commonly associated with a rugged landscape, and although possessing a greatly deformed structure, which must at some ancient period have been associated with strong relief, the upland as a whole is gently rolling, and the inter-stream surfaces are prevailing plateau-like in their evenness, with altitudes of 1400 to 1600 ft. in their higher areas. In this province, therefore, we find a part of one of those ancient mountain regions, initiated by crustal deformation, but reduced by long continued erosion to a peneplain of modem relief, with occasional surmounting monadnocks of moderate height not completely consumed during the peneplanation of the rest of the surface. The erosion of the region must have been far advanced, perhaps practically completed, in very ancient times, for the even surface of the peneplain is overlapped by fossiliferous marine strata of early geological date (Cambrian) ; and this shows that a depression of the region beneath an ancient sea took place after a long existence as dry land. The extent of the submergence and the area over which the Palaeozoic strata were deposited are unknown; for in consequence of renewed elevation without deformation, erosion in later periods has stripped off an undetermined amount of the covering strata. The valleys by which the uplands are here and there trenched to moderate depth appear to be, in part at least, the work of streams that have been superposed upon the peneplain through the now removed cover of stratified rocks. Glaciation has strongly scoured away the deeply- weathered soils that presumably existed here in preglacial time, revealing firm and rugged ledges in the low hills and swells of the ground, and spreading an irregular drift cover over the lower parts, whereby the drainage is often much disordered; here being detained in lakes and swamps (" muskegs ") and there rushing down rocky rapids. The region is therefore generally unattractive to the farmer, but it is inviting to the lumberman and the minef.
The Adirondack Mountains. This rugged district of northern New York may be treated as an outlier in the United States of the Laurentian highlands of Canada, from which it is separated by the St Lawrence Valley. It is of greater altitude (Mt Marcy 5344 ft.) and of much greater relief than the Superior Oldland; its heights decrease gradually to the north, west and south, where it is unconformably overlapped by Palaeozoic strata like those of Minnesota and Wisconsin; it is of more broken structure and form on the east, where the disturbances of the Appalachian system have developed ridges and valleys of linear trends, which are wanting or but faintly seen elsewhere. (See ADIRONDACKS.)
Region of the Great Lakes. The Palaeozoic strata, already mentioned as lapping on the southern slope of the Superior Oldland and around the western side of the Adirondacks. are but parts of a great area of similar strata, hundreds of feet in thickness, which decline gently southward from the great oldland of the Laurentian highlands of eastern Canada. The strata are the deposits of an ancient sea, which in the earlier stage of geological investigation was thought to be part of the primeval ocean, while the Laurentian highlands were taken to be the first land that rose from the primeval waters. Inasmuch, however, as the floor on which the overlapping strata rest is, like the rest of the Laurentian and Superior Oldland, a worn-down mountain region, and as the lowest member of the sedimentary series usually contains pebbles of the oldland rocks, the better interpretation of the relation between the two is that the visible oldland area of to-day is but a small part of the primeval continent, the remainder of which is still buried under the Palaeozoic cover; and that the visible oldland, far from being the first part of the continent to rise from the primeval ocean, was the last part of the primeval continent to sink under the advancing Palaeozoic seas. When the oldland and its overlap of stratified deposits were elevated again, 'the overlapping strata must have had the appearance of a coastal plain; but that was long ago; the strata have since then been much eroded, and to-day possess neither the area nor the smooth form of their initial extent. Hence this district may be placed in the class of ancient coastal plains. As is always the case in the broad denudation of the gently inclined strata of such plains, the weaker layers are worn down in sub-parallel belts of lower land between the oldland and the belts of more resistant strata, which rise in uplands.
Few better illustrations of this class of forms are to be found than that presented in the district of the Great Lakes. The chief upland belt or cuesta is formed by the firm Niagara limestone, which takes its name from the gorge and falls cut through the upland by the Niagara river. As in all such forms, the Niagara cuesta has a relatively strong slope or infacing escarpment on the side towards the oldland, and a long gentle slope on the other side. Its relief is seldom more than 200 or 300 ft., and is commonly of small measure, but its continuity and its contrast with the associated lowlands worn on the underlying and overlying weak strata suffice to make it a feature of importance. The cuesta would be straight from east and west if the slant of the strata were uniformly to the south; but the strata are somewhat warped, and hence the course of the cuesta is strongly convex to the north in the middle, gently convex to the south at either end. The cuesta begins where its determining limestone begins, in west-central New York; there it separates the lowlands that contain the basins of lakes Ontario and Erie; thence it curves to the north-west through the province of Ontario to the belt of islands that divides Georgian Bay from Lake Huron ; then westward through the land-arm between lakes Superior and Michigan, and south-westward into the narrow points that divide Green Bay from Lake Michigan, and at last westward to fade away again with the thinning out of the limestone; it is hardly traceable across the Mississippi river. The arrangement of the Great Lakes is thus seen to be closely sympathetic with the course of the lowlands worn on the two belts of weaker strata on either side of the Niagara cuesta; Ontario, Georgian Bay and Green Bay occupy depressions in the lowland on the inner side of the cuesta ; Erie, Huron and Michigan lie in depressions in the lowland on the outer side. When the two low lands are traced eastward they become confluent after the Niagara limestone has faded away in central New York, and the single lowland is continued under the name of Mohawk Valley, an east-west longitudinal depression that has been eroded on a belt of relatively weak strata between the resistant crystalline rocks of the Adirondacks on the north and the northern escarpment of the Appalachian plateau (Catskills-Helderbergs) on the south ; forming a pathway of great historic and economic importance between the Atlantic seaports and the interior.
In Wisconsin the inner lowland presents an interesting feature in a knob of resistant quartzites, known as Baraboo Ridge, rising from the buried oldland floor through the partly denuded cover of lower Palaeozoic strata. This knob or ridge may be appropriately regarded as an ancient physiographic fossil, inasmuch as, being a monadnock of very remote origin, it has long been preserved from the destructive attack of the weather by burial under sea-floor deposits, and recently laid bare, like ordinary organic fossils of much smaller size, by the removal of part of its cover by normal erosion.
The occurrence of the lake basins in the lowland belts on either side of the Niagara cuesta is an abnormal feature, not to be explained by ordinary erosion, which can produce only valleys. The basins have been variously ascribed to glacial erosion, to obstruction of normal outlet valleys by barriers of glacial drift, and to crustal warping in connexion with or independent of the presence of the glacial sheet. No satisfactory solution of this problem has been reached; but the association of the Great Lakes and other large lakes farther north in Canada with the great North American area of strong and repeated glaciation is highly suggestive.
Lake Superior is unlike the other lakes; the greater part of its basin occupies a depression in the oldland area, independent of the overlap of Palaeozoic strata. The western half of the basin occupies a trough of synclinal structure; but the making of this syncline is so ancient that it cannot be directly connected with the occurrence of the lake to-day. A more reasonable explanation ascribes the lake basin to a geologically modern depression within the Superior oldland area; but there is at present no direct evidence in favour of this hypothesis. The Great Lakes are peculiar in receiving the drainage of but a small peripheral land area, enclosed by an ill-defined water-parting from the rivers that run to Hudson Bay or the Gulf of St Lawrence on the north and to the Gulf of Mexico on the south.
Large canals and locks on both sides of the Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste Marie in the outlet of Lake Superior are actively used except during three or four wiruer months. The three lakes of the middle group stand at practically the same level: Michigan and Huron are connected by the Strait of Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) ; Huron and trie by the St Clair and Detroit rivers, with the small Lake St Clair between them. The navigable depth of these two short rivers is believed to be the result of a slow elevation of the land in the north-east, still in progress, whereby the waters have risen on their former shores near Detroit. Niagara river, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario, with a fall of 326 ft. (160 ft. at the cataract) in 30 m., is manifestly a watercourse of very modern origin; for a large river would now have a thoroughly matured valley had it long followed its present course; the same is true of the St Lawrence, which in its several rapids and in its subdivision into many channels at the Thousand Islands, presents every sign of youth. Canals on the Canadian side of these unnavigable stretches admit vessels of a considerable size to lakes Ontario and Erie.
The Prairie Slates. The originally treeless prairies of the upper Mississippi basin began in Indiana and extended westward and north-westward until they merged with the drier region described beyond as the Great Plains. An eastward extension of the same region, originally tree-covered, extended to central Ohio. Thus the prairies may be described as lying in a general way between the Ohio and Missouri rivers on the south and the Great Lakes on the north. Under the older-fashioned methods of treating physical geography, the prairies were empirically described as " level prairies," " rolling prairies," and so on. The great advance in the interpretation of land forms now makes it possible to introduce as thoroughly explanatory a description of these fertile plains as of forms earlier familiar, such as sand dunes, deltas and sea cliffs. The prairies are, in brief, a contribution of the glacial period; they consist for the most part of glacial drift, deposited unconformably on an underlying rock surface of moderate or small relief. The rocks here concerned are the extension of the same stratified Palaeozoic formations already described as occurring in the Appalachian region and around the Great Lakes. They are usually fine-textured limestones and shales, lying horizontal; the moderate or small relief that they were given by mature preglacial erosion is now buried under the drift, but is known by numerous borings for oil, gas and water.
The greatest area of the prairies, from Indiana to North Dakota, consists of till plains, that is, sheets of unstratified drift, 30, 50 or even 100 ft. thick, which cover the underlying rock surface for thousands of square miles (except where postglacial stream erosion has locally laid it bare), and present an extraordinarily even surface. The till is presumably made in part of preglacial soils, but it is more largely composed of rock waste mechanically comminuted by the creeping ice sheets ; although the crystalline rocks from Canada and some of the more resistant stratified rocks south of the Great Lakes occur as boulders and stones, a great part of the till has been crushed and ground to a clayey texture. The till plains, although sweeping in broad swells of slowly changing altitude, are often level to the eye, and the view across them stretches to the horizon, unless interrupted by groves of trees along the watercourses, or by belts of low morainic hills. Here and there faint depressions occur, occupied by marshy " sloughs," or floored with a rich black soil of postglacial origin. It is thus by sub-glacial aggradation that the prairies have been levelled up to a smooth surface, in contrast to the higher and non-glaciated hilly country next south.
The great ice sheets formed terminal moraines around their border at various halting stages ; but the morainic belts are of small relief in comparison to the great area of the ice ; they rise gently from the till plains to a height of 50, 100 or more feet; they may be one, two or three miles wide ; and their hilly surface, dotted over with boulders, contains many small lakes in basins or hollows, instead of streams in valleys. The morainic belts are arranged in groups of concentric loops, convex southward, because the ice sheets advanced in lobes along the lowlands of the Great Lakes; neighbouring morainic loops join each other in re-entrants (north-pointing cusps), where two adjacent glacial lobes came together and formed their moraines in largest volume. The discovery of this significant looped arrangement of the morainic belts is the greatest advance in interpretation of glacial phenomena since the first suggestion of a glacial period ; it is also the strongest proof that the ice here concerned was a continuous sheet of creeping land ice, and not a discontinuous series of floating icebergs, as had been supposed. The moraines are of too small relief to be shown on any maps but those of the largest scale; yet small as they are, they are the chief relief of the prairie states, and, in association with the nearly imperceptible slopes of the till plains, they determine the course of many streams and rivers, which as a whole are consequent upon the surface form of the glacial deposits.
The complexity of the glacial period and its subdivision into several glacial epochs, separated by interglacial epochs of considerable length (certainly longer than the postglacial epoch) has a structural consequence in the superposition of successive till sheets, alternating with non-glacial deposits, and also a physiographic consequence in the very different amount of normal postglacial erosion suffered by the different parts of the glacial deposits. The southernmost drift sheets, as in southern Iowa and northern Missouri, have lost their initially plain surface and are now maturely dissected into gracefully rolling forms; here the valleys of even the small streams are well opened and graded, and marshes and lakes are wanting: hence these sheets are of early Pleistocene origin. Nearer the Great Lakes the till sheets are trenched only by the narrow valleys of the large streams ; marshy sloughs still occupy the faint depressions in the till plains, and the associated moraines have abundant small lakes in their undrained hollows: hence these drift sheets are of late Pleistocene origin.
When the ice sheets fronted on land sloping southward to the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the drift-laden streams flowed freely away from the ice border; and as the streams, escaping from their subglacial channels, spread in broader channels, they ordinarily could not carry forward all their load; hence they acted not as destructive but as constructive agents, and aggraded their courses. Thus local sheets or " aprons " of gravel and sand are spread more or less abundantly along the outer side of the morainic belts; and long trains of gravel and sands clog the valleys that lead southward from the glaciated to the non-glaciated area. Later when the ice retreated farther and the unloaded streams returned to their earlier degrading habit, they more or less completely scoured out the valley deposits, the remains of which are now seen in terraces on either side of the present flood plains.
When the ice of the last glacial epoch had retreated so far that its front lay on a northward slope, belonging to the drainage area of the Great Lakes, bodies of water accumulated in front of the ice margin, forming glacio-marginal lakes. The lakes were small at first, and each had its own outlet at the lowest depression in the height of land to the south; but as the ice melted back, neighbouring lakes became confluent at the level of the lowest outlet of the group; the outflowing streams grew in the same proportion and eroded a broad channel across the height of land and far down stream, while the lake waters built sand reefs or carved shore cliffs along their margin, and laid down sheets of clay on their floors. All of these features are easily recognized in the prairie region. The present site of Chicago was determined by an Indian portage or " carry " across the low divide between Lake Michigan and the headwaters of the Illinois river; and this divide lies on the floor of the former outlet channel of the glacial Lake Michigan. Corresponding outlets are known for the glacial lakes Erie, Huron and Superior, and for a very large sheet of water, named Lake Agassiz, which once overspread a broad till plain in northern Minnesota and North Dakota. The outlet of this glacial lake, called river Warren, eroded a large channel in which the Minnesota river of to-day is an evident " misfit."
Certain extraordinary features were produced when the retreat of the ice sheet had progressed so far as to open an eastward outlet for the marginal lakes along the depression between the northward slope of the Appalachian plateau in west-central New York and the southward slope of the melting ice sheet; for when this eastward outlet came to be lower than the south-westward outlet across the height of land to the Ohio or Mississippi river, the discharge of the marginal lakes was changed from the Mississippi system to the Hudson system. Many well-defined channels, cutting across the north-sloping spurs of the plateau in the neighbourhood of Syracuse, N.Y., mark the temporary paths of the ice-bordered outlet river. Successive channels are found at lower and lower levels on the plateau slope, thus indicating the successive courses taken by the lake outlet as the ice melted farther and farther back. On some of these channels deep gorges were eroded heading in temporary cataracts which exceeded Niagara in height but not in breadth ; the pools excavated by the plunging waters at the head of the gorges are now occupied by little lakes. The most significant stage in this series of changes occurred when the glacio-marginal lake waters were lowered so that the long cuesta of Niagara limestone was laid bare in western New York; the previously confluent waters were then divided into two lakes; the higher one, Erie, supplying the outflowing Niagara river, which poured its waters down the escarpment of the cuesta to the lower lake, Ontario, whose outlet for a time ran down the Mohawk Valley to the Hudson : thus Niagara falls began. (See NIAGARA.)
Many additional features associated with the glacial period might be described, but space can be given to four only. In certain districts the subglacial till was not spread out in a smooth plain, but accumulated in elliptical mounds, 100 or 200 ft. high, half a mile or a mile long, with axes parallel to the direction of the ice motion as indicated by striae on the underlying rock floor; these hills are known by the Irish name, drumlins, used for similar hills in north-western Ireland. The most remarkable groups of drumlins occur in western New York, where their number is estimated at over 6000, and in southern Wisconsin, where it is placed at 5000. They completely dominate the topography of their districts.
A curious deposit of an impalpably fine and unstratified silt, known by the German name loess, lies on the older drift sheets near the larger river courses of the upper Mississippi basin. It attains a thickness of 20 ft. or more near the rivers and gradually fades away at a distance of ten or more miles on either side. It is of inexhaustible fertility, being in this as well as in other respects closely like the loess in China and other parts of Asia, as well as in Germany. It contains land shells, and hence cannot be attributed to marine or lacustrine submergence. The best explanation suggested for loess is that, during certain phases of the glacial period, it was carried as dust by the winds from the flood plains of aggrading rivers, and slowly deposited on the neighbouring grass-covered plains.
South-western Wisconsin and parts of the adjacent states of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are known, as the "driftless area," because, although bordered by drift sheets and moraines, it is free from glacial deposits. It must therefore have been a sort of oasis, when the ice sheets from the north advanced past it on the east and west and joined around its southern border. The reason for this exemption from glaciation is the converse of that for the southward convexity of the morainic loops; for while they mark the paths of greatest glacial advance along lowland troughs (lake basins), the driftless area is a district protected from ice invasion by reason of the obstruction which the highlands of northern Wisconsin and Michigan (part of the Superior oldland) offered to glacial advance.
The course of the upper Mississippi river is largely consequent upon glacial deposits. Its sources are in the morainic lakes in northern Minnesota; Lake Itasca being only one of many glacial lakes which supply the headwater branches of the great river. The drift deposits thereabouts are so heavy that the present divides between the drainage basins of Hudson Bay, Lake Superior and the Gulf of Mexico evidently stand in no very definite relation to the preglacial divides. The course of the Mississippi through Minnesota is largely guided by the form of the drift cover. Several rapids and the Falls of St Anthony (determining the site of Minneapolis) 'are signs ot immaturity, resulting from superposition through the drift on the under rock. Farther south, as far as the entrance of the Ohio, the Mississippi follows a rock-walled valley 300 to 400 ft. deep, with a flood-plain 2 to 4 m. wide; this valley seems to represent the path of an enlarged early-glacial Mississippi, when much precipitation that is to-day discharged to Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St Lawrence was delivered to the Gulf of Mexico, for the curves of the present river are of distinctly smaller radius than the curves of the valley. Lake Pepin (30 m. below St Paul), a picturesque expansion of the river across its flood-plain, is due to the aggradation of the valley floor where the Chippewa river, coming from the north-east, brought an overload of fluvio-glacial drift. Hence even the " father of waters," like so many other rivers in the Northern states, owes many of its features more or less directly to glacial action.
The fertility of the prairies is a natural consequence of their origin. During the mechanical comminution of the till no vegetation was present to remove the minerals essential to plant growth, as is the case in the soils of normally weathered and dissected peneplains, such as the Appalachian piedmont, where the soils, though not exhausted by the primeval forest cover, are by no means so rich as the till sheets of the prairies. Moreover, whatever the rocky understructure, the till soil has been averaged by a thorough mechanical mixture of rock grindings; hence the prairies are continuously fertile for scores of miles together.
The true prairies, when first explored, were covered with a rich growth of natural grass and annual flowering plants. To-day they are covered with farms. The cause of the treelessness has been much discussed. It does not seem to lie in peculiarities of temperature or of precipitation; for trees thrive where they are properly planted on the prairies; every town and farm to-day has its avenues and groves of trees; but it should be noted that west of the Mississippi river increasing aridity becomes an important factor, and is the chief cause of the treelessness of the Great Plains (see below). The treelessness of the prairies cannot be due to insufficient time for tree invasion since glacial evacuation; for forests cover the rocky uplands of Canada, which were occupied by ice for ages after the prairies were laid bare. A more probable cause is found in the fineness of the prairie soil, which is inimical to the growth of young trees in competition with the grasses and annual plants. Prairie fires, both of natural and artificial origin, are also a contributive cause ; for young trees are exterminated by fires, but annual plants soon reappear.
The Gulf Coastal Plain. The westward extension of the Atlantic coastal plain around the Gulf of Mexico carries with it a repetition of certain features already described, and the addition of several new ones. As in the Atlantic coastal plain, it is only the lower, seaward part of this region that deserves the name of plain, for there alone is the surface unbroken by hills or valleys; the inner part, initially a plain by reason of its essentially horizontal (gently seaward-sloping) structure, has been converted by mature dissection into an elaborate complex of hills and valleys, usually of increasing altitude and relief as one passes inland.
The special features of the Gulf Plain are the peninsular extension of the plain in Florida, the belted arrangement of relief and soils in Alabama and in Texas, and the Mississippi embayment or inland extension of the plain half-way up the course of the Mississippi river, with the Mississippi flood plain there included.
A broad, low crustal arch extends southward at the junction of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains; the emerged half of the arch constitutes the visible lowland peninsula of Florida; the submerged half extends westward under the shallow Florida. overlapping waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The northern part of the peninsula is composed largely of a weak limestone; here much of the lowland drainage is underground, forming many sink-holes ( swallowholes). Many small lakes in the lowland appear to owe their basins to the solution of the limestones. Valuable phosphate deposits occur in certain districts. The southern part of the state includes the " Everglades " (q.v.), a large area of low, flat, marshy land, overgrown with tall reedy grass, a veritable wilderness ; thus giving Florida an unenvied first rank among the states in marsh area. The eastern coast is fringed by long-stretching sand reefs, enclosing lagoons so narrow and continuous that they are popularly called " rivers." At the southern end of the peninsula is a series of coral islands, known as " keys "; they appear to be due to the forward growth of corals and other lime-secreting organisms towards the strong current of the Gulf Stream, by which their food is supplied : the part of the peninsula composed of coral reefs is less than has been formerly supposed. The western coast has fewer and shorter off-shore reefs; much of it is of minutely irregular outline, which seems to be determined less by the work of the sea than by the forward growth of mangrove swamps in the shallow salt water.
A typical example of a belted coastal plain is found in Alabama and the adjacent part of Mississippi. The plain is here about 150 m. wide. The basal formation is chiefly a weak limestone, which has been stripped from its original M *a ma - innermost extension and worn down to a flat inner lowland of rich black soil, thus gaining the name of the "black belt." The lowland is enclosed by an upland or cuesta, known as Chunnenugga Ridge, sustained by partly consolidated sandy strata ; the upland, however, is not continuous, and hence should be described as a " maturely dissected cuesta." It has a relatively rapid descent toward the inner lowland, and a very gradual descent to the coast prairies, which become very low, flat and marshy before dipping under the Gulf waters, where they are generally fringed by off-shore reefs.
The coastal plain extends 500 m. inland on the axis of the Mississippi embayment. Its inner border affords admirable examples of topographical discordance where it sweeps north-westward square across the trend of the piedmont belt, the ridges and valleys, and the plateau of the Appalachians, which are all terminated by dipping gently beneath the unconformable cover of the coastal plain strata. In the same way the western side of the em- M/ss/ss/pp/ j Da y mentj trending south and south-west, passes along the lower south-eastern side of the dissected Ozark plateau of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, which in many ways resembles the Appalachian plateau, and along the eastern end of the Massern ranges of the Ouachita mountain system in central Arkansas, which in geological history and topographical form present many analogies with the ridges and valleys of the Appalachians; and as the coastal plain turns westward to Texas it borders the Arbuckle hills in Oklahoma, a small analogue of the crystalline Appalachian belt. In the embayment of the coastal plain some low cuesta-like belts of hills with associated strips of lowlands suggest the features of a belted coastal plain ; thehilly beltordissected cuesta determined by the Grand Gulf formation in western Mississippi is the most distinct. Important salt deposits occur in the coastal plain strata near the coast. The most striking feature of the embayment is the broad valley which the Mississippi has eroded across it.
The lower Mississippi is the trunk in which three large rivers join; the chief figures (approximate only) regarding them are as follows :
Drainage Area (square miles).
Percentage of Total Discharge.
Upper Mississippi Ohio Missouri 170,000 210,000 530,000 18 31 H The small proportion of total water volume supplied from the great Missouri basin is due to the light precipitation in that region. The _. . lower Mississippi receives no large tributary from the . east, but two important ones 'come from the west ; the Mississippi Arkansas drainage area being a little less than that of the Ohio, and the basin of the Red River of Louisiana being about half as large. The great river thus constituted drains an area of about 1,250,000 sq. m., or about one-third of the United States; and discharges 75,000 cub. yds. of water per second, or 785,190,000,000 cubic yds. per annum, which corresponds roughly to one quarter of the total precipitation on its drainage basin. Its load of land waste (see I. C. Russell, Rivers of North America) is as follows :
In suspension . . 6,718,694,400 cub. ft. or 241 ft. deep over I sq. m. Swept along bottom 750,000,000 ,, 26 ,, I ,, In solution. . . 1,350,000,000 45 ,, I ,, Average annual removal of waste from entire basin, j-Jjj in. or I ft. in 4000 years.
The head of the coastal plain embayment is near the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi. Thence southward for 560 m. the great river flows through the semi-consolidated strata of the plain, in which it has eroded a valley, 40 or 50 m. wide, and 29,700 sq. m. in area, enclosed by bluffs one or two hundred feet high in the northern part, generally decreasing to the southward, but with local increase of height associated with a decrease in flood plain breadth on the eastern side where the Grand Gulf cuesta is traversed. This valley in the coastal plain, with the much narrower rock-walled valley of the upper river in the prairie states, is the true valley of the Mississippi river; but in popular phrase the "Mississippi Valley " is taken to include a large central part of the Mississippi drainage basin. The valley floor is covered with a flood plain of fine silt, having a southward slope of only half a foot to a mile. The length of the river itself, from the Ohio mouth to the Gulf, is, owing to its windings, about 1060 m.; its mean fall is about 3 in. in a mile. On account of the rapid deposition of sediment near the main channel at times of overflow, the flood plain, as is normally the case on mature valley floors, has a la'teral slope of as much as 5, 10, or even 12 ft. in the first mile from the river; but this soon decreases to a less amount. Hence at a short distance from the river the flood plain is often swampy, unless its surface is there aggraded by the tributary streams: for this reason Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi rank next after Florida in swamp area.
The great river receives an abundant load of silt from its tributaries, and takes up and lays down silt from its own bed and banks with every change of velocity. The swiftest current tends, by reason of centrifugal force, to follow the outer side of every significant curve in the channel; hence the concave bank, against which the rapid current sweeps, is worn away; thus any chance irregularity is exaggerated, and in time a series of large serpentines or meanders is developed, the most symmetrical examples at present being those near Greenville, Miss. The growth of the meanders tends to give the river continually increasing length ; but this tendency is counteracted by the sudden occurrence of cut-offs from time to time, so that a fairly constant length is maintained.
The floods of the Mississippi usually occur in spring or summer. Owing to the great size of the drainage basin, it seldom happens that the three upper tributaries are in flood at the same time; the coincident occurrence of floods in only two tributaries is of serious import in the lower river, which rises 30, 40, or occasionally 50 ft. The abundant records by the Mississippi River Commission and the United States Weather Bureau (by which accurate and extremely useful predictions of floods in the lower river course are made, on the basis of the observed rise in the tributaries) demonstrate a number of interesting features, of which the chief are as follows : the fall of the river is significantly steepened and its velocity is accelerated down stream from the point of highest rise; conversely, the fall and the velocity are both diminished up stream from the same point.
The load of silt borne down stream by the river finally, after many halts on the way, reaches the waters of the Gulf, where the decrease of velocity, aided by the salinity of the sea water, causes the formation of a remarkable delta, leaving less aggraded areas as shallow lakes (Lake Pontchartrain on the east, and Grand Lake on the west of the river). The ordinary triangular form of deltas, due to the smoothing of the delta front by sea action, is here wanting, because of the weakness of sea action in comparison with the strength of the current in each of the four distributaries or " passes " into which the river divides near its mouth. (See MISSISSIPPI RIVER.)
After constriction from the Mississippi embayment to 250 m. in western Louisiana, the coastal plain continues south-westward with this breadth until it narrows to about 130 m. in _.. T southern Texas near the crossing of the Colorado river, _ s< " * (of Texas); but it again widens to 300 m. at the p la - a national boundary as a joint effect of embayment up the valley of the Rio Grande and of the seaward advance of this river's rounded delta front: these several changes take place in a distance of about 500 m., and hence include a region of over 100,000 sq. m. less than half of the large state of Texas. A belted arrangement of reliefs and soils, resulting from differential erosion on strata of unlike composition and resistance, characterizes almost the entire area of the coastal plain. Most of the plain is treeless prairie, but the sandier belts are forested ; two of them are known as " cross timbers," because their trend is transverse to the general course of the main consequent rivers. An inland extension from the coastal plain in north-central Texas leads to a large cuesta known as Grand Prairie (not structurally included in the coastal plain), upheld at altitudes of 1200 or 1300 ft. by a resistant Cretaceous limestone, which dips gently seaward; its scalloped inland-facing escarpment overlooks a denuded central prairie region of irregular structure and form; its gentle coastward slope (16 ft. to a mile) is dissected by many branching consequent streams; in its southern part, as it approaches the Colorado river the cuesta is dissected into a belt of discontinuous hills. The western cross timbers follow a sandy belt along the inner base of the ragged escarpment of Grand Prairie; the eastern cross timbers follow another sandy belt in the lowland between the eastern slope of Grand Prairie and the pale western escarpment of the next eastward and lower Black Prairie cuesta. This cuesta is supported at an altitude of 700 ft. or less by a chalk formation, which gives an infacing slope some 200 ft. in height, while its gently undulating or " rolling " seaward slope (2 or 3 ft. in a mile), covered with marly strata and rich black soil, determines an important cotton district. Then comes the East Texas timber belt, broad in the north-east, narrowing to a point before reaching the Rio Grande, a low and thoroughly dissected cuesta of sandy Eocene strata; and this is followed by the Coast Prairie, a very young plain, with a seaward slope of less than 2 ft. in a mile, its smooth surface interrupted only by the still more nearly level flood plains of the shallow, consequent river valleys. Near the Colorado river the dissected cuesta of the Grand Prairie passes southward, by a change to a more nearly horizontal structure, into the dissected Edwards plateau (to be referred to again as part of the Great Plains), which terminates in a maturely dissected fault scarp, 300 or 400 ft. in height, the northern boundary of the Rio Grande embayment. From the Colorado to the Rio Grande, the Black Prairie, the timber belt and the Coast Prairie merge in a vast plain, little differentiated, overgrown with " chaparral " (shrub-like trees, often thorny), widening eastward in the Rio Grande delta, and extending southward into Mexico.
Although the Coast Prairie is a sea bottom of very modern uplift, it appears already to have suffered a slight movement of depression, for its small rivers all enter embayments ; the larger rivers, however, seem to have counteracted the encroachment of the sea on the land by a sufficiently active delta building, with a resulting forward growth of the land into the sea. The Mississippi has already been mentioned as rapidly building forward its digitate delta; the Rio Grande, next in size, has built its delta about 50 m. forward from the general coast-line, but this river being much smaller than the Mississippi, its delta front is rounded by seashore agencies. In front of the Brazos and the Colorado, the largest of the Texan rivers, the coast-line is very gently bowed forward, as if by delta growth, and the sea touches the mainland in a nearly straight shore line. Nearly all the rest of the coast is fringed by off-shore reefs, built up by waves from the very shallow sea bottom ; in virtue of weak tides, the reefs continue in long unbroken stretches between the few inlets.
The Great Plains. A broad stretch of country underlaid by nearly horizontal strata extends westward from the 97th meridian to the base of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of from 300 to 500 m., and northward from the Mexican boundary far into Canada. This is the province of the Great Plains. Although the altitude of plains increases gradually from 600 or 1200 ft. on the east to 4000, 5000 or 6000 ft. near the mountains, the local relief is generally small ; the sub-arid climate excludes tree growth and opens far-reaching views. The plains are by no means a simple unit; they are of diverse structure and of various stages of erosional development; they are occasionally interrupted by buttes and escarpments; they are frequently broken by valleys: yet on the whole a broadly extended surface of moderate relief so often prevails that the name, Great Plains, for the region as a whole is well deserved. The western boundary of the plains is usually well denned by the abrupt ascent of the mountains. The eastern boundary of the plains is more climatic than topographic. The line of 20 in. of annual rainfall trends a little east of northward near the 97th meridian, and if a boundary must be drawn where nature presents only a gradual transition, this rainfall line may be taken to divide the drier plains from the moister prairies. The plains may be described in northern, intermediate, central and southern sections, in relation to certain peculiar features.
The northern section of the Great Plains, north of latitude 44, including eastern Montana, north-eastern Wyoming and most of the Dakotas, is a moderately dissected peneplain, one of the best examples of its class. The strata here are Cretaceous or early Tertiary, lying nearly horizontal. The surface is shown to be a plain of degradation by a gradual ascent here and there to the crest of a ragged escarpment, the cuesta-remnant of a resistant stratum ; and by the presence of lava-capped mesas and dike-ridges, surmounting the general level by 500 ft. or more and manifestly demonstrating the widespread erosion of the surrounding plains. All these reliefs are more plentiful towards the mountains in central Montana. The peneplain is no longer in the cycle of erosion that witnessed its production ; it appears to have suffered a regional elevation, for the rivers the upper Missouri and its branches no longer flow on the surface of the plain, but in well graded, maturely opened valleys, several hundred feet below the general level. A significant exception to the rule of mature valleys occurs, however, m the case of the Missouri, the largest river, which is broken by several falls on hard sandstones about 50 m. east of the mountains. .This peculiar feature is explained as the result of displacement of the river from a better graded preglacial valley by the Pleistocene ice-sheet, which here overspread the plains from the moderately elevated Canadian highlands far on the north-east, instead of from the much higher mountains near by on the west. The present altitude of the plains near the mountain base is 4000 ft.
The northern plains are interrupted by several small mountain areas. The Black Hills, chiefly in western South Dakota, are the largest group: they rise like a large island from the sea, occupying an oval area of about 100 m. north-south by 50 m. east-west, reaching an altitude in Harney Peak of 7216 ft., and an effective relief over the plains of 2000 or 3000 ft. This mountain mass is of flat-arched, dome-like structure, now well dissected by radiating' consequent streams, so that the weaker uppermost strata have been eroded down to the level of the plains where their upturned edges are evenly truncated, and the next following harder strata have been sufficiently eroded to disclose the core of underlying crystalline rocks in about half of the domed area.
In the intermediate section of the plains, between latitudes 44 and 42, including southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska, the erosion of certain large districts is peculiarly elaborate, giving rise to a minutely dissected form, known as " bad lands," with a relief of a few hundred feet. This is due to several causes: first, the dry climate, which prevents the growth of a grassy turf ; next, the fine texture of the Tertiary strata in the bad land districts; and consequently the success with which every little rill, at times of rain, carves its own little valley. Travel across the bad lands is very fatiguing because of the many small ascents and descents; and it is from this that their name, " mauvaises terres pour traverser," was given by the early French voyageurs.
The central section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 42 and 36, occupying eastern Colorado and western Kansas, is, briefly stated, for the most part a dissected fluviatile plain; that is, this section was once smoothly covered with a gently sloping plain of gravel and sand that had been spread far forward on a broad denuded area as a piedmont deposit by the rivers which issued from the mountains; and since then it has been more or less dissected by the erosion of valleys. The central section of the plains thus presents a marked contrast to the northern section; for while the northern section owes its smoothness to the removal of local gravels and sands from a formerly uneven surface by the action of degrading rivers and their inflowing tributaries, the southern section owes its smoothness to the deposition of imported gravels and sands upon a previously uneven surface by the action of aggrading rivers and their outgoing distributaries. The two sections are also unlike in that residual eminences still here and there surmount the peneplain of the northern section, while the fluviatile plain of the central section completely buried the pre-existent relief. Exception to this statement must be made in the south-west, close to the mountains in southern Colorado, where some lava-capped mesas (Mesa de Maya, Raton Mesa) stand several thousand feet above the general plain level, and thus testify to the widespread erosion of this region before it was aggraded.
The southern section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 35i and 29 J, lies in eastern Texas and eastern New Mexico; like the central section it is for the most part a dissected fluviatile ptain, but the lower lands which surround it on all sides place it in so strong relief that it stands up as a table-land, known from the time of Mexican occupation as the Llano Estacado. It measures roughly 150 m. east-west and 400 m. north-south, but it is of very irregular outline, narrowing to the south. Its altitude is 500 ft. at the highest western point, nearest the mountains whence its gravels were supplied ; and thence it slopes south-eastward at a decreasing rate, first about 12 ft., then about 7 ft. in a mile, to its eastern and southern borders, where it is 2000 ft. in altitude : like the High Plains farther north, it is extraordinarily smooth; it is very dry, except for occasional shallow and temporary water sheets after rains. The Llano is separated from the plains on the north by the mature consequent valley of the Canadian river, and from the mountains on the west by the broad and probably mature valley of the Pecos river. On the east it is strongly undercut by the retrogressive erosion of the headwaters of the Red, Brazos and Colorado rivers of Texas, and presents a ragged escarpment, 500 to 800 ft. high, overlooking the central denuded area of that state; and there, between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, occurs a series of isolated outliers capped by a limestone which underlies both the Llano on the west and the Grand Prairies cuesta on the east. The southern and narrow part of the table-land, called the Edwards Plateau, is more dissected than the rest, and falls off to the south in a frayed-out fault scarp, as already mentioned, overlooking the coastal plain of the Rio Grande embayment. The central denuded area, east of the Llano, resembles the east-central section of the plains in exposing older rocks; between these two similar areas, in the space limited by the Canadian and Red rivers, rise the subdued forms of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma, the westernmost member of the Ouachita system.
The Cordilleran Region. From the w%stern border of the Great Plains to the Pacific coast, there is a vast elevated area, occupied by mountains, plateaus and intermont plains. The intermont plains are at all altitudes from sea-level to 4000 ft. ; the plateaus from 5000 to 10,000 ft.; and the mountains from 8000 to 14,000 ft. The higher mountains are barren from the cold of altitude; the timber line in Colorado stands at 11,000 to 12,000 ft.
The chief provinces of the Cordilleran region are: The Rocky Mountain system and its basins, from northern New Mexico northward, including all the mountains from the front ranges bordering on the plains to the Uinta and Wasatch ranges in Utah ; the Pacific ranges including the Sierra Nevada of California, the Cascade range of Oregon and Washington, and the Coast range along the Pacific nearly to the southern end of California ; and a great intermediate area, including in the north the Columbian lava plains and in the south the large province of the Basin ranges, which extends into Mexico and widens from the centre southward, so as to meet the Great Plains in eastern New Mexico, and to extend to the Pacific coast in southern California. There is also a province of plateaus between the central part of the Basin ranges and the southern part of the Rocky Mountains. An important geological characteristic of most of the Cordilleran region is that the Carboniferous strata, which in western Europe and the eastern United States contain many coal seams, are represented in the western United States by a marine limestone; and that the important unconformity which in Europe and the eastern United States separates the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras does not occur in the western United States, where the formations over a great area follow in conformable sequence from early Palaeozoic through the Mesozoic.
The Rocky Mountains begin in northern Mexico, where the axial crystalline rocks rise to 12,000 ft. between the horizontal structures of the plains on the east and the plateaus on the west, f he Rocky The upturned stratified formations wrap around the Mountains. flanks of the range, with ridges and valleys formed on their eroded edges and drained southward by the Pecos river to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. The mountains rapidly grow wider and higher northward, by taking on new complications of structure and by including large basins between the axes of uplift, until in northern Colorado and Utah a complex of ranges has a breadth of 300 m., and in Colorado alone there are 40 summits over 14,000 ft. in altitude, though none rises to 14,500. Then turning more to the north-west through Wyoming, the ranges decrease in breadth and height; in Montana their breadth is not more than 1 50 m. , and only seven summitsexceed 1 1 ,000 ft. (one reaching 1 2,834)
As far north as the gorge of the Missouri river in Montana, the Front range, facing the Great Plains, is a rather simple uplift, usually formed by upturning the flanking strata, less often by a fracture. Along the eastern side of the Front Range in Colorado most of the upturned stratified formations have been so well worn down that, except for a few low piedmont ridges, their even surface may now be included with that of the plains, and the crystalline core of the range is exposed almost to the mountain base. Here the streams that drain the higher areas descend to the plains through narrow canyons in the mountain border, impassable for ordinary roads and difficult of entrance even by railways; a well-known example is the gorge of Clear Creek east of the Georgetown mining district. The crystalline highlands thereabouts, at altitudes of 8000 to 10,000 ft., are of so moderate a relief as to suggest that the mass had stood much lower in a former cycle of erosion and had then been worn down to rounded hills; and that since uplift to the present altitude the revived streams of the current cycle of erosion have not entrenched themselves deep enough to develop strong relief. This idea is confirmed 80 m. farther south, where Pike's Peak (14,108 ft.), a conspicuous landmark far out on the plains, has every appearance of being a huge monadnock, surmounting a rough peneplain of 10,000 ft. in general elevation. The idea is still better confirmed farther north in Wyoming, where the Laramie Range, flanked with upturned strata on the east and west, is for the most part a broad upland at altitudes of 7000 or 8000 ft., with no strong surmounting summits and as yet no deep carved valleys. Here the first of the Pacific railways chose its pass. When the summit is reached, the traveller is tempted to ask, " Where are the mountains?" so small is the relief of the upland surface. This low range turns westward in a curve through the Rattlesnake Mountains towards the high Wind River Mountains (Gannett Peak, 13,775 ft.), an anticlinal range within the body of the mountain system, with flanking strata rising well on the slopes. Flanking strata are even better exhibited in the Bighorn Mountains, the front range of northern Wyoming, crescentic in outline and convex to the northeast, like the Laramie Range, but much higher; here heavy sheets of limestone arch far up towards the range crest, and are deeply notched where consequent streams have cut down their gorges.
Farther north in Montana, beyond the gorge of the Missouri river, the structure of the Front Range is altogether different; it is here the carved residual of a great mass of moderately bent Palaeozoic strata, overthrust eastward upon the Mesozoic strata of the plains; instead of exposing the oldest rocks along the axis and the youngest rocks low down on the flanks, the younger rocks of the northern range follow its axis, and the oldest rocks outcrop along its eastern flanks, where they override the much younger strata of the plains; the harder strata, instead of lapping on the mountain flanks in great slab-like masses, as in the Bighorns, form out-facing scarps, which retreat into the mountain interior where they are cut down by outflowing streams.
The structure of the inner ranges is so variable as to elude simple description; but mention should be made of the Uinta range of broad anticlinal structure in north-east Utah, with east-west trend, as if corresponding to the east -west Rattlesnake Mountains, already named. The Wasatch Range, trending north-south in central Utah, is peculiar in possessing large east-west folds, which are seen in cross-section in the dissected western face of the range, because the whole mass is there squarely cut off by a great north-south fault with down-throw to the Basin Range province, the fault face being elaborately carved.
Volcanic action has been restricted in the Rocky Mountains proper. West Spanish Peak (13,620 ft.), in the Front Ranee of southern, Colorado, may be mentioned as a fine example of a deeply dissected volcano, originally of greater height, with many unusually strong radiating dike-ridges near its denuded flanks. In north-western Wyoming there are extensive and heavy lava sheets, uplifted and dissected, and crowned with a few dissected volcanoes. It is in association with this field of extinct volcanic activity that a remarkable group of geysers and hot springs has been developed, from which the Yellowstone river, a branch of the Missouri, flows northeastward, and the Snake river, a branch of the Columbia, flows south-westward. The geyser district is held as a national domain, the Yellowstone Park.
Travellers whose idea of picturesqueness is based upon the abnormally sharpened peaks of the ice-sculptured Alps are disappointed with the scenery of the central and southern ranges of the Rocky Mountains. It is true that many of these ranges are characterized by the rounded tops and the rather evenly slanting, waste-covered slopes which normally result from the long-continued action of the ordinary agencies of erosion; that they bear little snow in summer and are practically wanting in glaciers ; that forests are often scanty on the middle and lower slopes, the more so because of devastation by fires; and that the general impression of great altitude is much weakened because the mountains are seen from a base which itself is 5000 or 6000 ft. above sea-level. Nevertheless the mountains are of especial interest to the physiographer who wishes to make a comparative study of land forms as affected by normal and by glacial sculpture, in order to give due attention to " process " as well as to structure and stage " in the analysis and description of mountain topography. A journey along the range from south to north reveals most strikingly a gradual increase in the share of sculpture due to Pleistocene glaciers. In New Mexico, if glaciers were formed at all in the high valleys, they were so small as not greatly to modify the more normal forms. In central Colorado and Wyoming, where the mountains are higher and the Pleistocene glaciers were larger, the valley heads were hollowed out in well-formed cirques, often holding small lakes; and the mountain valleys were enlarged into U-shaped troughs as far down as the ice reached, with hanging lateral valleys on the way. Different stages of cirque development, with accompanying transformation of mountain shape, are finely illustrated in several ranges around the headwaters of the Arkansas river in central Colorado, where the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains is found (Mt Massive, 14,424 ft., in the Sawatch range) ; and perhaps even better in the Bighorn range of Wyoming. In this central region, however, it is only by way of exception that the cirques were so far enlarged by retrogressive glacial erosion as to sharpen the preglacial dome-like summits into acute peaks; and in no case did glacial action here extend down to the plains at the eastern base of the mountains ; but the widened, trough-like glaciated valleys frequently descend to the level of the elevated interment basins, where moraines were deployed forward on the basin floor. The finest examples of this kind are the moraines about Jackson Lake on the basin floor east of the Teton Range (Grand Teton, 13,747 ft.), a superb north-south range which lies close to the meridional boundary line between Wyoming and Idaho. Farther north in Montana, in spite of a decrease of height, there are to-day a few small glaciers with snowfields of good size ; and here the effects of sculpture by the much larger Pleistocene glaciers are seen in forms of almost alpine strength.
The intermont basins which so strongly characterize the Rocky Mountain system are areas which have been less uplifted than the enclosing ranges, and have therefore usually become the depositories of waste from the surrounding mountains.
Some of the most important basins may be mentioned. San Luis " Valley " is an oval basin about 60 m. long near the southern end of the mountain system in New Mexico and Colorado; its level, treeless floor, at an altitude of 7000 ft., is as yet hardly trenched by the Rio Grande, which escapes through an impassable canyon southward on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The much smaller basin of the upper Arkansas river in Colorado is well known because the Royal Gorge, a very narrow cleft by which the river escapes through the Front Range to the plains, is followed by a railroad at riverlevel. South Park, directly west of Pike's Peak, is one of the highest basins (nearly 10,000 ft.), and gains its name from the scattered, park-like growth of large pine trees ; it is drained chiefly by the South Platte river (Missouri-Mississippi system), through a deep gorge in the dissected mass of the plateau-like Front Range. The Laramie Plains and the Green river basin, essentially a single structural basin between the east-west ranges of Rattlesnake Mountains on the north and the Uinta Range on the south, measuring roughly 260 m. east-west by 100 m. north-south, is the largest intermont basin; it is well known from being traversed through its greatest length by the Union Pacific railway. Its eastern part is drained north-eastward through a gorge that separates the Laramie and Rattlesnake (Front) ranges by the North Platte river to the Missouri-Mississippi; its western part, where the basin floor is much dissected, often assuming a bad-land expression, is drained southward by the Green river, through a deep canyon in the Uinta Range to the Colorado river and then to the Pacific. The Bighorn basin has a moderately dissected floor, drained north-eastward by Bighorn river through a deep canyon in the range of the same name to the Missouri. Several smaller basins occur in Montana, all somewhat dissected and drained through narrow gorges and canyons by members of the Missouri system.
The Plateau province, next west of the southern Rocky Mountains, is characterized for the most part by large-textured forms, developed on a great thickness of nearly horizontal Palaeozoic, yft e p/ a < eau Mesozoic and Tertiary formations, and by a dry climate. p rav i ace _ The province was uplifted and divided into great blocks by faults or monoclinal flexures and thus exposed to long-lasting denudation in a mid-Tertiary cycle of erosion; and then broadly elevated again, with renewed movement on some of the fault lines ; thus was introduced in late Tertiary time the current cycle of erosion in which the deep canyons of the region have been trenched. The results of the first cycle of erosion are seen in the widespread exposure of the resistant Carboniferous limestone as a broad platform in the south-western area of greater uplift through central Arizona, where the higher formations were worn away ; and in the development of a series of huge, south-facing, retreating escarpments of irregular outline on the edges of the higher formations farther north. Each escarpment stands forth where a resistant formation overlies a weaker one; each escarpment is separated from the next higher one by a broad step of weaker strata. A wonderful series of these forms occurs in southern Utah, where in passing northward from the Carboniferous platform one ascends in succession the Vermilion Cliffs (Triassic sandstones), the White Cliffs (Jurassic sandstones, of remarkably cross-bedded structure, interpreted the dunes of an ancient desert), and finally the Pink Cliffs (Eocene strata of fluviatile and lacustrine origin) of the high, forested plateaus. Associated with these irregular escarpments are occasional rectilinear ridges, the work of extensive erosion on monoclinal structures, of which Echo Cliffs, east of the Painted Desert (so called from its manycoloured sandstones and clays), is a good example.
With the renewal of uplift by which the earlier cycle of erosion was interrupted and the present cycle introduced, inequalities of surface due to renewed faulting were again introduced; these still appear as cliffs, of more nearly rectilinear front than the retreating escarpments formed in the previous cycle. These cliffs are peculiar in gradually passing from one formation to another, and in having a height dependent on the displacement of the fault rather than on the structures in the fault face; they are already somewhat battered and dissected by erosion. The most important line of cliffs of this class is associated with the western and southern boundary of the plateau province, where it was uplifted from the lower ground. The few rivers of the region must have reached the quiescence of old age in the earlier cycle, but were revived by uplift to a vigorous youth in the current cycle ; and it is to this newly introduced cycle of physiographic evolution that the deep canyons of the Plateau province are due. Thus the Virgin river, a northern branch of the Colorado, has cut a vertical slit, 1000 ft. deep, hardly wider at the top than at the bottom, in the heavy Triassic sandstones of southern Utah ; but the most famous example is the Grand Canyon (q.v .) of Arizona, eroded by the Colorado river across the uplifted platform of Carboniferous limestone.
During the current cycle of erosion, several of the faults, whose scarps had been worn away in the previous cycle, have been brought to light again as topographic features by the removal of the weak strata along one side of the fault line, leaving the harder strata on the other side in relief ; such scarps are known as " fault-line scarps," in distinction from the original fault scarps." They are peculiar in having their altitude dependent on the depth of revived erosion, instead of the amount of faulting, and they are sometimes " topographically reversed," in that the revived scarp overlooks a lowland worn on a weak formation in the upheaved fault-block. Another consequence of revived erosion is seen in the occurrence of great landslides, where the removal of weak (Permian) clays has sapped the face of the Vermilion Cliffs (Triassic sandstone), so that huge slices of the cliff face have slid down and forward a mile or two, all shattered into a confused tumult of forms for a score or more of miles along the cliff base.
Volcanic features occur in abundance in the Plateau province. Some of the high plateaus in the north are capped with remnants of heavy lava flows of early eruption. A group of large volcanoes occurs on the limestone platform south of the Grand Canyon, culminating in Mt San Francisco (12,794 ft-), a moderately dissected cone, and associated with many more recent smaller cones and freshlooking lava flows. Mt Taylor in western New Mexico is of similar age, but here dissection seems to have advanced farther, probably because of the weaker nature of the underlying rocks, with the result of removing the smaller cones and exposing many lava conduits or pipes in the form of volcanic necks or buttes. The Henry Mountains in south-western Utah are peculiar in owing their relief to the doming or blistering up of the plateau strata by the underground intrusion of large bodies or " cisterns " (laccolites) of lava, now more or less exposed by erosion.
The lava plains of the Columbia basin are among the most extensive volcanic outpourings in the world. They cover 200,000 sq. m. or more in south-eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, and are known to be 4000 ft. deep in some river gorges. The lava completely buries the pre-existent land forms over most of its extent. The earlier 'supposition that these vast lava flows came chiefly from fissure eruptions has been made doubtful by the later discovery of flat-sloping volcanic cones from which much lava seems to have been poured out in a very liquid state. Some of the flows are still so young as to preserve their scoriaceous surface; here the "shore-line" of the lava contours evenly around the spurs and enters, bay-like, into the valleys of the enclosing mountains, occasionally isolating an outlying mass. Other parts of the lava flood are much older and have been more or less deformed and eroded. Thus the uplifted, dislocated and dissected lava sheets of the Yellowstone National Park in the Rocky Mountains on the east (about the headwaters of the Snake river') are associated with the older lavas of the Columbian plains.
The Columbia river has entrenched itself in a canyon-like valley around the northern and western side of the lava plains ; Snake river has cut a deeper canyon farther south-east where the plains are higher and has disclosed the many lava sheets which build up the plains, occasionally revealing a buried mountain in which the superposed river has cut an even narrower canyon. One of the most remarkable features of this province is seen in the temporary course taken by the Columbia river across the plains, while its canyon was obstructed by Pleistocene glaciers that came from the Cascade Mountains on the north-west. The river followed the temporary course long enough to erode a deep gorge, known as " Grande Coulee," along part of its length.
The lava plains are treeless and for the most part too dry for agriculture; but they support many cattle and horses. Along parts of their eastern border, where the rainfall is a little increased by the approach of the westerly winds to the Rocky Mountains, there is a belt of very deep, impalpably fine soil, supposed to be a dust deposit brought from the drier parts of the plains farther west; excellent crops of wheat are here raised.
The large province of the Basin ranges, an arid region throughout, even though it reaches the sea in southern California, involves some The Basla nove ' P r blems in its description. It is characterized Range ^V numerous disconnected mountain ranges trending Province. nort h and south, from 30 to 100 m. in length, the higher ranges reaching altitudes of 8000 or 10,000 ft., separated by broad, intermont desert plains or basins at altitudes varying from sea-level (or a little less) in the south-west, to 4000 or 5000 ft. farther inland. Many of the intermont plains these chiefly in the north appear to be heavily aggraded with mountain waste ; while others these chiefly in the south are rock-floored and thinly veneered with alluvium. _ The origin of these forms is still in discussion; but the following interpretation is well supported. The ranges are primarily the result of faulting and uplifting of large blocks of the earth s crust. The structure of the region previous to faulting was dependent on long antecedent processes of accumulation and deformation and the surface of the region then was dependent on the amount of erosion suffered in the prefaulting cycle. When the region was broken into fault blocks and the blocks were uplifted and tilted, the back slope of each block was a part of the previously eroded surface and the face of the block was a surface of fracture ; the present form of the higher blocks is more or less affected by erosion since faulting, while many of the lower blocks have been buried under the waste of the higher ones. In the north, where dislocations have invaded the field of the horizontal Columbian lavas, as in south-eastern Oregon and north-eastern California, the blocks are monoclinal in structure as well as in attitude; here the amount of dissection is relatively moderate, for some of the fault faces are described as ravined but not yet deeply dissected ; hence these dislocations appear to be of recent date. In western Utah and through most of Nevada many of the blocks exhibit deformed structures, involving folds and faults of relatively ancient (Jurassic) date ; so ancient that the mountains then formed by the folding were worn down to the lowland stage of old age before the block-faulting occurred. When this old-mountain lowland was broken into blocks and the blocks were tilted, their attitude, but not their structure, was monoclinal ; and in this new attitude they have been so maturely re-dissected in the new cycle of erosion upon which they have now entered as to have gained elaborately carved forms in which the initial form of the uplifted blocks can hardly be perceived ; yet at least some of them still retain along one side the highly significant feature of a relatively simple base-line, transecting hard and soft structures alike, and thus indicating the faulted margin of a tilted block. Here the less uplifted blocks are now heavily aggraded with waste from the dissected ranges : the waste takes the form of huge alluvial fans, formed chiefly by occasional boulder-bearing floods from the mountains; each fan heads in a ravine at the mountain base, and becomes laterally confluent with adjacent fans as it stretches several miles forward with decreasing slope and increasing fineness of material.
In the southern part of the Basin Range province the ranges are well dissected and some of the intermont depressions have rock floors with gentle, centripetal slopes; hence it is suggested that the time since the last dislocation in this part of the province is relatively remote; that erosion in the current cycle has here advanced much farther than in the central or northern parts of the province; and that, either by outwash to the sea or by exportation of wind-borne dust, the depressions perhaps aggraded for a time in the earlier stages of the cycle have now been so deeply worn down as to degrade the lower and weaker parts of the tilted blocks to an evenly sloping surface, leaving the higher and harder parts still in relief as residual ranges. If this be true, the southern district will furnish a good illustration of an advanced stage of the cycle of arid erosion, in which the exportation of waste from enclosed depressions by the wind has played an important part. In such case the washing of the centripetal slopes of the depressions by occasional " sheetfloods " (widespreading sheets of turbid running water, supplied by heavy short-lived rains) has been efficient in keeping the rock floor at even grade toward a central basin, where the finest waste is collected while waiting to be removed by the winds.
Only a small part of the Basin Range province is drained to the sea. A few intermont areas in the north-west part of the province have outlet westward by Klamath river through the Cascade range and by Pitt river (upper part of the Sacramento) through the Sierra Nevada: a few basins in the south-east have outlet by the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico; a much larger but still narrow medial area is drained south-westward by the Colorado to the head of the Gulf of California, where this large and very turbid river has formed an extensive delta, north of which the former head of the gulf is now cut off from the sea and laid bare by evaporation as a plain below sea-level. It is here that an irrigation project, involving the diversion of some of the river water to the low plain, led to disaster in 1904, when the flooded river washed away the canal gates at the intake and overflowed the plain, drowning the newly established farms, compelling a railway to shift its track, and forming a lake (Salton Sea) which would require years of evaporation to remove (see COLORADO RIVER). Many streams descend from the ravines only to wither away on the desert basin floors before uniting in a trunk river along the axis of a depression ; others succeed in uniting in the winter season, when evaporation is much reduced, and then their trunk flows for a few score miles, only to disappear by " sinking " (evaporating) farther on. A few of the large streams may, when in flood, spread out in a temporary shallow sheet on a dead level of clay, or playn, in a basin centre, but the sheet of water vanishes in the warm season and the stream shrinks far up its course, the absolutely barren clay floor of the playa, impassable when wet, becomes firm enough for crossing when dry. One of the southwestern basins, with its floor below sea-level, has a plain of salt in its centre. A few of the basins are occupied by lakes without outlet, of which Great Salt Lake (q.v.), in north-west Utah, is the largest. Several smaller lakes occur in the basins of western Nevada, next east of the Sierra Nevada. During Pleistocene times all these lacustrine basins were occupied by lakes of much greater depth and larger size; the outlines of the eastern (Lake Bonneville) and the western (Lake Lahontan) water bodies are well recorded by shore lines and deltas on the enclosing slopes, hundreds of feet above the present lake surfaces; the abandoned shore lines, as studied by G. K. Gilbert and 1. C. Russell, have yielded evidence of past climatic changes second in importance only to those of the Pleistocene glaciated areas. The duration of the Pleistocene lakes was, however, brief as compared with the time since the dislocation of the faulted blocks, as is shown by the small dimensions of the lacustrine beaches compared to the great volume of the ravine-heading fans on which the beaches often lie.
Strong mountain ranges follow the trend of the Pacific coast, 150 or 200 m. inland. The Cascade Range enters from Canada, trending southward across the international boundary through The Pacific Washington and Oregon to latitude 41; the Sierra Ranges. Nevada extends thence south-eastward through California to latitude 35. The lower coast ranges, nearer the ocean, continue a little farther southward than the Sierra Nevada, before giving way to that part of the Basin Range province which reaches the Pacific in southernmost California.
The Cascade Range is in essence a maturely dissected highland, composed in part of upwarped Columbian lavas, in part of older rocks, and crowned with several dissected volcanoes, of which "the chief are (beginning in the north) Mts Baker (10,827 ft-). Rainier (14.363 ft.), Adams (12,470 ft.) and Hood (11,225 ft.); the first three in Washington, the last in northern Oregon. These bear snowfields and glaciers; while the dissected highlands, with ridges of very irregular arrangement, are everywhere sculptured in a fashion that strongly suggests the work of numerous local Pleistocene glaciers as an important supplement to preglacial erosion. Lake Chelan, long and narrow, deep set between spurless ridges with hanging lateral valleys, and evidently of glacial origin, ornaments one of the eastern valleys. The range is squarely transected by the Columbia river, which bears every appearance of antecedent origin : the cascades in the river gorge are caused by a sub-recent landslide of great size from the mountain walls. Klamath river, draining several lakes in the north-west part of the Basin Range province and traversing the Cascade Range to the Pacific, is apparently also an antecedent river.
The Cascade Mountains present a marked example of the effect of relief and aspect on rainfall ; they rise across the path of the prevailing westerly winds not far inland from a great ocean; hence they receive an abundant rainfall (80 in. or more, annually) on the westward or windward slope, and there they are heavily forested; but the rainfall is light on the eastward slope and the piedmont district is dry ; hence the forests thin out on that side of the range and treeless lava plains follow next eastward.
The Sierra Nevada may be described, in a very general way, as a great mountain block, largely composed of granite and deformed metamorphosed rocks, reduced to moderate relief in an earlier (Cretaceous and Tertiary?) cycle of erosion, sub-recently elevated with a slant to the west, and in this position sub-maturely dissected. The region was by no means a peneplain before its slanting uplift ; its surface then was hilly and in the south mountainous; in its central and still more in its northern part it was overspread with lavas which flowed westward along the broad open valleys from many vents in the eastern part : near the northern end of the range, eruptions have continued in the present cycle, forming many cones and young lava flows. The tilting of the mountain mass was presumably not a simple or a single movement; it was probably slow, for Pitt river (headwaters of the Sacramento) traverses the northern part of the range in antecedent fashion ; the tilting involved the subdivision of the great block into smaller ones, in the northern half of the range at least ; Lake Tahoe (altitude 6225 ft.) near the range crest is explained as occupying a depression between two block fragments; and farther north similar depressions now appear as aggraded highland " meadows." The tilting of the great block resulted in presenting a strong slope to the east, facing the deserts of the Basin Range province and in large measure determining their aridity ; and a long moderate slope to the west. The altitudes along the upraised edge of the block, or range crest, are approximately 5000 ft. in the north and 11,000 ft. in the south. The mountains in the southern part of the block, which had been reduced to subdued forms in the former cycle of erosion, were thus given a conspicuous height, forming the " High Sierra," and greatly sharpened by revived erosion, normal and glacial. In this way Mt Whitney (14,502 ft.) came to be the highest summit in the United States (excluding Alaska). The displacement of the mountain block may still be in progress, for severe earthquakes have happened in the depression next east of the range ; that of Owen's Valley in 1870 was strong enough to have been very destructive had there been anything in the desert valley to destroy. In the new altitude of the mountain mass, its steep eastern face has been deeply carved with short canyons ; and on the western slope an excellent beginning of dissection has been made in the erosion of many narrow valleys, whose greatest depth lies between their headwaters which still flow on the highland surface, and their mouths at the low western base of the range. The highlands and uplands between the chief valleys are but moderately dissected; many small side streams still flow on the highland, and descend by steeply incised gorges to the valleys of the larger rivers. Some of the chief valleys are not cut in the floors of the old valleys of the former cycle, because the rivers were displaced from their former courses by lava flows, which now stand up as table mountains. Glacial erosion has been potent in excavating great cirques and smajl rock-basins, especially among the higher southern surmounting summits, many of which have been thus somewhat reduced in height while gaining an Alpine sharpness of form; some of the short and steep canyons in the eastern slope have been converted into typical glacial troughs, and huge moraines have been laid on the desert floor below them. Some of the western valleys have also in part of their length been converted into U-shaped troughs; the famous Yosemite Valley, eroded in massive granite, with side cliffs 1000 or 2000 ft. in height, and the smaller Hetch-Hetchy Valley not far away, are regarded by some observers as owing their peculiar forms to glacial modifications of normal preglacial valleys.
The western slope of the Sierra Nevada bears fine forests similar to those of the Cascade Range and of the Coast Range, but of more open growth, and with, the redwood exchanged for groves of " big trees " (Sequoia gigantea) of which the tallest examples reach 325 ft. The higher summits in the south are above the tree line and expose great areas of bare rock: mountaineering is here a delightful summer recreation, with camps in the highland forests and ascents to the lofty peaks. gold occurs in quartz veins traversing various formations (some as young as Jurassic), and also in gravels, which were for the ^most part deposited previous to the uplift of the Sierra " block." Some of the gravels then occurred as piedmont deposits along the western border of the old mountains ; these gravels are now more or less dissected by new-cut valleys. Other auriferous gravels are buried under the upland lava flows, and are now reached by tunnels driven in beneath the rim of the table mountains. The reputed discovery of traces of early man in the lava-covered gravels has not been authenticated.
The northernmost part of the coast ranges, in Washington, is often given_ independent rank as the Olympic Range (Mt Olympus, 8150 ft.) ; it is a picturesque mountain group, bearing snowfields and glaciers, and suggestive of the dome-like uplift of a previously worn-down mass; but it is now so maturely dissected as to make the suggested origin uncertain. Farther south, through Oregon and northern California, many members of the coast ranges resemble the Cascades and the Sierra in offering well-attested examples of the uplift of masses of disordered structure, that had been reduced to a tame surface by the erosion of an earlier cycle, and that are now again more or less dissected.
Several of the ranges ascend abruptly from the sea; their base is cut back in high cliffs ; the Sierra Santa Lucia, south of San Francisco, is a range of this kind; its seaward slope is almost uninhabitable. Elsewhere moderatere-entrants between the ranges have a continuous beach, concave seaward ; such re-entrants afford imperfect harbourage for vessels; Monterey Bay is the most pronounced example of this kind. On still other parts of the coast a recent small elevatory movement has exposed part of the former sea bottom in a narrow coastal plain, of which some typical harbourless examples are found in Oregon. Most of the recent movements appear to have been upward, for the coast presents few embayments such as would result from the depression and partial submergence of a dissected mountain range; but three important exceptions must be made to this rule.
In the north, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the intricately branching waterways of Puget Sound between the Cascade and the Olympic ranges occupy trough-like depressions which were filled by extensive glaciers in Pleistocene times; and thus mark the beginning of the great stretch of fiorded coast which extends northward to Alaska. The waterways here afford excellent harbours. The second important embay ment is the estuary of the Columbia river; but the occurrence of shoals at the mouth decreases the use that might otherwise be made of the river by ocean-going vessels. More important is San Francisco Bay, situated about midway on the Pacific coast of the United States, the result of a moderate depression whereby a transverse valley, formerly followed by Sacramento river through the outermost of the Coast ranges, has been converted into a narrow strait the " Golden Gate " and a wider intermont longitudinal valley has been flooded, forming the expansion of the inner bay.
The Coast Range is heavily forested in the north, where rainfall is abundant in all seasons; but its lower ranges and valleys have a scanty tree growth in the south, where the rainfall is very light : here grow redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and live oaks (Quercus agrifolia). The chief metalliferous deposits of the range are of mercury at New Almaden, not far south of San Francisco. The open valleys between the spaced ranges offer many tempting sites for settlement, but in the south irrigation is needed for cultivation.
The belt of relative depression between the inner Pacific ranges and the Coast range is divided by the fine volcano Mt Shasta (14,380 ft.) in northern California into unlike portions. To the north, the floor of the depression is for the most part above baselevel, and hence is dissected by open valleys, partly longitudinal, partly transverse, among hills of moderate relief. This district was originally for the most part forested, but is now coming to be cleared and farmed.
South of Mt Shasta, the " Valley of California " is an admirable example of an aggraded intermont depression, about 400 m. long and from 30 to 70 m. wide. The floor of this depression being below baselevel, it has necessarily come to be the seat of the mountain waste brought down by the many streams from the newly uplifted Sierra Nevada on the east and the coast ranges on the west ; each stream forms an alluvial fan of very gentle slope ; the fans all become laterally confluent, and incline very gently forward to meet in a nearly level axial belt, where the trunk rivers the Sacramento from the north and the San Joaquin from the south-east wander in braided courses; their tendency to aggradation having been increased in the last half century by the gravels from gold washing; their waters entering San Francisco Bay. Kings river, rising in the high southern Sierra near Mt Whitney, has built its fan rather actively, and obstructed the discharge from the part of the valley next farther south, which has thus come to be overflowed by the shallow waters of Tulare Lake, of flat, reedy, uncertain borders. A little north of the centre of the valley rise the Marysville Buttes, the remains of a maturely dissected volcano (2128 ft.). Elsewhere the floor of the valley is a featureless, treeless plain. (W. M. D.)
II. GEOLOGY All the great systems of rock formations are represented in the United States, though close correlation with the systems of Europe is not always possible. The general geological column for the country is shown in the following table: Eras of Time. Periods of Time.
Groups of Systems. Systems of Rocks.
f Present.
Pleistocene.
. . J Pliocene.
Camozoic . . . K M^ene.
Oligocene. [Eocene.
Transition (Arapahoe and Denver formations). f Upper Cretaceous.
Widespread unconformity.
Mesozoic . . -i Comanchean (Lower Cretaceous).
Jurassic. ^Triassic. Permian.
.Coal Measures, or Pennsylvanian. Widespread unconformity. Subcarboniferous, or Mississippian. Palaeozoic . . -i Devonian. Silurian.
Widespread unconformity. Ordovician. Cambrian.
Great unconformity. Keweenawan.
Widespread unconformity. Upper Huronian.
Widespread unconformity. Middle Huronian.
Widespread unconformity. .Lower Huronian.
Great unconformity.
["Great Granitoid Series ( intrusive in the main, Laurentian).
Archeozoic . -\ Archean . J Great Schist Series (Mona, 1 Kitchi, Keewatin, Quinnissec; Lower Huronian of some [ authors).
Archeozoic (Archean) Group. The oldest group of rocks, called the Archean, was formerly looked upon, at least in a tentative way, as the original crust of the earth or its downward extension, much altered by the processes of metamorphism. This view of its origin is now known not to be applicable to the Archean as a whole, since this system contains some metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. In other words, if there was such a thing as an original crust, which may be looked upon as an open question, the Archean, as now defined, does not appear to represent it. The meta-sedimentary rocks of the Archean include metamorphosed limestone, and schists which carry carbonaceous matter in the form of graphite. The marble and graphite, as well as some other indirect evidence of life less susceptible of brief statement, have been thought by many geologists sufficient to warrant the inference that life existed before the close of the era when the Archean rocks were formed. Hence the era of their formation is called the Archeozoic era.
Most of t'le Archean rocks fall into one or the other of two great series, a schistose series and a granitoid series, the latter being in large part intrusive in the former. The rocks of the granitoid series appear as great masses in the schist series, and in some places form great protruding bosses. They were formerly regarded as older than the schists and were designated on this account " primitive," " fundamental," etc. They have also been called Laurentian, a name which is still sometimes applied to them.
Nearly all known sorts of schist are represented in the schistose part of the system. Most of them are the metamorphic products of Proterozoic igneous rocks, among which extrusive rocks, many of them pyroclastic, predominate. Metamorphosed sedimentary rocks are widely distributed in the schistose series, but they are distinctly subordinate to the meta-igneous rocks, and they are so highly metamorphic that stratigraphic methods are not usually applicable to them. In some areas, indeed, it is difficult to say whether the schists are metasedimentary or meta-igneous. The likeness of the Archean of one part of the country to that of another is one of its striking features.
The Archean appears at the surface in many parts of the United States, and in still larger areas north of the national boundary. It appears in the cores of some of the western mountains, in some of the deep canyons of the west, as in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in northern Arizona, and over considerable areas in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, in New England and the piedmont plateau east of the Appalachian Mountains, and in a few other situations. Wherever it comes to the surface it comes up from beneath younger rocks which are, as a rule, less metamorphic. By means of deep borings it is known at many points where it does not appear at the surface, and is believed to be universal beneath younger systems.
Locally the Archean contains iron ore, as in the Vermilion district of northern Minnesota, and at some points in Ontario. The ore is mostly in the form of haematite
Proterozoic (Algonkian) Systems. The Proterozoic group of rocks (called also Algonkian) includes all formations younger than the Archean and older than the Palaeozoic rocks. The term Archean was formerly proposed to include these rocks, as well as those now , called Archean, but the subdivision here recognized has come to be widely approved.
The Proterozoic formations have a wide distribution. They appear at the surface adjacent to most of the outcrops of the Archean, and in some other places. In many localities the two groups have not been separated. In some places this is because the regions where they occur have not been carefully studied since the subdivision into Archeozoic and Proterozoic was made, and in others because of the inherent difficulty of separation, as where the Proterozoic rocks are highly metamorphosed. On the whole, the Proterozoic rocks are predominantly sedimentary and subordinately igneous. Locally both the sedimentary and igneous parts of the group have been highly metamorphosed ; but as a rule the alteration of the sedimentary portions has not gone so far that stratigraphic methods are inapplicable to them, though in some places detailed study is necessary to make out their structure.
The Proterozoic formations are unconformable on the Archean in most places where their relations are known. The unconformity between these groups is therefore widespread, probably more so than any later unconformity. Not only is it extensive in area, but the stratigraphic break is very great, as shown by (i) the excess of metamorphism of the lower group as compared with the upper, and (2) the amount of erosion suffered by the older group before the deposition of the younger. The first of these differences between the two systems is significant of the dynamic changes suffered by the Archean before the beginning of that part of the Proterozoic era represented by known formations. The extent of the unconformity is usually significant of the geographic changes of the interval unrecorded by known Proterozoic rocks.
The Proterozoic formations have been studied in detail in few great areas. One of these is about Lake Superior, where the formations have attracted attention on account of the abundant iron ore which they contain. Four major subdivisions or systems of the group have been recognized in this region, as shown in the preceding table. These systems are separated one from another by unconformities in most places, and the lower systems, as a rule, have suffered a greater degree of metamorphism than the upper ones, though this is not to be looked upon as a hard and fast rule. The commoner sorts of rock in the several Huronian systems are quartzite and slate (ranging from shale to schist) ; but limestone is not wanting, and igneous rocks, both intrusive and extrusive, some metamorphic and some not, abound. Iron ore occurs in the sedimentary part of the Huronian, especially in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin' and parts of Canada. The ore is chiefly haematite and has been developed from antecedent ferruginous sedimentary deposits, through concentration and purification by ground water.
The lower part of the Keweenawan system consists of a great succession of lava flows, of prodigious thickness. This portion of the system is overlain by thick beds of sedimentary rock, mostly conglomerate and sandstone, derived from the igneous rocks beneath. A few geologists regard the sedimentary rocks here classed as Keweenawan as Palaeozoic ; but they have yielded no fossils, and are unconformable beneath the Upper Cambrian, which is the oldest sedimentary formation of the region which bears fossils. The aggregate thickness of the Proterozoic systems in the Lake Superior region is several miles, as usually computed, but there are obvious difficulties in determining the thickness of such great systems, especially when they are much metamorphosed. The copper of the Lake Superior region is in the Keweenawan system, chiefly in its sedimentary and amygdaloidal parts.
The Proterozoic formations in other parts of the continent cannot be correlated in detail with those of the Lake Superior region. The number of systems is not everywhere the same, nor are they everywhere alike, and their definite correlation with one another is not possible now, and may never be. The Proterozoic formations have yielded a few fossils in several places, especially Montana and northern Arizona; but they are so imperfect, their numbers, whether of individuals or of species, are so small, and the localities where they occur so few, that they are of little service in correlation throughout the United States. The carbon-bearing shales, slates and schists, and the limestone, are indications that life was relatively abundant, even though but few fossils are preserved. Among the known fossils are vermes, Crustacea and probably brachiopods and pteropods The character of the sediments of the Proterozoic is such as to show that mature weathering affected the older rocks before their material was worked over into the Proterozoic formations. This mature weathering, resulting in the relatively complete separation of the quartz from the kaolin, and both from the calcium carbonate and other basic materials, implies conditions of rock decay comparable to those of the present time.
In all but a few places where their relations are known, the Proterozoic rocks are unconformable beneath the Palaeozoic Where conformity exists the separation is made on the basis of fossils, it having been agreed that the oldest rocks carrying the Olenellus fauna are to be regarded as the base of the Cambrian system.
The Palaeozoic and later formations are usually less altered, 12,000 ft. in eastern New York, and almost as much in the southern Appalachian Mountains (Georgia and Alabama) ; but its average thickness is much less. In Wisconsin, where the Upper Cambrian only is present, the thickness is about 1000 ft. The greater thickness in the east appears to be due in part to the fact that an extensive area of land, Appalachia. lay east of the site of the Appalachian Mountains throughout the Palaeozoic era, and quantities of sediment from it were accumulated where these mountains were to arise later. The greatness of the thickness, as it has been measured, is also due in part to the oblique position in which the beds of sediment were originally deposited.
The Cambrian formations have not been notably metamorphosed, except in a few regions where dynamic metamorphism has been effective. The system is without any notable amount of igneous rock. As in other parts of the world, the system here contains abundant fossils, among which trilobites, brachiopods and worms are the most abundant. The range of forms, however, is great.
Ordovician System. The succeeding Ordovician (Lower Silurian) system of rocks is closely connected with the Cambrian, geographically, stratigraphically and faunally. Its distribution is much the same as that of the Upper Cambrian, with which it is conformable in many places. The Ordovician system contains much more */v" T v w*/ >j , ^V^-^V^X K? jty^>^y.!y | iPentiian I & Misassippian more accessible, and better known than the Proterozoic and Archeozoic, and will be taken up by systems.
Cambrian 'System. The lower part of the Cambrian system, characterized by the Olenellus fauna, 'is restricted to the borders of the continent, where it rests on the older rocks unconformably in most places. The middle part of the system, characterized by the Paradoxides fauna, is somewhat more widespread, resting on the lower part conformably, but overlapping it, especially in the south and west. The upper part of the system, carrying the Dicellocephalus fauna, is very much more extensive; it is indeed one of the most widespread series of rocks on 'the continent. The lower, middle and upper parts of the system all contain marine fossils. This being the case, the distribution of the several divisions indicates that progressive submergence of the United States was in progress during the period, and that most of the country was covered by the sea before its close.
The system is composed chiefly of clastic rocks, and their composition and structure show that the water in which they were deposited was shallow. In the interior, the upper part of the system, the Potsdam sandstone, is generally arenaceous. It is well exposed in New York, Wisconsin, Missouri and elsewhere, about the outcrops of older rocks. The system is also exposed in many of the western mountains or about their borders, especially about those the cores of which are of Archean or Proterozoic rock.
The thickness of the system has been estimated at 10,000 to Ordovician limestone, and therefore much less clastic rock, than the Cambrian, pointing to clearer seas in which life abounded. The succession of beds in New York has become a sort of standard with which the system in other parts of the United States has been compared. The succession of formations in that state is as follows :
f Richmond beds (in Ohio Upper Ordovician (or I and Indiana). Cincinnatian) 1 Lorraine beds.
I Utica shales.
Middle Ordovician (or | Trenton limestone. Mohawkian) -s Black River limestone.
I. Lowville limestone. Lower Ordovician (or f Chazy limestone.
Canadian) -! Beekmantown limestone.
L ( = Calciferous). The classification in the right-hand column of this table is not applicable in detail to regions remote from New York.
There is in some places an unconformity between the Richmond beds (or their equivalent) and underlying formations, and this unconformity, together with certain palaeontological considerations, has raised the question whether the uppermost part of the system, as outlined above, should not be classed as Silurian (Upper Silunai Over the interior the strata are nearly horizontal, but in the mountain regions of the east and west, as well as in the mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, they are tilted and folded, and locally much metamorphosed. The outcrops of the system appear for the most part in close association with the outcrops of the Cambrian system, but the system appears in a few places where the Cambrian does not, as in southern Ohio and central Tennessee. The thickness of the system varies from point to point, being greatest in the Appalachian Mountains, and much less in the interior.
The oil and gas of Ohio and eastern Indiana come from the middle portion of the Ordovician system. So also do the lead and zinc of south-western Wisconsin and the adjacent parts of Iowa and Illinois. The lead of south-eastern Missouri comes from about the same horizon.
The fossils of the Ordovician system show that life made great progress during the period, in numbers both of individuals and of species. The life, like that of the later Cambrian, was singularly cosmopolitan, being in contrast with the provincial character of the life of the earlier Cambrian and of the early (Upper) Silurian which followed. Beside the expansion of types which abounded in the Cambrian, vertebrate remains (fishes) are found in the Ordovician. So, also, are the first relics of insects. The departure of the Ordovician life from that of the Cambrian was perhaps most pronounced in the great development of the molluscs and crinoids (including cystoids), but corals were also abundant for the first time, and graptolites came into prominence.
Silurian System. The Silurian system is much less widely distributed than the Ordovician. This and other corroborative facts imply a widespread emergence of land at the close of the Ordovician period. As a result of this emergence the stratigraphic break between the Ordovician and the Silurian is one of the greatest in the whole Palaeozoic group.
The classification of the system in New York is as follows:
rManlius limestone. Cayugan (Neo- or Upper Silurian)
Niagaran (Meso- or Middle Silurian)
Oswegan (Palaeo-or Lower Silurian)
I Rondout waterlime. | Cobleskill limestone. [Salina beds. fGuelph dolomite.
Silurian . . J Niagaran (Meso- or J Lockport limestone.
I Rochester shale. I Clinton beds. fMedina sandstone. -I Oneida conglomerate. [Shawangunk grit.
The lower part of this system is chiefly clastic, and is known only in the eastern part of the continent. The middle portion contains much limestone, generally known as the Niagara limestone, and is much more widespread than the lower, being found very generally over the eastern interior, as far west as the Mississippi and in places somewhat beyond. The Niagara limestone contains the oldest known coral reefs of the continent. They occur in eastern Wisconsin and at other points farther east and south. It is over this limestone that the Niagara falls in the world-famous cataract. One member of the middle division of the system (Clinton beds) contains much iron ore, especially in the Appalachian Mountain region. The ore is extensively worked at some points, as at Birmingham, Alabama. The upper part of the system is more restricted than the middle, and includes the salt-bearing series of New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with its peculiar fauna. It is difficult to see how salt could have originated in this region except under conditions very different climatically from those of the present time.
In the interior the thickness of the system is less than 1000 ft. in many places, but in and near the Appalachian Mountains its thickness is much greater more than five times as great if the maximum thicknesses of all formations be made the basis of calculation. In the Great Plains and farther west the Silurian has little known representation. Either this part of the continent was largely land at this time, or the Silurian formations here have been worn away or remain undifferentiated. Rocks of Silurian age, however, are known at some points in Arizona, Nevada and southern California.
Corals, echinoderms, brachiopods and all groups of molluscs abounded. Graptolites had declined notably as compared with the Ordovician, and the trilobites passed their climax before the end of the period. Certain other remarkable Crustacea, however, had made their appearance, especially in connexion with the Salina series of the east.
There are numerous outliers of the Silurian north of the United States, even up to the Arctic regions. These outliers have a common fauna, which is closely related to that of the interior of the United States. They give some clue to the amount of erosion which the system has suffered, and also afford a clue to the route by which the animals whose fossils are found in the United States entered this country. Thus, the Niagara fauna of the interior of the United States has striking resemblances to the mid-Silurian faunas of Sweden and Great Britain. It seems probable, therefore, that marine animals found migratory conditions between these regions, probably by way of northern islands. The fauna of the Appalachian region is far less like that of Europe, and indicates but slight connexion with the fauna of the interior. Both the earlier and the later parts of the Silurian period seem to have been times when physical conditions were such as to favour the development of provincial faunas, while during the more widespread submergence of the middle Silurian the fauna was more cosmopolitan.
Devonian System. The Devonian system appears in some parts of New England, throughout most of the Appalachian region, over much of the eastern interior from New York to the Missouri River, in Oklahoma, and perhaps in Texas. It is absent from the Great Plains, so far as now known, and is not generally present in the Rocky Mountains, though somewhat widespread between them and the western coast. As a whole, the system is more widespread than the Silurian, though not so widespread as the Ordovician. As in the case of the Ordovician and the Silurian, the New York section has become a standard with which the system in other parts of the country is commonly compared. This section is as follows:
(Chautauquan-Chemung (including Catskill). Senecan /Portage beds, lecan . . ^ Genesee shale.
Devonian .
[Tully limestone.
I Erian .
Middle Devonian Ulsterian.
Oriskanian 5 Hamilton shale. ( Marcellus shale.
iOnpndaga (Corniferous limestone) Schoharie grit. Esopus grit. Oriskany beds. ( Kingston beds.
Lower i HelderbergianJ Becraft limestone.
Devonian | New Scotland beds.
[ tCoeymans limestone.
The formations most widely recognized are the Helderberg limestone, the Onondaga limestone and the Hamilton shale.
The Catskill sandstone, found chiefly in the Catskill Mountain region of New York, is one of the distinctive formations of the system. It has some similarity to the Old Red Sandstone of Great Britain. In part, at least, it is equivalent in time of origin to the Chemung formation; but the latter is of marine origin, while the Catskill formation appears to be of terrestrial origin.
No other system of the United States brings out more clearly the value of palaeontology to palaeogeography. The faunas of the early Devonian seem to have entered what is now the interior of the United States from the mid-Atlantic coast. The Onondaga fauna which succeeded appears to have resulted from the commingling of the resident lower Devonian fauna with new emigrants from Europe by way of the Arctic regions. The Hamilton fauna which followed represents the admixture of the resident Onondaga fauna with new types which are thought to have come from South America, showing that faunal connexions for marine life had been made between the interior of the United States and the lands south of the Caribbean Sea, a connexion of which, before this time, there was no evidence. The late Devonian fauna of the interior represents the commingling of the Hamilton fauna of the eastern interior with new emigrants from the north-west, a union which was not effected until toward the close of the period.
Like the earlier Palaeozoic systems, the Devonian attains its greatest known thickness in the Appalachian Mountains, where sediments from the lands of pre-Cambrian rock to the east accumulated in quantity. Here clastic rocks predominate, while limestone is more abundant in the interior. If the maximum thicknesses of all Devonian formations be added together, the total for the system is as much as 15,000 ft. ; but such a thickness is not found in any one place.
The Devonian system yields much oil and gas in western Pennsylvania, south-western New York, West Virginia and Ontario; and some of the Devonian beds in Tennessee yield phosphates of commercial value. The Hamilton formation yields much flagstone.
Among the more important features of the marine life of the period were (l) the great development of the molluscs, especially of cephalopods ; (2) the abu ndance of large brachiopods ; (3) the aberrant tendencies of the trilobites; (4) the profusion of corals; and (5) the abundance, size and peculiar forms of the fishes. The life of the land waters was also noteworthy, especially for the great deployment of what may be called the crustacean-ostracodermo-vertebrate group. The Crustacea were represented by eurypterids, the ostracoderms by numerous strange, vertebrate-like forms (Cephalaspis, Cyathaspis, Trematopsis, Bothriolepis, etc.), and the vertebrates by a great variety of fishes. The land life of the period is represented more fully among the fossils than that of any preceding period. Gymnosperms were the highest types of plants.
The Devonian system is not set off from the Mississippian by any marked break. On the other hand, the one system merges into the other, so that the plane of separation is often indistinct.
Mississippian System. The Mississippian system was formerly regarded as a part of the Carboniferous, and was described under the name of Lower Carboniferous, or Subcarboniferous, without the rank of a system. This older classification, which has little support except that which is traditional, is still adhered to by many geologists; but the fact seems to be that the system is set off from the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) more sharply than the Cambrian is from the Ordovician, the Silurian from the Devonian, or the Devonian from the Mississippian.
The system is well developed in the Mississippi Basin, whence its name. Its formations are much more widespread than those of any other system since the Ordoyician. They appear at the surface in great areas in the interior, in the south-west and about many of the western mountains. In many places in the west they rest on what appear to be Ordovician beds, but without unconformity. The explanation of the apparent conformity of the strata from the Cambrian to the Pennsylvanian in some parts of the west, with no fossils denning with certainty any horizon between the Ordovician and the Mississippian, is one of the open problems in the geology of the United States.
The subdivision of the system for various regions in the eastern part of the United States is as follows :
Mississippi River States.
Ohio.
Pennsylvania.
Maryland.
4. Kaskaskia or Chester 3. St Louis 2. Osage or Augusta ( including the Burlington, Keokuk and Warsaw) I. Kinderhook or Chouteau 7. Maxville 6. Logan 5. Black Hand 4. Cuyahoga 3. Sunbury 2. Berea grit I. Bedford 2. Mauch Chunk I. Pocono 3. Mauch Chunk 2. Greenbrier I. Pocono In the interior the Kinderhook series has a distribution similar to that of the Devonian; the Osage series is more widespread, pointing to progressive submergence; and the St Louis is still more extensive. This epoch, indeed, is the epoch of maximum submergence during the period, and the maximum since the Ordovician. Before its close the sea of the Great Basin which had persisted since the Devonian was connected with the shallow sea which covered much of the interior of the United States. The fourth series, the Kaskaskia or Chester, is more restricted, and points to the coming emergence of a large part of the United States. In the Mississippi Basin the larger part of the system is of limestone, though there is some clastic material in both its basal and its upper parts. In Ohio the system contains much clastic rock, and in Pennsylvania little else. The Mauch Chunk series (shale and sandstone) is now believed to be largely of terrestrial origin.
The system ranges in thickness from nearly 5000 ft. maximum in Pennsylvania to 1500 ft. in the vicinity of the Mississippi river. In West Virginia some 2000 ft. of limestone are assigned to this system. The zinc and lead of the Joplin district of Missouri are in the limestone of this system, and the corresponding limestone in some parts of Colorado, as at Leadville, is one of the horizons of rich ore.
The end of the period was marked by the widespread emergence of the continent, and parts of it were never again submerged, so far as is known. Certainly there is no younger marine formation of comparable extent in the continent. When deposition was renewed in the interior of the continent, the formations laid down were largely non-marine, and, over great areas, they rest upon the Mississippian unconformably.
From the conditions outlined it is readily inferred that the faunas of the system were cosmopolitan. All types of life to which shallow, clear sea-water was congenial appear to have abounded in the interior. It was perhaps at this time that the crinoids, as a class, reached their climax, and most forms of lime-carbonate-secreting life seem to have thriven. Where the seas were less clear, as in Ohio, the conditions are reflected in the character of the fossils. Marine fishes had made great progress before the close of the period. Amphibia appeared before its close, and plant life was abundant and varied, though the types were not greatly in advance of those of the Devonian. The time of such widespread submergence was hardly the time for the great development of land vegetation.
Pennsylvanian System. The Pennsylvanian or Upper Carboniferous system overlies the Mississippian unconformably over a large part of the United States. In the eastern half of the country the system consists of shales and sandstones chiefly, but there is some limestone, and coal enough to be of great importance economically, though it makes but a small part of the system quantitatively. The larger part of the system in this part of the country is not of marine origin ; yet the sea had access to parts of the interior more than once, as shown by the marine fossils in some of the beds. The dominantly terrestrial formations of the eastern half of the country are in contrast with the marine formations of the west. The line separating the two phases of the system is a little east of the looth meridian. ' West of the Mississippi the Coal Measures are subdivided into two series, the Des Moines below and the Missouri above. In the eastern part of the country (Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc.) the system is divided into four principal parts :
' 4. Monongahela formation (or series) Upper Productive Coal Measures. 3. Conemaugh formation (or series) Lower Pennsylvanian. .- Barren Coal Measures.
2. Allegheny formation (or series) Lower Productive Coal Measures. I. Pottsville formation (or series).
The Pottsville formation is chiefly clastic, and corresponds roughly to the Millstone Grit of England. The Allegheny and Monongahela series contain most of the coal, though it is not wanting in the other subdivisions of the system. Productive coal beds are found in five principal fields. These are (i) the Anthracite field in eastern Pennsylvania, nearly 500 sq. m. in extent; (2) the Appalachian field, having an area of about 71,000 sq. m. (75 % being productive), and extending from Pennsylvania to Alabama; (3) the northern interior field, covering an area of about 11,000 sq. m. in southern Michigan; (4) the eastern interior field in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, with an area of about 58,000 sq. m. (55 % being productive) ; and (5) the western interior and southwestern field, some 94,000 sq. m. in extent, reaching from Iowa on the north to Texas on the south. There is also a coalfield in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, about 18,000 sq. m. in extent. Some of the well-known beds of coal are known to be continuous for several thousands of square miles.
Unlike the older systems of the Palaeozoic, the Pennsylvanian system has not its maximum thickness in the Appalachian Mountains, but in Arkansas, in a region which was probably adjacent to high lands at that time. These lands perhaps lay in the present position of the Ouachita Mountains.
The close of the Pennsylvanian period was marked by the beginning of profound changes, changes in geography and climate, and therefore changes in the amount and habitat of life, and in the sites of erosion and sedimentation. One of the great changes of this time was the beginning of the development of the Appalachian Mountain system. The site of these mountains had been, for the most part, an area of deposition throughout the Palaeozoic era, and the body of sediments which had gathered here at the western base of Appalachia, by the close of the Pennsylvanian period, was very great. At this time these sediments, together with some of Appalachia itself, began to be folded up into the Appalachian Mountains. These mountains have since been worn down, so that, in spite of their subsequent periods of growth, their height is not great.
The chief interest of the palaeontology of this system is in the plants, which were very like those of the Coal Measures of other parts of the earth and showed a high development of forms that are now degenerate. Among land animals the amphibia had great development at this time. So also had insects and some other forms of land life.
Permian Period. The Permian system appears in smaller areas in the United States than any other Palaeozoic system. The " Upper Barren Coal Measures of some parts of the east (Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc.) are now classed as Permian on the basis of their fossil plants. They represent but a part of the Permian period, and are commonly described under the name of the Dunkard series.
The system has much more considerable development west of the Mississippi than east of it, especially in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and beyond. Some of the Permian beds of this region are marine, while others are of terrestrial origin. In this part of the country the Permian beds are largely red sandstone, often saliferous and gypsiferpus. They are distinguished with difficulty from the succeeding Triassic, for the beds have very few fossils. The system has its maximum known thickness in Texas, where it is said to be 7000 ft. in maximum thickness. West of the Rocky Mountains the Permian has not been very generally separated from overlying and underlying formations, though it has been differentiated in a few places, as in south-western Colorado and in some parts of Arizona. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the palaeontology of the system is its paucity of fossils, especially in those parts of the system, such as the Red Beds, which are of terrestrial origin.
In the United States no direct evidence has been found of the low temperature which brought about glaciation in many other parts of the earth during this period. Salt and gypsum deposits, and other features of the Permian beds, together with the fewness of fossils, indicate that the climate of the Permian was notably arid in many regions.
Triassic System. This system has but limited representation in the eastern part of the United States, being known only east of the Appalachian Mountains in an area which was land throughout most of the Palaeozoic era, but which was deformed when the eastern mountains were developed at the close of the Palaeozoic. In the troughs formed in its surface during this time of deformation, sediments of great thickness accumulated during the Triassic period. These sediments are now mostly in the form of red sandstone and shale, with conglomerate, black shale and coal in some places. These rocks do not represent the whole of the period. They are often known as the Newark series, and seem to be chiefly, if not wholly, of terrestrial origin. The sedimentary rocks are affected by many dikes and sheets of igneous rock, some of the latter being extrusive and some intrusive. The strata are now tilted and much faulted, though but little folded. In the western plains and in the western mountains the Triassic is not clearly separated from the Permian in most places. So far as the system is differentiated, it is a part of the Red Beds of that region. The tendency of recent years has been to refer more and more of these beds to the Permian. The Triassic system is well developed on the Pacific coast, where its strata are of marine origin, and they extend inland to the Great Basin The climate of the period, at least in its earlier part, seems to have been arid like that of the Permian, as indicated both by the paucity of fossils and by the character of the sediments. The salt and gypsum constitute a positive argument for aridity. The character of some of the conglomerate of the Newark series of the east, and the widespread redness of the beds, so far as it is original, also point to aridity.
As in other parts of the earth, the Triassic was the age of gymnosperms, which were represented by diverse types. Reptiles were the dominant form of animals, and land reptiles (dinosaurs) gained over their aquatic allies.
Jurassic System. This system is not known with certainty in the eastern half of the United States, though there are some beds on the mid-Atlantic coast, along the inland border of the coastal plain, which have been thought by some, on the basis of their reptilian fossils, to be Jurassic. The lower and middle parts of the system are but doubtfully represented in the western interior. If present, they form a part of the Red Beds of that region. On the Pacific coast marine Jurassic beds reach in from the Pacific to about the same distance as the Triassic system. The Upper Jurassic formations are much more widely distributed. During the later part of the period the sea found entrance at some point north of the United States to a great area in the western part of the continent, developing a bay which extended far down into the United States from Canada. In this great bay formations of marine origin were laid down. At the same time marine sedimentation was continued on the Pacific coast, but the faunas of the west coast and the interior bay are notably unlike, the latter being more like that of the coast north of the United States. This is the reason for the belief that the bay which extended into the United States had its connexion with the sea north of the United States.
The Jurassic faunas of the United States were akin to those of other continents. The great development of reptiles and cephalopods was among the notable features. At the close of the period there were considerable deformations in the west. The first notable folding of the Sierras that has been definitely determined dates from this time, and many other mountains of the west were begun or rejuvenated. The close of the period, too, saw the exclusion of the sea from the Pacific coast east of the Sierras, and the disappearance, so far as the United States is concerned, of the great north-western bay of the late Jurassic. Before the close of the period, the aridity which had obtained during the Permian, and at least a part of the Triassic, seems to have disappeared.
Comanchean System. This system was formerly classed as the lower part of the Cretaceous, but there are strong reasons for regarding it as a separate system. Its distribution is very different from that of the Upper Cretaceous, and there is a great and widespread unconformity between them. The faunas, too, are very unlike. The Comanchean formations are found (i) on the inland border of the coastal plain of the Atlantic (Potomac series) and Gulf coasts (Tuscaloosa series at the east and Comanchean at the west) ; (2) along the western margin of the Great Plains and in the adjacent mountains; and (3) along the Pacific coast west of the Sierras. In the first two of these positions, the formations show by their fossils that they are of terrestrial origin in some places, and partly of terrestrial and partly of marine origin in others. In the coastal plain the Comanchean beds are generally not cemented, but consist of gravel, sand and clay, occupying the nearly horizontal position in which they were originally deposited. Much plastic clay and sand are derived from them. In Texas, whence the name " Comanchean " comes, and where different parts of the system are of diverse origins, there is some limestone. This sort of rock increases in importance southward and has great development in Mexico. In the western interior there is difference of opinion as to whether certain beds rich in reptilian remains (the Morrison, Atlantosaurus, Como, etc.) should be regarded as Jurassic or Comanchean. On the western coast the term Shastan is sometimes applied to Lower Cretaceous. In the United States, marine Shastan beds are restricted to the area west of the Sierras, but they here have great thickness.
Widespread changes at the end of the period exposed the areas where deposition has been in progress during the period to erosion, and the (Upper) Cretaceous formations rest upon the Comanchean unconformably in most parts of the country. The Comanchean system contains the oldest known remains of netted-veined leaved plants, which mark a great advance in the vegetable world. Reptiles were numerous and of great size. They were the largest type of life, both on land and in the sea.
Cretaceous System. This system is much more extensively developed in the United States than any other Mesozoic system. It is found (i) on the Atlantic coastal plain, where it laps up on the Comanchean, or over it to older formations beyond its inland margin ; (2) on the coastal plain of the Gulf region in similar relations; (3) over the western plains; (4) in the western mountains; and (5) along the Pacific coast. Unlike the Comanchean, the larger part of the Cretaceous system is of marine origin. The distribution of the beds of marine origin shows that the sea crept up on the eastern and southern borders of the continent during the period, covered the western plains, and formed a great mediterranean sea between the eastern and western lands of the continent, connecting the Gulf of Mexico on the south and the Arctic Ocean on the north. This widespread submergence, followed by the deposition of marine sediments on the eroded surface of Comanchean and older rocks, is the physical reason for the separation of the system from the Comanchean. This reason is reinforced by palaeontological considerations.
Both on the Atlantic and over 'the western plains the system is divided into four principal subdivisions:
Atlantic Coast. 4. Manasquan formation. 3. Rancocas formation. 2. Monmouth formation. I. Matawan formation.
Western Plains. 4. Laramie. 3. Montana: Fox Hills; Fort Pierre.
2. Colorado: Niobrara; Benton. i. Dakota.
The most distinctive feature of the Cretaceous of the Atlantic coastal plain is its large content of greensand marl (glauconite). The formations are mostly incoherent, and have nearly their original position. In the eastern Gulf states there is more calcareous material, represented by limestone or chalk. In the Texan region and farther north the limestone becomes still more important. In the western plains, the first and last principal subdivisions of the system (Dakota and Laramie) are almost wholly non-marine. The Dakota formation is largely sandstone, which gives rise to " hogbacks " where it has been tilted, indurated and exposed to erosion along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado series contains much limestone, some of which is in the form of chalk. This is par excellence the chalk formation of the United States. That the chalk was deposited in shallow, clear seas is indicated both by the character of the fossils other than foraminifera and by the relation of the chalk to the clastic portions of the series. The Montana series, most of which is marine, was deposited in water deeper than that of the Colorado epoch, though the series is less widespread than the preceding. The Laramie is the great coalbearing series of the west, and corresponds in its general physical make-up and in its mode of origin to the Coal Measures of the east. The coal-bearing lands of the Laramie have been estimated at not less than 100,000 sq. m. On the Pacific coast the Cretaceous formations are sometimes grouped together under the name of Chico. The distribution of the Chico formations is similar to that of the Comanchean system in this region.
The Cretaceous system is thick. If maximum thicknesses of its several parts in different localities, as usually measured, are added together, the total would approach or reach 25,000 ft. ; but the strata of any one region have scarcely more than half this thickness, and the average is much less.
The close of the period was marked by very profound changes which may be classed under three general headings: (i) the emergence of great areas which had been submerged until the closing stages of the period ; (2) the beginning of the development of most of the great mountains of the west ; (3) the inauguration of a protracted period of igneous activity, stimulated, no doubt, by the crustal and deeper-seated movements of the time. These great changes in the relation of land and water, and in topography, led to correspondingly great changes in life, and the combination marks the transition from the Mesozoic to the Cainozoic era.
Tertiary Systems. The formations of the several Tertiary periods have many points of similarity, but in some respects they are sharply differentiated one from another. They consist, in most parts of the country, of unconsolidated sediments, consisting of gravel, sand, clay, etc., together with large quantities of tuff, volcanic agglomerate, etc. Some of the sedimentary formations are of marine, some of brackish water, and some of terrestrial origin. In the western part of the country there are, in addition, very extensive flows of lava covering in the aggregate some 200,000 sq. m. Terrestrial sedimentation was, indeed, a great feature of the Tertiary. This was the result of several conditions, among them the recent development, through warping and faulting and volcanic extrusion, of high lands with more or less considerable slopes. From these high lands sediments were borne down to lodge on the low lands adjacent. The sites of deposition varied as the period progressed, for the warping and faulting of the surface, the igneous extrusions, and the deposition of sediments obliterated old basins and brought new ones into existence. The marine Tertiary formations are confined to the borders of the continent, appearing along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts. The brackish water formations occur in some parts of the same general areas, while the terrestrial forma- ' tions are found in and about the western mountains. As in other parts of the world, the chiefest palaeontological interest of the Tertiary attaches to the mammalian fossils.
The Eocene beds are unconformable, generally, upon the Cretaceous, and unconformable beneath the Miocene. On the Atlantic coast they are nearly horizontal, but dip gently seaward. Eocene On this coast they are nowhere more than a few System. hundred feet thick. In the Gulf region the system is more fully represented, and attains a greater thickness 1700 ft. at least. In the Gulf region the Eocene system contains not a little non-marine material. Thus the lower Eocene has some lignite in the eastern Gulf region, while in Texas lignite and saliferous and gypsiferous sediments are found, though most of the system is marine and of shallow water origin. The Eocene of the western Gulf region is continued north as far as Arkansas. The classification of the Eocene (and Oligocene) formations in the Gulf region, especially east of the Mississippi, is as follows:
4. Jacksonian Upper Eocene.
3. Claibornian Middle Eocene.
2. Chickasawan ) T T- i. Midwayan { Lower Eocene.
The Jacksonian is sometimes regarded as Oligocene. This classification is based almost wholly on the fossils, for there seems to be little physical reason for the differentiation of the Oligocene anywhere on the continent.
On the Pacific coast the marine Eocene lies west of the Sierras, and between it and the Cretaceous there is a general, and often a great, unconformity. The system has been reported to have a thickness of more than 7000 ft. in some places, and locally (e.g. the Pescadero formation) it is highly metamorphic. The Eocene of southern California carries gypsum enough to be of commercial value. It is also the source of much oil. The system is wanting in northern California and southern Oregon, but appears again farther north, and has great development in Oregon, where its thickness has been estimated at more than 10,000 ft. As in other comparable cases, this figure does not make allowance for the oblique attitude in which the sediments were deposited, and should not be construed to mean the vertical thickness of the system.
In Washington the Eocene is represented by the Puget series of brackish water beds, with an estimated thickness exceeding that of the marine formations of Oregon. Workable coal beds are distributed through 3000 ft. of this series. The amount of the coal is very great, though the coal is soft.
Terrestrial Eocene formations eolian, fluvial, pluvial and lacustrine are widespread in the western part of the United States, both in and about the mountains. By means of the fossils, several more or less distinct stages of deposition have been recognized. Named in chronological order, these are:
1. The Fort Union stage, when the deposition was widespread about the eastern base of the northern part of the Rocky Mountains, and at some points in Colorado (Telluride formation) and New Mexico (Puerco beds), where volcanic ejecta entered largely into the formation. The Fort Union stage is closely associated with the Laramie, and their separation has not been fully effected.
2. The Wasatch stage, when deposition was in progress over much of Utah and western Colorado, parts of Wyoming, and elsewhere.
3. The Bridger stage, when deposition was in progress in the Wind River basin, north of the mountain of that name, and in the basin of Green river.
4. The Uinta stage, when the region south of the mountains of that name, in Utah and Colorado, was the site of great deposition.
More or less isolated deposits of some or all of these stages are found at numerous points in the western mountain region. The present height of the deposits, in some places as much as 10,000 ft., gives some suggestion of the changes in topography which have taken place since the early Tertiary. The thickness of the system in the west is great, the formations of each of the several stages mentioned above running into thousands of feet, as thicknesses are commonly measured.
The Miocene system, generally speaking, has a distribution similar to that of the Eocene. The principal formation of the Miocene Atlantic coastal plain is the Chesapeake formation, largely of sand. In Florida the system contains System.
calcium phosphate of commercial value. The Miocene of the Atlantic and Gulf regions nowhere attains great thickness. The oil of Texas and Louisiana is from the Miocene (or possibly Oligocene) dolomite. On the Pacific coast the system has greater development. It contains much volcanic material, and great bodies of siliceous shale, locally estimated at 4000 ft. thick and said to be made up largely of the secretions of organisms. Such thicknesses of such material go far to modify the former opinion that the Tertiary periods were short. The Miocene of California is oilproducing. The terrestrial Miocene formations of the western part of the country are similar in kind, and, in a general way, in distribution, to the Eocene of the same region. The amount of volcanic material, consisting of both pyroclastic material and lava flows, is great.
At the close of the Miocene, deformative movements were very widespread in the Rocky Mountains and between the principal development of the Coast ranges of California and Oregon, and mountain-making movements, new or renewed, were somewhat general in the west. At the close of the period the topography of the western part of the country must have been comparable to that of the present time. This, however, is not to be interpreted to mean that it has remained unmodified, or but slightly modified since that time. Subsequent erosion has changed the details of topography on an extensive scale, and subsequent deformative movements have renewed large topographic features where erosion had destroyed those developed by the close of the Miocene. But in spite of these great changes since the Miocene, the great outlines of the topography of the present were probably marked out by the close of that period. Volcanic activity and faulting on a large scale attended the deformation of the closing stages of the Miocene.
The Pliocene system stands in much the same stratigraphic relation to the Miocene as the Miocene does to the Eocene. The marine Pliocene has but trifling development on the Atlantic pitaa-ne coast north of Florida, and somewhat more extensive s development in the Gulf region. The marine Pliocene of the continent has its greatest development in California (the Merced series, peninsula of San Francisco), where it is assigned a maximum thickness of nearly 6000 ft., and possibly as much as 13,000 ft. This wide range is open to doubt as to the correlation of some of the beds involved. Thicknesses of several thousand feet are recorded at other points in California and elsewhere along the coast farther north. Marine Pliocene beds are reported to have an altitude of as much as 5000 ft. in Alaska. The position of these beds is significant of the amount of change which has taken place in the west since the Pliocene period. The non-marine formations of the Pliocene are its most characteristic feature. They are widely distributed in the western mountains and on the Great Plains. In origin and character, and to some extent in distribution, they are comparable with the Eocene and Miocene formations of the same region, and still more closely comparable with deposits now making. In addition to these non-marine formations of the west, there is the widespread Lafayette formation, which covers much of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain, reaching far to the north from the western Gulf regio.i, and having uncertain limits, so far as now worked out, in various directions. The Lafayette formation has been the occasion of much difference of opinion, but is by many held to be a non-marine formation, made up of gravels, sands and clays, accumulated on land, chiefly through the agency of rain and rivers. Its deposition seems ,to have followed a time of deformation which resulted in an increase of altitude in the Appalachian Mountains, and in an accentuation of the contrast between the highlands and the adjacent plains. Under these conditions sediments from the high lands were washed out and distributed widely over the plains, giving rise to a thin but widespread formation of ill-assorted sediment, without marine fossils, and, for the most part, without fossils of any kind, and resting unconformably on Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene formations. To the seaward the non-marine phase of the formation doubtless grades into a marine phase along the shore of that time, but the position of this shore has not been defined. The marine part of the Lafayette is probably covered by sediments of later age.
. In earlier literature the Lafayette formation was described under the name of Orange Sand, and was at one time thought to be the southern equivalent of the glacial drift. This, however, is now known not to be the case, as remnants of the formation, isolated by erosion, lie under the old glacial drift in Illinois, and perhaps elsewhere. It seems probable that the Lafayette formation of the Gulf coastal plain is continuous northward and westward! with gravel deposits on the Great Plains, washed out from the Rocky Mountains to the west. The careful study of these fluvial formations is likely to throw much light on the history of the deformative movements and changes in topography in the United States during the late stages of geological history.
Deformative movements of the minor sort seem to have been in progress somewhat generally during the Tertiary periods, especially in the western part of the country, but those at the close of the Pliocene seem to have exceeded greatly those of the earlier stages. They resulted in increased height of land, especially in the west, and therefore in increased erosion. This epoch of relative uplift and active erosion is sometimes called the Sierran or Ozarkian epoch. The details of the topography of the western mountains are largely of post-Pliocene development. The summits of some of the high mountains, such as the Cascades, appear to be remnants of a peneplain developed in post-Miocene time. If so, the mountains themselves must be looked upon as essentially post-Pliocene. Deformative movements resulting in close folding were not common at this time, but such movements affected some of the coast ranges of California. This epoch of great deformation and warping marks the transition from the Tertiary to the Quaternary.
Quaternary Formations. The best-known formations of the Quaternary period are those deposited by the continental glaciers which were the distinguishing feature of the period QiaciaL and by the waters derived from them. The glacial drift covers something like half of the continent, though much less than half of the United States. Besides the drift of the icesheets, there is much drift in the western mountains, deposited by local glaciers. Such glaciers existed in all the high mountains of the west, even down to New Mexico and Arizona.
The number of glacial epochs now recognized is five, not counting minor episodes. Four defined zones of interglacial deposits are detected, all of which are thought to represent great recessions of the ice, or perhaps its entire disappearance. The climate of some of the interglacial epochs was at least as warm as that of the present time in the same regions. The glacial epochs which have been differentiated are the following, numbered in chronological order: (5) Wisconsin, (4) lowan, (3) Illinoian, (2) Kansan, (i) SubAftonian, or Jerseyan. Of these, the Kansan ice-sheet was the most extensive, and the later ones constitute a diminishing series. Essentially all phases of glacial and aqueo-glacial drift are represented. The principal terminal moraines are associated with the ice of the Wisconsin epoch. Terminal moraines at the border of the Illinoian drift are generally feeble, though widely recognizable, and such moraines at the margin of the lowan and Kansan drift sheets are generally wanting. The edge of the oldest drift sheet is buried by younger sheets of drift in most places.
Loess is widespread in the Mississippi River basin, especially along the larger streams which flowed from the ice. Most of the loess is now generally believed to have been deposited by the wind. The larger part of it seems to date from the closing stages of the lowan epoch, but loess appears to have come into existence after other glacial epochs as well. Most of the fossils of the loess are shells of terrestrial gastropods, but bones of land mammals are also found in not a few places. Some of the loess is thought to have been derived by the wind from the surface of the drift soon after the retreat of the ice, before vegetation got a foothold upon the new-made deposit ; but a large part of the loess, especially that associated with the main valleys, appears to have been blown up on to the bluffs of the valleys from the flood plains below. As might be expected under these conditions, it ranges from fine sand to silt which approaches clay in texture. Its coarser phases are closely associated with dunes in many places, and locally the loess makes a considerable part of the dune material.
Much interest attaches to estimates of time based on data afforded by the consequences of glaciation. These estimates are far apart, and must be regarded as very uncertain, so far as actual numbers are concerned. The most definite are connected with estimates of the time since the last glacial epoch, and are calculated from the amount and rate of recession of certain falls, notably those of the Niagara and Mississippi (St Anthony Falls) rivers. The estimate of the time between the first and last glacial epochs is based on changes which the earlier drift has undergone as compared with those which the younger drift has undergone. Some of the estimates make the lapse of time since the first glacial epoch more than a million years, while others make it no more than one-third as long. The time since the last glacial epoch is but a fraction of the time since the first probably no more than a fifteenth or a twentieth.
Outside the region affected by glaciation, deposits by wind, rain, rivers, etc., have been building up the land, and sedimentation has ,. m been in progress in lakes and about coasts.^ The non- l"l , glacial deposits are much like the Tertiary in kind and gtaaai. distribution, except that marine beds have little representation on the land. On the coastal plain there is the Columbia series of gravels, sands and loams, made up of several members. Its distribution is similar to that of the Lafayette, though the Columbia series is, for the most part, confined to lower levels. Some of its several members are definitely correlated in time with some of the glacial epochs. The series is widespread over the lower part of the coastal plain. In the west the Quaternary deposits are not, in all cases, sharply separated from the late Tertiary, but the deposits of glacial drift, referable to two or more glacial epochs, are readily differentiated from the Tertiary; so, also, are certain lacustrine deposits, such as those of the extinct lakes Bonneville and Lahontan. On the Pacific coast marine Quaternary formations occur up to elevations of a few scores of feet, at least, above the sea.
Igneous rocks, whether lava flows or pyroclastic ejections, are less important in the Quaternary than in the Tertiary, though volcanic activity is known to have continued into the Quaternary. The Quaternary beds of lakes Bonneville and Lahontan have been faulted in a small way since they were deposited, and the old shore lines of these lakes have been deformed to the extent of hundreds of feet. So also have the shorelines of the Great Lakes, which came into existence at the close of the glacial period.
Much has been written and more said concerning the existence of man in the United States before the last glacial epoch. The present state of evidence, however, seems to afford no warrant for the conclusion that man existed in the United States before the end of the glacial period 1 . Whatever theoretical reasons there may be for assuming his earlier existence, they must be held as warranting no more than a presumptive conclusion, which up to the present time lacks confirmation by certain evidence.
The following sections from selected parts of the country give some idea of the succession of beds in various type regions. The thicknesses, especially where the formations are metamorphosed, are uncertain.
WEST CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS Triassic.
Chicopee shale 200 ft. (?)
Granby tuff 580 ,, Blackrock diabase (cones and dikes).
Longmeadow sandstone 1000 ,, Sugarloaf arkose 4660 ,, Mount Toby conglomerate. Unconformity.
Devonian.
Bernardston series 1950 ft.
Unconformity. Silurian.
Leyden argillite 300 ft.
Conway schist 1 Amherst schist ^5000,, (?)
Brinfield fibrolite-schist J Goshen schist 2000 (?)
Unconformity. Ordovician.
Hawley schist 2000 ft. (?)
Savoy schist 5OOO Chester amphibolite 3000 Rowe schist 4000 Hoosic schist 1500 , Unconformity. Cambrian.
Becket gneiss . 2000 ft.(?)
Unconformity. Proterozoic.
Washington gneiss 2000 ft.(?)
(Base not exposed.)
The above section is fairly representative for considerable parts of New England.
WEST VIRGINIA, etc. Pennsylvanian.
(Top of system removed by erosion.)
Braxton formation 700 ft.
Upshur sandstone 300- 500 Pugh formation 300- 450 Pickens sandstone 400 500 ,, Unconformity. Mississippian.
Canaan formation 1000-1300 ft.
Greenbrier limestone 35O- 400 Pocono sandstone 70- 90 ,, Devonian.
Hampshire formation 15001800 ft.
Jennings formation 3000-3800 Romney shale 1000-1300 ,, Unconformity.
Monterey sandstone 50- 2OO ft.
Silurian.
Lewiston limestone 550-1050 ft.
Rockwood formation . . . . . . 100 800 ,, Cacapon sandstone 100- 630 ,, Tuscarora quartzite 30- 300 ,, Juniata formation 205-1250 ,, Ordovician.
Martinsburg shale 800-1800 ft.
Middle and Upper Cambrian.
Shenandoah limestone 2400 ft.
(Base not exposed.)
This section is fairly representative for the Appalachian Mountain tract, though the Cambrian is often more fully represented.
Permian.
Dunkard formation Pennsylvanian.
Monongahela formation . Conemaugh formation Alleghany formation . Pottsville conglomerate . Unconformity. Mississippian.
Maxville limestone Waverley series Logan group Black Hand conglomerate Cuyahoga shale . Sunbury shale Berea grit .... Bedford shale Devonian.
Ohio shale Olentangy shale Delaware limestone Columbus limestone . Silurian.
Monroe formation Niagara group Clinton limestone . Medina shales (?) . (Belfast bed.)
c. 25 ft.
200- 250 ft. 400- 500 ,, 165- 300 250 ,, c. 25 ft.
100- 150 ft.
50- 500 150- 300 5- 30,, 5- i?5 50- 15 -.
300-2600 ft. 20- 35 .. 30- 4 no,, 50- 600 ft.
150- 35 ,- to- 50 ,, 50- 150 Ordovician.
Saluda beds. Richmond formation Lorraine formation Eden (Utica) shale Trenton limestone .
20 ft. 300 * 3<x> =t 250 130 Glacial drift. Unconformity. Upper Cretaceous.
Benton formation o- 150 ft.
Dakota formation 50- 100 Unconformity. Pennsylvanian.
Missouri formation 1500 ft.
Des Moines formation 250- 400 Unconformity. Mississippian.
St Louis limestone 100 ft.
Osage (Augusta) formation 200- 300 ,, Kinderhook formation 150- 200,, Devonian.
Lime Creek formation 80 ft.
State Quarry beds 20- 40 Sweetland Creek shales 20- 40 Unconformity.
Cedar Valley limestone 250- 300 ft.
Wapsipinicon formation (Independence, Fayette, Davenport) IOO--I5O,, Silurian.
Anamosa limestone 50- 75 ft.
Le Claire limestone 50 Delaware stage 200 Unconformity. Ordovician.
Maquoketa shales 175 ft.
Possible Unconformity.
Galena-Trenton limestone 290 ft.
St Peters sandstone 100 Oneota formation (includes Shakopee, New Richmond and Oneota proper) . . . 300 ,, Cambrian.
St Croix sandstone ( = Potsdam) .... 1000 ft. Unconformity. Proterozoic.
Sioux quartzite (?)
This section is fairly representative for much of the central Mississippi Basin.
OKLAHOMA Pennsylvanian.
(Summit removed by erosion.)
Seminole conglomerate 50 ft.
Holdenville shale 260 ,, Wewaka formation . 700 ,, Wetumka shale 120 ,, Calvin sandstone 145- 240 Senora formation 140- 485 Stuart shale 90- 280 Thurman sandstone 80- 260 Boggy shale 2000-2600 Savannah sandstone 750-1100 McAlester shale 1150-1500 Hartshorne sandstone 150- 200 Atoka formation (Chickahoc chert lentil) . 3200 Wapanucka limestone 100- 150 Mississippian.
Caney shale 1500 ft.
Devonian.
Woodford chert 600 ft.
Silurian.
Hunton limestone 160 ft.
Sylvan shale (upper part) 50- 100 ,, Ordovician.
Sylvan shale (lower part) 250 ft.
Viola limestone 750 Simpson series 1600 Arbuckle limestone 4000-6000 Cambrian.
Regan sandstone 50- 100 ft.
Unconformity.
Pre- Cambrian.
Tishomingo granite (?)
Composite section. The upper part is taken from vicinty of Coalgate, the lower part from the vicinity of Atoka.
WEST CENTRAL COLORADO Eocene or later.
West Elk breccia 3000 ft.
Unconformity. Cretaceous.
Ruby formation 2500 ft.
Unconformity.
Ohio formation (local only) 200 ft.
Unconformity.
Laramie formation 2000 ft.
Montana formation 2800 t> Niobrara formation too- 200 ,, Benton formation 150- 300 ,, Dakota formation 40- 300 ..
Jurassic.
Gunnison formation 350- 500 ft.
Unconformity. Pennsylvanian.
Maroon conglomerate 4500 ft.
Possible unconformity.
Weber limestone 100- 550 ft.
Unconformity. Mississippian.
Leadville limestone 400- 525 ft.
Apparent unconformity. Ordovician.
Yule limestone 35O- 450 ft.
Upper Cambrian.
Sawatch quartzite 50- 350 ft.
Unconformity. Archean.
THE BIGHORN MOUNTAINS OF WYOMING Cretaceous.
De Smet formation (shale and sandstone) . 4000 ft.
Kingsbury conglomerate 0-1500 Piney formation (shale and sandstone) . . 2500 Parkman sandstone 350 Pierre shale 1500-3500 Colorado formation 1050-1700 Comanchean.
Cloverly formation (upper part may be Cretaceous) 30- 300 ft.
Morrison formation (may be Jurassic) . 100- 300 ,, Jurassic.
Sundance formation 250- 350 ft.
Unconformity. Triassic and Permian.
Chugwater formation 750-1200 ft.
Pennsylvanian.
Tensleep sandstone 30- 150 ft.
Amsden sandstone 150- 350 Mississippian .
Madison limestone 1000 ft.
Unconformity. Ordovician.
Bighorn limestone 300 ft.
Unconformity. Cambrian (Upper).
Deadwood formation 900 ft.
Unconformity. Pre- Cambrian. Granites. This section is fairly representative for the Rocky Mountains.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Quaternary.
Alluvium, etc.
Terrace deposits and dune sand. Pliocene (?)
Paso Robles formation looo+ft.
Unconformity. .
Miocene (?)
Pismo formation (in south part of area) . 3000 ft. Santa Margarita (in north part of area) . 1550=*= Unconformity. Miocene.
Monterey shale ... .... 5000-7000 ft.
Vaquero sandstone o- 500 ,, Unconformity. , Cretaceous.
Atascadero formation 3000-4000 ft.
Unconformity. Comanchean.
Toro formation (Knoxville) 3000 =*= ft.
Unconformity.
Jura-Trias.
San Luis formation (Franciscan) . . . 1000* ft Unconformity.
Granite age undetermined. This section is representative of the southern Pacific coast.
SECTION IN CENTRAL WASHINGTON Pliocene (?).
Howson andesite 250 ft.
Miocene.
Kcechelus andesite series 4 Unconformity. Guye formation (sedimentary beds with some lava flows) 3500 ft.
Eocene.
Roslyn formation (sandstone and shale; coal) c. 3000ft.
Teanaway basalt 4000 Kachess rhyolite 0-2000 Swauk formation (clastic rocks with some tuff, etc.) 200-5000 Unconformity.
Pre-Tertiary.
Igneous and metamorphic rocks.
This section is representative of the north-west part of the country.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. A detailed bibliography for North American geology from 1732 to 1891, inclusive, is given in U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 127 (1896); for 1892-1900 in Bulletin 188 (1902); for 1901-1905 in Bull. 301 (1906) ; for 1906-1907 in Bull. 372 (1909) ; for 1908 in Bull. 409 (1909), etc. A few of the more important and available publications are enumerated below.
General Treatises. T. C. Chamberlin and R. D. Salisbury, Geologic Processes (New York) and Earth History (2 vols., New York) ; J. D. Dana, Manual of Geology (New York, 1862); W. B. Scott, Introduction to Geology (New York, 1897); and Joseph Le Conte, Elements of Geology (New York, 1878).
Official Reports. F. V. Hayden, Reports of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Surrey of the Territories (12 vols., Washington, 1873-1883); Clarence King, Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (7 vols. and atlas, Washington, 1870-1880); George M. Wheeler, Geographical and Geological Exploration and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian (7 vols. and 2 atlases, Washington, 1877-1879) ; and Reports of the U.S. Geological Survey (since 1880) : (i) Monographs on special topics and areas, about 50 in number; (2) Professional Papers monographic treatment of somewhat smaller areas and lesser topics, about 60 in number; (3) Bulletins, between 300 and 400 in number; and (4) Annual Reports (previous to 1903) containing many papers of importance, of the sort now published as Professional Papers. Reports of state geological surveys have been published by most of the states east of the Missouri river, and some of those farther west (California, Washington, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming) and south (Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana). Among the more important periodicals are the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America (Rochester, N.Y., 1889 seq.); the American Journal of Science (New Haven, Conn., 1818 seq.); the American Geologist (Minneapolis, 1888 seq.); Journal of Geology (Chicago, 1893 seq.); Economic Geology (Lancaster, Pa., 1905 seq.). Occasional articles of value are to be found in the American Naturalist and Science, and in the Transactions and Proceedings of various state and municipal academies of science, societies, etc. (R. D. S. ; T. C. C.)
III. CLIMATE The chief features of the climate of the United States may be best apprehended by relating them to the causes by which they are controlled. Two leading features, from which many others follow, are the intermediate value of the mean annual temperatures and the prevalence of westerly winds, with which drift the areas of high and low pressure cyclonic and anticyclonic areas controlling the short-lived, non-periodic weather changes. The first of these features is determined by the intermediate position of the United States between the equator and the north pole; the second by the equatorial-polar temperature contrast and the eastward rotation of the planet. Next, dependent on the inclination of the earth's axis, is the division of the planetary year into the terrestrial seasons, with winter and summer changes of temperature, wind-strength and precipitation; these seasonal changes are not of the restrained measure that is characteristic of the oceanic southern temperate zone, but of the exaggerated measure appropriate to the continental interruptions of the northern land-and-water zone, to which the term " temperate " is so generally inapplicable. The effects of the continent are already visible in the mean annual temperatures, in which the poleward temperature gradient is about twice as strong as it is on the neighbouring oceans; this being a natural effect of the immobility of the land surface, in contrast to the circulatory movement of the ocean currents, which thus lessen the temperature differences due to latitude: on the continent such differences are developed in full force. Closely associated with the effect of conti nental immobility are the effects dependent on the low specific heat and the opacity of the lands, in contrast with the high specific heat and partial transparence of the ocean waters. In virtue of these Dhysical characteristics, the air over the land becomes much warmer n summer and much colder in winter than the air over the oceans in corresponding latitudes ; hence the seasonal changes of temperature in the central United States are strong; the high temperatures apprpsriate to the torrid zone advance northward to middle latitudes in summer, and the low temperatures appropriate to the Arctic regions descend almost to middle latitudes in winter. As a result, the isotherms of July are strongly convex poleward as they cross the United States, the isotherm of 70 sweeping up to the northern boundary in the north-west, and the heat equator leaping to the overheated deserts of the south-west, where the July mean is over 90. Conversely, the isotherms of January are convex southward, with a monthly mean below 32 in the northern third of the interior, and of zero on the mid-northern boundary. The seasonal bending of the isotherms is, however, unsymmetrical for several reasons. The continent being interrupted on its eastern side by the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay, with the Great Lakes between these two large water bodies, the northward bending of the July isotherms is most pronounced in the western part of the United States. Indeed the contrast between the moderate temperatures of the Pacific coast and the overheated areas of the next interior deserts is so great that the isotherms trend almost parallel to the coast, and are even " overturned " somewhat in southern California, where the most rapid increase of temperatures in July is found not by moving southward over the ocean toward the equator, but north-eastward over the land to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona. So strong is the displacement of the area of highest interior temperatures westward from the middle of the continent that the Gulf of California almost rivals the Red Sea as an ocean-arm under a desert-hot atmosphere. In the same midsummer month all the eastern half of the United States is included between the isotherms of 66 and 82; the contrast between Lake Superior and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 1200 m. to the south, is not so great as between the coast of southern California and the desert 150 m. inland to the north-east. In January the northern water areas of the continent are frozen and snow-covered; Hudson Bay becomes unduly cold, and the greatest southward bending of the isotherms is somewhat east of the continental axis, with an extension of its effects out upon the Atlantic; but the southward bending isotherms are somewhat looped back about the unfrozen waters of the lower Great Lakes. In the midwinter month it is the eastern half of the country that has strong temperature contrasts; the temperature gradients are twice as strong between New Orleans and Minneapolis as on the Pacific coast, and the contrast between Jacksonville, Fla., and Eastport, Me., is about the same as between San Diego, Cal., and the Aleutian Islands.
The strong changes of temperature with the seasons are indicated also by the distribution of summer maxima and winter minima; summer temperatures above 1 12 are known in the south-western deserts, and temperatures of 100 are sometimes carried far northward on the Great Plains by the " hot winds " nearly to the Canadian boundary ; while in winter, temperatures of -40 occur along the mid-northern boundary and freezing winds sometimes sweep down to the border of the Gulf of Mexico. The temperature anomalies are also instructive: they rival those of Asia in value, though not in area, being from 15 to 20 above the mean of their latitude in the northern interior in summer, and as much below in winter. The same is almost true of the mean annual range (mean of July to mean of January), the states of the northern prairies and plains having a mean annual range of 70 and an extreme range of 135. In this connexion the effect of the prevailing winds is very marked. The equalizing effects of a conservative ocean are brought upon the Pacific coast, where the climate is truly temperate, the mean annual range being only 10 or 12, thus resembling western Europe; while the exaggerating effects of the continental interior are carried eastward to the Atlantic coast, where the mean annual range is 40 or 50.
The prevailing winds respond to the stronger poleward temperature gradients of winter by rising to a higher velocity and a more frequent and severer cyclonic stormincss; and to the weaker gradients of summer by relaxing to a lower velocity with fewer and weaker cyclonic storms; but furthermore the northern zone occupied by the prevailing westerlies expands as the winds strengthen in winter, and shrinks as they weaken in summer; thus the stormy westerlies, which impinge upon the north-western coast and give it plentiful rainfall all through the year, in winter reach southern California and sweep across part of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida ; it is for this reason that southern California has a rainy winter season, and that the states bordering on the Gulf of Mexico are visited in winter by occasional intensified cold winds, inappropriate to their latitude. In summer the stormy westerly winds withdraw from these lower latitudes, which are then to be more associated with the trade winds. In California the effect of the strong equatorward turn of the summer winds is to produce a dry season ; but in the states along the Gulf of Mexico and especially in Florida the withdrawal of the stormy westerlies in favour of the steadier trade winds (here turned somewhat toward the continental interior, as explained below) results in an increase of precipitation. The general winds also are much affected by the changes of pressure due to the strong continental changes of temperature. The warmed air of summer produces an area of low pressure in the west-central United States, which interrupts the belt of high pressure that planetary conditions alone would form around the earth about latitude 30 ; hence there is a tendency of the summer winds to blow inward from the northern Pacific over the Cordilleras toward the continental centre, and from the trades of the torrid Atlantic up the Mississippi Valley; conversely in winter time, the cold air over the lands produces a large area of high pressure from which the winds tend to flow outward; thus repelling the westerly winds of the northern Pacific and greatly intensifying the outflow southward to the Gulf of Mexico and eastward to the Atlantic. As a result of these seasonal alternations of temperature and pressure there is something of a monsoon tendency developed in the winds of the Mississippi Valley, southerly inflowing winds prevailing in summer and northerly outflowing winds in winter; but the general tendency to inflow and outflow is greatly modified by the relief of the lands, to which we next turn.
The climatic effects of relief are seen directly in the ascent of the higher mountain ranges to altitudes where low temperatures prevail, thus preserving snow patches through the summer on the high summits (over 12,000 ft.) in the south, and maintaining snowfields and moderate-sized glaciers on the ranges in the north. With this goes a general increase of precipitation with altitude, so that a good rainfall map would have its darker shades very generally along the mountain ranges. Thus the heaviest measured rainfall east of the Mississippi is on the southern Appalachians; while in the west, where observations are as yet few at high level stations, the occurrence of forests and pastures on the higher slopes of mountains which rise from desert plains clearly testifies to the same rule. The mountains also introduce controls over the local winds; diurnal warming in summer suffices to cause local ascending breezes which frequently become cloudy by the expansion of ascent, even to the point of forming local thunder showers which drift away as they grow and soon dissolve after leaving the parent mountain. Conversely, nocturnal cooling produces well-defined descending breezes which issue from the valley mouths, sometimes attaining an unpleasant strength toward midnight.
The mountains are of larger importance in obstructing and deflecting the course of the general winds. The Pacific ranges, standing transverse to the course of the prevailing westerlies near the Pacific Ocean, are of the greatest importance in this respect; it is largely by reason of the barrier that they form that the tempering effects of the Pacific winds are felt for so short a distance inland in winter, and that the heat centre is displaced in summer so far towards the western coast. The rainfall from the stromy westerly winds is largely deposited on the western slopes of the mountains near the Pacific coast, and arid or desert interior plains are thus found close to the great ocean. The descending winds on the eastern slopes of the ranges are frequently warm and dry, to the point of resembling the Fphn winds of the Alps; such winds are known in the Cordilleran region as Chinook winds. The ranges of the Rocky Mountains in their turn receive some rainfall from the passing winds, but it is only after the westerlies are reinforced by a moist indraft from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic the result of summer or of cyclonic inflow that rainfall increases to a sufficient measure on the lower lands to support agriculture without irrigation. The region east of the Mississippi is singularly favoured in this way; for it receives a good amount of rainfall, well distributed through the year, and indeed is in this respect one of the largest regions in the temperate zones that are so well watered. The Great Plains are under correspondingly unfavourable conditions, for their scanty rainfall is of very variable amount. Along the transition belt between plains and prairies the climate is peculiarly trying as to rainfall ; one series of five or ten years may have sufficient rainfall to enable the farmers to gather good crops; but the next series following may be so dry that the crops fail year after year.
The cyclonic inflows and anticyclonic outflows, so characteristic of the belt of westerly winds the world over, are very irregular in the Cordilleran region ; but farther eastward they are typically developed by reason of the great extent of open country. Although of reduced strength in the summer, they still suffice to dominate weather changes; it is during the approach of a low pressure centre that hot southerly winds prevail; they sometimes reach so high a temperature as to wither and blight the grain crops; and it is almost exclusively in connexion with the cloudy areas near and south-east of these cyclonic centres that violent thunderstorms, with their occasional destructive whirling tornadoes, are formed. With the passing of the low pressure centre, the winds shift to west or northwest, the temperature falls, and all nature is relieved. In wintertime, the cyclonic and anticyclonic areas are of increased frequency and intensity; and it is partly for this reason that many meteorologists have been disposed to regard them as chiefly driven by the irregular flow of the westerly winds, rather than as due to convectional instability, which should have a maximum effect in summer. One of the best indications of actual winter weather, as apart from the arrival of winter by the calendar, is the development of cyclonic disturbances of such strength that the change from their warm, sirocco-like southerly inflow in front of their centre, to the " cold wave " of their rear produces non-periodic temperature changes strong enough to overcome the weakened diurnal temperature changes of the cold season, a relation which practically never occurs in summer time. A curious feature of the cyclonic storms is that, whether they cross the interior of the country near the northern or southern boundary or along an intermediate path, they converge towards New England as they pass on toward the Atlantic; and hence that the north-eastern part of the United States is subjected to especially numerous and strong weather changes. (W. M. D.)
IV. FAUNA AND FLORA Fauna. Differences of temperature have produced in North America seven transcontinental life-zones or areas characterized by relative uniformity of both fauna and flora ; they are the Arctic, Hudsonian and Canadian, which are divisions of the Boreal Region; the Transition, Upper Austral and Lower Austral, which are divisions of the Austral Region, and the Tropical. The Arctic, Hudsonian and Canadian enter the United States from the north and the Tropical from the south ; but the greater part of the United States is occupied by the Transition, Upper Austral and Lower Austral, and each of these is divided into eastern and western subzones by differences in the amount of moisture. The Arctic or ArcticAlpine zone covers in the United States only the tops of a few mountains which extend above the limit of trees, such as Mt Katahdin in Maine, Mt Washington and neighbouring peaks in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the loftier peaks of the Rocky, Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains. The larger animals are rare on these mountain-tops and the areas are too small for a distinct fauna. The Hudsonian zone covers the upper slopes of the higher mountains of New England, New York and North Carolina and larger areas on the elevated slopes of the Rocky and Cascade Mountains ; and on the western mountains it is the home of the mountain goat, mountain sheep, Alpine flying-squirrel, nutcracker, evening grosbeak and Townsend's solitaire. The Canadian zone crosses from Canada into northern and northwestern Maine, northern and central New Hampshire, northern Michigan, and north-eastern Minnesota and North Dakota, covers the Green Mountains, most of the Adirondacks and Catskills, the higher slopes of the mountains in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, the lower slopes of the northern Rocky and Cascade Mountains, the upper slopes of the southern Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and a strip along the Pacific coast as far south as Cape Mendocino, interrupted, however, by the Columbia Valley. Among its characteristic mammals and birds are the lynx, marten, porcupine, northern red squirrel, Belding's and Kennicott's ground squirrels, varying and snowshoe rabbits, northern jumping mouse, white-throated sparrow, Blackburnian warbler, Audubon warbler, olive-backed thrush, three-toed woodpecker, spruce grouse, and Canada jay; within this zone in the North-eastern states are a few moose and caribou, but farther north these animals are more characteristic of the Hudsonian zone. The Transition zone, in which the extreme southern limit of several boreal species overlaps the extreme northern limit of numerous austral species, is divided into an eastern humid or Alleghanian area, a western arid area, and a Pacific coast humid area. The Alleghanian area comprises most of the lowlands of New England. New York and Pennsylvania, the north-east corner of Ohio, most of the lower peninsula of Michigan, nearly all of Wisconsin, more than half of Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, north-eastern South Dakota, and the greater part of the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia. It has few distinctive species, but within its borders the southern mole and cotton-tail rabbit of the South meet the northern star-nosed and Brewer's moles and the varying hare of the North, and the southern bobwhite, Baltimore oriole, bluebird, catbird, chewink, thrasher and wood thrush are neighbours of the bobolink, solitary virep and the hermit and Wilson s thrushes. The Arid Transition life-zone comprises the western part of the Dakotas, north-eastern Montana, and irregular areas in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas, covering for the most part the eastern base of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains and the higher parts of the Great Basin and the plateaus. Its most characteristic animals and birds are the white-tailed jack-rabbit, pallid vole, sage hen, sharp-tailed grouse and greentailed townee; the large Columbia ground-squirrel (Spermophilus columbianus) is common in that part of the zone which is west of the Rocky Mountains, but east of the Rockies it is replaced by another species (Cynomys) which closely resembles a small prairie dog. The Pacific Coast Transition life-zone comprises the region between the Cascade and Coast ranges in Washington and Oregon, parts of northern California, , and most of the California coast region from Cape Mendocino to Santa Barbara. It is the home of the Columbia black-tail deer, western raccoon, Oregon spotted skunk, Douglas red squirrel, Townsend's chipmunk, tailless sewellel (Haplodon rufus), peculiar species of pocket gophers and voles, Pacific coast forms of the great-horned, spotted, screech and pigmy owls, sooty grouse, Oregon ruffed grouse, Steller's jay, chestnutbacked chickadee and Pacific winter wren. The Upper Austral zone is divided into an eastern humid (or Carolinian) area and a western arid (or Upper Sonoran) area. The Carolinian area extends from southern Michigan to northern Georgia and from the Atlantic coast to western Kansas, comprising Delaware, all of Maryland except the mountainous western portion, all of Ohio except the north-east corner, nearly the whole of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, eastern Nebraska and Kansas, south-eastern South Dakota, western central Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, middle and eastern Kentucky, middle Tennessee and the Tennessee valley in eastern Tennessee, middle Virginia and North Carolina, western West Virginia, north-eastern Alabama, northern Georgia, western South Carolina, the Connecticut Valley in Connecticut, the lower Hudson Valley and the Erie basin in New York, and narrow belts along the southern and western borders ot the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is the northernmost home of the opossum, grey fox, fox squirrel, cardinal bird, Carolina wren, tufted tit, gnat catcher, summer tanager and yellow-breasted chat. The Upper Sonoran life-zone comprises south-eastern Montana, central, eastern and north-eastern Wyoming, a portion of south-western South Dakota, western Nebraska and Kansas, the western extremity of Oklahoma, north-western Texas, eastern Colorado, south-eastern New Mexico, the Snake plains in Idaho, the Columbia plains in Washington, the Malheur and Harney plains in Oregon, the Great Salt Lake and Sevier deserts in Utah, and narrow belts in California, Nevada and Arizona. Among its characteristic mammals and birds are the sage cotton-tail, black-tailed jack-rabbit, Idaho rabbit, Oregon, Utah and Townsend's ground squirrels, sage chipmunk, fivetoed kangaroo rats, pocket mice, grasshopper mice, burrowing owl, Brewer's sparrow, Nevada sage sparrow, lazuli finch, sage thrasher, Nuttall's poor-will, Bullock's oriole and rough-winged swallow. The Lower Austral zone occupies the greater part of the Southern states, and is divided near the g8th meridian into an eastern humid or Austroriparian area and a western arid or Lower Sonoran area. The Austroriparian zone comprises nearly all the Gulf States as far west as the mouth of the Rio Grande, the greater part of Georgia, eastern South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, and extends up the lowlands of the Mississippi Valley across western Tennessee and Kentucky into southern Illinois and'Indiana and across eastern and southern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma into south-eastern Missouri and Kansas. It is the home of the southern fox-squirrel, cotton rat, ricefield rat, wood rat, free-tailed bat, mocking bird, painted bunting, prothonotary warbler, red-cockaded woodpecker, chuckwill's-widow, and the swallow-tailed and Mississippi kites. A southern portion of this zone, comprising a narrow strip along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida and up the Atlantic coast to South Carolina, is semi-tropical, and is the northernmost habitation of several small mammals, the alligator (A lligatormississippiensis), the ground dove, white-tailed kite, Florida screech owl and Chapman s night-hawk. The Lower Sonoran zone comprises the most arid parts of the United States : south-western Texas, south-western Arizona and a portion of northern Arizona, southern Nevada and a large part of southern California. Some of its characteristic mammals and birds are the long-eared desert fox, four-toed kangaroo rats, Sonoran pocket mice, big-eared and tiny white-haired bats, road runner, cactus wren, canyon wren, desert thrashers, hooded oriole, black-throated desert sparrow, Texas night-hawk and Gambel's quail. It is the northernmost home of the armadillo, ocelot, jaguar, red and grey cats, and the spiny pocket mouse, and in southern Texas especially it is visited by several species of tropical birds. There is some resemblance to the Tropical life-zone at the south-eastern extremity of Texas, but this zone in the United States is properly restricted to southern Florida and the lower valley of the Colorado along the border of California and Arizona, and the knowledge of the latter is very imperfect. The area in Florida is too small for characteristic tropical mammals, but it has the true crocodile (Crocodilus americanus) and is the home of a few tropical birds. Most of the larger American mammals are not restricted to any one faunal zone. The bison, although now nearly extinct, formerly roamed over nearly the entire region between the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains. The black bear and beaver were also widely distributed. The Virginia deer still ranges from Maine to the Gulf states and from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains. The grizzly bear, cougar, coyote, prairie dog and antelope are still found in several of the Western states, and the grey wolf is common in the West and in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Flora. The Alpine flora, which is found in the United Statesonly on the tops of those mountains which rise above the limit of trees, consists principally of a variety of plants which bloom as soon as the snow melts and for a short season make a brilliant display of colours. The flora of the Hudsonian and the Canadian zone consists largely of white and black spruce, tamarack, canoe-birch, balsam-poplar, balsam-fir, aspen and grey pine. In the Alleghanian Transition zone the chestnut, walnut, oaks and hickories of the South are interspersed among the beech, birch, hemlock and sugar maple of the North. In the Western Arid Transition zone the flora consists largely of the true sage brush (Artemisia tridentata), but some tracts are covered with forests of yellow or bull pine (Pinus ponderosa). The Pacific coast Transition zone is noted for its forests of giant conifers, principally Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, Pacific cedar and Western hemlock. Here, too, mosses and ferns grow in profusion, and the sadal (Gaultheria shallon), thimble berry (Rubus noolkamus), salmon berry (Rubus spectabilis) and devil's club (Fatsia horrida) are characteristic shrubs. In the Carolinian zone the tulip tree, sycamore, sweet gum, rose magnolia, short-leaf pine and sassafras find their northernmost limit Sage brush is common to both the western arid Transition zone anjl the Upper Sonoran zone, but in suitable soils of the latter several greasewoods (Artiplex confertifolia, A. canescens, A. nuttalli, Tetradymia canescens, Sarcobatus vermiculatus and Grayia spinosa) are characteristic species, and on the mountain slopes are some nut pines (pinon) and junipers. The Austroriparian zone has the long-leaf and loblolly pines, magnolia and live oak on the uplands, and the bald cypress, tupelo and cane in the swamps; and in the semi-tropical Gulf strip are the cabbage palmetto and Cuban pine; here, too, Sea Island cotton and tropical fruits are successfully cultivated. The Lower Sonoran zone is noted for its cactuses, of which there is a great variety, and some of them grow to the height of trees; the mesquite is also very large, and the creosote bush, acacias, yuccas and agaves re common. The Tropical belt of southern Florida has the royal palm, coco-nut palm, banana, Jamaica dogwood, manchineel and mangrove; the Tropical belt in the lower valley of the Colorado has giant cactuses, desert acacias, palo-verdes and the Washington or fan-leaf palm. Almost all of the United States east of the 98th meridian is naturally a forest region, and forests coyer the greater part of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, the Sierra Neyadas and the Coast Range, but throughout the belt of plains, basins and deserts west of the Rocky Mountains and on the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains there are few trees except along the watercourses, and the prevailing type of vegetation ranges from bunch grass to sage brush and cactuses according to the degree of aridity and the temperature. In the eastern forest region the number of species decreases somewhat from south to north, but the entire region differs from the densely forested region of the Pacific Coast Transition zone in that it is essentially a region of deciduous or hardwood forests, while the latter is essentially one of coniferous trees; it differs from the forested region of the Rocky Mountains in that the latter is not only essentially a region of coniferous trees, but one where the forests do not by any means occupy the whole area, neither do they approach in density or economic importance those of the eastern division of the country. Again, the forests of most of the eastern region embrace a variety of species, which, as a rule, are very much intermingled, and do not, unless quite exceptionally, occupy areas chiefly devoted to one species ; while, on the other hand, the forests of the west including both Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast divisions exhibit a small number of species, considering the vast area embraced in the region; and these species, in a number of instances, are extraordinarily limited in their range, although there are cases in which one or two species have almost exclusive possession of extensive areas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. C. H. Merriam, Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States, Bulletin No. 10 of the United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey (Washington, 1898); I. C. Russell, North America (New York, 1904); W. T. Hornaday, American Natural History (New York, 1904); W. Stone and W. E. Cram, American Animals (New York, 1902) ; E. Coues, Key to North American Birds (Boston, 1896); Florence M. Bailey, Handbook of Birds of the Western United States (Boston, 1902) ; E. D. Cope, " The Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes of North America," in the Report of the United States National Museum for the year 1898 ( Washington, 1900) ; L. Stejneger, " The Poisonous Snakes of North America," ibid., 1893 (Washington, 1895). (N. D. M.)
V. POPULATION AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Geographical Growth of the Nation. The achievement of independence found the people of the United States owning the entire country between the Gulf and the Great Lakes, excepting only Florida, as far to the west as the Mississippi; but the actual settlements were, with a few minor exceptions, confined to a strip of territory along the Atlantic shore. The depth of settlement, from the coast inland, varied greatly, ranging from what would be involved in the mere occupation of the shore for fishing purposes to a body of agricultural occupation extending back to the base of the great Atlantic chain, and averaged some 250 m. 1 Westward, beyond the general line of continuous settlement, 1 In the Statistical Atlas volume of the census of 1900 the reader will find for each decennial census since 1790 a map showing the distribution of population, with indication of the density of settlement, and an elaborate explanatory text. In Orin Grant Libby's Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788 (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1894), along with a valuable map interesting facts are given regarding the social and economic characteristics of different sections.
were four extensions of population through as many gaps in the Appalachian barrier, constituting the four main paths along which migration westward first took place: the Mohawk Valley in New York, the upper Potomac, the Appalachian Valley, and around the southern base of the Appalachian system. Four outlying groups beyond the mountains, with perhaps a twentieth part of the total population of the nation, one about Pittsburg, one in West Virginia, another in northern Kentucky, and the last in Tennessee: all determined in situation by river highways bore witness to the qualities of strength and courage of the American pioneer. Finally, there were in 1790 about a score of small trading or military posts, mainly of French origin, scattered over the then almost unbroken wilderness of the upper Mississippi Valley and region of the Great Lakes.
Twelve decennial censuses taken since that time (1800-1910) have revealed the extraordinary spread of population over the present area of the country (see CENSUS : United States). The large percentage of the population, particularly no years moved more than 500 m westward, almost exactly along the 39th parallel of latitude: 9-5 degrees of longitude, with an extreme variation of less than 19 minutes of latitude. Growth of the Nation in Population. If the 19th century was remarkable with respect to national and urban growth the world over, it was particularly so in the growth of the United States. Malthus expressed the opinion that only in such a land of unlimited means of living could population freely increase. The total population increased from 1800 to 1900 about fourteen fold (1331-6%). 1 The rate of growth indicated in 1900 was still double the average rate of western Europe. 2 In the whole world Argentina alone (1860-1895) showed equal (and greater) growth. At the opening of the century not only all the great European powers of to-day but also even Spain and Turkey exceeded the United States in numbers; at its close only Russia. At the census of 1910, while the continental United States population (excluding Alaska) was 01,972,266, the total, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but excluding the Philippine Islands, Guam, Samoa and the Canal Zone, was 93,402,151.
Continental United States, exclusive of Alaska.
Population enumerated.
Areas (excluding water), in, square miles.
Total population.
Total area.
Settled area.
Number of {___;__ Total area covered by census.
Density of population.
oreign immigrants Of entire census area Census Y_.__ Population within area Population within added u .t entering in preceding Area acquired in Area with not less than Estimated area of fe Q ears.
of 1700.
area.
Number.
decade.
Total.
preceding decade.
two persons per sq. m.
isolated settlements Total.
& M *fc S a* & beyond the 'general i m 3 frontier.
^ v yi O |X B < 1790 3,929,625 1zz ,929,214 1zz 19,466 1zz 39,935 13,850 417,170 16-4 1zz 800 5,247,355 61,128 5,308,483 35-1 1zz 19,466 1zz 05,708 33,800 434,670 17-4 12-6 1zz 2-2 1810 6,779,308 460,573 7,239,881 36-4 1zz ,698,107 878,641! 407,945 25,100 556,010 17-7 16-3 I3-0 1820 8,293,869 1,344,584 9-638,453 33-1 25o,ooot 1,752,347 54-24o|| 508,717 4,200 688,670 18-9 19-9 '3-9 1830 10,240,232 2,625,788 12,860,692* 33-5 143,439 1,752,347 1zz 32,717 4,700 877,170 20-3 24-5 '4-5 1840 11,781,231 5,288,222 17-063,353* 32-7 599-125 1,752,347 1zz 07,292 2,150 1,183,870 2I-I 28-2 1zz 4-4 1850 14,569,584 8,622,292 23,191,876 35-9 1,713,251 2,939,021 1,186,67411 979,249 38,375 1,519-170 23-7 34'9 '5-2 1860 17,326,157 14,117,164 31,443,321 35-6 2,598,214 2,970,038 31,017** 1,194,754 107,375 1,951,520 26-3 4i-5 1zz 6-1 1870 19,687,504 18,870,867 38,558,371 22-6 2,314,824 2,970,038 1zz ,272,239 131,910 2,126,290 30-3 47-2 '3'4 1880 23,925,639 26,263,570 50,155,783 30-1 2,812,191 2,970,038 1zz -569,565 260,025 2,727,454 32-0 57-4 10-6 18-4 1890 28,188,321 34,791,445 62,947,714 24-9 5,246,613 2,970,038 I,947,28o 1zz ,974,159 32-2 67-6 13-6 19-2 1900 33,533,630 42,749,757 75,994,575* 20-7 3,844,420 2,970,138 1zz ,925,590 1zz ,974,159 39-5 80-4 16-7 25-5 1910 1zz 1,972,266* 2I-O 7,753.8i6J 1zz ,974.159 1zz 0-9 Excludes persons of the military and naval service stationed abroad (5318 in 1830; 6100 in 1840; 91,219 in 1900). t Estimates of total up to 1820.
j Total, 27, 604, 509, exclusive of at least some hundreds of thousands of Canadians and Mexicans. Louisiana purchase from France.
|| Florida purchase from Spain; population counted first, 1830.
If Annexation of Texas (385,926 sq. m.); peace cession from Mexico (520,068 sq. m.); extinction of British claims to Oregon (280,680 sq. m.). : * Gadsden purchase from Mexico.
of the great urban centres, that is established to-day in the river lowlands, reflects the r&le that water highways have played in the peopling of the country. The dwindlings and growths of Nevada down to the present day, and to not a slight degree the general history of the settlement of the states of the Rocky Mountain region, are a commentary on the fate of mining industries. The initial settlement of the Pacific coast following the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and of the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains after the discovery of gold in 1859, illustrates the same factor. The Mormons settled Utah to insure social isolation, for the security of their theological system. A large part of the Great Plains to the east of the Rockies was taken up as farms in the decade 1880- 1890; abandoned afterwards, because of its aridity, to stock grazing; and reconverted from ranches into farms when a system of dry farming had proved its tillage practicable. The negro more or less consciously moves, individually, closer into the areas whose climate and crops most nearly meet his desires and capabilities as a farmer; and his race as a whole unconsciously is adjusting its habitat to the boundaries of the Austroriparian life zone. The country's centre of population in In 1790 there were about 600,000 white families in the United States. Speaking broadly, there were few very rich and few very poor. Food was abundant. Both social traditions and the religious beliefs of the people encouraged fecundity. The country enjoyed domestic tranquillity. All this time, too, the land was but partially settled. Mechanical labour was scarce, and even upon the farm it was difficult to command hired service, almost the only farm labourers down to 1850, in the north, being young men who went out to work for a few years to get a little money to marry upon. A change was probably inevitable and came, apparently, between 1840 and 1850.
The accessions in that decade from Ireland and Germany were enormous, the total immigration rising to 1,713,251 against 599,125 during the decade preceding, and against only 143,439 from 1820 io 1830. These people came in condition to breed with unprecedented rapidity, under the stimulus of an abundance, 1 Unless otherwise explicitly stated, by " United States " is to be understood continental United States exclusive of Alaska.
2 According to Lavasseur and Bodio, 14-5% from 1860 to 1880; 21-2% from 1880 to 1900; from 1886-1900, 11-0%.
in regard to food, shelter and clothing, such as the most fortunate of them had never known. Yet in spite of these accessions, the population of the country realized a slightly smaller proportion of gain than when the foreign arrivals were almost insignificant.
For a time the retardation of the normal rate of increase among the native population was concealed from view by the extraordinary immigration. In the decade 1850-1860 it was seen that almost a seventh of the population of the country consisted of persons bom abroad. From 1840 to 1860 there came more than four million immigrants, of whom probably three and a half million, with probably as many children born in America, were living at the latter date.
The ten years from 1860 to 1870 witnessed the operation of the first great factor which reduced the rate of national increase, namely the Civil War. The superintendent of the Ninth Census, 1870, presented a computation of the effects of this cause first, through direct losses, by wounds or disease, either in actual service of the army or navy, or in a brief term following discharge; secondly, through the retardation of the rate of increase in the coloured element, due to the privations, exposures and excesses attendant upon emancipation; thirdly, through the check given to immigration by the existence of war, the fear of conscription, and the apprehension abroad of results prejudicial to the national welfare. The aggregate effect of all these causes was estimated as a loss to the population of 1870 of 1,765,000. Finally, the temporary reduction of the birth-rate, consequent upon the withdrawal of perhaps one-fourth of the national militia (males of 18 to 44 years) during two-fifths of the decade, may be estimated at perhaps 750,000.
The Tenth Census put it beyond doubt that economic and social forces had been at work, reducing the rate of multiplication. Yet no war had intervened; the industries of the land had flourished; the advance in accumulated wealth had been beyond all precedent; and immigration had increased.
It is an interesting question what has been the contribution of the foreign elements of the country's population in the growth of the aggregate. This question is closely connected with a still more important one: namely, what effect, if any, has foreign immigration had upon the birth-rate of the native stock. In 1850 the foreignborn whites (2,244,602 in number) were about two-thirds of the coloured element and one-eighth of the native-white element; in 1870 the foreign-born whites (5,567,229) and the native whites of foreign parentage (5,324,786) each exceeded the coloured. In 1900 the two foreign elements constituted one-third of the total population. The absolute numbers of the four elements were: native whites of native parents, 40,949,362; natives of foreign parents, 15,646,017; foreign-born whites, 10,213,817; coloured, 8,833,994.
Separating from the total population of the country in 1900 the non-Caucasians (9,185,379), all white persons having both parents foreign (20,803,800), and one-half (2,541,365) of the number of persons having only one parent foreign, the remaining 43,555,250 " native " inhabitants comprised the descendants of the Americans of 1790, plus those of the few inhabitants of annexed territories, plus those in the third and higher generations of the foreigners who entered the country after 1790 (or for practical purposes, after 1800). The second element may be disregarded. For the exact determination of the last element the census affords no precise data, but affords material for various approximations, based either upon the elimination of the probable progeny of immigrants since 1790; ~on the known increase of the whites of the South, where the foreign element has always been relatively insignificant; on the percentage of natives having native grandfathers in Massachusetts in 1905; or upon the assumed continuance through the 19th century of the rate of native growth (one-third decennially) known to have prevailed down at least to 1820. The last is the roughest approximation and would indicate a native mass of 50,000,000 in 1900, or a foreign contribution of approximately half. The results of computations by the first two methods yield estimates of the contribution of foreign stock to the " native " element of 1900 varying among themselves by only 1-8%. The average by the three methods gives 8,539,626 as such contribution, making 31,884,791 the total number of whites of foreign origin in 1900; and this leaves 35,015,624 as the progeny of the original stock of I79O. 1 Adding to the true native whites of 1900 (35,ois,624_) the native negroes (8,813,658), the increase of the native stock, white and black, since 1790 would thus be about 1091 %, and of the whites of 1790 (3,172,006) alone about 1104%. It is evident that had the fecundity of the American stock of 1790 been 1 W. S. Rossiter, A Century of Population Growth (Bureau of the Census, Washington, 1909), pp. 85 seq.
equal only to that of Belgium (the most fertile population of western Europe in the 19th century) then the additions of foreign elements to the American people would have been by 1900 in heavy preponderance over the original, mainly British, elements. A study of the family names appearing on the census rolls of two prosperous and typical American counties, one distinctively urban and the other rural, in 1790 and 1900, has confirmed the popular impression that the British element is growing little, and that the fastest reproducers to-day are the foreign elements that have become large in the immigration current in very recent decades. In applying to the total population of 1790 the rate of growth shown since 1790 by the white people of the South, this rate, for the purpose of the above computations, is taken in its entirety only up to 1870, and thereafter in view of the notorious lesser birth-rate since that year in the North and West only one half of the rate is used. If, however, application be made of the rate in its entirety from 1790 to 1900, the result would be a theoretical pure native stock in 1900 equal to the then actually existing native and foreign stock combined.
In 1900 more than half of every 100 whites in New England and the Middle states (from New York to Maryland) were of foreign parentage (i.e. had one or both parents foreign), and in both sections the proportion is increasing with great rapidity. The Southern states, on the other hand, have shown a diminishing relative foreign element since 1870, and had in 1900 only 79 of foreign parentage in 1000 whites. Relatively to their share of the country's aggregate population the North Atlantic states, and those upon the Great Lakes the manufacturing and urbanized states of the Union hold much the heaviest share of immigrant population.
The shares of different nationalities in the aggregate mass of foreigners have varied greatly. The family names on the registers of the first census show that more than 90% of the white population was then of British stock, and more than 80 was English. The Germans were already near 6%. The entry of the Irish began on a great scale after 1840, and in 1850 they formed nearly half of all the foreign-born. In that year 85-6% of this total was made up by natives of Great Britain and Germany. The latter took first place in 1880. In 1900 these two countries represented of the total only 52-7%; add the Dutch, the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Swiss to the latter and the share was 65-1%. A great majority of all of these elements except the British are settled in the states added to the original Union the Scandinavians being the most typically agricultural element; while almost all the other nationalities are in excess, most of them heavily so, in the original states of 1790, where they land, and where they are absorbed into the lower grades of the industrial organization. Since 1880 Italians, Russians, Poles, Austrians, Bohemians and Hungarians have enormously increased in the immigrant population. Germans, Irish, British, Canadians, Scandinavians, Slavs and Italians were the leading elements in 1900.
In 1790 the negroes were I9'3% of the country's inhabitants; in 1900 only ii'6%. While the growth of the country's aggregate population from 1790 to 1900 was 1833-9%, that of the whites was 2005-9%, an d of the negroes only 1066-7%.
Certain generalizations respecting the " South " and the " North," the " East " and the " West " are essential to an understanding of parts of the history of the past, and of social conditions in the present. For the basis of such comparisons the country is divided by the census into five groups of states: (i) the North Atlantic division down to New Jersey and Pennsylvania; (2) the South Atlantic division from Delaware to Florida (including West Virginia) ; (3) the North Central division including the states within a triangle tipped by Ohio, Kansas and North Dakota; (4) the South Central division covering a triangle tipped by Kentucky, Alabama and Texas; and (5) the Western division including the Rocky Mountains and Pacific states. The first and third lead to-day in manufacturing interests; the third in agricultural; the fifth in mining.
Groups I and 3 (with the western boundary somewhat indefinite) are colloquially known as the " North " and 2 and 4 as the " South." The two sections started out with population growths in the decade 1790-1800 very nearly equal (36-5 and 33-7%); but in every succeeding decade before the Civil War the growth of the North was greater, and that of the South less, than its increment in the initial decade. In the two twenty-year periods after 1860 the increases 01 the North were 61-9 and 48-7%; of the South, 48-4 and 48-5%. In 1790 the two sections were of almost equal population; in 1890, 1900 and 1910 the population of the North was practically double that of the South. In the decade 1890-1900 the increase of the South exceeded slightly that Of the North for the same period owing to the rapid development in recent years of the Southern states west of the Mississippi, which only the Western group has exceeded since i87O. 2 In general the increase of the two sections 2 The number of inhabitants of the North at each census for every 1000 in the South was as follows from 1790 to 1900: 1004; 1025; 1092; 1181; 1253; 1455; 1562; 1769; 2057; 1930; 2005; 1932.
since 1880 has been nearly equal. But while this growth was relatively uniform over the South, in the North there was a low (often a decreasing) rate of rural and a high rate of urban growth. Throughout the 19th century the rates of growth of the North Central division and that of the eastern half of the South Central division steadily decreased. It is notable that that of the South Atlantic group has grown faster since 1860 than ever before, despite the Civil War and the conditions of an old settled region : a fact possibly due to the effects of the emancipation of the slaves.
Comparing now the population of the regions east and west of the Mississippi, we find that the population of the first had grown from 3,929,214 in 1790 to 55,023,513 in 1900; and that of the second from 97,401 in iSiO'to 20,971,062 in 1900. From 1860 to 1890 the one increased its numbers decennially by one half, and the other by under one fifth; but from 1890 to 1910 the difference in growth was slight, owing to a tremendous falling off in the rate of growth of much of the Western and the western states of the North Central divisions. Only an eighth of the country's total population lived in 1900 west of the o6th meridian, which divides the country into two nearly equal parts. Although, as already stated, the population of the original area of 1790 was passed in 1880 by that of the added area, the natives of the former were still in excess in 1900.
Urban and Rural Population. The five cities of the country that had 8000 or more inhabitants in 1790 had multiplied to 548 in IQOO. Only one of the original six (Charleston) was in the true South, which was distinctly rural. The three leading colonial cities, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, grew six-fold in the 18th century, and fiftyfold in the next. The proportion of the population living in cities seems to have been practically constant throughout the 18th century and up to 1820. The great growth of urban centres has been a result of industrial expansion since that time. This growth has been irregular, but was at a maximum about the middle of the century. On an average throughout the no years, the population in cities of 8000 considerably more than doubled every twenty years. 1 The rate of rural growth, on the other hand, fell very slowly down to 1860,* and since then (disregarding the figures of the inaccurate census of 1870) has been steady at about half the former rate. In Rhode Island, in 1900, eight out of every ten persons lived in cities of 8000 or more inhabitants ; in Massachusetts, seven in ten. In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut the city element also exceeded half of the population. At the other extreme, Mississippi had only 3% of urban citizens. If the limit be drawn at a population of 2500 (a truer division) the urban element of Rhode Island becomes 95-0%; of Massachusetts, 91-5; of Mississippi, 7-7. All the Southern states are still relatively rural, as well to-day as a hundred years ago. Ten states of the Union had a density in 1910 exceeding 100 persons to the square mile: Illinois (100-7), Delaware (103), Ohio (117), Maryland (130-3), Pennsylvania (171-3), New York (191-2), Connecticut (231-3), New Jersey (337-3), Massachusetts (418-8) and Rhode Island (508-5).
There are abundant statistical indications that the line (be the influence that draws it economic or social) between urban centres of only 2500 inhabitants and rural districts is much sharper to-day than was that between the country and cities of 8000 inhabitants (the largest had five times that number) in 1790. The lower limit is therefore a truer division line to-day. Classifying, then, as urban centres all of above 2500 inhabitants, three-tenths of the total population lived in the latter centres in 1 880 and four-tenths (30,583,41 : ) in 1900 ; their population doubled in these twenty years. If one regards the larger units, they held naturally a little more of the total population of the country just a third (33-1%; ten times their proportion of the country's total in 1790) ; and they grew a little faster. The same years, however, made apparent a rapid fall, general and marked, yet possibly only temporary, in the rate at which such urban centres, as well as larger ones, had been gaining upon the rural districts; this reaction being most pronounced in the South and least so in the North Atlantic states, whose manufacturing industries are concentrated in dense centres of population.
Interstate migration is an interesting element in American national life. A fifth of the total population of 1900 were living in other states than those of birth; and this does not take account of temporary nor of multiple migration. Every state numbers among its residents natives of nearly every other state. This movement is complicated by that of foreign immigration. In 1900 the percentage of resident natives varied from 92-7% in South Carolina to 15% in Oklahoma; almost all of the Southern states having high percentages.
Sexes. The percentages of males and females, of all ages, in the aggregate population of 1900, were 51-0 and 49-0 respectively. The corresponding figures for the main elements of the population were as follows: for native whites, 50-7 and 49-3; foreign whites, 54-0 and 46-0; negroes, 49-6 and 50-4. The absolute excess of males in the aggregate population has been progressively greater at every successive census since 1820, save that of 1870 which followed the Civil War, and closed a decade of lessened immigration. The relative excess of males in each unit of population has not constantly progressed, but has been continuous. In densely settled regions Average Annual Deathrate per 100,000 Population for the Cities of the Consumption.
Pneumonia.
Typhoid Fever.
Diphtheria and Croup.
Sections Indicated.
New England .
22O Middle states .
268 IOI Lake states 1zz 59 Southern states .
189 West North Central 1zz 1 1 Average 62-2 % decennially. 2 Average 31 -9 % decennially.
emales generally predominate; and males in thinly settled regions. In every 1000 urban inhabitants there were, in 1900, 23 (in 1890 only 19) more females than in 1000 rural inhabitants. In the rural districts, so far as there is any excess of females, it is almost solely in the Southern cotton belt, where negro women are largely employed as farm hands.
Vital Statistics, 1900. The median age of the aggregate population of 1900 that is, the age that divides the population into halves was 22-85 years. In 1800 it was 15-97 years. A falling birth-rate, a falling death-rate, and the increase in the number of adult immigrants, are presumably the chief causes of this difference. The median age of the foreign-born in 1900 was 38-42 years. The median age of the population of cities of 25,000 or more inhabitants was 3-55 years greater than that of the inhabitants of smaller urban centres and rural districts, owing probably in the main to the movement of middle-aged native and foreign adults to urban centres, and the higher birth-rate of the rural districts. The median age of the aggregate population is highest in New England and the Pacific states, lowest in the South, and in the North Central about equal to the country's average. The average age of the country's population in 1900 was 26-2 years. The United States had a larger proportion (59-1%) within the "productive" age limits of 15 and 60 years than most European countries; this being due to the immigration of foreign adults (corresponding figure 80-3%), the productive group among the native whites (55-8%) being smaller than in every country of Europe. The same is true, however, of the population over 60 years of age.
The death-rate of the United States, though incapable of exact determination, was probably between 16 and 17 per 1000 in 1900; and therefore less than in most foreign countries, neatb-nte The following statement of the leading causes of death during the eleven years 1890-1900 in 83 cities of above 25,000 population, is given by Dr J. S. Billings:
Among the statistics of conjugal condition the most striking facts are that among the foreign-born the married are more than twice as numerous as the single, owing to the predominance of adults among the immigrants; and the native whites of foreign parents marry late and in much smaller proportion u arr ] a . le than do the native whites of native parentage the explanation of which is probably to be found in the reaction of the first American generation caused on one hand by the high American standard of living, and on the other by the relative economic independence of women. In 1900 1-0% of the males and 10-9% of the females from 15 to 19 years of age were married; from 20 to 24 years, 21-6% and 46-5% respectively. Of females above 15 years of age 31-2% were single, 56-9 married, 1 1-2 widowed, 0-5 divorced; many of the last class undoubtedly reporting themselves as of the others. The corresponding figures for males were : 40-2, 54-5, 4-6 and 0-3 %. In 1850 there were 5-6 persons (excluding the slave population) in an average American family; fifty years later there were only 4-7 a decline, which was constant, of 16-1 %. In 1790, 5 persons was also the normal family i.e. the greatest proportion (14%) of the total were of this size; but in Famllies . 1900 the model family was that of 3 persons by a more decisive proportion (18%). The minimum state average of 1790, which was 5-4 in Georgia, was greater than the maximum of 1900. Within the area of 1790 there were twice as many families in 1900 as in 1790 consisting of 2 persons, and barely half as many consisting of 7 and upward ; New England having shown the greatest and the South the least decrease. In 1790 about a third and in 1900 more than one half of all families had less than 5 members.
The data gathered by the Federal census have never made possible a satisfactory and trustworthy calculation of the birthrate, and state and local agencies possess no such data Blrth . ratef for any considerable area. But the evidence is on the whole cumulative and convincing that there was a remarkable falling off in the birth-rate during the 19th century. And it may be noted, because of its bearing upon the theory of General Francis A Walker, that the Old South of 179. practically unaided _by immigration, maintained a rate of increase at least approximating that attained by other sections of the country by native and foreign stock combined. Not a state of the Union as it existed in i8so showed an increase, during the half-century following, in the ratio of white children under 16 to 1000 white females over 16 years- the ratio declined for the whole country from 1600 to 1 1 oo -and it has fallen for the census area of 1790 from 1900 in that year to 1400 in 1850 and 1000 in 1900. On the other hand, elaborate colonial censuses for New York in 1/03 and 1812 show Sections of the Country. 1 Whites under 16 Years per 1000 of Total Population.
1790.
1820.
1850.
1880.
1900.
Area of 1790 New England Middle states Old South Added area 490 470 494 502 483 443 485 508 526 414 358 405 464 463 373 39 358 431 406 344 291 326 402 368 ratios of 1900 and 2000, and reinforce the suggestions of various other facts that the social, as well as the economic, conditions in colonial times were practically constant.
The decline in the proportion of children since 1860 has been decidedly less in the South (Southern Atlantic and South Central states as denned below) than in the North and West, but in the most recent decades the last section has apparently fast followed New England in having a progressively lesser proportion of children. In the North there was little difference in 1900 in the ratios shown by city and country districts, but in the South the ratio in the latter was almost twice that reported for the former.
The decades 1840-1850, 1880-1890 and 1860-1870 have shown much the greatest decreases in the percentage of children ; and some have attributed this to the alleged heavier immigration of foreigners (largely adults) in the case of the two former decades, and; the effects of the Civil War in the third. So also the three decades immediately succeeding the above showed minimum decreases; and this has been attributed to a supposed greater birth-rate among the immigrants.
These uncertainties raise a greater one of much significance, viz. what has been the cause of the reduction in the national birth-rate indicated by the census figures? The question has been very differently judged. In the opinion of General Francis A. Walker, superintendent of the censuses of 1870 and 1880, the remarkable fact that such reduction coincided with a cause that was regarded as certain to quicken the increase of population, viz. the introduction of a vast body of fresh peasant blood from Europe, afforded proof that in this matter of population morals are far more potent than physical causes. The change, wrote General Walker, which produced this falling off from the traditional rate of increase of about 3 % per annum, was that from the simplicity of the early times to comparative luxury; involving a rise in the standard of living, the multiplication of artificial necessities, the extension of a paid domestic service, the introduction of women into factory labour. 2 In his opinion the decline in the birth-rate coincidently with the increase of immigration, and chiefly in those regions where immigration was greatest, was no mere coincidence ; nor was such immigrant invasion due to a weakening native increase, or economic defence; but the decline of the natives was the effect of the increase of the foreigners, which was " a shock to the principle of population among the native element." Immigration therefore, according to this theory, had " amounted not to a reinforcement of our population, but to a replacement of native by foreign stock. That if the foreigners had not come, the native element would long have filled the places the foreigners usurped, I entertain " says General Walker " not a doubt."
It is evident that the characteristics of the " factory age " to which reference is made above would have acted upon native British as upon any other stock; and that it has universally so acted there is abundant statistical evidence, in Europe and even in a land of such youth and ample opportunities as Australia. The assumption explicitly made by General Walker that among the immigrants no influence was yet excited in restriction of population, is also not only gratuitous, but inherently weak; the European peasant who landed (where the great majority have stayed) in the eastern industrial states was thrown suddenly under the influence of the forces just referred to; forces possibly of stronger influence upon him than upon native classes, which are in general economically and socially more stable. On the whole, the better opinion is probably that of a later authority on the vital statistics of the country, Dr John Shaw Billings, 3 that though the characteristics of modern life doubtless influence the birth-rate somewhat, by raising' the average age of marriage, lessening unions, and increasing divorce and prostitution, their great influence is through the transmutation into necessities of the luxuries of simpler times; not automatically, but in the direction of an increased resort to means for the prevention of child-bearing.
Education. In the article EDUCATION (United Stales), and in the articles on the several states, details are given generally of the conditions of American education. Here the statistics of literacy need only be considered.
In 1900 illiterates (that is, persons unable to write, the 1 Table from Rossiter, op. cit., p. 103.
* See his Discussions in Economics and Statistics, ii. 422, " Immigration and Degradation."
See the Forum (June, 1893), xv. 467.
majority of these being also unable to read) constituted nearly one-ninth (10-7%) of the population of at least ten years of age; but the greatest part of this illiteracy is due to the negroes and the foreign immigrants. Since 1880 the proportion of illiteracy has steadily declined for all classes, save the foreignborn between 1880 and 1890, owing to the beginning in these years, on a large scale, of immigration from southern Europe. Illiteracy is less among young persons of all classes than in the older age-groups, in which the foreign-born largely fall. This is due to the extension of primary education during the last half of the 19th century. The older negroes (who were slaves) naturally, when compared with the younger, afford the most striking illustration of this truth. On the other hand, a notable exception is afforded by the native whites of native parents, particularly in the South, where child illiteracy (and child labour) is highest; the declining proportion of illiterates shown by the age-groups of this class up to 24 years is apparently due to a will to learn late in life.
The classification of the illiterate population (above 10 years of age) by races shows that the Indians (56-2%), negroes (44-5%), Chinese (29-0%), Japanese (18-3%), foreign white (13-0%), native white of native parentage (5-7%), and native whites of foreign parents (1-6%), are progressively more literate. The advantage of the last as compared with native whites of native parentage is apparently owing to the lesser concentration of these in cities. The percentages of illiterate children for different classes in 1900 were as follows: negroes, 30-1; foreign whites, 5-6; native whites of foreign parentage, 0-9; native whites of native parentage, 4-4. There is a greater difference in the North than in the South between the child illiteracy of the Caucasian and non-Caucasian elements; also a ranking of the different sections of the country according to the child illiteracy of one and the other race shows that the negroes of the South stand relatively as high as do its whites. All differences are lessened if the comparison be limited to children, and still further lessened if also limited to cities. Thus, the illiteracy of non-Caucasians was 44^5 %, of their children 30-1%, and of such in cities of 25,000 inhabitants, 7-7%.
In the total population of 10 years of age and over the female sex is more illiterate than the male, but within the age-group I o to 24 years the reverse is true. In 1890 females preponderated among illiterates only in the age-group 10 to 19 years. The excess of female illiteracy in the total population also decreased within the same period, from 20-3 to 10-8 illiterates in a thousand. The tendency is therefore clearly toward an ultimate higher literacy for females; a natural result where the two sexes enjoy equal facilities of schooling, and the females greater leisure. Among the whites attending school there was still in 1900 a slight excess of males; among the negro pupils females were very decidedly in excess. In all races there has been since 1890, throughout the country, a large increase in the proportion of girls among the pupils of each age-group; and this is particularly true of the group of 15 years and upward that is of the grammar school and high school age, in which girls were in 1900 decidedly preponderant. A similar tendency is marked in college education.
Religious Bodies. According to the national census of religious bodies taken in 1906 there were then in the country 186 denominations represented by 212,230 organizations, 92-2% of which represented 164 bodies which in history and general character are identified more or less closely with the Protestant Reformation or its subsequent development. The Roman Catholic Church contributed 5-9% of the organizations. Among other denominations the Jewish congregations and the Latter Day Saints were the largest. The immigrant movement brings with it many new sects, as, for example, the Eastern Orthodox churches (Russian, Servian, Syrian and Greek), which had practically no existence in 1890, the year of the last preceding census of religious bodies. But the growth of independent churches is most remarkable, having been sixfold since 1890.
The statistics of communicants or members are defective, and because of the different organization in this respect of different bodies, notably of the Protestants and Roman Catholics, comparisons are more or less misleading. Disregarding, however, such incomparability, but excluding 15% of all Roman Catholics (for children under 9 years of age), the total number of church members was 32,936,445, of whom 61-6% were Protestants, 36-7% Roman Catholics and 1-7% members of other churches. The corresponding figures in 1890 were 68-0, 30-3 and 1-7%. For the reasons just given these figures do not accurately indicate the religious affiliations of the population of the United States. In this particular they very largely understate the number of Hebrews, whose communicants (0-3%) are heads of families only, and largely of the Protestants; whereas they represent practically the total Roman Catholic population above 9 years of age. In comparing the figures of 1890 with those of 1906 these cautions are not of force, since both census counts were taken by the same methods. The membership of the Protestant bodies increased in the interval 44-8%, while that of the Roman Catholic Church increased 93-5%. The immigration from Catholic countries could easily account for (though this does not prove that in fact it is the only cause of) this great increase of the Roman Catholic body.
Among the Protestants, the Methodists with 17-5% of the total membership, the Baptists with 17-2, the Lutherans with 6-4, the Presbyterians with 5-6 and the Disciples and Christians with 3-5 each of these bodies comprising more than a million members together include one-half of the total church membership of the country, and four-fifths (81-3 %) of all Protestant members.
The Baptists and Methodists are much stronger in the South, relatively to other bodies, than elsewhere; the former constituting in the South Atlantic states 43-9% of all church members, and in the South Central states 39-5%. Adding in the Methodists these proportions become 76-3 and 65-3 %. The Lutherans are relatively strongest in the North Central division of the country (13-2 %) ; the Presbyterians in the North Atlantic and Western divisions (6-0%); and the Disciples in the South Central division (6-1%). The Roman Catholics are strongest in the Western division and the North Atlantic division, with 49-2 % in the former and 56-6 % in the latter of all church members ; their share in the North Central division is 36-9 %. Thus the numerical superiority of the Baptists and Methodists in the two Southern divisions is complementary to that of the Roman Catholics in the other three divisions of the country. New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the eastern part of the country, Louisiana in the south, and New Mexico, Arizona, California and Montana in the western part are distinctively Roman Catholic states, with not less than 63% of these in the total church body. Racial elements are for the most part the explanation. So also the immigration of French Canadians and of Irish explains the fact that in every state of one-time Puritan New England the Roman Catholics were a majority over Protestants and all other churches. This was true in 1890 of 12 states, while in one other the Roman Catholics held a plurality; in 1906 the corresponding figures were 16 and 20. The Protestant bodies are more widely and evenly distributed throughout the country than are the Roman Catholics.
The total value of church property (almost in its entirety exempt from taxation) reported in 1906 was $1,257,575,867, of which $935,942,578 was reported for Protestant bodies, $292,638,786 for Roman Catholic bodies, and $28,994,502 for all other bodies.
Occupations. 29,073,233 persons 10 years or more of agenearly two-fifths (38-3%) of the country's total population were engaged in gainful occupations in 1900. Occupations were reported first for free males in 1850, and since 1860 women workers have been separately reported. Five main occupation groups are covered by the census: (i) agriculture, (2) professional service, (3) domestic and personal service, (4) trade and transportation, (5) manufacture and mechanical pursuits. The percentage of all wage-earners engaged in these groups in 1900 was 35-7, 4-3, 19-2, 16-4, and 24-4 respectively. Outside of these are the groups of mining and fishing.
Although manufactures have increased tremendously of recent years their products representing in 1905 a gross total of $14,802,147,087 as compared with $6,309,000,000 for those of farms (according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture) agriculture is still the predominant industry of the United States, employing nearly half of the workers, and probably giving subsistence to considerably more than half of the people of the country.
Turning to the factor of sex, it may be stated that the total number of the gainfully employed in 1900 above given included 80-0 % of all the men and boys, and 18-8% of all the women and girls in the country. The corresponding figures in 1880 were 78-7 and 14-7%. The proportion of women workers is greatest in the North Atlantic group of states (22-1 %) where they are engaged in manufacturing, and in the South (23-8) where negro women are engaged in agricultural operations. The percentage of such wage-earners is therefore increasing much more rapidly in the former region. But in all other parts of the country the increase is faster than in the South ; since aside from agriculture, which has long been in a relatively stable condition, there is not by any means so strong a movement of women into professional services in city districts. The increase is universal. There \3 not a state that does not show it. The greatest increase for any section between 1880 and 1900 was that of the North Central division from 8-8 to 14-3 %. Here too both factors farm-life, as in North Dakota, and manufacturing, as in Illinois showed their plain influence.
Of all agricultural labourers 9-4% were females in 1900 (7-7 in 1880); but in the South the proportion was much greater 16-5 in the South Atlantic and 14-9 in the South Central division. In professional service 34-2 % (in 1880, 29-4) were females, the two northern sections showing the highest proportions. In the occupations of musicians and teachers of music, and of school-teachers and professors (which together account for seven-eighths of professional women) women preponderate. The same sex constituted only 37'5 % (34-6 %jn 1880) of the wage-earners of the third group ; the South also showing here, as is natural in view of its coloured class, much the highest and the Western division of states much the lowest percentage. Women are in excess in the occupations of boarding and lodging house keepers, housekeepers, launderers, nurses and midwives, and servants and waiters. These account for almost all women in this group; servants and waitresses make up two-thirds of the total. Finally, in the fourth and fifth groups the percentage of women was 10-6 (3-4 in 1880) and 18-5 (16-7 in 1880). In manufactures the South Atlantic states show a higher percentage than the North Central, owing to the element of child - labour already indicated. In the third group women greatly preponderate in the occupation of stenographers and type- writers ; and in those of book-keepers and accountants, clerks and copyists, packers and shippers, saleswomen (which is the largest class), and telegraph and telephone operators they have a large representation (13 to 34 %). A great variation exists in the proportion of the sexes employed in different manufacturing industries. Of dress-makers, milliners, seamstresses (which together make up near half of the total in this occupation group) more than 96 % are women. Of the makers of paper boxes, of shirts, collars and cuffs, of hosiery and knitting mill operatives, of glove-makers, silk mill operatives and book-binders they are more than half ; so also of other textile workers, excluding wool and cotton mill operatives (these last the second largest group of women workers in manufactures), in which occupations males are in a slight excess. The distribution of women wageearners in 1900 among the great occupation groups was as follows: in agriculture, 18-4 %; professional service, 8-1 %; domestic and personal service, 39-4 %; trade and transportation, 9-4 %; manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 24-7 %.
The proportion which children 10 to 15 years of age engaged in gainful occupations bore to the whole number of such children was in 1880 24-4 % for males, and 9-0 % for females. Twenty years later the corresponding figures were 26-1 and 10-2 %. In the North Atlantic and North Central states, notwithstanding their manufacturing industries, the proportions were much lower (17-1 and 17-0 in 1900), and they increased very little in the period mentioned. In the Western group the increase was even less, and the total (10-9 % in 1900) also. But in the South Atlantic and the South Central states where agriculture, mining and manufacturing have in recent decades become important although the increase was very slight, the proportions were far above those of the other sections, both in 1880 and in 1900. In the former year the ratios were 40-2 and 41 '5, in the latter 41-6 and 42-7 %. In Alabama (70-8 % in 1880), North and South Carolina, and Arkansas the ratio exceeded 50 % in 1900.
National Wealth. Mulhall has estimated the aggregate wealth of the United States in 1790 at $620,000,000, assigning of this value $479,000,000 to lands and $141,000,000 to buildings and improvements. It is probable that this estimate is generous according to the values of that time. But even supposing $1,000,000,000 to be a juster estimate according to present-day values, it is probable that the increase of this since 1790 has been more than a hundredfold and since 1850 (since when such data have been gathered by the census) about fifteenfold. The value of farm property increased from $3,967,343,580 in 1850 to $20,439,901,164 in 1900. The gross value of manufactures rose in the same interval from $1,019,106,616 to $13,010,036,514; of farm products, from $2,212,540,927 in 1880 to $6,309,000,000 in 1900. The census estimate of the true value of " property " constituting the national wealth was limited in an enumeration of 1850 to taxable realty and privately held personalty ; in 1900 it covered also exempt realty, government land, and corporation and public personalty. The estimate of the national wealth of 1850 was $7,135,780,228; in 1904 (made by the census office), $107,104,192,410. It may be added that the net ordinary revenue of the government was in 1850 $43,592,889, and in 1909 $662,324,445; that the value of imports rose from $7-48 per capita in 1850 to $14-47 in 1909; and of exports from $6-23 to $18-50. The public debt on the 1st of November 1909, less certificates and notes offset by cash in the Treasury, was $1,295,147,432.04.
(.r . o. i .)
VI. INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE Manufactures. In the colonial period there were beginnings in some lines of manufacturing, but the policy of the British government was generally hostile and the increase was insignificant. In the first decades after the establishment of independence the resources and energies of the nation were absorbed in the task of occupying the vacant spaces of a continent, and subduing it to agriculture; and so long as land was so abundant that the spreading population easily sustained itself upon the fruits of the soil, and satisfied the tastes of a simple society with the products of neighbourhood handicrafts, there was no incentive to any real development of a factory economy. This has been, for the most part, a development since the Civil War.
No attempt was made in the census enumerations of 1790 and 1800 to obtain statistics of manufactures. In 1810 Congress provided for such a report, but the results were so imperfect that there was never published any summary for the country, nor for any state. Nor were the data secured in 1820 and 1840 of much value. Since 1850, however, provision has been made on an ample scale for their collection, although the constant modifications of the schedules under which the statistics were arranged makes very difficult comparisons of the latest with the earlier censuses.
From 1850 to 1900 fairly full industrial statistics were gathered as a part of each decennial census. In 1905 was taken the first of a new series of special decennial censuses of manufactures, in which only true factories that is, establishments producing standardized products intended for the general market were included, and mere " neighbourhood " (local) establishments of the hand trades were excluded. Without corrections, therefore, the figures of earlier censuses are not comparable with those of the census of 1905. Thus of 512,254 establishments included in the reports of 1900, six-tenths, employing 1 1 -2 % of the total number of wage-earners and producing I2- 3% of the total value of all manufactures, must be omitted as " neighbourhood " establishments in order to make the following comparison of the results of the two enumerations of 1900 and 1905. The magnitude in 1905 of each of the leading items, and its increase since 1900, then appear as follows: number of factories, 216,262, increase 4-2%; capital invested, $12,686,265,673, increase 41-3%; salaries, 574,761,231, increase 50-9%; total wages, $2,009,735,799, increase 29-9%; miscellaneous expenses, $1,455,019,473, increase 60-7%; cost of materials, $8,503,949,756, increase 29-3%; value of products, including custom work and repairing (in such factories), $14,802,147,087, being an increase of 29-7%. Of the last item $3,269,757,067 represented the value of the products of rural factories (that is, those in cities of under 8000 inhabitants). The increase of the different items during the five years was greater in every case in the rural than in the urban factories. There was a very slight decline in the number of child labourers both in city and country, their total number in 1905 being 159,899 and in 1900 161,276. The total wages paid to children under 16 years, however, which was in 1905 $27,988,207, increased both in the city and, especially, in the country, and was 13-9% greater in 1905 than five years earlier. In the same period there was an increase of 16-0% in the number and of 2 7'5% > n the wages of women workers of 16 years (and upwards) of age.
Deducting from the total value of manufactured products in 1905 the cost of partially manufactured materials, including mill supplies, a net or true value of $9,821,205,387 remains. Partially manufactured articles imported for use in manufactures are not included. Deducting from this the cost of raw materials and adding the cost of mill supplies, the result $6,743,399,718 is the value added to materials by manufacturing processes.
The extent to which manufactures are controlled by large factories is shown by the fact that although in 1905 only 1 1 -2 % of the total number reported products valued at $100,000 or over, these establishments controlled 81-5% of the capital, employed 71-6% of the wage earners, and produced 79-3 % of the value of the products, of all establishments reported. 52-3 % of the total number, employing 66-3% of all wage-earners, and producing 69-7% of the total product-value, were in urban centres.
Only six establishments in a thousand employed as many as 500 workers, and only two in a thousand employed as many as 1000 workers. Cotton mills are most numerous in the last class of establishments. The manufacture of lumber and timber gave employment to the largest total number of workers; and this industry, together with those of foundry and machine shops (including locomotives, stoves and furnaces), cotton goods (including small wares), railway car and repair shops, and iron and steel, were (in order) the five greatest employers of labour.
Measured by the gross value of products, wholesale slaughtering and meat packing was the most important industry in 1905. The products were valued at $801,757,137. In each of four other industries the products exceeded in value five hundred millions of dollars, namely, those of foundry and machine shops, flour and grist mills, iron and steel, and lumber and timber. In one other, cotton goods, the value was little less. These six industries contributed 27-2% of the value of all manufactured products. Both in 1905 and in 1900 the group of industries classed as of food and kindred products ranked first in the cost of materials used and the value of products; the group of iron and steel ranking first in capital and in wages paid; and textiles in the number of wage-earners employed.
The close relation of manufactures to agriculture is reflected in the fact that, of the raw materials used, 79-4 % came from the farm. The remainder came from mines and quarries, 15-0%; forests, 5-2%; the sea, 0-4%.
Four states New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Massachusetts each manufactured in 1900 products valued at over $i ,000,000,000 ; New York exceeding and Pennsylvania attaining almost twice that sum. The manufacture of some products is highly localized. Thus, of silk goods, worsteds, the products of blast furnaces, of rolling mills and steel works, glass,' boots and shoes, hosiery and knit goods, slaughtering and meat products, agricultural implements, woollens, leather goods, cotton goods and paper and wood pulp, four leading states produced in each case from 88-5%, in the case of silk goods, to 58-6 % in the case of pulp.
M. G. Mulhall (Industry and Weatlh of Nations, 1896) assigned fourth place to the United States in 1880 and first place in 1894 in the value of manufactured products, as compared with other countries. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu (Les Etats- Unis au xx*' Siecle, Paris, 1904) would assign primacy to the United States as far back as 1885. Since the English board of trade estimated the exports of British manufactured goods at from 17 to 20% of the industrial output of the United Kingdom in 1902, this would indicate a manufactured product hardly two-thirds as great as that of the true factory establishments of the United States in 1900. But exact data for comparison do not exist for other countries than the United States. In the production of pig iron, the share of the United States seems to have been in 1850 about one-eighth and that of Great Britain onehalf of the world's product; while in 1903 the respective shares were 38-8 and 19-3%; and Germany's also slightly exceeded the British output. In the manufacture of textiles the United States holds the second place, after Great Britain; decidedly second in cottons, a close competitor with Great Britain and France in woollens, and with France in silks. In the manufacture of food products the United States holds a lead that is the natural result of immense advantages in the production of raw materials. No other country produces half so much of leather. In the dependent industry of boots and shoes her position is commanding. These facts give an idea of the rank of the country among the manufacturing countries of the world. The basis of this position is generally considered to be, partly, immense natural resources available as materials, and, partly, an immense home market.
For Agriculture, see the article AGRICULTURE; for Fisheries, see FISHERIES; and for Forestry, see FORESTS AND FORESTRY.
Minerals. In 1619 the erection of " works " for smelting the ores of iron was begun at Falling Creek, near Jamestown, Va., and iron appears to have been made in 1620; but the enterprise was stopped by a general massacre of the settlers in that region. In 1643 the business of smelting and manufacturing iron was begun at Lynn, Mass., where it was successfully carried on, at least up to 1671, furnishing most of the iron used in the colony. From the middle of the 17th century the smelting of this metal began to be of importance in Massachusetts Bay and vicinity, and by the close of the century there had been a large number of ironworks established in that colony, which, for a century after its settlement, was the chief seat of the iron manufacture in America, bog ores, taken from the bottom of the ponds, being chiefly used. Early in the 18th century the industry began to extend over New England and into New Jersey, the German bloomery forge being employed for reducing the ore directly to bar iron, and by the middle of that century it had taken a pretty firm hold in the Atlantic colonies. About 1789 there were fourteen furnaces and thirty-four forges in operation in Pennsylvania. Before the separation of the colonies* from the mother country, the manufacture of iron had been extended through all of them, with the possible exception of Georgia. As early as 1718 iron (both pig and bar) began to be sent to Great Britain, the only country to which the export was permitted, the annual amount between 1730 and '775 varying ordinarily between 2000 and 3000 tons, but in one year (1771) rising to between 7000 and 8600 tons.
The first metal other than iron mined by whites within the territory of the United States was lead, the discovery of which on the American continent was recorded in 1621. The first English settlers on the Atlantic bartered lead of domestic origin with the Indians in the 17th century, and so did the French in the upper Mississippi Valley. The ore of the metal occurring in the Mississippi basin galena is scattered widely and in large quantities, and being easily smelted by the roughest possible methods was much used at an early date. In the second half of the 18th century, during the period of French and Spanish domination in the valley, lead was a common medium of exchange, but no real mining development took place. Copper was the next metal to be mined, so far as is known. The first company began work about 1709, at Simsbury, Conn. The ore obtained there and in New Jersey seems to have been mostly shipped to England. A few years later attempts were made to work mines of lead and cobalt in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The first mining excitement of the United States dates back to the discovery of gold by the whites in the Southern states, along the eastern border of the Appalachian range, in Virginia, and in North and South Carolina. The existence of gold in that region had been long known to the aboriginal inhabitants, but no attention was paid to this by the whites, until about the beginning of the 19th century, when nuggets were found, one of which weighed 28 Ib.
From 1824 the search for gold continued, and by 1829 the business had become important, and was attended with no little excitement In 1833 and 1834 the amount annually obtained had risen to fully a million of dollars. A rapid development of the lead mines of the West, both in Missouri and on the Upper Mississippi in the region where Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois adjoin one another, took place during the first quarter of the 19th century, and as early as 1826 or 1827 the amount of this metal obtained had risen to nearly 10,000 tons a year. By this time the making of iron had also become important, the production for 1828 being estimated at 130,000 tons.
In 1820 the first cargo of anthracite coal was shipped to Philadelphia. From 1830 the increase in the production was very rapid, and in 1841 the annual shipments from the Pennsylvania anthracite region had nearly reached 1,000,000 tons, the output of iron at that time being estimated at about 300,000 tons. The development of the coal and iron interests, and the increasing importance of the gold product of the Appalachian auriferous belt, and also of the lead product of the Mississippi Valley, led to a more general and decided interest in geology and mining; and about 1830 geological surveys of several of the Atlantic states were begun, and more systematic explorations for the ores of the metals, as well as for coal, were carried on over all parts of the country then open to settlement. An important step was taken in 1844, when a cession of the region on the south shore of Lake Superior was obtained from the Chippewa Indians. Here explorations for copper immediately began, and for the first time in the United States the business of mining for the metals began to be developed on an extensive scale, with suitable appliances, and with financial success. An event of still greater importance took place almost immediately after the value of the copper region in question had been fully ascertained. This was the demonstration of the fact that gold existed in large quantities along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California. In five years from the discovery of gold at Coloma on the American river, the yield from the auriferous belt of the Sierra Nevada had risen to an amount estimated at between sixty-five and seventy millions of dollars a year, or five times as much as the total production of this metal throughout the world at the beginning of the century.
The following details show the development of the mineral resources of the country at the middle of the 19th century. In 1850 ... . the shipments of anthracite amounted to nearly 3,500,000 / d "trl a tons > tnose f Cumberland or semi-bituminous coal were to ' 1 1850 a b ut 200,000 tons. The yearly production of pig iron ' had risen to between 500,000 and 600,000 tons. The annual yield of gold in the Appalachian belt had fallen off to about $500,000 in value, that of California had risen to $36,000,000, and was rapidly approaching the epoch of its culmination (1851-1853). No silver was obtained in the country, except what v'as separated from the native gold, that mined in California containing usually from 8 to 10 % of the less valuable metal. The ore of mercury had been discovered in California before the epoch of the gold excitement, and was being extensively worked, the yield in the year 1850-1851 being nearly 2,000,000 Ib. At this time the copper mines of Lake Superior were being successfully developed, and nearly 6op tons of metallic copper were produced in 1850. At many points in the Appalachian belt attempts had been made to work mines of copper and lead, but with no considerable success About the middle of the century extensive works were erected at Newark, New Jersey, for the manufacture of the oxide of zinc for paint; about noo tons were produced in 1852. The extent and value of the deposits of zinc ore in the Saucon Valley, Pennsylvania, had also just become known in 1850. The lead production of the Missouri mines had for some years been nearly stationary, or had declined slightly from its former importance; while that of the upper Mississippi region, which in the years just previous to 1850 had risen to from 20,000 to 25,000 tons a year, was declining, having in 1850 sunk to less than 18,000 tons.
At the end of the century, in only fifty years, the United States had secured an easy first place among the mineral-producing countries _ of the world. It held primacy, with a large margin, Position ot '" tfle . yi e 'd f coa '> i ron , ' ea d a "d copper, the minerals Mining most important in manufactures; in gold its output Industries. was s 60011 ^ on 'Y to tnat f South Africa (though practically equalled by that of Australia); and in silver to that of Mexico. Although the data are in general incomplete upon which might be based a comparison of the relative standing of different countries in the production of minerals of lesser importance than those just mentioned, it was estimated by M. G. Mulhall (Industries and Wealth of Nations, edition of 1896, pp. 34-35) that Great Britain then produced approximately one-third, the United States one-third, and all other countries collectively one-third of the minerals of the world in weight.
The leading products, as reported by the Geological Survey for 1907, were as follows: coal, $614,798,898 (85,604,312 tons of anthracite coal, 394,759,112 of bituminous); petroleum, $120,106,749; natural gas, $54,222,399; iron ore, $131,996,147 (pig iron, $529,958,000) ; copper, refined, $173,799,300; gold, coinage value, $90,435, TOO; building-stone, $71,105,805; silver, commercial value, $37>299.7oo; lead, refined, $38,707,596; and zinc, refined, $26,401,910.
XXVII. 21 Year.
Total Value of Products.
Value of Non-metallic Products.
Value of Metallic Products.
1908 $ '.595,670,186 $ 1,045,497,070 $ 549.923,116 1907 1906 2,071,607,964 .902,517,565 1,167,705,720 1,016,206,709 903,802,244 886,110,856 1905 ,623,928,720 921,075,619 702,453,101 1904 ,361,067,554 859.383,604 501,099,950 1903 ,491,928,980 793,962,609 624,318,008 1902 ,323,102,717 617,251,154 642,258,584 1901 ,141,972,309 567,318,592 518,266,259 1900 ,107,020,352 512,195,262 550,425,286 1899 .014,355,705 446,090,251 525,472.981 The North Atlantic and the North Central census groups of states (that is, the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio rivers, and north of Maryland) produced two-thirds of the total output. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, California, Colorado, Montana, Michigan, New York and Missouri were the ten states of greatest absolute production in 1907. The rank relative to area or population is of course different. Those which, according to the bureau of the census, produced $1000 or over per sq. m. '" 1902 were Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia; $500 to $1000, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. Seventeen states produced from $100 to $500 per sq. m.
The total mineral output for the decade 1899-1908 according to the United States Geological Survey was as follows :
The vastly greater part of mineral products are used in manufactures within the United States, and only an insignificant part (for example, 2-47% in 1902) is exported in the crude form.
Coal exists in the United States in large quantity in each of its important varieties: anthracite, or hard coal; bituminous, or soft coal; and lignite; and in various intermediate and _ special grades. Geologically the anthracite and bituminous coals mainly belong to the same formation, the Carboniferous, and this is especially true of the better qualities; though it is stated by the United States Geological Survey that the geologic age of the coal beds ranges from Carboniferous in the Appalachian and Mississippi Valley provinces to Miocene (Tertiary) on the Pacific coast, and that the quality of the coal varies only to a very uncertain degree with the geologic age. The following estimates rest upon the same authority: (i) total area underlaid by coal measures, 496,776 sq. m., of which 250,531 are credited to anthracite and bituminous, 97,636 to sub-bituminous and 148,609 to lignite; (2) total original coal supply of the country, 3,076,204,000,000 short tons, including 21,000,000,000 tons of anthracite in Pennsylvania, and small amounts elsewhere (semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous), 650,157,000,000 tons of sub-bituminous and 743.590,000,000 tons of lignite; (3) easily accessible coal still available, 1,992,979,000,000 tons; (4) available coal accessible with difficulty, 1,153,225,000,000 tons.
The total production of coal from 1814 (the year in which anthracite was first mined in Pennsylvania) to 1908 amounted to 7,280,940,265 tons, which represented an exhaustion adding 50% for waste in mining and preparation of 11,870,049,900, or four-tenths of 1% of the supposed original supply.
In 1820 the total production was only 3450 tons In 1850 it was already more than 7,000,000. And since then, while the population increased 230% from 1850 to 1900, the production of coal increased 4,084 %. At the same time that the per capita consumption thus rose in 1907 to 5-6 tons, the waste was estimated by the National Conservation Commission at 3-0 tons per capita. This waste, however, is decreasing, the coal abandoned n the mine having averaged, in the beginning of mining, two or ;hree times the amount taken out ; and the chief part of the remainng waste is in imperfect combustion in furnaces and fire-boxes. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that the supposed supply still available at the close of 1908 was 7369 times the production of that year, and 4913 times the exhaustion such production represented, so extraordinary has been the increased consumption of the country :hat, in the opinion of the Geological Survey (1907), " if the rate of ncrease that has held for the last fifty years is maintained, the supply of easily available coal will be exhausted before the middle of the next century " (A.D. 2050).
In 1870 both Great Britain and Germany exceeded the United States in the production of coal. Germany was passed in 1871 definitively in 1877); Great Britain in 1899. Since 1901 the United States has produced more than one-third of the world's output.
Coal was produced in 1908 in 30 states out of the 46 of the Union; and occurs also in enormous quantities in Alaska ; 690,438 men were employed in this year in the coal mines. Pennsylvania (117,179,527 ons of bituminous and 83,268,754 of anthracite), Illinois (47,659,690), West Virginia (41,897,843), Ohio (26^270,639), Indiana (12,314,890)
ind Alabama (11,604,593) were the states of greatest production.
The production of each was greater still in 1907.
The total putput amounted to 415,842,692 short tons, valued at .642 $532,314,117111 tgo8;and to 480,363,424 tons, valued at $614,798,898 in 1909. Pennsylvania produced three-fourths of the total output of the country in 1860, and since 1900 slightly less than one-half . Up to 1870 there was more anthracite mined in Pennsylvania than bituminous in the whole country, but since that year the production of the latter has become vastly the greater, the totals in 1907, in which year each stood at its maximum, being 83,268,754 and 332,573.944 tons respectively.
Inasmuch as the present production is not considered locally and with more or less justice^ as at all indicative of the wealth in coal of the respective states, it may be said that according to estimates of the Geological Survey the following states are credited with the deposits indicated of true bituminous coal, including local admixtures of anthracite, the figures being millions of short tons: Colorado, 296,272; Illinois, 240,000; West Virginia, 231,000; Utah, 196,408; Pennsylvania, 112,574; Kentucky, 104,028; Ohio, 86,028; Alabama, 68,903; Indiana, 44,169; Missouri, 40,000; New Mexico, 30,805; Tennessee, 25,665; Virginia. 21,600; Michigan, 12,000; Maryland, 8,044; Texas, 8,000; Kansas, 7,022; and Montana, 5,000; with lesser deposits in other states. At the same time there are estimated deposits of sub-bituminous coal, isolated or mixed with bituminous, amounting to 75,498 millions of tons in Colorado (which is probably the richest coal area of the country) ; and in other states as follows: Wyoming, 423,952 millions of tons; New Mexico, 132,975; Washington, 20,000; Montana, 18,560; California and Oregon, 1,000 each; and lesser amounts elsewhere. Finally, of true lignite beds, or of lignite mixed with sub-bituminous qualities, the states of North Dakota, Montana, Texas and South Dakota are credited with deposits of 500,000; 279,500; 23,000; and 10,000 millions of tons respectively. But it is to be remembered that the amount and the fuel value of both the lignite and, to a lesser degree, the sub-bituminous coals, is uncertain to a high degree.
Petroleum, according to the report of the National Conservation Commission in 1908, was then the sixth largest contributor to the Petrol nation's mineral wealth, furnishing about one-sixteenth of the total. Oil was produced in 1908 in sixteen states. This productive area is divided by the United States Geological Survey into six " fields " (in addition to some scattering states) with reference to the quality of oil that they produce, such quality determining their uses. The Appalachian field ( Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee) produces oil rich in paraffin, practically free from sulphur and asphalt, and yielding the largest percentage of gasoline and illuminating oils. This is the highest grade crude oil produced in the world. The California field produces oil characterized by much asphalt and little or no paraffin, and low in volatile constituents. The Lima (Ohio)-Indiana, the Illinois, the Mid-Continent (Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas) and the Gulf (Texas and Louisiana) fields produce oils containing more or less of sulphur and asphalt between the extremes of the two other fields just mentioned. The geological conditions of the different fields, and the details of the composition of the oils yielded, are exceedingly varied, and their study has been little more than begun In 1859. when the total output of the country is supposed to have been only 2000 barrels of oil, production was confined to Pennsylvania and New York. Ohio, West Virginia and California appeared as producers in 1876, Kentucky and Tennessee in 1883, Colorado in 1887, Indiana in 1889, along with Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Missouri, Oklahoma in 1891, Wyoming in 1894, and, lastly, Louisiana in 1902. From 1859 to 1876 the Appalachian field yielded 100% of the total output of the country; in 1908 its share had fallen to !3'9 % I' 1 the same period of 50 years the yearly output rose from 2000 to 179,572,479 barrels (134,717,580 in 1905) and to a grand total of 1,986,180,942 barrels, 1 worth $1,784,583,943, or more than half the value of all the gold, and more than the commercial value ot all the silver produced in the country since 1792. The production in 1908 exceeded in value the output of both metals. Deducing from the figures of production since 1859 an equation of increase, one finds that in each nine years as much oil has been produced as in all preceding years together, and in recent years the factor of increase has been higher. So rapid has been the extension of the yielding areas, so diverse the fate of many fields, so shifting their relative rank in output, that the outlook from year to year as regards all these elements is too uncertain to admit of definite statements respecting the relative importance of the five fields already mentioned. The total output of these, it may be stated, from 1901 to 1908 uniting the yield of the Illinois to the Lima-Indiana field (since their statistics were long so united, until their industrial differences became apparent), and adding a sixth division for the production of scattered areas of production was as follows: Appalachian. 235,999,859; Lima-Indiana-Illinois, 219,609,347; MidContinent, 136,148,892; Gulf, 159,520,306; California, 27,931,687; and others, 3,367,666; the leading producers in 1907-1908 being the Mid-Continent and the California areas.
The world's output of oil was trebled between 1885 and 1895, and quadrupled between 1885 and 1900. In this increase the United States had the largest share. So recently as 1902 the output of the 1 Barrels of 42 gallons.
United States was little greater than that of Russia (the two yielding 01-4% of the world's product), but this advantage has since then been greatly increased, so that the one has produced 63-1 and the other 21-8% of the total output of the world. In 1908 the Geological Survey issued a preliminary map of the then known areas productive of oil and natural gas in the United States, estimating the extent of the former at 8850 and of the latter at 9365 sq. m. The supply of oil in this area was estimated at from 15,000,000,000 to 20,000,000,000 barrels; and 'the National Conservation Cornmission of 1908 expressed the opinion that in view of the rapid increase of production and the enormous loss through misuse the supply cannot be expected to last beyond the middle of this century.
Natural gas, as a source of light and for metallurgical purposes, became important in the mid-eighties. In recent years its use for industrial purposes has lessened, and for domestic pur- fj a f ura i n as poses increased. The existence of outflows or springs of gas in the region west of the Alleghanies had long been known, and much gas was used for illuminating purposes in Fredonia, New York, as early as 1821. Such gas is a more or less general concomitant of oil all through the petroleum-bearing areas of the country. The total output of the country rose from a value of $215,000 in 1882 to one of $54,640,374 in 1908, with several fluctuations up and down in that interval Pennsylvania, with a product valued at $155,620,395 from 1899 to 1908, West Virginia with $84,955,496, Ohio with $48,172,450 and Indiana with $46,141,553 were the greatest producers of the Union.
The National Conservation Commission in 1908 estimated the area of the known gas fields of the country at 9000 sq. m. ; the portion of their yield in 1907 that was utilized at 400,000,000,000 cub. ft. ; and the waste at an equal amount more than 1,000,000,000 of cub. ft. daily, or enough to supply all the cities in the United States of above 100,000 population.
Of other non-metallic mineral substances, apart from coal, petroleum and natural gas, little need be said in detail. Stone is of the greatest actual importance, the value of the quarry output, including some prepared pr manufactured product, such as dressed and crushed stone, averaging $65,152,312 annually in 1904-1908. Limestone is by far the largest element, and with granite makes up two-thirds of the total value. Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York are the leading producers. In this, as in other cases, actual product may indicate little regarding potential resources, and still less regarding the distribution of these throughout the Union. Glass and other sands and gravel ($13,270,032), lime ($11,091,186), phosphate rock ($10,653,558), salt ($7,553,632), natural mineral waters ($7,287,269), sulphur ($6,668,215, almost wholly from Louisiana), slate ($6,316,817), gypsum ($4,138,560), clay ($2,599,986), asphalt ($1,888,881), talc and soapstone ($1,401,222), borax ($975,000, all from California), and pyrite ($857,113) were the next most important products in 1908. It may be noted that the output in almost every item of mineral production was considerably greater in 1907 than in 1908, and the isolated figures of the latter year are of little interest apart from showing in a general way the relative commercial importance of the products named. In the yield of gypsum, phosphate rock and salt the United States leads the world. In sulphur it is a close second to Sicily. Phosphate rock is heavily exported, and in the opinion of the National Cpnservatkm Commission of 1908 the supply cannot long satisfy the increasing demand for export, which constitutes a waste of a precious natural resource. Other minerals whose production may be found stated in detail in the annual volume on Mineral Resources of the United States Geological Survey are: natural pigments, felspar, white mica, graphite, fluorspar, arsenic, quartz, barytes, bromine. Some dozens of varieties of precious stones occur widely. Of building-stone, clay, cement, lime, sand and salt, the country's supply was estimated by the National Conservation Commission of 1908 to be " ample.' In 1907 iron ore was mined for blast-furnace use in twenty-nine states only, but the ore occurs in almost every state of the Union. As nearly as can be estimated from imperfect statistics, j the total ore production of the country rose steadily from 2,873,400 long tons in 1860 to 51,720,619 tons in 1907. The United States became practically independent of foreign ore imports during thedecade 187010 1879. The iron-producing area of the country may be divided, with regard to natural geographic, historic and trade considerations, into four districts: (i) the Lake Superior district, embracing the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin; (2) the southern district, embracing the triangle tipped by Texas, Maryland and Georgia; (3) the northern district, embracing the triangle tipped by Ohio, New Jersey and Massachusetts, plus the states of Iowa and Missouri; (4) the western district, which includes the states of the Rocky Mountain region and Pacific coast. Of these districts the Lake Superior region which embraces the Marquette range (opened in 1854), the Menominee (1872), the Gogebic (1884), the Vermilion (1884) and the Mesabi (1892) first attracted exploration about 1844, when the copper deposits of the same region were opened, and produced from 1854 to 1908 a total of 410,239,551 long tons, of which 341,036,883 were mined in the period 1889-1908. From the Mesabi range alone, opened in 1892, no less than 168,143,661 long tons were taken up to 1908. The share of the whole district for some years past has been practically four-fifths of the total output of the country; and together with the yield of the southern district, more than 90%. Minnesota alone produces more than half of the same total, having multiplied her product since 1889 by more than 33 times. Michigan held first place in output until 1901. Alabama is the third great producer of the Union, and with the other two made up in 1907 more than four-fifths of the country's total. In 1907 the product of Minnesota (28,969,658 long tons) was greater than that of Germany (with Luxemburg), and nearly twice the production of Great Britain.
Of the two classes of iron minerals used as ores of that metal, namely, oxides and carbonates, the latter furnish to-day an insignificant proportion of the country's product, although such ores were the basis of a considerable part of the early iron industry, and even so late as 1889 represented one-thirteenth of the total. Of the oxides, various forms of the brown ores in locations near to the Atlantic coast were the chief basis of the early iron industries. Magnetites were also early employed, at first in Catalan forges, in which by means of a direct process the metal was secured from the ores and forged into blooms without being cast ; later they were smelted in blast furnaces. But in the recent and great development of the iron industry the red haematiteores have been overwhelmingly predominant. From 1889 to 1907 the average yearly percentages of the red haematite brown ores, magnetite and carbonate in the total ore production were respectively 82-4, 10-1, 7-1 and 0-4. In the census of 1870 the share of the three varieties appeared almost equal; in 1899 that of the red ores had risen to near two-thirds of the total. The red and brown ores are widely distributed, every state in the Union in 1907, save Ohio and North Carolina, producing one or both. Magnetite production was confined to mountain regions in the east and west, and only in Ohio were carbonates mined.
An investigation was made in 1908 for the National Conservation Commission of the ore reserves of the country. This report was made by Dr. C. W. Hayes of the Geological Survey. With the reservations that only in the case of certain red haematitebedded deposits can any estimate be made of relative accuracy, say within 10%; that the concentration deposits of brown ore can be estimated only with an accuracy represented by a factor varying between 0-7 and 3 ; and that the great Lake Superior and the less known Adirondack deposits can be estimated within 15 to 20%, the total supply of the country was estimated at 79,594,220,000 long tons 73,210,415,000 of which were credited to haematiteores and 5,054,675,000 to magnetite. Almost 95 % is believed to lie about Lake Superior.
The output of pig iron and steel in 1907 was 25,781,361 and 23,362,594 long tons respectively. It is believed that the first steel made in the United States was made in Connecticut in 1728. Crucible steel was first successfully produced in 1832, Bessemer and open-hearth in 1864. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Alabama and New York are the leading states in production.
The washing of the high or Tertiary gravels by the hydraulic process and the working of mines in the solid rock did not, on the gold and w hole, compensate for the diminished yield of the Silver ordinary placer and river diggings, so that the product of gold in California continued to fall off, and by 1860 had decreased to about half what it had been ten years before. Discoveries in other Cordilleran territories, notably in Montana and Idaho, made up, however, in part for the deficiency of California, so that in 1860 the total amount of gold produced in the United States was estimated at not less than $45,000,000. In the latter part of the decade 1850-1859 the territories adjacent to California on the east, north and south were overrun by thousands of miners from the Sierra Nevada goldfields, and within a few years an extraordinary number of discoveries were made, some of which proved to be of great importance. The most powerful impulse to mining operations, and the immediate cause of a somewhat lengthy period of wild excitement and speculation, was the discovery and successful opening of the Comstock lode in 1859, in the western part of what is now Nevada, but was then part of Utah. About this lode grew up Virginia City. From 1859 to 1902 the total yield of this lode was $204,653,040 in silver and $148,145,385 in gold; the average annual yield from 1862 to 1868 was above eleven millions; the maximum yield $36,301,537 in 1877; and the total product to July 1880 was variously estimated at from $304,752,171-54 to $306,181,251-25. The lode was an ore channel of great dimensions included within volcanic rocks of Tertiary age, themselves broken through pre-existing strata of Triassic age, and exhibited some of the features of a fissure vein, combined in part with those of a contact deposit and in part with those of a segregated vein. The gangue was quartz, very irregularly distributed in bodies often of great sizes, for the most part nearly or quite barren of ore. The metalliferous portion of the lode was similarly distributed in great masses, known as " bonanzas." The next most famous lode is that of Leadville, Colorado, which from 1879 to 1889 yielded $147,834,186, chiefly in silver and lead. In later years the Cripple Creek district of Colorado became specially prominent.
The total output of gold and silver in the United States according to the tables published by the Director of the Mint has been as follows :
Years.
Gold.
Silver.
Quantity in Fine Ounces.
Value.
Quantity in Fine Ounces.
Commercial Value.
1792-1847 1848-1872 1873-1908 1,187,170 58,279,778 88,833,231 54,537,000 1,204,750,000 1.836,344,000 309,500 118,568,200 1,664,271,300 404,500 '57.749,900 1,379,892,200 148.300,179 $3,065,631,000 1,783,149,000 $'.538,046,600 Colorado ($22,871,000), Alaska ($19,858,800), California ($19,329,700), Nevada ($11,689,400), South Dakota ($7,742,200), Utah ($3,946,700), Montana ($3,160,000) and Arizona ($2,500,000) were the leading producers in 1908, in which year the totals for the two metals were $94,560,000 for gold and $28,050,600 for silver.
The grade of precious ores handled has generally and greatly decreased in recent years according to the census data of 1880 and 1902, disregarding all base metallic contents from an average commerical value of $29-07 to one of $8-29; nevertheless the product of gold and silver has greatly increased. This is due to improvements in mining methods and reduction processes, which have made profitable low-grade ores that were not commercially available in 1880.
Copper was produced in 1908 in twenty-four states of the Union. Their output was almost seventeenfold the quantity reported by the census of 1860. The quantity produced from 1845 c the year in which the Lake Superior district became a producer, and in which the total product was only 224,000 Ib up to 1908 was 13,106,205,634 ft. The increases from 1845 to 1850, in each decennial period thereafter, and from 1901 to 1908, were as follows, in percentages : 50-0, 27-0, 6-1, 7-2, 14-8, 9-1 and 5-8. The total product passed 10,000,000 ft in 1857, 20,000,000 ft in 1867, 30,000,000 ft in 1873, 40,000,000 ft in 1875, 50,000,000 ft in 1879 and 100,000,000 ft in 1883. Comparing the product of the United States with that of the world, the figures for the two respectively were 23,350 and 151,936 long tons in 1879, when the United States was second to both Spain (and Portugal) and Chile as a producer; 51,570 and 199,406 long tons in 1883, when the Unites States first took leading rank; 172,300 and 334,565 long tons in 1895, when the yield of the United States first exceeded that of all other parts of the world combined; and 942,570,000 and 1,667,098,000 ft in 1908.
The three leading producing states or Territories of the Union are, and since the early 'eighties have been, Arizona, Montana and Michigan. With Utah and California their yield in 1908 was 93 % of the total. During the decade ending with that year the average yearly output of the three first-named was 197,706,968 ft, 267,172,951 Ib and 192,187,488 ft respectively.
The production of lead was for many years limited, as already mentioned, to two districts near the Mississippi: one the so-called Upper Mines of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois; the other . .
the Lower Mines of south-eastern Missouri. The national government, after reserving the mineral lands (1807) and attempting to lease them, concluded in 1847 to sell them, owing to the difficulty of preventing illegal entry and collecting royalties. The yield of the Upper Mines culminated about 1845, and long ago became insignificant. The greatest lead district is in south-western Missouri and south-eastern Kansas, known as the Joplin-Galena district after the names of the two cities that are its centre. The United States is the greatest lead producer and consumer in the world, its percentage of the total output and consumption averaging 30-4% and 32-5% respectively in the years 1904-1908. Since 1825 the total product of lead refined from domestic ores and domestic base bullion was, up to the close of 1908, 7,091,548 short tons. An annual yield of 100,000 tons was first passed in 1881; of 200,000, in 1891; of 300,000, in 1898. The total refined domestic product in 1907 was 337,340, and the total domestic lead smelted was 365,166 tons. Of the smelter domestic product 235,559 tons were of desilverized lead and 129,607 of soft lead. Considerable quantities of foreign ores and base bullion are also refined in the United States. The average percentage of metallic recovery from lead ores was about 68%, in 1880, and again in 1902, according to the national censuses of these years. According to the bureau of the census the value in 1902 of the lead yielded by copper, by non-argentiferous lead and zinc, and by gold and silver ores respectively was $19,053, $5,850,721 and $12,311,239. This reflects the revolutionary change in the history of lead mining since the first discovery of argentiferous lead ores in the Rocky Mountain states in 1864, which became available only after the building of railways. Until the completion of the Union Pacific in 1869 there was no smelting of such ores except for their silver contents. The deposits in the Joplin-Galena district were discovered in 1848, but attracted little attention for three decades. Of the soft lead smelted in 1907 no less than 94-8% came from Missouri. Idaho, Utah and Colorado produce together almost as great a proportion of the desilverized lead, half of which has come in recent years from Idaho.
Spelter production began in the United States in 1858 in an experimental way, and regular production in 1860. The censu* of Other Metals.
the latter year reported an output of product valued at $72,600 According to the census data for 1889 and 1002 there was an in2ig C crease in value of product of 184-1 % in the interval, anc of 109-5% m tne quantity of ore produced. The value of products in 1902 were reported as $340,686 from gold and silver ores, and $8,665,675 from non-argentiferous lead and zinc ores. The total product of zinc from domestic ore for the entire country was 7343 short tons in 1873, passed 100,000 tons in 1898, and 200,000 in 1907, when it amounted to 223,745 tons. From 1904 to 1908 the share of the United States in the world's output averaged 28-2 %, and in the world's consumption (disregarding stocks) 27-5 %. Of the product of 1907 above stated no less than 63-4% came from Missouri alone; Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and New Jersey yielding together 30-8 % more.
Most of the quicksilver produced in the United States comes from California (86% of the total in 1908), but a considerable quantity Mercury fomes from Texas, and small amounts are produced v ' in Utah, Arizona and Oregon. Veins of cinnabar are known elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada regions but not in workable quantities. The mercurial ores of the Pacific Coast ranges occur in very irregular deposits in the form of strings and bunches, disseminated through a highly metamorphosed siliceous rock. The first locality where the metal was successfully mined was at New Almaden, about loo m. south of San Francisco. These mines have been productive since 1824. Another old mine, discovered in 1853, is the New Idria located another 100 m. farther south. These two are still among the foremost producers.
From 1850 to 1908 California produced a total of 2,052,000 flasks of metal, of 76-5 ft (since June I, 1904, 75-0 Ib net) each. The year of greatest yield was 1877, with 79,395 flasks. The production had steadily fallen to 16,984 flasks in 1908, but in the opinion of the United States Geological Survey this reduction is mainly attributable, in recent years at least, to market conditions, and does not truly indicate the exhaustion of the mines, although the ores now available are of low grades, those of New Almaden having shown a decrease in yield from 36-7 % in 1850-1851 to 0-74 % in 1895-1896, so that only the greatest metallurgical skill and business economy can sustain the mines against a weak market.
Bauxite was produced on a commercial scale in four states in 1908: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee; Arkansas producing as for years past more than six-tenths of the total product of the country. This rose from an insignificant amount in 1889 to 97,776 long tons (valued at $480,330) in 1907. The consumption of the United States is, however, much larger than its product, and is rapidly growing. The production of aluminium rose from 83 ft in 1883 to 7,500,000 ft in 1903, and a consumption (the Geological Survey not reporting the production) of 17,211,000 ft in 1907. Antimony, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, chromic iron ore, tin, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, titanium, molybdenum, uranium and tantalum are produced in the United States in small amounts, but such " production " in several cases has amounted to only slight discoveries, and in general they are of little importance in the market. Of tungsten the United States was in 1907 the greatest producer in the world (1640 tons in a total of 6062). Tin ores have been widely discovered, but though much has been hoped for from them, particularly from the deposits in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, there has been no more than a relatively insignificant commercial production.
Commerce, Foreign and Domestic. The English colonies that became the United States carried on during the colonial period a commerce with the mother country, and also, both so far as the legislative trammels of the British colonial system permitted it and illicitly, a fairly active commerce with the West Indies. This latter became of increasing moment in the successive periods of European colonial wars of the 18th century. With the achievement of independence by the United States the same interest became of still greater importance to the new nation, so as to constitute a leading element in its early diplomacy. Although relatively unsuccessful in securing access to the British islands, the importance of the United States as a supplier of the other West Indies continually grew, and when the communication of the French and Spanish islands with their metropolises was practically cut off by the British during the Napoleonic wars, the dependence of these colonies upon the American carrying trade became absolute. It was the profits of this neutral trade, notwithstanding the losses to which it was exposed by the high-handed measures of the British and the French governments, that caused these insults to be more or less patiently endured by the trading interests. When President Jefferson, and after him President Madison, attempted to secure redress for these injuries by the imposition of an embargo on American vessels, the West Indian trade was temporarily ruined, the war of 1812-15 with Great Britain contributing to the same end. The East Indian trade had been opened from New England ports late in the 18th century. The whaling and cod and mackerel fisheries were of earlier colonial origin. As general carriers American ships gained no importance until the Napoleonic wars; and this interest was greater in the West Indies than in Europe. Such were the main branches of national commerce up to the time of the second war with England. After the war of 1812 new outlets were found in all directions, and the Year.
Imports by Land and Sea.
Exports by Land and Sea.
Total Commerce.
1861 1870 1880 1890 1900 1905 1909 $ 335,650,153 462,377,587 667,954,746 789,310,409 849,941,184 1,117,513,071 1,475,612,580 249,344,913 529,519,302 835,638,658 857,828,684 1,394,483,082 1,518,561,666 1,728,203,271 $ 584,995,066 991 ,896,889 1,503,593,404 1,647,139,093 2,244,424,266 2,636,074,737 3,203,815,851 commerce of the country grew apace, until in the years immediately preceding the Civil War the United States was a close second to Great Britain among the trading countries of the world. The Civil War caused enormous losses to the merchant marine, and the worldwide substitution about this time of iron steamers for wooden steamers and sailing vessels contributed to prevent a recovery; because, although ship-building was one of the earliest arts developed in the colonies, and one that was prosecuted with the highest success so long as wooden ships were the dominant type, the United States has never achieved marked success with the iron steamer, and the law has precluded the registry as American of vessels built abroad. The American " clipper ' ships that were constructed at Baltimore and elsewhere during the last three decades before the Civil War were doubtless the swiftest sailers that have ever been built.
The total trade of the country by land and sea, the movement inward and outward, is shown in the following table for various years since 1861 :
The excess of exports over imports in the decade 1899-1908 totalled $5,728,214,844; and in the same period there was an excess of exports of gold and silver, above imports, of $444,908,963. Of the total exports of 1909 $1,700,743,638 represented domestic merchandise. The remainder, or element of foreign exports, has been of similarly small relative magnitude since about 1880, but was of course much larger while the carrying trade was of importance. From 1820 up to 1880 agricultural products made up with remarkable steadiness almost exactly four-fifths of all exports of domestic merchandise. Since then the increase of manufactures, and to a slight degree that of minerals, has lessened much the share of agricultural products, which in 1906 was 56-43%, that of manufactures being 35-11% and of minerals 3-09 %. The following table indicates in a general way the increased value, in round millions of dollars, of the leading agricultural exports since 1860:
Year.
Raw Cotton.
Bread Stuffs.
Leaf Tobacco.
Meats and Dairy Products.
Cattle, and other Animals.
1860 1900 1905 1909 192-0 242-9 381-4 461-9 24-0 262-7 107-7 139-5 16-0 29-4 29-8 36-8 16-9 184-5 2OO-O I52-0 1-8 43-6 46-7 20-8 Classifying imports and domestic exports as of six groups: (l) crude foodstuffs and good animals; (2) foodstuffs partly or wholly prepared; (3) raw materials for use in manufacturing; (4) manufactured articles destined to serve as materials in further processes of manufacture; (5) finished manufactures; (6) miscellaneous products the table on p. 645 shows the distribution of imports and exports among these six classes since 1820.' It will be seen from the table that the share of the first two classes in both imports and exports has been relatively constant. On the other hand the great increase of imports of class III., and the jreat decrease of class V.; and of exports the great increase of those of class IV., and decrease of those of classes III. and V., all reflect the great development of manufactures in modern times. The table also shows the great rapidity of this change in recent years.
Europe takes, of course, a large share of the exports of finished manufactures a little more than a third of the total in the quinquennial period 1903-1908; but North America takes but very slightly less. On the other hand, above 70 % of manufactures destined to serve as material in further processes of manufacture went, in the same years, to Europe, and from eight- to nine-tenths of the first three classes of exports. After Europe the largest shares of exports are taken by North America, Asia and Oceania, South America and Africa in order. The share of the five continental divisions in 1909 was as follows, respectively: $1,169,672,326; 5344,767,613; $113,129,907; $83,509,047 and $17,124,298. The respective shares of the same divisions in the imports of the country were as follows: $763,704,486; $277,863,210; $223,254,724; (193,202,131 and $17,558,029. It will be seen that the commercial 1 The official statistics are kept current since 1820. For the years 789-1818 consult Adam Seybert's Statistical Annals (Philadelphia, 818), which are based upon official documents, a large part of which are no longer in existence.
All Imports. Percentages Exports of Domestic Merchandise.
Years.
by Classes.
Percentages by Classes.
II.
III.
I.
III.
1820 11-15 19-85 3-64 7-48 56-86 i -02 4-79 I9-5I 60-46 9-42 5-66 0-16 1830 11-77 I5'39 6-72 8-22 56-97 o-93 4-65 16-32 62-34 7-04 9-34 0-31 1840 15-54 15-46 11-71 II-56 45-09 0-64 4-09 14-27 67-61 4-34 9-47 0-22 1850 10-38 12-37 6-75 15-08 54-93 0-49 5-59 14-84 62-26 4-49 12-72 O-IO 1860 IO-II 15-26 10-48 6-67 56-52 I-OO 3-85 12-21 68-31 3-99 11-33 0-31 1870 12-38 22-08 12-18 12-51 39-69 1-16 11-12 13-53 56-64 3-66 14-96 O-O9 1880 15-01 17-69 19-74 16-59 29-43 i-54 32-30 23-47 28-98 3-52 11-26 0-47 1890 16-28 16-89 21-62 I4-8I 29-23 1-17 I5-62 26-59 36-03 5-50 15-68 0-58 1900 11-52 I5-65 32-50 15-79 23-90 0-64 16-59 23-21 23-75 11-15 24-22 I -08 1908 12-19 12-31 30-43 16-43 27-77 0-87 10-30 18-10 30-34 14-23 26-68 o-35 1909 11-67 10-99 35-89 17-48 23-24 o-73 6-75 16-76 33-62 14-89 27-52 0-46 interests in South America are relatively small. The shares of the ten nations having the largest part in the trade of the country were as follows in 1909:
Imports from Exports to $ 247,474,104 $ 521,281,999 Germany . . Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador 161,951,673 88,321,706 132,069,748 247,310,084 191,438,400 126,361,959 1zz 07,334,716 48,217,689 Brazil ....
117,062,725 19,765,836 Holland 30,905,712 89,121,124 1zz 2,578,454 53,512,947 Japan Belgium .
68,116,665 36,236,568 23471,837 44,477,380 The leading imports in 1909 were as follows, indicating in each case, when not evidently unnecessary, the value of finished manufactures and of unmanufactured materials: Silk (manufactured, $32,963,162; unmanufactured, $75,512,401); hides and skins, other than fur skins ($103,758,277); sugar and molasses ($91,535,466); fibres, vegetables and textile grasses (manufactured, $33,511,696; unmanufactured, $54,860,698); coffee ($86,524,006); chemicals ($86,401,432); cotton (manufactured, $68,380,780; raw and waste, $15,421,854); rubber (manufactured, $1,462,541, unmanufactured, $83,682,013); wool (manufactured, $22,058,712; unmanufactured, $55,53 O ,366); and wood (manufactured, $43,620,591; unmanufactured, $13,584,172). Precious stones ($43,620,591); fruits and nuts; copper, iron and steel; tobacco (leaf $25,897,650; manufactured, $4,138,521) ; tin; spirits, wines and liquors; oils, paper, works of art, tea and leather ($16,270,406), being the remaining items in excess of $15,000,000 each. The leading exports of domestic merchandise in excess of the same value were the following: cotton ($496,334,448); iron and steel, excluding ores ($157,680,331); meat and dairy products ($151,964,037); petroleum, vegetable and animal oils ($126,350,916); wheat and wheat flour ($100,529,381); copper, excluding ores ($92,584,640); wood ($72,312,880); leather ($47,146,415) ; tobacco ($41 ,554,058) ; coal ($38,441,518) ; agricultural implements ($27,327,428) ; corn and corn meal ($27,062,128) ; animals ($21,007,122); chemicals ($20,330,335); oil-cake ($20,245,818); fruits and nuts ($18,707,670); vehicles ($16,774,036); naval stores ($16,103,076); and paper ($15,280,541).
New York, New Orleans, Boston, Galveston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco and Puget Sound are, in order, the leading customs districts of the country in the value of their imports and exports. Almost one-half of the country's foreign trade is done through the single port of New York. In 1909 more than eighttenths of all imports of the country entered by, and more than seventenths of all exports went out through, the eight customs districts just named. Savannah and Charleston are other great ports and southern outlets, particularly for cotton.
Of the imports and exports of 1861 two-thirds (in value) were carried in American vessels. By 1864 the proportion had fallen to 27-5 %, and except for a temporary slight recovery after the close of the war there has been a steady progress downward since that time, until in 1908 only 9-8% of the commerce of the country was carried on under its own flag. More than half the shipping entering and leaving the ports of the United States in 1908 was British; Germany, the Scandinavian countries, France, Holland and Italy ranking next in order; the United States, although ranking after Great Britain, contributed less than a seventh of the total. The total tonnage entered was 38,539,195 net tons (of 100 cub. ft. each), as compared with 18,010,649 tons in 1880.
Of the total of tonnage entered in 1909, 30,443,695 tons represented seaport entries, the remainder entering across the land frontiers.
The merchant marine of the United States in 1900 totalled 5,164,839 net tons, which was less than that of 1860 (5,353,808), in which year American shipping attained an amount which only in recent years has been again reached. In the decline that followed the Civil War an apparent minimum was reached of 4,068,034 tons in 1880; but this does not adequately indicate the depression of the shipping interest, inasmuch as the aggregate was kept up by the tonnage of vessels engaged in the coasting trade and commerce of the inland waters, from which foreign shipping is by law excluded. The decline of tonnage engaged in ocean traffic was from 2,546,237 net tons in 1860 to 1,352,810 in 1880; and this decline continued in later years. On the other hand the aggregate tonnage of the country has again begun to rise, and in 1908 the total was 7,365,445 net tons, a third of this being on the Great Lakes, and somewhat under one-half on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Of the same total 6,371,865 tons represented the coasting trade, only 930,413 tons being engaged in the foreign trade of the country. New England still supplies a quarter of the shipping annually built along the entire seaboard of the country; but more is yearly built upon the Great Lakes than upon the seaboard.
Internal Commerce: Railways and Canals. Large as has become the foreign commerce of the country, it is small beside the aggregate interior commerce between the states of the Union. The basis of this is necessarily facilities for transportation. At the end of 1908 the railway lines 1 of the country totalled 232,046 m. more than those of all Europe. The traffic on these, measured in units moved one mile, was 28,797,781,231 passenger-miles, and 214,340,129,523 freight miles. Various systems, with joint or separate outlets from the Pacific coast to the Mississippi Valley, provide for the handling of transcontinental freight. Rivers and canals are relatively much less important to-day than in the middle decades of the 19th century, before the growth of the railway traffic made small by comparison the movement on the interior watercourses. According to a special report of the department of commerce and labour of 1906, 290 streams are used to a " substantial degree " for navigation, affording together an aggregate of 2600 m. of 10 ft. navigation, or 5800 m. of 6 Ft. navigation at ordinary water. Of the last almost half belongs to the Mississippi river. More than $250,000,000 has been spent by the national government for the improvement of waterways, yet no general system exists, and a large part of this enormous sum has been wasted on unimportant or impossible projects, especially in recent decades, since the river navigation has been a declining interest. 1360 m. of state-owned canals and 632 m. of private canals of " some importance " were also reported as in operation in 1909. More than an equal length of canal ways (2444 m., costing $80,000,000) was reported as having been abandoned after construction. Of recent years there has been a great revival of interest in the improvement of inland waterways upon systematic plans, which promises better than an earlier period of " internal improvements " in the first half of the 19th century, the results of which were more or less disastrous for the state and local governments that undertook them, and only less so for the national government. The Erie Canal in New York, the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, and the Sault Ste Marie Canal are the most important in the country.
Coal, iron ore, building materials, lumber, livestock, cotton, fruits, vegetables, tobacco and grain are the great items in the domestic commerce of the country, upon its railways, inland waterways, and in the coasting trade. The magnitude of these items is so great as to defy exact determination ; data for the formation of some idea of them can be found in the account of the mineral, forest and agricultural resourcesof the country. It wasestimated by the Bureau of the Census that in 1906 the tonnage of freight moved by American vessels within American waters, excluding harbour traffic, was I77SI975 8 short tons (as compared with 1,514,906,985 long tons handled by the railways of the country). Of this total 42-6% was moved on the Great Lakes, and 36-8% on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and waterways.
The Great Lakes are connected by canals with the Atlantic, th< St Lawrence river and the Mississippi ; the connexion with the first being through the Erie Canal, a 7-ft. waterway, and that with the St Lawrence through Canadian canals that afford a 14-ft. navigation. The connexion with the Mississippi is through the drainage-canal 1 See further RAILWAY.
of Chicago, and thence into branches of the Mississippi affording as yet even less water than the Atlantic outlet. The commerce on the lakes is largely in grain, coal, iron and lumber. The tonnage of vessels cleared between American ports on the lakes in 1908 was 103,271,885 net tons; the freight they carried came to 80,974,605 long tons. Vessels aggregating 46,751,717 net tons, carrying 5.7.895,149 tons of freight, valued at $470,141,318, passed through cne Sault Ste Marie Canal and 47,621 ,078 tons of freight were moved through the Detroit river in the same year. In these figures no account is taken of the trade of the Canadian ports on the lakes. Compared with this volume of traffic the movement through the Suez Canal is small.
It has been estimated by O. P. Austin, chief of the national bureau of statistics, using data of 1903, that the internal commerce of the United States exceeds in magnitude the total international commerce of the world. (F. S. P.)
VII. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT I. Introductory.
i. A description of the government of the United States falls naturally into three parts:
First, an account of the states and their governments.
Second, an account of the Federal system, including the relation of the states as communities to the Federation as representing the whole nation.
Third, an account of the structure and organization of the Federal government considered as the general government of the nation.
As the states are older than the Federal government, and as the latter was, indeed, in many respects modelled upon the scheme of government which already existed in the thirteen original states, it may be convenient to begin with the states and then to proceed to the national government, whose structure is more intricate and will require a fuller explanation.
Before entering, however, on a description of the state governments, one feature must be noticed which is common both to the states and to the Federation, and gives to the governmental system of both a peculiar character, different from that of the government of Great Britain. This feature is the existence of a supreme instrument of government, a document, enacted by the people, which controls, and cannot be altered by, any or all of the ordinary organs of government. In Great Britain parliament is the supreme power, and can change any of the laws of the country at any moment. In the American Union, and in every state of the Union, there exists a documentary or rigid constitution, creating and denning the powers of every authority in the government. It is the expression of the ultimate sovereignty of the people, and its existence gives to the working both of the Federal government and of the several state governments, a certain fixity and uniformity which the European, and especially the British, reader must constantly bear in mind, because under such a constitution every legislative body enjoys far scantier powers than in the United Kingdom and most European countries.
II. The Stale Governments.
2. The state is the oldest political institution in America, and is still the basis and the indestructible unit of the American Origin otthe system. It is the outgrowth from, or rather the American continuation of, the colony, as the latter existed State. before the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In every one of the North American colonies there was in operation at that date a system of self-government, in seven colonies under a charter from the Crown. In each there was a governor, with minor executive officers, a legislature, and a judiciary; and although the Crown retained the power of altering the charter, and the British parliament could (in strict legal view) legislate over the head of the colonial legislature so as to abrogate statutes passed by the latter, still in practice each colony was allowed to manage its own affairs and to enact the laws it desired. Thus the people were well accustomed to work their institutions, and when they gained their independence continued to maintain those institutions with comparatively little change. In two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, the colonial charter was substantially maintained as the constitution of the state for many years, in the former case till 1842, in the latter till 1818.
3. Each state was under the Confederation of 1781 sovereign (except as regarded foreign relations), and for most purposes practically independent. In adopting the Federal Klg t,tsan<i Constitution of 1787-1789, each parted with some Powers of a of . the attributes of sovereignty, while retaining state - others. Those which were retained have been to some extent diminished by the 14th and isth amendments to the Constitution, and if the right to secede from the Union ever existed (a point much controverted), it was finally negatived by the Civil War of 1861-65. Otherwise, however, these attributes survive. The powers of a state are inherent, not delegated, and each retains all such rights and functions of an independent government as it has not, by entering the Union, affirmatively divested itself of in favour of the Federal government. Each has its own documentary constitution; its legislature of two elective houses; its executive, consisting of a governor and other officials; its judiciary, whose decisions are final, except in cases involving Federal law; its system of local government and local taxation; its revenue, system of taxation, and debts; its body of private civil and criminal law and procedure; its rules of citizenship, which may admit persons to be voters in state and national elections under conditions differing from those prevailing in other states.
The rights and functions of a state practically cover the field in which lie most of the relations of private citizens to one another and to the authorities with which they come into contact in daily life. An American may through a long life never be reminded of the Federal government, except when he votes at Federal elections (once in every two years), lodges a complaint against the post office, or is required to pay duties of customs or excise. His direct taxes are paid to officials acting under state laws. The state (or a local authority created by the state) registers his birth, appoints his guardian, provides schools for him and pays for them, allots him a share in the property of a parent dying intestate, licences him when he enters a trade (if the trade needs a licence), marries him, divorces him, entertains civil actions against him, tries and executes him for murder. The police that guard his house, the local boards which care for the poor, control highways, provide water, all derive their powers from the state. Nevertheless the state is (as will be explained later) a slightly declining factor in the public life of the nation, because public interest tends more and more to centre in the Federal or national government.
4. The constitution of each state is framed and enacted by the state itself, without any Federal interference, save that the Federal Constitution requires that the Con- ... i j . State Coa- stitution under which a new state seeks admission to s< ft u( /o ns . the Union must be "republican"; and under this requirement, Congress has seemed to assume a right of making the adoption, or omission, of any particular provision in a state constitution a condition of the admission of that particular state. Even in these cases, however, the constitution derives its force not from the national government, but from the people of the state. The invariable method of forming a constitution is for the citizens to elect by special popular vote a body called a convention to draft the document, which, when drafted and circulated, is usually, though not quite invariably, submitted to popular vote. This is done either when a state is to be formed out of a Territory (as to which see post, 10), or when an existing state desires to give itself a new constitution. 1 A state constitution usually consists of the following parts :
A description of the state boundaries (now frequently omitted) ; A bill of rights, denning the so-called " primordial rights " of the citizens to security of life, liberty and property; A declaration and enactment of the frame of state government, i.e. the names, functions and powers of the houses of the legislature, 1 Details as to state constitutions will be found in J. Brvce, American Commonwealth, chs. xxxvii.-xxxix., which is referred to here and subsequently as containing a fuller treatment of all the topics dealt with in this article. Further details may be found also in the articles on the separate states.
the chief executive officials, and the courts of justice, with provisions regulating the electoral franchise ; Provisions creating, or directing the creation of, a system of local government for cities and rural areas; Miscellaneous provisions relating to law and administration, including the militia, revenue and taxation, state prisons and hospitals, agriculture, banking and other corporations, railways, labour questions ; Provisions for the amendment of the constitution; A schedule prescribing the method of submitting the draft constitution to the vote of the people, with temporary provisions regulating the mode of transition from the old constitutional arrangsments to the new ones.
The method of amending the constitution varies in detail from state to state, but that most usual is for the legislature to propose amendments, often by a prescribed majority, and for these amendments to be voted on by the people. Such amendments have latterly come to include many matters not strictly constitutional, and so to constitute a speci3s of direct legislation by the people similar in principle to what is called in Switzerland the Referendum. Some states have recently allowed a prescribed number of voters to propose, by what is called the Initiative, amendments which are submitted to the vote of all the citizens without the intervention of the legislature.
Two remarkable changes have passed over the state constitutions. In the earlier days of the republic they were comparatively short and simple instruments, confined to the definition of civic rights and the establishment of a frame of government. They have now become very long and elaborate documents, seven, eight or ten times as long as the Federal Constitution, and containing a vast number of provisions on all sorts of subjects, many of them partaking of the nature of ordinary statutes passed by a legislature rather than safeguards suitable to a fundamental instrument. And secondly, whereas in earlier days the constitutions were seldom changed, they are now frequently recast or amended. Only Maine and Massachusetts and a few of the newer states live under original constitutions, and only Massachusetts is under a constitution older than the 19th century. Some have recast their constitutions seven or eight times. Some provide for the revision of the constitution at stated intervals. Notwithstanding the facility and frequency of amendments, the variations between one constitution and another are less conspicuous than might have been expected. There is, however, a distinction of type and character between those of the western and southern and those of the eastern states, the former being generally more prolix, more prone to go into details, more apt to contain new experiments in legislation.
Comparing the old constitutions with the new ones, it may be said that the note of those enacted in the first thirty or forty years of the republic was their jealousy of executive power and their careful safeguarding of the rights of the citizen ; that of the second period, from 1820 to the Civil War (1861-65), the democratization of the suffrage and of institutions generally; that of the third period (since the war to the present day), a disposition to limit the powers and check the action of the legislature, and to commit power to the hands of the whole people voting at the polls.
5. In every state the legislature consists of two houses. This remarkable feature, originally due to the practice that had prevailed in some colonies, and to the example of fe "fsiatures Great Britain, soon became universal, and the belief ' in its necessity has passed into a fundamental dogma, the idea being that a single chamber would be either hasty, or tyrannical or unscrupulous perhaps all three so that there must always be a second chamber to keep the first in order. The smaller house is called the Senate, the larger one is (usually) called the House of Representatives, sometimes, however, the Assembly sometimes the House of Delegates. Both are chosen by popular vote, almost universally by the same voters, and usually in single-membered districts, and at the same time. The senatorial districts are, of course, larger than the house districts. A senator is usually chosen for a longer term (often four years) than a representative, and, in most cases, whereas the house is elected all at once, the senate is renewed only partially at each election. In some states by law, and in all by custom also, a member must reside in the district which he represents.
Universal manhood suffrage, subject to certain disqualifications (e.g. certain crimes or receipt of poor relief), is the rule in the great majority of states. Certain terms of residence within the United States, in the state, and in the voting district are generally prescribed, the periods varying from state to state. Nine states allow voting rights to aliens who have declared their intention to become citizens, and in some they can as taxpayers vote on financial matters submitted to a special vote. Kansas grants them a full municipal suffrage. Fourteen prescribe some sort of educational qualification. Five states Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Washington give the suffrage for all elections to women. 1 In 1905 women could vote at school elections in twenty-four states. Of late years seven Southern states, beginning with Mississippi (constitution of 1890) and including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, have so altered their constitutions as to exclude from voting the great bulk of their respective negro populations, by means of educational tests, property qualifications, a combination of both, or by other means, while various ingenious devices have been employed to admit a large part, at least, of the illiterate whites. In 1910 Oklahoma adopted provisions of the same kind. The suffrage for legislature elections generally determines that for all other elections within the state, and as a rule it carries with it eligibility to office. And by the Federal Constitution it is also the suffrage for Federal elections, viz. elections of representatives in Congress and of presidential electors.
Elections are now practically everywhere conducted under that system of secret voting, which is called in America " the Australian ballot," and which is very similar to that used in the United Kingdom since 1872. There used to be a good deal of fraud practised at elections, including " personating " and " repeating," as well as a good deal of bribery in a few states and in some of the larger cities. Legislation has reduced these evils in recent years; and efforts have been made to prevent the excessive expenditure of money at elections, and the making of contributions to party " campaign funds " by wealthy corporations who desire to secure some benefit for themselves. Another evil which has not yet been dealt with is the large number of posts for which the voter is expected at an election to select the best men. This, of course, does not apply to elections to a legislature; but in city elections, and to some extent in state elections and county elections also, it creates great difficulties, for how is the average citizen to know (especially in a large city) who are the fittest men out of a long list of candidates for perhaps ten or twenty offices, all of which have to be filled by election at the same time? The perception of these difficulties has evoked a movement for what is called " a short ballot."
The number of members of the legislative chambers varies from state to state. Delaware with 17 senators and 35 representatives, has the smallest; Minnesota, with 63 senators, has the largest Senate; and New Hampshire (a small state) has, with its 390 representatives, the largest House. The New York houses number 51 and 150 respectively; those of Pennsylvania, 50 and 204; of Illinois, 51 and 153; of Ohio, 34 and 118; of Massachusetts, 40 and 240. In all states, members of the legislature receive a salary, which is the same for both houses, some states fixing an annual sum, but most preferring a per diem rate, while the maximum is generally determined by a limitation on the length of the session.
It has become the wish of the people in most places to have sessions both short and few. Whereas formerly legislatures met annuaUy, regular sessions are now biennial except in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Georgia and South Carolina all original states. In Alabama the legislature meets regularly once only in four years, though it may be convoked in the interval.
The Senates act as courts for the trial of state officers impeached by the house (in imitation of the British House of Lords and the Federal Senate), and have in some states _ the function of confirming or refusing appointments Functions made by the governor. Otherwise the powers and of the state procedure of the two houses are everywhere sub- ^ e f'*~ stantiaUy identical, though it is worth noting that whereas every house chooses its own Speaker, the president of 1 Woman suffrage amendments to state constitutions have been rejected by the people in at least twelve states and in two territories. State organizations of women to oppose the extension of the suffrage to women exist in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon: possibly in other states also.
the Senate is, in most states, a lieutenant-governor, whom the people have directly elected. Bills may originate in either house, but in about half of the states money bills must originate in the House of Representatives a survival of British custom which has here, where both houses equally represent the people, no functional value. Both houses do most of their work by committees, much after the fashion (to be presently described) of the Federal Congress, and it is in these committees that the form of bills is usually settled and their fate decided. Sometimes, when a committee is taking evidence on an important question, reporters are present, and the proceedings receive comment in the newspapers; but in general the proceedings of committees and even debates in the houses are imperfectly reported and excite no great public interest. In all the states except one, viz. North Carolina, bills passed by the two houses must be submitted to the state governor for his approval. Should he return it to the legislature disapproved, it is lost unless repassed " over his veto " by a majority usually of two-thirds, but sometimes larger, in each house. A good governor is apt to use his veto freely indeed, a frequent exercise of the power is deemed in many states to be a sort of test of the governor's judgment and courage.
Subjects of state legislation may be classified under three heads :
1. Ordinary private law, including property, contracts, torts, family relations, offences, civil and criminal procedure.
2. Administrative law, including the regulation of urban and rural local government, state and local taxation and finance, education, public works, the liquor traffic, vaccination, adulteration, charities, asylums, prisons, the inspection of mines and factories, general laws relating to corporations, railways, labour questions.
3. Matters of a local or special nature, such as bills for chartering and incorporating gas, water, canal, tramway, railway or telephone companies, or for conferring franchises in the nature of monopolies or special privileges upon such companies, or for altering their constitutions, as also for incorporating cities or minor communities and regulating their affairs. Although there usually exist general laws under which corporations or companies (including railway and electric car companies) can be formed, laws which in some states and for some purposes confer a greater freedom of incorporation than the general law allows in the United Kingdom, there is nevertheless a noticeable tendency to come to the legislature for special purposes of this kind.
As respects class I, there is not much change in the law from year to year. The legal profession does not like to see the ordinary and established rules disturbed. Sometimes the laws belonging to this class are codified, or rather consolidated, and then usually by a special committee of competent lawyers whose work is passed en bloc by the legislature.
As respects class 2, a good many measures are passed, particularly in matters affecting labour, and for the protection of any sections of the population which may be deemed to need protection.
It is, however, in class 3 that the legislatures show most activity, much of it pernicious, because prompted by persons seeking to serve private interests which are often opposed to the interests of the whole community. The great " public service " corporations have, in particular, frequently succeeded in obtaining franchises of large pecuniary value without making any adequate payment therefor. A peculiarly notable form of this special or private bill legislation is that of dealing by special statutes with the governmental forms and details of management of municipalities; and the control exercised by the state legislatures over city governments is not only a most important branch of legislative business, but at the same time a means of power to scheming politicians and of enrichment to greedy ones. This has led in some states to the grant of power to cities to frame their own charters. Speaking generally, it is chiefly in the Sphere of special or private legislation that state legislatures have shown their weak side, and incurred, in many states, the distrust of the people.
The members of these bodies belong for the most part, though by no means entirely, and least so in the agricultural states, to the class of professional politicians. They are seldom persons of shining ability or high standing in their communities. Except as a stepping-stone to a seat in Congress or a high executive post, the place is not one which excites the ambition of aspirins; men. The least respected legislatures are those of the richest and most populous states, such as New York and Pennsylvania, because in such states the opportunities offered to persons devoid of scruple are the largest.
The general decline in the quality of these bodies, and especially their proneness to pass ill-considered or pernicious bills at the instance of private promotors, has led to the restriction in recent years of their powers by the insertion in the state constitutions of many provisions forbidding the enactment of certain classes of measures, and regulating the procedure to be adopted in the passing, either of statutes generally or of particular kinds of statutes. Even these provisions, however, are frequently evaded.
6. At the head of every state government stands an official called the governor, who is the descendant and representative of the governor of colonial times. Under the earlier constitutions of most of the original thirteen states he was chosen by the legislature, but he is now everywhere directly elected by the people, and by the same suffrage as the legislature. His term of office is four years in twenty-three states (including Pennsylvania and Illinois), three years in one state, two years in twenty, and one year in two (Massachusetts and Rhode Island). In a few states there are prohibitions on re-election.
It is the duty of the governor to see that the laws of the state are faithfully administered by all officials, and the judgments of the courts carried out. He has, in most states, the right of reprieving or pardoning offenders, but some recent constitutions place restrictions on this power. He is also commander of the militia or other armed forces of the state, which he can direct to repel invasion, or suppress insurrection or riot. He appoints some of the state officials, his nominations usually requiring the concurrence of the state senate; but his patronage is in most states not very large in many it is indeed insignificant because the offices of greatest importance are filled by direct popular election. He has also the almost mechanical function of representing the state for various formal purposes, such as demanding from other states the extradition of offenders, the issuing of writs for the election of members of the legislature and of members of the Federal House of Representatives, and the receiving of reports from various state officials or boards.
Not less important than his directly executive work is the influence which the governor exerts upon state legislation through his possession (in all the states but one) of a veto power. His right of recommending measures to the legislature (which does not formally include that of framing and presenting bills, but practically permits him to have a bill prepared and use all his influence on its behalf) is of greater value according to the extent to which he leads the public opinion of his state. The legislature need not regard his counsels, but if he is a strong man whom the people trust, it may fear him and comply with his demands. When a commercial crisis occurs much may depend on his initiative. Moreover, his veto is a thing to be reckoned with. It is seldom overridden by the prescribed majority, especially if the bill against which it is directed be one of a jobbing nature. And as the people look to him to kill bad measures, he is frequently able, if he be a man both strong and upright, to convey intimations to the legislature, or to those who are influential in it, that he will not approve of certain pending measures, or will approve of them only if passed in a form satisfactory to him. The use of this potential authority, which the possession of the veto power gives, has now become one of a governor's most important duties.
In New England, and in the greater states generally, the governorship is still a post of dignity, and affords an opportunity for a display of character and talents. During the War of Secession, when each governor was responsible for organizing troops from his state, much turned upon his energy, popularity and loyalty. And in recent years the danger of riots during strikes has, in some states, made it important to have a man of decision and fearlessness in the office which issues orders to the state militia. There has been of late years a revival in the case of some able governors of the old respect for, and deference to, the office.
In thirty-five states there is a lieutenant-governor, elected by popular vote. He is usually president of the state senate, is sometimes a member of some administrative boards, and steps into the governor's place should it become vacant.
Executive councils advising the governor, but not chosen by him, existed under the first constitutions of all the original thirteen states. In New York the council of appointment advised the governor only in regard to appointing officers; and in Georgia there was no executive council after 1789. True executive councils have now disappeared except in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.
7. The names and duties of the other officers vary from state to state. In every state there are a secretary of state, who is custodian of the documents and archives, and a treasurer. Nearly nlnlstra- ever y wnere there are also a comptroller or auditor, who a state" keeps the accounts and is the principal financial_ officer, live Offices an attorney-general or legal adviser, an adjutantgeneral, who has immediate charge of the militia, and a superintendent of public instruction, with some little authority over the public schools. Most of the states have also a board of charities, a board of health, a board of railway commissioners, and either boards or single commissioners for banking, insurance, agriculture, public lands and prisons. Other administrative departments found in different states are those having control of public works principally canals insane hospitals, factory inspection, labour statistics and immigration. New York state, with nearly fifty different administrative bureaus, has a larger number than any other state. In many states the most important of these officials are elected by the people at a general election, but some officials are either chosen by the legislature or appointed by the governor, the latter method applying mainly to offices of recent creation. The terms of office vary for the different offices, very few exceeding four years. The state officials, being thus largely independent of the governor, and responsible only to the people, are in no sense a cabinet (save in North Carolina). Each administers his own department, subject to the detailed regulation imposed by statutes, and as these statutes determine such matters as might come into controversy, a general agreement in policy among the administrative officials is not essential.
In many states officials may be removed, not only by impeachment, but also sometimes by vote of the legislature, sometimes by the governor on the address of both houses, or by the governor either alone or with the concurrence of the senate; but such removals must be made for specific misconduct.
The extent of direct state administration of public institutions and works is very limited, and most of the state bureaus have only a supervision over private enterprises, or over local administrative officers. On this account the subordinate civil service of the state is not large compared with that of either the Federal goyernment or of the large municipalities, and only in a few states does it possess any importance. However, these bureaus are seldom well manned, because salaries and tenure of office are seldom such as to induce able men to offer themselves, while the places are often given as rewards for political service. New York, Massachusetts and a few other states have systems of civil service examinations, similar to those in the Federal administration, which serve to keep certain branches out of politics.
8. The judiciary is in every state an independent department of the government, directly created by the state constitution, and not controlled in the exercise of its Judiciary, functions either by the legislature or by the executive. In every state it includes three sets of courts: a supreme court or court of appeal; superior courts of record; and local courts, but the particular names and relations of these several tribunals vary greatly from state to state. Most of the original thirteen colonies once possessed also separate courts of chancery; and these were maintained for many years after the separation from Great Britain, and were imitated in several of the earlier among the new states, but special chancery courts now exist only in a few of the states, chiefly in the East and South. In other states the common law judges have also equity jurisdiction; and in four states New York, North Carolina, California and Idaho there has been a complete fusion of law and equity.
In colonial days the superior judges were appointed by the governors, except in Rhode Island and Connecticut, where the legislatures elected them. These precedents were followed in all the revolutionary constitutions, except in Georgia, where election by the people was established. During the democratizing period from 1820 to 1860 the system of popular election was extended, especially in the new states, and at present this system prevails in thirty-six states, including practically all of the new states and five of the original states New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia. Three of the original thirteen have their judges elected by the legislatures, and in five others, together with Maine and Mississippi among the newer states, they are appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the executive council, the Senate, or (in Connecticut) the General Assembly. Local judges are generally chosen by the voters of the district in which they hold court.
Originally the superior judges were in most states appointed for life and held office during good behaviour, but only three states now retain this system. Eight to ten years is the average term of service; it is longer in New York (14), Maryland (15), and Pennsylvania (21), where alone superior judges are not re-eligible. Salaries, too, are small in most states, often not more than onetenth of what a prominent lawyer can make by private practice.
These three factors popular election, limited terms and small salaries have all tended to lower the character of the judiciary; and in not a few states the state judges are men of moderate abilities and limited learning, inferior (and sometimes conspicuously inferior) to the best of the men who practise before them. Nevertheless, in most states the bench is respectable in point of character, while in some it is occasionally adorned by men of the highest eminence. The changes introduced since 1870 have been, on the whole, for the better, though there is still room for further improvement. Corruption seems to be very rare, but instances of subservience to powerful political groups sometimes shake public confidence. Things would doubtless have become worse but for the watchfulness which the bar generally shows in endeavouring to secure the selection of honest and fairly competent men. The administration of civil justice is decidedly better than that of criminal justice. The latter is in many states neither prompt nor certain, offenders frequently escaping through the excessive regard for technicalities even more than through the indulgence of juries and the occasional weakness of judges.
It must be remembered that the courts of each state form a judicial system, complete in itself, and independent of the Federal courts, and, of course, of other states. There is no appeal from the highest state court, except in those cases where a question of Federal law is involved, for then such cases may be removed, in manner to be explained hereafter, to the Federal courts. And, subject only to this limitation, the jurisdiction of the state courts covers the entire field of civil and criminal law. The existing legal system of all the states, except Louisiana, whose law is based on the Roman, have been built upon the foundation of the principles contained in the common and statute law of England as that law stood in 1776, when the thirteen colonies declared their independence. In the development of the law since that time the courts of one state are not bound either by law or by usage to follow the decisions either of the Federal courts or of the courts of any other state, any more than they would follow English courts, although such decisions are used and discussed as evidence of the common law, and great deference is always shown to the opinions expressed by the Federal courts. In many states the legislatures have taken action in the development of law by adopting statutory codes of procedure, and in some instances have even enacted codes embodying the substance of the common law fused with the statutes. These latter codes have not, however, received the genera! approval of the legal profession.
It is, of course, to the state courts that the duty belongs of construing the constitution as well as the statutes of the state, and if they find any state law to be inconsistent with the state constitution it is their duty to declare it invalid. It is also the duty of the state court to declare any state law invalid if it is contrary to the Federal constitution or to a Federal statute or treaty. As in the case of the similar power of the Federal judges, this is founded on no special commission, but arises out of the ordinary judicial function of expounding the law and discriminating between the fundamental law and laws of inferior authority (see post, 25).
9. Wide as is the range of the rights and powers of a state, and elaborate as is the structure of its government, the state holds a practically less important position in the Change la American system than it once did, and has not so the Political strong a hold as it had in the first quarter of the Importance 19th century upon the loyalty and affection of its oftheState - citizens. The political interest and the patriotism of the people generally are now given rather to the nation as a whole than to a state, whereas in the two generations following the Revolutionary War the opposite would have been the case. This notable difference is due not to any constitutional changes, for there has been none except those contained in the 13th, 14th and isth amendments to the Constitution, but to the three following causes:
The first is the growth of the party system with its complicated machinery, which has linked the citizens of different states more closely together, and has led to the eclipsing of political issues confined to a state by issues which are matters of controversy throughout the nation.
The second cause is the Civil War of 1861-65, which practically negatived the far-reaching claims of state sovereignty and the right of secession made by statesmen of the type of Calhoun, and showed that the nation was really much stronger than any group of states.
The third is the enormous development of swift and cheap communications by land and water, and the growth of commerce and of productive industry, which have brought every part of the country into much closer relations with every other part, and have increased the sense of economic solidarity.
10. During the entire history of the United States there has been a considerable area within the jurisdiction of the Federal government not included in that of any one Territories or more f the states; and the systems of government for the various parts of this area require some description. The Territories (strictly so called) were at one time important, though now less so, because there icmain only two, the unorganized Territory or District of Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Till 1910 there were the two organized Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, but in that year Congress passed an act for their admission as states. Previously to that year there had been ever since 1787 a large area of the continent which, while belonging to the United States, was deemed too thinly peopled to be fit to be divided up into states. Parts of this area were, however, set off and organized as Territories, receiving a qualified form of selfgovernment while under the ultimate control of Congress for the purposes of legislation. When these parts had been sufficiently filled up by settlers, they were allowed to organize themselves as states, each giving, itself a constitution. The Territorial government consisted of a legislature of two houses elected by the people, with a governor appointed by the president of the United States, with the consent of the Senate, and judges similarly appointed. The Territories were not represented in Congress, but each could send a delegate to the House of Representatives, who could speak there but not vote.
Since the Spanish War of 1898 there have been added to the United States various transmarine dominions, none of which has been formed into a state, or is likely to be so formed for a good while to come; and there is also one small piece of original area of the United States, viz. the District of Columbia, which is outside any state, because it contains the national capital. The transmarine dominions are Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and the Canal Zone on the Isthmus of Panama.
III. Local Government.
ii. Every state in the Union has its own system of local administrative areas and local authorities, working under its Rural Local own laws, these systems agreeing in many points Govern- with one another, and differing in many others. Three main types of rural local government may be distinguished, prevailing in different regions. The first is characterized by its unit, the town or township, and exists in the six New England states. The second is characterized by a much larger unit, the county, and prevails in the southern states. The third may be called the mixed system, combining some features of the first with some of the second, and is found under a considerable variety of forms in the middle and northwestern states. The different types spring from the original differences in the character of the colonists who settled on the Atlantic coast, and in the conditions under which the various colonial communities developed. (See American Commonwealth, chs. xlvii. and xlix.)
The town, or township, of New England is generally a rural community occupying a comparatively small area, and with a population averaging about 3000, but ranging from 200 in newly-settled districts or thinly-peopled hilly districts up to 17,000 in the vicinity of large cities and in manufacturing neighbourhoods. Each town is governed by the town meeting, an assembly of all the qualified voters within the limits, which meets at least once a year in the spring, and also at other times when specially summoned. This assembly elects the town officials at the annual meetings, but it is much more than an electoral body. It is also a deliberative assembly and the legislative authority for local matters. It enacts by-laws and ordinances, receives the reports of the local officials, passes their accounts, manages the town property, votes appropriations for each item of expenditure, and authorizes the necessary taxation. Every resident citizen has the right to bring forward and to speak in favour of any proposal. The meeting is presided over by a chairman called the moderator. In rural communities the attendance is usually good, the debates are sensible and practical, and a satisfactory administration is generally secured. But when the town meeting has grown to exceed seven or eight hundred persons, and especially when the farming class of native American stock has been replaced by factory operatives of other nationalities, the institution works tar less perfectly.
The town officials consist of the " selectmen " (usually three, five or seven, sometimes nine), the town clerk, treasurer, assessors, tax collector, school committee men, and the holders of divers minor offices according to local needs. These are elected annually, except that in some cases the " selectmen " and school committee have a term of several years, one member of each board being elected annually. The " selectmen," who receive no regular salary, but may charge for expenses actually incurred, form a sort of directory or executive committee, which manages the ordinary administrative and financial business under such instructions as may have been given by the town meeting.
In the Middle and Western states the township is a more artificial organism than the rural town of New England. In one group of states Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa while the township has more or less power, and there are town officials, there is no town meeting. In another group Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the two Dakotas the town meeting reappears, though in a less primitive and less perfect form. In the states west of the Alleghanies each township covers an artificial area 6 m. square, and a separate quasi-municipal organization is usually provided for the villages which have grown up in many townships.
The county is to be found in every state of the Union, but its importance varies inversely with the position held in the system of local government by that smaller and older organism, the town. In New England the county was originally an aggregation of towns for judicial purposes, and in that part of the Union it is still in the main a judicial district. There is no general representative council or board, but judicial officers, a sheriff and a clerk, are elected in each county, and also a county treasurer and county commissioners. The latter have the management of county buildings, such as courthouses and prisons, have power to lay out new main highways, to grant licences, and to apportion among the towns and cities the taxation necessary to meet county expenses. Besides these officials there are generally to be found in New England a county school superintendent and an overseer of roads. In the Southern states the county is the local administrative unit, and in addition to its original judicial and financial functions it has now also control over public schools, the care of the poor and the construction and management of roads. County government is generally vested in a board of county commissioners, elected (in almost every state) by the people, and in various officials also directly elected. In some Southern states some counties have been subdivided into school districts, each of which elects a school committee, and from this nucleus there may possibly develop something resembling the New England town. In those Middle and Western states where the town meeting is not found, the functions and officials of the county tend to resemble those existing in the Southern states, while even in those parts of the west where the town meeting is found the county remains more important than in New England. Thus in many of these states poor relief is a county and not a town charge. In most states county administration belongs to a small board of three commissioners elected for the county at large, but in New York, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin there is a larger board of supervisors elected by townships and cities within each county. Although local affairs do not now enlist, even in New England, so large a measure of interest and public spirit as the town system used to evoke in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut in the 'thirties, still, broadly speaking, the rural local government of America may be deemed satisfactory. The administration is fairly cheap and fairly efficient, most so, on the whole, in the Northern and Western states, while jobbery and corruption are uncommon. The value of local self-government as a training for the duties of citizenship has been very great, and in many parts of the country, especially where the funds dealt with are small, elections are not fought and offices not distributed upon party lines.
1 2. The tendency, now so marked in nearly all civilized countries, to the development of urban communities has been nowhere more marked than in the United States. The increase in cu the range and importance of municipal functions has Q .
been not less striking than the growth of urban popu- ' lation. This can best be illustrated by the figures of municipal expenditure. In 1810 the annual budget of New York city with a population of 100,000 was $100,000; to-day an average city of 100,000 population has an annual expenditure of from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000, and the total expenditure of the city of New York in 1909 exceeded $150,000,000. Municipal government is therefore a matter of high concern to America, and plays a large part in any study of American political institutions.
The historical origin of American municipal government is to be found in certain boroughs which had been chartered in [he colonial period, after the fashion of English boroughs. These American corporations had the usual English system of borough government, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councilmen, who carried out the simple administrative and judicial functions needed lor the then small communities. The basis for the government of each American city is still a charter, but since the Revolution these charters have been granted by the state legislatures, and are subject to constant change by statute. The charters of cities have shown the same process of increasing length and detailed regulation as the state constitutions; and in details there are many differences between different cities. In some states cities are now permitted to enact their own charters. (See American Commonwealth, chs. l.-lii.)
As a rule, one finds (l) a mayor, elected directly by the voters within the city, who is the head of the administration; (2) administrative officers or boards, some directly elected by the city voters, others nominated by the mayor or chosen by the council; (3) a council or assembly, consisting sometimes of two, but more frequently of one chamber, elected directly by the city voters; and (4) judges, usually elected by the city voters, but sometimes appointed by the state.
The mayor is by far the most important official in the city government. He is elected usually for two years, but sometimes for one, three or four (in New York his term is now four years). He has almost everywhere a veto on all ordinances passed by the council, modelled on the veto of the Federal president and of a state governor. In many cities he appoints some or all of the heads of the administrative departments, usually with the approval of the council, but in some important cities the mayor has an absolute power of appointment. As the chief executive officer, he preserves the public peace. In practice he is often allowed to exert a certain discretion as to the enforcement of the laws, especially those providing for Sunday closing, and this discretion has sometimes become a source of mischief. He usually receives a considerable salary, varying with the size of the city.
The practical work of municipal administration is carried on by a number of departments, some under single heads, and some under boards or commissions. The number and classification of these departments vary widely in the different cities. The board of education, which controls the public schools, is usually largely independent of the council, and in some important cities has an independent power of taxation. In Boston, St Louis, Baltimore, and some few other cities, the police board (or commissioner) is appointed by the governor because police matters had been mismanaged by the municipal authorities and occasionally allowed to become a means of extortion and a door to corruption.
The city councils pass local ordinances, vote appropriations, levy taxes and generally exert some control over appointments to administrative positions. The recent tendency has been, however, to decrease the powers of the council and to increase those of the mayor. In some cities the mayor has received an absolute power of appointment; the departments, especially the boards of health, have large ordinance-making powers; statutes passed by the state legislature determine (excepting the states where cities can make their own charters) the principal lines of municipal policy, and the real control over appropriations and taxes is occasionally found vested in a board of estimate, consisting of the mayor, comptroller (the chief financial officer), and a few other administrative officials. In New York City, where the council had lost public confidence, and in some other places, the only important power still possessed by the council is that of granting franchises to street railways, gas companies and the like. In the smaller cities, however, the councils have retained a wider measure of authority. In 1902 the city of Galveston, in Texas, adopted a new form of municipal government by vesting all powers in a commission of five persons, elected by the citizens on a " general ticket," one of whom is mayor and head of the commission, while each of the others has charge of a department of municipal administration. A similar plan, differing in some details, was subsequently introduced in the city of Des Moines, in Iowa; and the success which has attended this new departure in both cities has led to its adoption in many others, especially, but not exclusively, in the Western states. In 1910 more than seventy cities were so administered. Under it administration would appear to have become both more pure and more efficient. The functions of city government may be distributed into three groups: (a) Those which are delegated by the state out of its general coercive and administrative powers, including the police power and the granting of licences; (b) those which, though done under general laws, are properly matters of local charge and subject to local regulation, such as education and the relief of the poor; and (c) those which involve no questions of policy, but are of a purely business nature, such as the paving and cleansing of streets, the construction and maintenance of drains, the provision of water, etc.
It is here proper to advert to a remarkable extension of direct popular government which has in recent years been applied both to states and to cities. Several state initiative, constitutions now contain provisions enabling a Referendum prescribed number (or proportion) of the voters in *"<t Recall. a state or city to submit a proposition to all the registered voters of the state (or city) for their approval. If carried, it takes effect as a law. This is the Initiative. These constitutions also allow a prescribed number of voters to demand that a law passed by the state legislature, or an ordinance passed by the municipal authority, be submitted to all the voters for their approval. If rejected by them, it falls to the ground. This is the Referendum. Some cities also provide in their charters that an official, including the mayor or a member of the council, may be displaced from office if, at a special election held on the demand of a prescribed number of the city voters, he does not receive the largest number of votes cast. This is the Recall. All these three institutions are in operation in some Western states and are spreading to some of the Eastern cities. Their working is observed with lively interest, for they carry the principle of direct popular sovereignty to lengths unprecedented except in Switzerland. But it is not merely to the faith of the Western Americans in the people that their introduction is due. Quite as much must b^ ascribed to the want of faith in the legislatures of states and cities, which are deemed too liable to be influenced by selfish corporations.
IV. The Federal System.
13. When, in 1776, the thirteen colonies threw off their allegiance to the British Crown and took the title of states, they proceeded to unite themselves in a league ' by the Articles of Confederation of 1781. This scheme of union proved defective, for its central authority, an assembly called Congress, was hopelessly weak. It had neither an executive nor a judiciary, nor had it proper means of coercing a recalcitrant state. Its weakness became so apparent, especially after the pressure of the war with Great Britain had been removed, that the opinion of the wisest men called for a closer and more effective union. Thus the present Constitution was drafted by a convention in 1787, was ratified by nine states (the prescribed number) in 1788, and was set to work under George Washington as first president in 1789.
14. The Constitution is a document of the first importance in the history of the world, because it has not only determined the course of events in the American Republic, but The Federal has also influenced, or become a model for, other Cons Muconstitutions, such as those of Switzerland (1848 tloa - and 1874), Canada (1867), Australia (1900), besides Mexico and the numerous republics of South and Central America. It was in substance a compromise effected between those who wished for a centralized government and those who desired to leave very wide powers to the component states; and many subsequent difficulties arose from the omission to settle certain points, and from the somewhat vague language in which other points were referred to. Of these omissions and points left vague, some were inevitable, because an agreement could not have been reached, some were due to the impossibility of foreseeing what difficulties the future would bring with it. But they were, considering the conditions under which the instrument was framed, comparatively few, and the Constitution, when one regards it as a piece of drafting, deserves the admiration which it has received from nearly all American and most foreign critics. It is, on the whole, admirably clear, definite and concise, probably superior in point of technique to all the documents since framed on its model.
As respects substance, the Constitution, being enacted by and expressing the will of the people, who are the ultimate source of political power, is the supreme law of the land over the whole Union, entitled to prevail over all laws passed by Congress, the legislature which it creates, as well as over all state constitutions and all state laws. It can be altered only by the people, in manner to be hereafter mentioned. It is a comparatively short document, and consists of seven articles, subdivided into sections. Art. I. deals with the Federal legislature, its structure and powers, and imposes certain restrictions upon the states. Art. II. provides for the election of an executive head, the president, and assigns certain powers and duties to him. Art. III. treats of the judicial power, denning its range and the mode of its exercise. Arts. IV., V. and VI. contain certain miscellaneous provisions, including those which regulate the mode of amendment. Two alternative methods of proposing amendments and also two of passing them are recognized. They may be proposed either by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress, or by a convention called by Congress on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. They may be passed either by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. Congress has in every instance preferred the .method of itself proposing amendments and the method of submitting them to the state legislatures for ratification.
The provisions of the Constitution, which is later in date than the creation of the original states, and presupposes the existence and activity of those communities, include two sets of matters, which must be considered separately (a) the Federal system, i.e. the relations of the national government to the states; and (b) the structure of the national government itself.
15. In the determination and allotment of the rights n tM i> ~ an d powers of the national government on one side Distribution f .
O f Powers and of the states on the other, a determination between the which is the foundation of every federal system, tne American Constitution proceeds upon these principles:
1. No powers are expressly allotted to the states, because the states are contemplated as continuing to enjoy those preexisting powers which they have by their own right, and not as devolved upon them by the nation.
2. The powers allotted to the national government are those, and those only, which are required for the purposes of the collective life of the nation, i.e. (a) powers which relate to its action in the international Sphere; and (b) powers which can be exercised within the Union more efficiently and more to the benefit of the people by one central government than by a number of separate governments.
3. All powers which are not expressly allotted to the national government are left to the states, unless specially forbidden to be exercised by the latter, i.e. powers not specifically referred to remain with the states, and if the national government wishes to claim any particular power, it must show affirmatively that that power has been granted to it by the Constitution. [This principle has been followed in the Constitution of Australia, but not in that of Canada.] The powers given to the national government may be described as those which subserve purposes of common national utility. 1 They are the following (see Const, art. I. 8):
To impose and collect taxes, which must be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate foreign and inter-state commerce; To establish a uniform rule of naturalization and a uniform bankruptcy law; To coin money and fix the standard of weights and measures; To establish post offices and post roads ; To secure exclusive rights for limited time by granting patents and copyrights ; To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; To declare war, and regulate captures on land and water; To raise and maintain an army and a navy ; To provide for calling out the militia, for organizing and arming them, and for governing such part of them as may be in the actual service of the United States ; To exercise exclusive jurisdiction in the area selected for the seat of the national government and over spots acquired for military or naval purposes; To make all laws necessary for carrying out the above powers 1 As to the scheme and working of the Federal government in its relation to the states, see American Commonwealth, chs. xxvii.-xxx.
(including laws punishing such offences as fall within Federal jurisdiction as being transgressions of Federal law) ; To pass laws protecting citizens of the United States against unjust or discriminating legislation by any state (amendments xiii.andxiv.).
16. The national government is, however, interdicted from using these powers in certain directions by the following prohibitions (art. I. 9, and first ten amendments): It may not suspend the writ of habeas corpus (except 1 in time of war or public danger) or pass a bill of attainder or an ex post me facto law; give any state a commercial preference over National another; grant any title of nobility; establish or g overnmeat prohibit any religion, or impose any religious test as a condition of holding office; abridge the freedom of speaking or writing, or of public meeting, or of bearing arms; try any person for certain offences except on the presentment of a grand jury, or otherwise than by a jury of his state and district; decide any common law action where the value in dispute exceeds $20 except by a jury.
Although prima facie all powers not given to the national government remain with the states, the latter are debarred from some powers. No state may (art I. 10, and amendments xiii., xiv. and xv.) make any treaty or alliance; coin money or make anything, save gold and silver coin, a legal tender; pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; have any but a republican form of government; grant any title of nobility; maintain slavery; abridge the privileges of any citizen of the United States, or deny to him the right of voting on accountof race, colour or previous condition of servitude; deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.
There are also certain powers which, though not absolutely withdrawn from the states, can be exercised only with the consent of the national legislature, viz. those of laying duties on exports or imports, keeping troops or war-ships in time of peace, entering into agreements with another state or foreign power, engaging in war unless invaded. And it may be added that there are certain powers which, since they do not lie within the province of the national government, and have been refused to the states, are said to be " reserved to the people." This expression means that it is only the people who can confer them and direct them to be exercised. Should the people wish to confer them, they would have to do so by way of amending the Constitution; and herein lies a remarkable difference between the American system on the one hand and those of some European countries on the other, which, although they have created rigid constitutions, do not expressly debar the legislature from using any and every power of government.
17. The aim of those who framed the Constitution was to avoid friction between the state governments and the Federal government by rendering their respective Kelatlons ot spheres of action as separate and distinct as possible, the National They saw that the less contact the less danger of Government collision. Their wish was to keep the two mechanisms as independent of each other as was compatible with the still higher need of subordinating, for national purposes, the state to the central government.
Nevertheless there are, as was unavoidable, certain points of contact between the two, the chief of which are the following:
The Constitution requires each state government to direct the choice of, and accredit to the seat of the national government, two senators and so many representatives as the state is (in respect of its population) entitled to send; to provide for the election, meeting and voting of presidential electors in each state, and to transmit their votes to the national capital; to organize and arm the militia forces of the state, which, when duly summoned by the national government for active service, are placed under the command of the president.
Besides these direct services imposed upon the states, each state is of course practically limited in its legislative and executive action by the power of the Federal judiciary (in the exercise of its function of interpreting the Constitution) to declare invalid laws passed or acts done inconsistent with the Federal Constitution, or with statutes passed by the Federal legislature within the scope of its authority under the Constitution.
So, too, when a subject, such as bankruptcy, is one on which a state may legislate in the absence of legislation by Congress, the state law is valid only so long as Congress does not legislate.
Finally, another point of contact exists in the right of a state to call upon the national government to protect it against invasion or domestic violence. This right has been several times exerted. The national government is also bound to guarantee to every state a republican form of government. (See American Commonwealth, ch. xxviii.)
1 8. It is a fundamental principle of the American system that the national government possesses a direct and immediate Direct authority over all its citizens, quite irrespective of Authority of their allegiance and duty to their own state. This the National authority corresponds to and is coextensive with Govern meat . , r,iT--ii f* c *i over the tne Sphere of the Federal government. So far as the citizens of functions of that government extend, it acts upon the states, the citizens not through the states, but as of its own right and by its own officers. Beyond that Sphere its authority stops, and state authority, unless inhibited by the Federal Constitution, begins. But Federal authority is always entitled to prevail, as against a state legislature or officer, in all matters specifically allotted to it; and in these its power of direct action has two great advantages. It makes the citizen recognize his allegiance to the power which represents the unity of the nation; and it avoids the necessity of calling upon the state to enforce obedience to Federal authority, for a state might possibly be weak or dilatory, or even itself inclined to disobedience. Thus the indirect taxes of customs and excise which the Federal government imposes are levied by Federal custom-house collectors and excisemen, and the judgments of Federal courts are carried out by United States marshals distributed over the country. Nothing has done more to give cohesion to the American Federal system than the direct action of the Federal executive and judiciary.
V. The Federal Government.
19. The Federal or national government was created de now by the Constitution of 1787-1789. It was really a new creation rather than a continuation of the feeble organization of the pre-existing Confederation. But the principles on which it was constructed were old principles, and most of its features were drawn from the state governments as they then existed. These states themselves had been developed out of the previous colonial governments, and both they and the national government have owed something to the example of the British Constitution, which had suggested the division of the legislature into two branches and the independent position of the judiciary. It was, however, mainly from the state constitutions, and not from the arrangements prevailing in Great Britain or in any other country, that the men of the convention of 1787 drew their ideas and precedents.
Following what was then deemed a fundamental maxim of political science, they divided the government into three departments, the legislative, the executive and the judicial, and sought to keep each of these as far as possible detached from and independent of the other two.
In 1787 all the states but three had bicameral legislatures it was therefore natural that the new national government should follow this example, not to add that the (jjyjsjgjj ; n t o ^ wo branches seems calculated to i .
reduce the chances of reckless haste, and to increase the chances of finding wisdom in a multitude of counsellors. There was, however, another reason. Much controversy had raged over the conflicting principles of the equal representation of states and of representation on the basis of numbers, the larger states advocating the latter, the smaller states the former principle; and those who made themselves champions of the rights of the states professed to dread the tyrannical power which an assembly representing population might exert. The adoption of a bicameral system made it possible to give due recognition to both principles. One house, the Senate, contains the representatives of the states, every state sending two; the other, the House of Representatives, contains members elected on a basis of population. The two taken together are called Congress, and form the national legislature of the United States.
20. The House of Representatives is composed of members elected by popular vote in each of the various states, the re- e e era L,egisiaiure.
presentation of each state being in proportion to its population. Each state is at liberty under the Constitution to adopt either the "general ticket" system, i.e. the plan ol House of electing all its members by one vote over the Repnsentmwhole state, or to elect them in one-membered ave *' districts (the " district system "). The system of single-member districts now prevails almost everywhere. (Pennsylvania, however, has two representatives elected at large from the entire state, and there have been other similar instances.) The number of members in the house was originally 65, but it has steadily increased until, in December 1910, there were 398. Besides the full members, each of the Territories is allowed to send a delegate, who has, however, no vote. The electoral franchise on which the house is elected is for each state the same as that by which, under the provisions of the state constitution, the members of the more numerous branch of the state legislature are chosen. Originally franchises varied much in different states, but for many years prior to 1890 what was practically manhood suffrage prevailed in nearly all of the states. In that year and since, not a few of the southern states have introduced restrictions which tend to exclude the bulk of the coloured population (see ante, 5). It has already been observed that paupers and convicted criminals are excluded in many states, illiterates in some states. Every member must reside in the state which sends him, and custom, rarely broken, requires that he should reside even in the district which he represents. This habit restricts the field of choice and has operated unfavourably on the political life of the nation.
The House of Representatives is chosen for two years, the , terms of all the members expiring together. The election of a new house takes place in November 1 of the even years (i.e. 1910, 1912, etc.). Members enter on their term of service in the March following, but the first regular session does not begin until the following December, or more than a year after the election. In fact, the old house holds its second regular session of three months after the new house has been elected. The rules are very complicated, and considerably limit the power of debate. A remedy against obstruction has been found in a system of closure called the " previous question." Speeches are limited to one hour, and may be confined in committee of the whole house to five minutes. There is comparatively little good debating in the European sense of the term, and this is due partly to the great size of the hall, partly to the system of legislation by committees.
The organization of the house is entirely different from that of the British House of Commons or of most assemblies on the European continent. The ministers of the pre- The sident do not sit, and since there are thus no officials Committee to undertake the leadership of the majority and s y stem ' conduct business, legislative work is shaped and directed by a number of committees in each house. Every bill when introduced is referred to some committee, and each bill comes up for consideration by the whole house on the report of the committee which has dealt with it. There were in 1910 62 regular or standing committees in the House of Representatives, each consisting of from 3 to 20 members. The most important committees are the following: ways and means, rules, elections, appropriations (with several committees for different branches of public expenditure), rivers and harbours, banking and currency, and foreign affairs. ^ Each committee has complete control of all bills referred to it, and nineteen-twentieths of the bills introduced meet their death by the failure of the committee to take action on them. The bills taken up for action are debated and freely amended by the committees, and sometimes public hearings are held. The committees on the expenditure of the various government departments conduct minute investigations into the administration of each. A bill, as finally agreed on by a committee, is reported to the house, and when taken up for action the fate of most bills is decided by an hour's discussion, opened by the member of the committee making the report. The 1 In June in Oreeon; in September in Maine and Vermont.
s eater more important measures, including taxation and appropriation bills, receive genuine discussion by the house at large, through special orders submitted by the committee on rules. Of the enormous number of bills brought in very few pass.
The unifying force of this complicated system of committee legislation is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Like the Speaker of the British House of Commons, ^ e ' s P r i mar ily the presiding official, but the character of his office has become different from that of the impartial moderator of the British house. The American Speaker, who of course has a vote like other members, always belongs to the party which commands a majority, and is, indeed, virtually the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives. He resembles in some respects a European prime minister, and is second only to the president in political importance. His power is derived from three main sources. He appoints the members of nearly all committees, he chooses the chairman of each, and he directs the reference of bills to the various committees. Of the committee on rules, which practically determines the order in which important measures come before the house, he was formerly chairman, and he had the power of appointing the committee; but on the 19th of March 1 9 10, the house passed a resolution which increased the membership of this committee from 5 to 10, excluded the Speaker, and transferred the appointments to the house. As presiding officer the Speaker exercises a right of discrimination between members rising to speak in debate, and can thus advance or retard the progress of a measure. He is elected by the House of Representatives at its first session for the whole Congress, and his election is regularly carried by a strict party vote.
21. The Senate in 1910 consisted of 92 members, two persons deputed from each state, be it great or small (New York with 9,100,000 population and Nevada with 81,875 ' having the same representation), who must be inhabitants of that state, and at least thirty years of age. They are elected by the legislature of their state for six years, and are re-eligible. It used to be supposed by many Europeans, following Tocqueville, that this method of election was the cause of the (former) superiority of the senators to members of the House. This was an error, the true reason being that able men preferred a seat in the Senate owing to its larger powers and longer term. One-third retire every two years, so that the old members are always twice as numerous as the new members, and the body has been continuous ever since its first creation. Senators are re-elected more frequently than members of the House, so there is always a considerable proportion of men of long service and mature experience.
There has long been a demand for an amendment to the Constitution which should vest the election of senators in the peoples of the several states, and more than one-half of the state legislatures have at one time or another passed resolutions in favour of the change. Within the last few years the object desired has been practically attained in a few states by provisions they have introduced for taking a popular vote as to the person whom the legislature ought to elect, the latter being expected to defer to the popular will.
The vice-president of the United States is ex officio presiding officer of the Senate, and this is his only active function in the government. He has, however, no vote in the Senate, except a casting vote when the numbers are equally divided, and his authority on questions of order is very limited.
The methods of procedure in the Senate are somewhat different from those in the House of Representatives. There is a similar committee system, but the Senate committees and their chairmen are chosen, not by the presiding officer, but by the Senate itself voting by ballot. Practically they are selected by caucuses of the majority and minority parties. The Senate rules have no provision for the closure of debate, nor any limitation on the length either of a debate or of a speech. For the consideration of some classes of business the Senate goes into executive or secret session, although what is done at this session usually leaks out, and finds its way to the public through the press.
The functions of the Senate fall into three classes legislative, executive and judicial. In legislative matters its powers are identical with those of the House of Representatives, with the single restriction that bills for raising revenue must originate in the popular assembly. In practice, too, the Senate is at least as influential in legislation as the House. Disagreements, which are frequent, are usually settled in conference, and in these the Senate is apt to get the better of its antagonist. Serious deadlocks are of comparatively rare occurrence.
The executive functions of the Senate are: (i) To approve or disapprove the president's nominations of Federal officers, including judges, ministers of state and ambassadors; (2) to approve, by a majority of two-thirds of those present, of treaties submitted by the president. Through the latter power the Senate secures a general control over foreign policy. Its approval is necessary to any important action, and in general the president finds it advisable to keep the leaders of the senatorial majority, and in particular the Senate committee on foreign relations, informed of pending negotiations. Foreign governments often complain of this power of the Senate, because it prevents them from being able to rely upon the carrying out of arrangments they have made with the executive; but as the president is not responsible to Congress and is irremovable (except by impeachment) during his term of office, there would be objections to giving him an unqualified treaty-making authority. Through the power of confirming or rejecting the president's nominations to office, the senators of the president's party are able to influence a large amount of patronage. This sort of " dual control " works with less friction and delay than might have been expected, but better appointments would probably be secured if responsibility were more fully and more clearly fixed on the president alone, though there would no doubt be a risk that the president might make a serious error.
The judicial function of the Senate is to sit as a high court for the trial of persons impeached by the House of Representatives, a vote of two-thirds of those present being needed for conviction. There have been eight cases of impeachment. The most important was that of President Johnson, whose conviction failed by one vote 35 to 19. Five of the other seven cases also ended in acquittal, one for want of jurisdiction, 1 and one by the resignation of the official before the impeachment was preferred in the Senate. Two Federal judges were many years ago thus deprived of office, impeachment being the only process by which a Federal judge can be removed.
22. The procedure of each house in framing and passing bills has already been noted. When a bill has passed one chamber it is sent to the other, and there referred coagresto the appropriate committee. In course of time this slonal Legiscommittee may report the bill as received from the tattoo and other house, . but frequently an amended or an Ftaaace - entirely new measure is presented, which is discussed and enacted on by the second house. When bills passed by the two chambers are not identical, and each persists in its own view, the regular procedure is to appoint a committee of conference, consisting of an equal number of members from the Senate and from the House. These meet in secret, and generally agree upon a compromise measure, which is forthwith adopted by both chambers. If no compromise can be arranged, the conflict continues until one side yields, or until it ends by the adjournment of Congress. After passing both houses, the bill goes to the president, and if approved by him, or not returned by him within ten days, becomes law: if vetoed, it returns to the house in which it originated; and if re-passed by a twothirds vote, is sent to the other house; and if again passed there by a two-thirds vote, it becomes law without the president's consent.
The scope of Congressional legislation has been indicated in the list given of the powers of the national government 1 This case was that of the impeachment of a senator, and the failure to convict arose from the fact that some of the senators at the time held the now generally accepted opinion that a member of Congress is not subject to impeachment.
(see ante, 15). The most important measures are those dealing with the revenues and appropriations; and the procedure on these matters is slightly different from that on other bills. The secretary of the treasury sends annually to Congress a report containing a statement of the national income and expenditure and of the condition of the public debt, together with remarks on the system of taxation and suggestions for its improvement. He also sends what is called his annual letter, enclosing the estimates, framed by the various departments, of the sums needed for the public service of the United States during the coming year. With this the action of the executive ceases, and the matter passes into the hands of Congress.
Revenue bills for imposing or continuing the various customs duties and internal taxes are prepared by the House committee on ways and means, whose chairman is always a leading man in the majority party. The report presented by the secretary of the treasury has been referred to this committee, but the latter does not necessarily in any way regard that report. Neither does it proceed on estimates of the sums needed to maintain the public service, for, in the first place, it does not know what appropriations will be proposed by the spending committees; and in the second place, a primary object of the customs duties has been for many years past, not the raising of revenue, but the protection of American industries by subjecting foreign imports to a very high tariff. Regular appropriation bills down to 1883 were all passed by the House committee on appropriations, but in that year a new committee on rivers and harbours received a large field of expenditure; and in 1886 certain other supply bills were referred to sundry standing committees. These various appropriation committees start from, but are not restricted by and do not in fact adopt, the estimates of the secretary of the treasury. Large changes are made both by way of increasing and reducing his estimates.
The financial bills are discussed, as fully as the pressure of work permits, in committee of the whole House. Fresh items of appropriations are often added, and changes are made in revenue bills in the interest of particular purposes or localities. If the Senate is controlled by the same party as the House, it is likely to secure the acceptance of many of its amendments. The majorities in the two houses then labour together to satisfy what they believe to be the wishes of their party. Important legislation is almost impossible when one of the houses is controlled by one party and the other house by the other.
When finally adopted by the House, the bills go to the Senate and are forthwith referred to the committee on finance or to that on appropriations. The Senate committees amend freely both classes of bills, and further changes may be made by the Senate itself. When the bills go back to the House that body usually rejects the amendments: the Senate declines to recede, and a conference committee is appointed by which a compromise is arranged, usually hastily and in secret, often including entirely new items, and this compromise is accepted with little or no discussion, generally at the end of the session.
Thus it comes that comparatively slight use is made of the experience of the permanent financial officials in the framing of revenue-raising and appropriation bills. There is little relation between the amounts proposed to be spent in any one year and the amounts proposed to be raised, and there is a strong tendency to deplete the public treasury through special grants secured by individual members. These defects have long been felt, but Congress is not disposed either to admit officials to attend its sittings or to modify the methods to which it has grown accustomed. A tariff commission was, however, created by statute in 1909, the reports of which may have some influence on the framing of tariffs in future.
23. The executive power of the nation is vested in a president of the United States of America, who holds office The during the term of four years. He, together with President, the vice-president, is nominally chosen by a system of double election through an electoral college, but in practice this system operates merely as a roundabout way of getting the judgment of the people, voting by states.
The Constitution directs each state to choose a number of " presidential electors equal to the number of its representatives in Congress ' (both senators and members of the House of _. Representatives). Members of Congress and holders of Federal offices are ineligible as electors. These 22!? electors (in 1908, 483) meet in each state on the second Monday in January, and give their votes in writing for the president and vice-president. The votes are transmitted to Washington, and there opened by the president of the Senate, in the presence of both houses of Congress, and counted. A majority of the whole number of electors is necessary to elect. If no person have such majority, the president is chosen by the House of Representatives voting by states, and the vice-president is chosen by the Senate. This plan of creating an electoral college to select the president was expected to secure the choice by the best citizens of each state, in a tranquil and deliberate way, of the man whom they in their unfettered discretion should deem fittest to be the chief magistrate of the Union. In fact, however, the electors exercise no discretion, and are chosen under a pledge to vote for a particular candidate. Each party during the summer preceding a presidential election holds a huge party meeting, called a national convention, which nominates candidates for president and vice-president. (See post, 33.) Candidates for the office of elector are also nominated by party conventions, and the persons who are in each state chosen to be electors they are chosen by a strict party vote-^-are expected to vote, and do in point of fact vote, for the presidential candidates named by their respective parties at the national conventions. The Constitution leaves the method of choosing electors to each state, but by universal custom they are now everywhere elected by popular vote, and all the electors for each state are voted for on a " general ticket." In the early days the electors were chosen in many states by the legislatures, but by 1832 South Carolina was the only state retaining this method, and in 1868 she also dropped it. Some states also, for a time, chose electors by districts, but by 1832 all had adopted the " general ticket " system. Michigan, however, in the election of 1892 reverted to the " district " system, thereby dividing its electoral vote. Thus the election is virtually an election by states, and the struggle concentrates itself in the large states, where the great parties are often nearly equally divided, e.g. the party which carries New York by even a small majority gams all the 39 electoral votes of that state. The polling for electors takes place early in November on the same day over the whole union, and when the result is known the contest is over, because the subsequent meeting and voting of the electors is a mere matter of form. Nevertheless, the system here described, being an election by states, is not the same thing as a general popular vote over the union, for it sometimes happens that a person is chosen president who has received a minority of the popular vote cast.
The Constitution requires the president to be a native-born citizen of the United States, not under thirty-five years of age, and for fourteen years resident in the United States. There is no legal limitation to his re-eligibility any number of times; but tradition, dating from the refusal of George Washington to be nominated for a third term, has virtually established the rule that no person shall be president for more than two continuous terms. If the president dies, the vice-president steps into his place; and if the latter also dies in office, the succession passes to the secretary of state. 1 The president receives a salary of $75,000 a year, besides $25,000 a year for travelling expenses, and has an official residence called the Executive Mansion, or more familiarly the White House.
Functions of the President. These may be grouped into three classes: those which (l) relate to foreign affairs; (2) concern legislation; (3) relate to domestic administration.
The president appoints ambassadors and ministers to foreign countries, and receives those sent by foreign countries to the United States. He has, through his secretary of state, immediate direction of all negotiations with such countries, and an unfettered initiative in all foreign affairs. He does not, however, enjoy a free hand in finally determining the foreign policy of the government. Treaties require the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, and the foreign affairs committee of that body is usually kept informed of the negotiations which are being conducted by the executive. The power to declare war formally belongs to Congress; but the executive may, without an act of Congress, virtually engage in hostilities and thus bring about a state of war, as happened in 1845-46, when war broke out with Mexico.
As respects legislation, the position of the president is in marked contrast to that of the British crown. While nearly all important measures are brought into parliament by the ministers of the sovereign, and nominally under his instructions, the American president cannot introduce bills either directly or through his 1 The order of succession, after the secretary of state, is as follows: the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of war, the attorneygeneral, the postmaster-general, the secretary of the navy, the secretary of the interior this order to apply only to such officers as " shall have been appointed by the advice and consent of the Senate . . . and such as are eligible to the office of president . . . and not under impeachment. . . ."
ministers. All that the Const'itution permits him to do in this direction is to inform Congress of the state of the nation and to recommend the measures which he deems to be necessary. This latter function is discharged by written messages addressed by the president to Congress, the message sent at the beginning of each session being usually the most important; but the suggestions made in these messages do not necessarily or directly induce legislation, although it is open to him to submit a bill or have one drafted by a minister presented to Congress through a member.
More constantly effective is the president's part in the last stage of legislation. His so-called " veto-power " permits him to return to Congress, within ten days after its passage, any bill of which he may disapprove, and, unless this bill re-passes both houses by a two-thirds vote, it does not become law. Most presidents have made use of the veto power sparingly. Jackson, however, as well as Tyler, Johnson and especially Cleveland, employed it pretty boldly. Most of Johnson's vetoes were promptly overruled by the large majority opposed to him in both houses, but the vetoes of all the other presidents have generally prevented the enactment of the bills of which they disapproved.
The domestic executive authority of the president in time of peace is small, because by far the larger part of law and administration belongs to the state and local governments, while the Federal administration is regulated by statutes which leave little discretion to the executive. The power of making appointments to the administrative service would invest him with a vast influence but for the constitutional requirement of securing the consent of the Senate to the more important appointments made. The president is given a free hand in choosing his cabinet ministers; but for most other appointments, whether or not they are by law in his sole gift, the senators belonging to the president's party have practically controlled the selections for offices lying within their respective states, and a nomination made by the president against the will of the senator concerned will generally be disapproved by the Senate. The members of the president's party in the House also demand a share in the bestowal of offices as a price for their co-operation in those matters wherein the executive may find it necessary to have legislative aid. Nevertheless, the distribution of offices under the so-called " spoils system " remains the most important ordinary function of the president, and the influence he exerts over Congress and legislation is due mainly to his patronage.
In time of war or of public disturbance, however, the domestic authority of the president expands rapidly. This was markedly the case during the Civil War. As commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and as " charged with the faithful execution of all laws, ' he is likely to assume, and would indeed be expected to assume, all the powers which the emergency requires. In ordinary times the president may be almost compared to the managing clerk in a large business establishment, whose chief function is to select his subordinates, the policy of the concern being in the hands of the board of directors. But when foreign affairs reach a critical stage, or when disorders within the Union require Federal _ intervention, immense responsibility is then thrown on one who is both commander- inchief of the army and the head of the civil executive. In no European country is there any personage to whom the president can be said to correspond. He may have to exert more authority, even if he enjoys less dignity, than a European king. He has powers which are in ordinary times narrower than those of a European prime minister; but these powers are more secure, for instead of depending on the pleasure of a parliamentary majority, they run on to the end of his term. Although he is always elected as a party candidate, he generally receives, if he shows tact and dignity, abundant respect and deference from all citizens, and is able to exert influence beyond the strict limits of his legal power.
The only way of removing the president from office is by impeachment, an institution borrowed from Great Britain, where it had not become obsolete at the time when the United States constitution was adopted. The House of Representatives may impeach the president. The Senate tries him, and a two-thirds majority is required for conviction. Andrew Johnson is the only president who has been impeached.
24. There is in the government of the United States no such thing as a cabinet, in the British or French or Italian The Cabinet sense f tne word. But the term is regularly used and Admin- to describe a council of the president, composed btraiive o { the heads of the chief administrative departotriciais. m ents: the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, attorney-general, secretary of the navy, postmaster-general, secretary of the interior, secretary of agriculture, and secretary of commerce and labor. Like the British cabinet, this council is not formally recognized by the law, but it is nevertheless accepted as a permanent feature in the government. It is really a group of persons, each individually dependent on, and answerable to, the president, but with no joint policy, no collective responsibility.
The final decision on all questions rest with the president; who is solely and personally responsible. Moreover, the members of the cabinet are excluded from Congress, and are entirely independent of that body, so that an American cabinet has little to do in the way of devising parliamentary tactics, or of preparing bills, or of discussing problems of foreign policy. It is not a government, as Europeans understand the term, but a group of heads of departments, whom their chief, though he usually consults them separately, often finds it useful to bring together for a talk about current politics and the course proper for the administration to take in them, or in order to settle some administrative question which lies on the borderland between the provinces of two ministers.
The principal administrative departments are those already named, whose heads form the president's cabinet. The most important are the state and treasury departments. The former has the conduct of foreign affairs and *f m interests, and directs the diplomatic service, but is " " ' p obliged to keep in touch with the Senate, because treaties require the consent of the latter. It also has charge of the great seal of the United States, keeps the archives, publishes the statutes of Congress and controls the consular service.
The two main functions of the treasury department are the administration of the government revenues and expenditures, and of the banking and currency laws. The secretary has, however, a smaller range of action than a finance minister in European countries, for, as he is excluded from Congress, he has nothing directly to do with the imposition of taxes, and very little with the appropriations for government expenditure.
The department of the interior is less important than in France or Italy, since the principal functions which there belong to it lie, in the United States, within the field of state powers. In the United States the principal matters in this department are the management of the public lands, the conduct of Indian affairs, the issue of patents, the administration of pension laws, of the national census and of the geological survey, and the collection of educational information.
The department of war controls the formerly very small, but now largely increased, army of the United States; and its corps of engineers execute the river and harbour improvements ordered by Congress. The navy department has charge of the dockyards and vessels of war; and the post office department directs the postal system, including the railway mail service. The department of agriculture includes the weather bureau, the bureau of animal industry and other bureaus which conduct investigations and experiments. The attorney-general is the legal adviser of the president, public prosecutor and standing counsel for the United States, and also has general oversight of the Federal judicial administration, especially of the prosecuting officers called district attorneys and of the executive court officers called marshals.
The department of commerce and labor controls the bureaus which deal with the mercantile marine, the lighthouse and lifesaving service, commercial statistics, immigration, and the coast and geodetic survey, and the census is also under its charge.
Two commissions not connected with any of the above departments deserve some notice. The inter-state commerce commission, established by statute in 1887, is a semi-judicial, semi-administrative board of five members, with limited powers of control over interstate railway transportation. The chief duty is to prevent discriminations in freight rates and secret rebates from the published list of charges. Its powers have been much extended by subsequent acts, especially that of 1910. The civil service commission, established in 1883, conducts competitive examinations for appointments to subordinate positions under all of the administrative departments. Some 235,000 posts have now been placed under civil service rules and withdrawn from the category of spoils.
25. The Federal judicial system is made by the Constitution independent both of the legislature and of the executive. It consists of the Supreme Court, the circuit court of Pederal appeals, the circuit courts and the district courts. judiciary.
The Supreme Court is created by the Constitution, and consisted in 1910 of nine judges, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They hold office during good behaviour, i.e. are removable only by impeachment, thus having a tenure even more secure than that of English judges. The court sits at Washington from October to July in every year. The sessions of the court are held in the Capitol. A rule requiring the presence of six judges to pronounce a decision prevents the division of the court into two or more benches; and while this secures a thorough consideration of every case, it also retards the despatch of business. Every case is discussed twice by the whole body, once to ascertain the view of the majority, which is then directed to be set forth in a written opinion; then again when the written opinion, prepared by one of the judges, is submitted for criticism and adoption by the court as its judgment.
The other Federal courts have been created by Congress under a power in the Constitution to establish " inferior courts." The circuit courts consist of twenty-nine circuit judges, acting in nine judicial circuits, while to each circuit there is also allotted one of the justices of the Supreme Court. The judges of each circuit, acting with or without the justice of the Supreme Court for the circuit, constitute a circuit court of appeals, established to relieve the Supreme Court. Some cases may, however, be appealed to the Supreme Court from the circuit court of appeals, and others directly from the lower courts. The district courts are now eighty in number, each having usually a single justice, rarely two. There is also a special tribunal called the court of claims, which deals with the claims of private persons against the Federal government. It is not strictly a part of the general judicial system, but is a creation of Congress designed to relieve that body of a part of its own labours. A customs court of five judges was created by an act of 1909 for the hearing of cases relating to the tariff.
The jurisdiction of the Federal courts extends only to those cases in which the Constitution makes Federal law applicable. All other cases are left to the state courts, from which there is no appeal to the Federal courts, unless where some specific point arises which is affected by the Federal Constitution or a Federal law. The classes of cases dealt with by the Federal courts are as follows:
1. Cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States and treaties made under their authority; 2. Cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; 3. Cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; 4. Controversies to which the United States shall be "a. party; 5. Controversies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state or the citizens thereof and foreign states, citizens or subjects (Const, art. iii. 2). Part of this jurisdiction has, however, been withdrawn by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution, which declares that " the judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state."
The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is original in cases affecting ambassadors, and wherever a state is a party; in other cases it is appellate. In some matters the jurisdiction of the Federal courts is exclusive; in others it is concurrent with that of the state courts.
As it frequently happens that cases come before state courts in which questions of Federal law arise, a provision has been made whereby due respect for the latter is secured by giving the party to a suit who relies upon Federal law, and whose contention is overruled by a state court, the right of having the suit removed to a Federal court. The Judiciary Act of 1789 (as amended by subsequent legislation) provides for the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States of " a final judgment or decree in any suit rendered in the highest court of a state in which a decision in the suit could be had where is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute for an authority exercised under the United States, and the decision is against their validity; or where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under, any state, on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States, and the decision is in favour of their validity; or where any title, right, privilege or immunity is claimed under the Constitution, or any treaty or statute of, or commission held or authority exercised under the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege or immunity specially set up or claimed by either party under the Constitution, treaty, statute, commission or authority." If the decision of the state court is in favor of the right claimed under Federal law or against the validity or applicability of the state law set up, there is no ground for appeal, because the applicability or authority of Federal law in the particular case could receive no further protection from a Federal court than has in fact been given by the state court.
The power exercised by the Supreme Court in declaring statutes of Congress or of state legislatures (or acts of the executive) to be invalid because inconsistent with the Federal Constitution, has been deemed by many Europeans a peculiar and striking feature of the American system. There is, however, nothing novel or mysterious about it. As the Federal Constitution, which emanates directly from the people, is the supreme law of the land everywhere, any statute passed by any lower authority (whether the Federal Congress or a state legislature) which contravenes the Constitution must necessarily be invalid in point of law, just as in the United Kingdom a railway bye-law which contravened an act of parliament would be invalid. Now, the functions of judicial tribunals of all courts alike, whether Federal or state, whether superior or inferior is to interpret the law, and if any tribunal finds a congressional statute or state statute inconsistent with the Constitution, the tribunal is obliged to hold such statute invalid. A tribunal does this not because it has any right or power of its own in the matter, but because the people have, in enacting the Constitution as a supreme law, declared that all other laws inconsistent with it are ipso jure void. When a tribunal has ascertained that an inferior law is thus inconsistent, that inferior law is therewith, so far as inconsistent, to be deemed void. The tribunal does not enter any conflict with the legislature or executive. All it does is to declare that a conflict exists between two laws of different degrees of authority, whence it necessarily follows that the weaker law is extinct. This duty of interpretation belongs to all tribunals, but as constitutional cases are, if originating in a lower court, usually carried by appeal to the Supreme Court, men have grown accustomed to talk of the Supreme Court as in a special sense the guardian of the Constitution.
The Federal courts never deliver an opinion on any constitutional question unless or until that question is brought before them in the form of a lawsuit. A judgment of the Supreme Court is only a judgment on the particular case before it, and does not prevent a similar question being raised again in another lawsuit, though of course this seldom happens, because it may be assumed that the court will adhere to its former opinion. There have, however, been instances in which the court has virtually changed its view on a constitutional question, and it is understood to be entitled so to do.
26. As the Federal Constitution is a short document, which deals very concisely with most of the subjects it touches, a vast number of questions have arisen upon its R es uitsot interpretation in the course of the 122 years which Const Uuhave elapsed since its enactment. The decisions ttoaaiinterof the Supreme Court upon these questions form a pn "' large body of law, a knowledge of which is now indispensable to a mastery of the Constitution itself. By them the Constitution has been so expanded in the points which it expressly treats of, and so filled up in the matters which it covers only by way of implication, that it is now a much more complete instrument than it was when it came from the hands of its framers. Thus the courts have held that, while the national government can exercise only such powers as have been affirmatively granted, it is not restricted in its choice of the methods for exercising such powers as have been granted. From this doctrine there has been derived a conspicuous activity of the national government in such fields as taxation, borrowing of money, regulating commerce and carrying on war. Executive and legislative acts not authorized by the letter of the Constitution have also been allowed to remain unchallenged, and thus precedents have been in fact established.
with the tacit recognition of the courts and the people, through which the Sphere of the national government has been enlarged. The purchase of Louisiana from France by President Jefferson is an instance. It may indeed be said that the Constitution as it now stands is the result of a long process of development; and that process is still going on. In 1901 the Supreme Court delivered several judgments in cases arising out of the annexation of Puerto Rico, which handled, though they did not fully settle, divers points of novelty and of importance, and still more recently questions of great intricacy affecting the respective legislative rights of the Federal and the state governments have come before it.
27. It is not, however, only by way of interpretation that the Constitution has been developed. A great many matters Development which it passed over have become the subject of at the Con- legislation by Congress; and there has also sprung stitutioaby up a i ar g e mass o f usa g es regulating matters not touched either by the Constitution or by any express enactment. These usages have in many cases lasted so long and become so generally accepted, that they may be regarded as parts of the actual or (so to speak) " working " Constitution, although of course they could be at any moment changed. Among the matters that are now thus settled by usage the following may be mentioned:
The president practically is limited to two continuous terms of office. The presidential electors are expected to vote for the candidate of the party which has chosen them, exercising no free will of their own. The Senate always confirms the nominations to a cabinet office made by the President.
It may be added that in respect of one matter assigned by the Constitution to the states a momentous change has taken place since the enactment of the Constitution. This matter is the electoral franchise in Federal elections. In 1789 property qualifications were general, but now in all the northern and western states these have been long since abolished, and the electoral suffrage is practically manhood suffrage. In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Washington universal adult suffrage prevails. Down till 1890 manhood suffrage had prevailed in all the Southern states also (as to some Southern states now see ante, 5) . As the electoral suffrage for state legislature elections is also that for Federal elections (including the election of presidential electors), the working of the Federal Constitution has thus been affected without any change in the Constitution itself.
28. Besides these changes which have been brought about by judicial interpretation and by usage, the Constitution has Amend- a ^ so ^ een a l tere d ^ n t^ 16 re gul ar an< l formal way meats to the which its own provisions permit (see ante, 14). Constitu- This has happened four times. Ten amendments tlaa - were enacted immediately after the adoption of the Constitution itself, in order to meet certain objections which had been taken to it. These may be described as a sort of bill of rights. Another, the eleventh, was enacted in 1794- 1798 to negative the construction which the Supreme Court had put upon its own powers in holding that it could entertain a. suit by a private person against a state. Another, the twelfth (1803-1804), corrected a fault in the method of choosing the president; and three more (1865-1870) confirmed and secured some of the results of the victory of the North in the War of Secession (1861-65). I n I 99 Congress proposed an amendment for enabling the national legislature to impose an income tax. But few amendments pass beyond the first stage of a formal proposal. This is due not merely to the respect of the Americans for their fundamental law, but also to the difficulties which surround the process of change. It is hard to secure the requisite majorities in Congress, and still harder a majority in three-fourths of the states. The obstacles placed in the way of amendment, which are greater than in the case of almost any other Constitution, may be reckoned among the causes which led to the War of Secession.
29. As compared with the cabinet system of Great Britain, of the British self-governing colonies, and of such European countries as France, Italy, Holland and Belgium, the characteristic features of the scheme of the American national government are the following:
a. The legislature and the executive are independent and disjoined. The executive does not depend upon the Qeaeral legislature, but holds its powers by a direct commis-c/iarartero/ sion from the people. No member of the execu- *^ e w F a e ot tive sits in the legislature, nor 'can the legislature Qp e menieject any one from office save by impeachment.
b. Both the legislature and the executive sit for fixed terms.
c. No method is provided for getting rid of deadlocks, either between the legislature and the executive or between the two branches of the legislature. Should action be needed which cannot be legally taken without the concurrence of these different authorities, and should they be unable to concur, the legal situation must remain in statu quo until by a new election the people have changed one or more of the conflicting authorities, and so brought them into harmony.
d. The judiciary holds a place of high importance, because it is the proper interpreter of the will of the people expressed in the supreme law, the Federal Constitution, which the people have enacted.
It will be noted that the structure of the Federal Government is less democratic than that of the state governments. The only posts in the former conferred by popular election are those of the president and the members of the legislature, and while the two houses are a check on each other, the president is a check upon both.
The defects which have been remarked in this system are, broadly speaking, the following: There is a danger that prompt action, needed in the interests of the nation, may fail to be taken owing to a deadlock between legislature and executive, or between the two branches of the legislature. There may be a difficulty in fixing responsibility upon any person, or small group of persons, because cases may arise in which the executive, being unable to act without the concurrence of the legislature, can hardly be blamed for failing to act, while yet it is unable to relieve itself by resigning; while on the other hand the legislature which consists of two bodies, each of them numerous, and in neither of which are there recognized leaders contains no person on whom responsibility can be fixed. On the other hand, the characteristic merits of the system may be summed up as consisting in the safeguards it provides against the undue predominance of any one power or person in the government, and therewith against any risk there may be that the president should become a despot, and in the full opportunities it secures for the due consideration of all important measures. It is a system amply provided with checks and balances; it recognizes and enforces the principle of popular sovereignty, while subjecting that principle to many checks in practice; and it is well calculated to maintain unchanged the relation of its component parts each to the other. There has been, in point of fact, no permanent shifting of weight or strength from any one organ of government to any other. At some particular epoch the president has seemed to be gaining upon Congress, at other epochs Congress has seemed to be gaining upon the president. Much depends on the personal qualities of the president and his power of inspiring the people with trust in his courage and his uprightness. When he possesses that power he may overawe Congress, and make them follow, even reluctantly, in the path he points out. Now and then the Senate has been more influential than the House, now and then it has fallen back, at least so far as the confidence of the people in it is concerned. The part played by the judiciary has at some moments been of special importance, while at others it has been little noticed. But, taking the history of the republic as a whole, that equilibrium between the several organs of the government which the Constitution was intended to secure has been substantially maintained.
VI. The Party System.
30. The actual working of the government of the Union and of the governments of the several states cannot be properly of the Government.
understood without some knowledge of the party system as it exists in the United States. That system is, as has been well observed by H. J. Ford, 1 a sort of link between the executive and the legislative departments of government, and thus the policy and action of the party for the time being in power forms a sort of second and unofficial government of the country, directing the legal government created by the Constitution. In no country have political parties been so carefully and thoroughly organized. In no country does the spirit of party so completely pervade every department of political life; . not that party spirit is any more bitter than Influence of ... ._,**. , ., . ,, , the Party Jt ls ln Europe, for in some respects it is usually less System upon bitter and less passionate than in France, the United the Working Kingdom or Austria, but that it penetrates farther into the body of the people, and exerts a more constant influence upon their minds. Party organizations have in the United States a wide range of action, for they exist to accomplish five purposes. Three of these are pursued in other countries also. These three are: first, to influence governmental policy; secondly, to form opinion; and thirdly, to win elections. But the two others are almost (if now not quite) peculiar to the United States, viz. to select candidates for office and to procure places of emolument for party workers. The selecting by a party of its candidates, instead of allowing candidates to start on their own account, is a universal practice in the United States, and rests upon the notion that the supreme authority and incessant activity of the people must extend not only to the choice of officials by vote, but even to the selection of those for whom votes shall be cast. So the practice of securing places for persons who have served the party, in however humble a capacity, has sprung from the maxim that in the strife of politics " the spoils belong to the victors," and has furnished a motive of incomparable and ever-present activity ever since the administration (1829-1837) of President Andrew Jackson. It is chiefly through these two practices that the party organizations have grown so powerful, and have been developed into an extremely complicated system of machinery, firm yet flexible, delicate yet quickly set up, and capable of working efficiently in the newest and roughest communities.
31. The contests over the adoption of the Federal Constitution by the several states in 1787-1790 brought to the surface Origin and two opposite tendencies, which may be called the History of centrifugal and centripetal forces, a tendency to the Parties, maintain both the freedom of the individual and the independence, in legislation, in administration and in jurisdiction, of the several states, and an opposite tendency to subordinate the states to the nation, and to vest large powers in the central Federal authority. These tendencies soon arranged themselves in concrete bodies, and thus two great parties were formed. One, which took the name of Republican, became the champion of states' rights, and claimed to be also the champion of freedom. It was led by Thomas Jefferson. The other, the Federalist party, led by Alexander Hamilton, stood for an energetic exercise of the powers of the central government, and for a liberal interpretation of the powers granted that government by the Federal Constitution. The Jeffersonian party has had an unbroken continuity of life, though it has been known since about 1830 as the Democratic party. The Federalist party slowly decayed, and ultimately vanished between 1820 and 1830, but out of its ruins a new party arose, practically its heir, which continued powerful, under the name of Whigs, till 1854, when it broke up over questions connected with the extension of slavery. Very soon thereafter a party, nominally new, but largely formed out of the Whigs, and maintaining many of its traditions, sprang up, and took the name of Republicans. Since 1856 these two great parties, Democrats and Republicans, have confronted one another, including between them the vast majority of the people. After the Civil War, when the questions attending Reconstruction had become less acute, economic discontents gave rise to other l Riie and Growth of American Politics.
smaller parties, such as Greenbackers, Labor party and Populists, and the sense of the harm done by the licensed sale of alcohol evoked a party which became known as the Prohibitionists. Still later the growth of Collectivist views, especially among the immigrants from Continental Europe, led to the formation of a Socialist Labor party and a Socialist party, some of those who had belonged to the Populists associating themselves with these new groups.
The Democratic party began to form for itself a regular organization in the presidency (1820-1837) of Andrew Jackson, and the process seems to have been first seriously undertaken in New York state. The Whigs did the same; and when the Republicans organized themselves, shortly after the fall of the Whigs, they created a party machinery on lines resembling those which their predecessors had struck out. The establishment of the system in its general form may be dated from before the Civil War, but it has since been perfected in its details.
32. The machinery of an American party consists of two distinct but intimately connected sets of bodies, the one permanent, the other temporary, or rather inter- outline at mittent. The function of the former is to manage the System the general business of the party from month to of Party month and year to year. That of the latter is to Or z* nizanominate candidates for the next ensuing elec- ' tions and to make declarations of party opinion intended to indicate the broad lines of party policy.
The permanent organization consists of a system of committees, one for each of the more important election areas. There is a committee for every city, every county, and every congressional district, and in some states Pa ^y c m " ,. 1*1 tnittecSt even for every township and eyery state legislature district. There is, of course, a committee for every state, and at the head of the whole stands a national committee for the whole Union, whose special function it is to make arrangements for the conduct of party work at a presidential election. Thus the country from ocean to ocean is covered by a network of committees, each having a sphere of action' corresponding to some election area, whether a Federal area or a state area. Each committee is independent and responsible so far as regards the local work to be done in connexion with the election in its own area, but is subordinate to the party committees above it as respects work to be^done in its own locality for the general purposes of the party. The ordinary duties of these committees are to raise and spend money for electioneering and otherwise in the interests of the party, to organize meetings, to " look after the press," to attend to the admission of immigrants or new-comers as voters, and generally to attract and enrol recruits in the party forces. At election times they also direct and superintend the work of bringing up voters to the polls and of watching the taking and counting of the votes; but in this work they are often aided or superseded by specially appointed temporary bodies called " campaign committees." These party committees are permanent, and though the membership is renewed every year, the same men usually continue to serve. The chairman in particular is generally reappointed, and is often, in a populous area, a person of great and perhaps autocratic power, who has large funds at his disposal and a regular army of " workers " under his orders.
The other and parallel branch of the party organization consists of the bodies whose function it is to nominate party candidates for elective posts, whether legislative or party Nomexecutive. (It must be remembered that many tnating executive state, county and city officers are chosen Convenby direct popular vote.) These bodies are meetings a as - of the members of the party resident in each election area. In the smallest areas, such as the township or city ward, the meeting is composed of all the recognized members of the party who are entitled to vote, and it is then called a primary. In the larger election areas, such as a county or city, the number of voters who would be entitled to be present renders it impossible to admit all, so the nominating meetings in these areas are composed of delegates elected in the various primaries included in the area, and the meeting is called a nominating convention. This is the rule, but in some parts of the South and West nominations for members of the state legislature and county officials, and even for members of Congress, are made by primary assemblies meeting over the entire area, which all the party voters are entitled to attend. Where candidates are to be nominated for a state election, the number of delegates from primaries would be too large, so the state nominating convention is composed of delegates chosen at representative conventions held in smaller areas.
Every registered voter belonging to the party in the local election area for which party candidates are to be nominated is presumably entitled to vote in the primary. In rural districts little difficulty arises, because it is known what citizens belong to each party; but in cities, and especially in large cities, where men do not know their neighbours by sight, it becomes necessary to have regular lists of the party voters entitled to attend a primary; and these lists are either prepared and kept by the local party committee, or are settled by the votes of the persons previously on the party rolls. The composition of these lists is of course a serious matter, because the primary is the foundation of the whole party edifice. Accordingly, those who control the local organizations usually take pains to keep on the lists all the voters whom they can trust, and are apt to keep off those whom they think likely to show a dangerous independence. By their constant activity in this direction, and by their influence over the pliable members of the party, they are generally able to have a primary subservient to their will, which is ready to nominate those whom they may suggest as suitable candidates, and to choose as delegates to the conventions persons on whom they can rely. In this way a few leaders may sometimes be able to obtain control of the nominating machinery of a city, or even of a state, for the local committees usually obey instructions received from the committees above them. (See, as to the details of party machinery, American Commonwealth, chs. lix.-lxiv., M. Ostrogorski on Democracy in England and America, and Professor Jesse Macy on Party Organization and Machinery, 1904.)
The great importance of these nominating bodies lies not only in the fact that there are an enormous number of state, county and city offices (including judicial offices) filled by direct popular election, but also in the fact that in the United States a candidate has scarcely any chance of being elected unless he is regularly nominated by his party, that is to say, by the recognised primary or convention. To control the primary or the convention (as the case may be) of the party which is strongest in any given area is therefore, in ninetynine cases out of a hundred, to control the election itself, so far as the party is concerned, and in many places one party has a permanent majority.
As the desire to dominate primaries was found to lead to many abuses, both in the way of manipulating the lists of party voters and in the unfair management of the primary meetings themselves, a movement was started for reforming the system, which, beginning soon after 1890, gathered so much support that now in the large majority of the states laws have been enacted for regulating the proceedings at primary nomination meetings. These laws vary greatly in their details from state to state, but they all aim at enabling the voters to exercise a free and unfettered voice in the selection of their candidates, and they have created a regular system of elections of candidates preliminary to the election of office-holders from among the candidates. In most states the voter is required, when he obtains his ballot at the primary election, to declare to which party he belongs, but sometimes the primary is " open " and he may vote for any one of the persons who are put forward as desiring to be selected as candidates. The laws usually contain provisions punishing fraud or bribery practised at a primary, similar to those which apply to the subsequent elections to office. Although political parties were originally mere private organizations, little objection seems to have been felt to giving them statutory recognition and placing the proceedings at them under full official control.
33. One nominating body is of such conspicuous magnitude as to need special notice. For the selection of party candidates for the offices of president and vice- The National president of the United States, there is held once Nominating every four years, in the summer preceding the Convention. election (which takes place in November) of the president, a huge party assembly of delegates from conventions held in the several states, each state having twice as many delegates as it has electoral votes to cast (i.e. twice as many as its Federal senators and Federal representatives). Two delegates are chosen for each congressional district by a district convention, and four delegates for the state at large by a state convention. Each state delegation usually keeps together during the national convention, and holds private meetings from time to time to decide on its course.
When the national convention has been duly organized by the appointment of committees and of a chairman, its first business is to discuss and adopt a series of resolutions (prepared by the committee on resolutions, but subject to amendment by the convention as a whole), which, taken together, embody the views, programme and policy of the party, and constitute what is called its " platform " for the ensuing election. This declaration of principles and plans is sometimes of importance, not only as an appeal to the people in respect of the past services and merits of the party, but as pledging them to the measures they are to introduce and push forward if they win the election. It then proceeds to receive the nomination of various aspirants to the position of party candidate for the presidency. The roll of states is called alphabetically, and each state, as reached in the roll, is entitled to present a candidate. Thereafter a vote is^taken between the several aspirants. The roll of states is again called, and the chairman of each state delegation announces the vote of the state. In Democratic conventions a state delegation, when instructed by the state convention to cast its whole vote solid for the particular aspirant favoured by the majority of the delegation, must do so (this is called the unit rule); in the conventions of the other parties individual delegates may vote as they please. If one aspirant has obtained on the first roll-call an absolute majority of the whole number of delegates voting or, in Democratic conventions, a majority of two-thirds of those voting he is held to have been duly chosen, and the choice is then made unanimous. If, however, no one obtains the requisite majority, the roll is again called until some one competitor secures the requisite number of votes. Sometimes one or two votings are sufficient, but sometimes the process has to be repeated many times it may even continue for several days before a result is reached. Where this happens there is much room for the display of tactical skill by the party managers in persuading delegates who favour one of the less prominent aspirants to transfer their votes to the person who seems most likely to unite the party.
When one aspirant has been duly selected as the party candidate for the presidency, the convention proceeds to choose in the same way a person to be candidate for the vicepresidency. This is a much simpler matter, because the post is much less sought after, and it is usually despatched with ease and promptitude. The two nominees are then deemed to be the candidates of the whole party, entitled to the support, at the ensuing election, of the party organizations and of all sound party men throughout the Union, and the convention thereupon dissolves.
34. It is hardly too much to say that in the United States the parties work the government. The question follows, Who work the parties? The action of the parties influences depends upon and is the resultant of three factors, which guide which are indeed more or less present in all U>e Parties. constitutional representative governments. These are (a) individual leaders, who are powerful either by their talents or by the influence they enjoy over the citizens; (b) rich men, who can supply the party with the very large sums of money needed for maintaining the party machinery in efficiency and for fighting the elections; and (c) the opinion of the mass of the citizens, who, though generally disposed to adhere to the traditions and follow the leaders of the party to which they belong, do, especially in the more educated classes and in the most advanced parts of the country, exert a certain measure of independence, and may refuse to vote for the party candidates if they either distrust those candidates personally or disapprove of the policy which the party seems to be following. It need hardly be said that the relative importance of these three factors varies from time to time. Fortunately that of the second has grown weaker in recent years.
35. The national parties have been so pervasive in their influence, and the working of their machinery has formed so General i m pofrtant a part of the political history of the Results of United States, that it is necessary here to call tfiePowero/attention to the high significance of this element in the Party jh e S y S tem of the Republic. The party system has made nearly all elections, including those for state offices and city offices, the functions of which have, as a rule, nothing whatever to do with national party issues, matters of party strife fought upon party lines. It has disposed voters in state and city elections to support party candidates, of whom they might otherwise have disapproved, for the sake of maintaining in full strength for national purposes the local party organization, and it has thereby become a fruitful source of municipal misgovernment. It has thrown great power into the hands of party managers, because where the strife between the two great parties is keen and the result of a contest doubtful, discipline and obedience are deemed needful for success. It has tended to efface state lines, and to diminish the interest in state issues, and has thus helped to make the nation overshadow the states. (J. BR.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY. General Secondary Works: James Bryce, The American Commonwealth (2 vols., New York, 1888; rev. ed., lOio) is the most satisfactory treatment of the whole subject; Alexis C. H. C. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (2 vols., a translation by Henry Reeve edited by Francis Bpwen, New York, 1898) the first English edition of this philosophical work appeared in 1835, and it is still suggestive; A. B. Hart, Actual Government as applied under American Conditions (3rd ed., rev., ibid., 1908), describes the operation of the various parts of the government and contains bibliographical guides. See also R. L. Ashley, The American Federal State (ibid., 1902); and B. A. Hinsdale, The American Government, National and State (rev. ed., Chicago, 1895). State Governments: The chief source for each state is the Revised Statutes, General Laws or Code, including the Constitution. There are two official compilations of the State Constitutions, one edited by B. P. Poore (2 vols., Washington, 1877) and one edited by F. N. Thorpe (7 vols., ibid., 1909). T. M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations which rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union (6th ed., Boston, 1890) is one of the most useful secondary works. In " Handbooks of American Government," edited by L, B. Evans, there is a study of the government of New York by W. C. Morey (New York, 1902), of Ohio by W. H. Siebert (1904), of Illinois by E. B. Greene (1904), of Maine by William MacDonald (1902), of Michigan by W. W. Cook (1905), of Minnesota by F. L. McVey (1901) and of Indiana by E. W. Kemp (1904). See also Lincoln Steffens, The Struggle for Self-Government; being an attempt to trace American Political Corruption to its Sources in Six States of the United States (New York, 1906). The American Political Science Review (Baltimore, 1907 sqq.) is especially useful for a comparative study of the state governments. For a study of the branches of government, Federal as well as state, see W. W. Willoughby, The American Constitutional System (New York, 1904); Emlin McClain, Constitutional Law in the United States (ibid., 1905); P. S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods (ibid., 1907); J. H. Finley and J. F. Sanderson, The American Executive and Executive Methods (ibid., 1908) ; W. F. Willoughby, Territories and Dependencies (ibid., 1905) and S. E. Baldwin, The American Judiciary (ibid., 1905). Local Government: The sources are the state constitutions, state laws and town and county reports and records. The best secondary works are J. A. Fairlie's Local Government in Towns, Counties and Villages (New York, 1906) ; and G. E. Howard's Introduction to the LocalConstitutional History of the United States (Baltimore, 1889) is of use, although the author's theories are questionable. Government of Cities: The principal source is the city charters. For a digest of some of these see Digest of City Charters, together with other Statutory and Constitutional Provisions relating to Cities, prepared for the Chicago Charter Convention by A. R. Hatton (Chicago, 1906). There is much useful material in Municipal Affairs v ,'!;. an d vol. y. contains " A Bibliography of Municipal Problems City Conditions. See also Proceedings of the National Conlerence for Good City Government (Philadelphia, 1894). Amone numerous good secondary works are F. J. Goodnow's Municipal Gover nmen t (New yo rk , 1909)> cil Government in the United States /?/;Vi?3 4); Mun^H Problems (ibid., 1897) and Municipal Home foof/'n d 'ifW' JV A ' ? airlie ' Muni P"l Administration (ibid., 1901; ; D. F Wilcox The American City: A Problem in Democracy (ibid., 1904); and Great, Cities in America: Their Problems and Government (ibid., 1910) ; H, E. Deming, The Government of American Cities (ibid., 1909); Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities (ibid., 9 ^ 4 rK r C- vTi'. The City -' the H f e f Democracy (ibid., 1905) and Charles Zueblm, American Municipal Progress (ibid., 1902) /* federal Government: For a study of the constitution see the Documentary History of the Constitution of the United States of FlTTn P. - I8 L i 5 V ! S 7. Washin gtn. 1894-1905): Jonathan Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc. (2nd ed., 5 vols., Philadelphia, 1888)- The Federalist, edited by H. C. Lodge (New York, 1889) or by P L hord (ibid., 1898); Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United Stales Published during its Discussion by the People (Brooklyn, 1888), edited by PL. Ford; Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (sth ed., 2 vols., Boston, 1891); James Kent Commentaries on American Law (14th ed., 4 vols., ibid.. 1896); J. I. C. Hare, American Constitutional Law, (2 vols., ibid., 1889)- E. G. Elliott, Biographical Story of (he Constitution (New York, 1910) ; Woodrow Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States (ibid., rev. ed., 1908); and especially important are the decision of the United States Supreme Court, known by the name of the reporter until 1874 A. I. Dallas (1790-1800), Wm. Cranch (1801-1815), Henry Wheaton (1816-1827), Richard Peters (1828- 1842), B. C. Howard (1843-1860), J. S. Black (1861-1862) and J. W. Wallace (1863-1874) and published under the title of the United States Reports after 1874. The best collection of Cases on Constitutional Law is by J. B. Thayer (2 vols., Cambridge, 1894-1895). 1 he United States Statutes at Large are published in 35 vols. (Boston and Washington, 1845-1909), and there is an annotated edition of the Federal Statutes compiled under the supervision of W. M. McKmneyand C. C. Moore (New York, 1903-1909). J.D.Richardson compiled the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1780 -1807 (10 vols., Washington, 1896-1899). The best account of the presidential elections is in Edward Stanwood's History of the Presidency (Boston, 1898). For the executive departments the Annual Reports of each and numerous executive documents are useful. Some of the more important secondary works on special topics are: Mary P. Follett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (New York, new ed., 1910) ; H. B. Fuller, Speakers of the House (Boston, 1909): J- A. Fairlie, Natiotial Administration of the United Slates (New York, 1907) ; L. G. McConachie, Congressional Committees: a Study of the Origins and Development of our National and Local Legislative Methods (ibid., 1898); Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government: a Study in American Politics (l5th ed., Boston, 1900); Jesse Macy, Party Organization and Machinery (New York, 1904); M. Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties (ibid., 2 vols., 1902; the second volume, revisedand enlarged, was published in 1910 as Democracy and the Party System in the United States) ; J. A. Woodburn, American Politics: Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States (ibid., 1903); Lucy M. Salmon, History ojlhe Appointing Power of 'the President, in American Historical Association Papers, vol. i. (ibid., 1886); C. R. Fish, The Civil Service and Patronage (ibid., 1905) ; W. W. Willoughby, The Supreme Court of the United States: its History and Influence in our Constitutional System, in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, vol. vii. (Baltimore, 1890) ; F. A. Cleveland, Growth of Democracy in the United Slates: or the Evolution of Popular Cooperation in Government and its Results (Chicago, 1898) ; J. A. Smith, The Spirit of American Government: A Study of the Constitution, its Origin, Influence and Relation to Democracy (New York, 1907); Albert Shaw, Political Problems in American Development (New York, (1907); D. R. Dewey, National Problems (ibid., 1907).
VIII. FINANCE The taxing powers within the United States are as follows :
a. The national government, whose revenue powers are only limited by: (a) the provision of the constitution which prohibits all duties on exports, and (b) the provision that all direct taxes must be levied in proportion to population a provision which deprives direct taxes of nearly all their efficiency for revenue purposes.
b. The several states, whose revenue powers are only limited by: (a) restrictions in their respective constitutions, and (b) the general principle that those powers must not be exercised in such a way as to contravene laws of the United States, or to destroy sources of the national revenue, although a state may prohibit within its borders the sale of liquors, from taxes upon which the United States Treasury derives a considerable part of its receipts.
c. Within each state powers of taxation, to a determinate or to an indeterminate extent, as the case may be, are by the constitution and laws of the state conferred, almost always for strictly defined purposes, (i) upon counties, (2) upon cities, boroughs and incorporate villages, and (3) in nearly all the states, though in widely varying degrees, upon the primary geographical divisions of counties, such as the "town" of New England and the "township" of the Middle and Western states.
The revenues of the several states, and of minor governmental areas within them, are mainly derived from a general property tax, laid directly upon realty and personalty. More than 82% of the tax revenues of state and local governments were thus derived in 1902. The average real rate of assessment was $0-72 in 1880 and $0-74 in 1902. The details of this system, which has no other refuge in the civilized world save partially in Switzerland, are remarkable for a most extraordinary diversity in the manner of collection, which practically becomes, however, self-assessment, and an equally extraordinary and general evidence of the crudity and inadequacy of the system, which has been the target of state tax reports throughout the Union for half a century. Nevertheless, only recently have other sources of revenue been largely developed, and the general property tax to a degree abandoned. Thus an inheritance tax was first adopted by Pennsylvania in 1826, yet sixty years later only two states were taxing collateral inheritances. In 1907 there were 34 such, and 19 of these were taxing direct inheritances as well. This is a modern democratic tax, and there are similar tendencies in other taxes. Business taxes are fast increasing, and many special property taxes, these two classes yielding in 1902 7-24% of state and local revenues. The taxation of corporations is recent and rapidly increasing. The same is true of habitation taxes. A beginning has been made with income taxes. Finally, the strain upon municipal finances incident to a realization of civic improvements has called attention to intangible wealth: street railways are no longer taxed as scrap iron but as working systems, with due attention to their franchises; and there is a beginning of the doctrine that the increase in value of unimproved realty constitutes income that should be taxed. The same conditions have made of importance general theories, such as the single tax theory of Henry George, for taxing landed values. All these tendencies, although strongest in municipal finances, are general.
Restrictions upon the taxing power, and unwise classifications of property for taxation purposes, embodied without good understanding in state constitutions, have been a primary obstacle to the development of sound systems of taxation in the several states. A lack of interstate comity, and double taxation of certain classes of property, have also offered difficulties. The progress toward better conditions has, however, been in late years rapid.
A similar restriction placed by the Constitution (art. I, 2) upon the power of the Federal government to lay " direct taxes " has been interpreted by the Supreme Court, by a bare majority, in such a way as to make very difficult, if not impossible, the imposition of an income tax (although, it may be added, such taxes had been unanimously held constitutional by the court in earlier decisions, which rested in turn upon interpretations of the constitutional provision just referred to given by the court when it counted among its members justices who had been members of the convention that framed the constitution).
The entire Federal system is the result, partly of constitutional provisions, partly of experience. The Federal authority naturally resorted first to customs duties upon foreign commerce, because in this field it had exclusive authority. It adopted next excise duties on articles produced or consumed within the country, notably liquors and tobacco. These two species of indirect taxes have from the beginning been the main sources of national revenue. At three periods, namely 1800-1802, 1814-1817 and 1863-1871, direct taxes have contributed considerable amounts to the revenue. These taxes included in the last period that of the Civil War income and legacy taxes, taxes on commercial transactions, and taxes on persons and property. At times also the proceeds of the sales of public lands have formed an important element of the receipts of government, although it has been the accepted policy to sell such lands to actual settlers at rates so low as to be inconsistent with the object or attainment (relatively) of revenue. Indeed, under the homestead law, large portions of the public domain have been given away to settlers (see HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION LAWS), while even larger amounts have been alienated in aid of schools, public improvements, etc., so that the portion sold has not been a third of the total amount alienated. It is possible, however, that the growing consciousness of the necessity of conserving the national resources may lead to a much greater income in the future from the small amounts still remaining in the hands of the national government. In 1908 there still remained unappropriated and unsurveyed, according to the General Land Office, 754,895,296 acres. Of these, 387,000,000 acres were still open to entry, but most of this vast extent consisted, in the opinion of the National Conservation Commission of 1908, of lands either arid or otherwise unsuited for settlement. There were also, in July 1908, about 235,000,000 acres of national forests, parks and other reservations for public use.
Customs duties have been found to be in general the most cheaply collected, the least conspicuous, and least annoying of all taxes. They have, however, never been a stable source of revenue, even during periods when the tariff was constant; and compared with the steady returns shown by the selected articles of the British tariff list this instability has been most extraordinary. Very often their income has been far above the amount needed for all disbursements of the government. In times of war they have of course fallen to a minimum. Thus, in the period 1791 to 1811 their ratio to total government expenditure ranged from 41-6 to 189-6%; during the years 1812-1817, from 17-2 in 1814, when war finances reached their weakest point, to 131-4% in 1817, showing how rapid was their response under the return of peace; in the period 1817-1859 from 29-9% in the crisis year of 1837 to 158-9%; in the period 1860-1869 from 6-5% in 1865, when the government's bonds fell in price to $50-93 per hundred and the war policy of loans was most desperate, to 84-1%; in the years 1870-1893 from 51-4 to 85%; and, finally, in the years 1893-1909, from 36-9% (in 1898) to 52-7%.
Of the total imports of 1909 47-4%, of a value of $699,799,771, entered duty free. More than half of these were crude materials for manufactures. The total imports per capita amj the duty collected upon them per capita have been as follows since 1885, taking every fifth year: 1885 $10-32 and $3-17; 1890 $12-35 and $3-62; 1895 $10-61 and $2-17; 1900 $10-88 and $3-01; 1905 $13-08 and $3-11; 1908 $13-57 and $3-24.
The attempts of the Federalist party to create a system of internal taxation was a leading cause of its downfall. During the years in which it was in power little more than a tenth of the national revenue was derived from excises, yet they became a national political issue, and the Whisky Rebellion shows how little they were fitted to the nation at that time. The excise system disappeared with the incoming of the Democratic party in 1801. As a temporary necessity such taxes were again resorted to during the war of 1812, and again during the Civil War. In the latter period the excise proved of great richness, and quickly responsive in its returns; whereas the customs were inelastic so long as the war continued. After the war a system of internal revenue was therefore continued.
Of recent years the growing stringency of both national and local finances by enormously increased disbursements has made important the question of the relation of national with state and local taxation. The customs revenue, in its form of high protection, has always had against it a strong free trade sentiment, generally unorganized, and this seems to be growing. The internal revenue is affected by the remarkable spread of the prohibition movement. A considerable and growing public sentiment in favour of the use of the taxing power for the regulation of wealth taken from society demands the introduction into the Federal system of income and inheritance taxes. The last inasmuch as an income tax that is constitutional can perhaps not be framed is the only promising source that can give the addition to the Federal revenues that must be needed in case the customs or the excise revenues are reduced.
From 1860 to 1870 the population increased 22-6%, and the net ordinary expenditures of government, not including payments on the national debt, rose 173%; from 1870 to 1900 the corresponding figures (using the official estimated population) were 129% and 408%. The aggregate net ordinary receipts into the United States treasury, from 1791 to the 30th of June 1885, were as follows, in millions of dollars: from customs, 5642 ; from internal revenue, 3449; from direct taxes, 28; from public lands, 241; from miscellaneous sources, 578; total, 9938. The corresponding figures for the years from 1886 to the 30th of June 1909 were as follows, respectively: 5403; 4618; 0-142; 121 ; 969.
The expenditures of the government increased steadily per capita up to the opening of the Civil War. The ease with which money was acquired in the war period, the acquiescence of the people, and the influences of extravagance and corruption engendered by the war, opened, at the return of peace, a period of extravagant expenditure that has continued with progressive increase down to the present. A phenomenal growth of both customs and excise revenue has made such expenditures easy. From 1791 to 1886 the aggregate net ordinary expenditures of the government these expenditures being exclusive of payments on account of principal and interest of the public debt were as follows, in millions of dollars: for the army, 4563; navy, 1106; military pensions, 900; miscellaneous, 2168; total 8737. The corresponding figures for the period 1887 (June 30) to 1908 (June 30) were: 2003; 1219; 2884; 2790; total 8896.
The average yearly ordinary receipts of the decade 1900-1909, distributed by source, was as follows: from customs, $280,728,741-30; from excise, $257,477,356-45; from miscellaneous sources, $48,736,721-89; total ordinary revenue, $586,942,919-64 or $7-11 per capita; revenue from sale of Panama bonds, $8,730,959-48; from premiums exclusive of Panama bonds, $397,894-20. The average yearly disbursements during the decade, distributed according to object, were as follows: for civil list and miscellaneous objects, $143,697,123-09; army, $130,416,902-62; navy, $96,722,000-90; military pensions, $144,856,529-16; Indians, $12,966,563-00; on account of debt, $25,632,072-60; total, $586,942,920.
In 1909 the ordinary receipts were $637,773,165, or $7-17 per capita; and the ordinary disbursements $670,507,889, or $7-54 per capita. The revenues of all the states, counties, cities and other local governments, plus those of the national government, aggregated in 1879 only $584,980,614.
Since 1870 the national census office has determined several times the aggregate indebtedness of the national, state and other local governments. The results are stated below, for 1870 and 1902, in round millions of dollars. Sinking funds are deducted.
1870.
1902.
v-jovcrnment.
Total.
Per capita.
Total.
Per capita.
United States .
$ 2,331-2 $ 60-46 $ 925-0 $ 11-77 States and territories .
352-9 9-15 234-9 2-99 Counties ....
187-6 4-87 196-6 2-50 Other local govern- ments, excluding rural school districts 328-2 8-51 i,387-3 17-65 School districts out- side of urban centres of 8000 or more in habitants 1zz 6-2 0-59 * Included in 1870 in the preceding category.
The national government set out in 1790 with a revolutionary debt of about 75 millions of dollars. This debt continued, slightly increased but without any very important change, until 1806, when a reduction began, continuing until 1812, when the debt was about 45 millions. The then ensuing war with England carried the debt up to 127 millions in 1816. This was reduced to 96 millions in 1819, to 84 millions in 1825 and to 24 millions in 1832, and in the three years following was extinguished. The crisis of 1837, and the financial difficulties ensuing, created indebtedness, fluctuating in amount, which at the beginning of the war with Mexico was about 1 6 millions. At the conclusion of peace the debt had risen to 63 millions, near which point it remained until about 1852, from which time successive reductions brought it down to 28 millions in 1857. The financial crisis of that year caused an increase, which continued until the imminence of the Civil War, when it rose from 65 millions in 1860 to 91 millions in 1861, to 514 in 1862, to 1120 in 1863, to 1816 in 1864, to 2681 in June, and its maximum (2846 millions) in August 1865. These figures are of gross indebtedness. The amount of the debt per capita of population, less cash in the treasury, was $15-63 in 1800; it fell to $0-21 in 1840; rose again, and in 1865 reached a maximum of $76-98 ; since when it had fallen by the 30th of June 1908 to $10-76. The amount of the debt outstanding, minus gold and silver certificates and Treasury notes offset by cash in the Treasury, was $1,295,147,432-04 on the 1st of November 1909. Of this amount $913,317,490 was bearing interest.
IX. ARMY The regular army has always been small, and in time of war reliance has been upon volunteer forces (see ARMY). This was truer of the Civil War than of the War of Independence or the war with Mexico. In the last the numbers of militia and volunteers was but little more than twice, and in the second little more than equal to the number of regulars engaged ; while in the Civil War the proportion was as one to twenty. Again, the number of regular troops engaged in the War of Independence (namely, 130,711 men enlisted) was greater, absolutely, than that engaged in the Civil War (126,587). Finally, it is interesting to note that in 1799, when war seemed probable with France, the army was organized with a force of 52,766 men, and during the second war with Great Britain the number was made 57,351 in 1813 and 62,674 i n 1814; while the organized strength under the law of 1861, which was in force throughout the Civil War, was only 39,273 men. Small as the regular force has always been, its organization has been altered some two score of times in all.
The law for its organization in force in 1910 provides that the total enlisted strength shall not at any one time exceed 100,000. The full active force of the present organization is as follows : 1 5 regiments of cavalry, with 765 officers and 13,155 enlisted men; 6 regiments of field artillery, with 236 officers and 5220 enlisted men; 30 regiments of infantry, with 1530 officers and 26,731 enlisted men; 3 battalions of engineers, with 2002 enlisted men, commanded by officers detailed from the corps of engineers; a special regiment of infantry for Puerto Rico, with 31 officers and 576 enlisted men; a provisional force of 50 companies of native scouts in the Philippines, with 178 officers and 5731 enlisted men; staff men, service school detachments; the military academy at West Point, Indian scouts, etc., totalling 11,777 enlisted men. The total number of commissioned officers, staff and line, on the active list, is 4209 (including 219 first lieutenants of the medical reserve corps on active duty). The total enlisted strength, staff and line, is 78,782, exclusive of the hospital corps and the provisional force. ( See also NAVY AND NAVIES.)
(F. S. P.)
X. HISTORY A. Beginnings of Self-government, 1578-1690.
i. The American nation owes its origin to colonizing activities in which the British, Dutch, Swedes, French and Spaniards bore a share, and which were continued during a period of more than two centuries at the beginning of the modern era. The settlements of the Dutch and Swedes (New Netherland and New Sweden) were soon merged in those of the British, and of the territory colonized by Frenchmen and Spaniards the United States, as it was in 1783, included only certain outlying regions (Florida and certain posts on the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi Vulley). All the European nations which were interested in colonization shared in the enterprise, and the population of the region was therefore cosmopolitan from the outset. But the British, especially after 1660, secured a controlling influence, to such an extent that the history of the period can properly be regarded as the record of an experiment in British colonization. Permanent settlements on the Atlantic seaboard were first made in the early years of the 17th century, and they continued steadily to increase until after 1680. Relatively speaking, that was the period of settlement, but population continued slowly to advance westward. In the 18th century occurred a large immigration of Germans and Scottish-Irish, who settled in Pennsylvania and New York and thence overflowed into the western parts of Virginia and the Carolinas. The only colony which was founded in the 18th century was Georgia (1732), by means of which British outposts on the Florida frontier were strengthened.
2. British colonization originated chiefly in private initiative, though it acted in half-conscious obedience to certain general principles of action. From this fact originated the General trend toward self-government, which was funda- Aspects of mental and controlling in the history of the British Coioaizaon the American continent. But to an extent the tio "' tendencies which favoured self-government were counteracted by the influence of the British Crown and parliament. The influence of the Crown was continuous, except during the period of the Civil War and Commonwealth (1642-1660), while that of parliament was not felt until the middle of the 17th century, and its colonial legislation subsequent to that time was chiefly confined to matters of trade. The activities of Crown and parliament were directed toward the securing of Imperial interests and of that degree of subordination and conformity which, in states that have developed from Roman and feudal origins, attaches to the condition of colonies or dependencies. The term " imperial control " therefore suggests the second tendency in colonial affairs, to the discussion of which the historian must address himself.
3. Among the colonists the trend toward local independence and self-government was in harmony with the spirit of the English. Neither was it lacking among the other nationalities represented in the colonies. But in the case of the British it was greatly strengthened by the fact that the colonies were founded by private initiative, the government legalizing the efforts of the " adventurers " and planters, but leaving them in many cases almost wholly to themselves. Hence many small colonies and settlements were founded along the coast. A variety of motives economic, religious and political contributed to the founding of these colonies, and people correspondingly different in type came to inhabit them. As they differed from one another, so their descendants came to differ from the Europeans, out of the midst of whom they had come. The remoteness of the colonies from Europe and the difficulties under which communication with them was maintained confirmed and perpetuated the tendency toward independence both of England and its government. Somewhat similar conditions controlled intercolonial relations, kept the colonists apart from one another and checked efforts at co-operation. Thus it was that the causes which confirmed the colonists in the spirit of independence toward the mother country at the same time made them jealous of any external authority.
4. The term " chartered colonies " is the one which best describes the forms under which the British-American settlements were founded and under which they all continued for periods varying from a single generation to that of the entire duration of their colonial existence. They were the direct and characteristic results of private initiative in colonization. The discoverers and would-be Chartered Colonies.
colonizers, acting individually or in groups, collected the ships, men and resources necessary for their enterprises, and procured from the Crown a charter. By this document the king conveyed to them a claim to the soil which would be valid in English law, gave them the right to transfer Englishmen thither as colonists, to trade with them and with the natives, and to govern the colony, subject to the conditions of allegiance and of British sovereignty in general. The rights and liberties of the colonists as British subjects, without attempt to define what they were, were guaranteed by the charters, and the grantee was prohibited from passing laws or issuing orders which were repugnant to those of England. In only a part of the charters those chiefly which were issued subsequent to 1660 was express reference made to the calling of assemblies in the colonies. So general were the provisions of the charters that they only remotely determined the forms which government should assume under them and what the rights of the colonists should be. A considerable variety of institutions and social types existed under them. But their very indefiniteness made them valuable as objects of appeal to those who in time of controversy were upholding local rights and liberties.
5. Of the chartered colonies there were two varieties proprietary provinces and corporate colonies. Though alike in the fact that the patentees who founded them Provinces? were m esne tenants of the Crown, they were quite unlike in their internal organization and to a considerable extent also in the character of the people who inhabited them. The proprietary province was a development from the principle of the fief, though with many variations. The early charters of discovery, those for example which were granted to John and Sebastian Cabot and to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, contemplated the founding of feudal principalities in the New World. The grant to Sir Walter Raleigh, which resulted in the abortive colonial experiment at Roanoke, was of the same character. At the period of transition from the rule of the Tudors to that of the Stuarts, trading companies and companies whose purpose was colonization were increasing in number and importance. The first half of the 17th century was distinguished by the founding of many such, in France and the Netherlands as well as in England. The joint companies which were chartered London and by James I. in 1606, one to have its residence Plymouth at London and the other at Plymouth, were of this Companies, character. They were granted the right to colonize, the one in northern and the other in southern "Virginia"; the intervening territory, three degrees in breadth, being left common to the two. The rights of the companies were confined to those of settlement and trade. The Plymouth patentees achieved no permanent result; but those of London founded Jamestown (1607) and other settlements along the James river, which later became the province of Virginia (q.v.).
6. But before this result had been reached the London patentees had secured in succession two new charters, one in 1609 and another in 1612. By means of these grants they had practically separated from the Plymouth Company, had secured a concession of territory 400 m. broad and extending through the continent, and had been able to perfect the organization of their company. By the grant of 1606 the right to govern the colonies had been reserved to councils of royal appointees, one resident in England and one in each distinct colony which should be founded. But by their later charters the London patentees were fully incorporated, and in connection therewith received not only the power to grant land but rights of government as well. This made the Virginia Company of London in the full sense of the word the proprietor of the province which it was founding. It now appointed resident governors, councillors and other officials for the colony, and instructed and controlled them in all ways, subject of course to the general supervision of the king in council. Under the charter of 1606, in order to facilitate colonization on a strange continent, joint management of land and trade was temporarily instituted. But under the fully organized company, as managed by Sir Thomas Smith, and especially by Sir Edwin Sandys and the Ferrars, this system was abandoned, and private property in land and the control of trade through private " magazines " were established. A number of distinct plantations and settlements were founded which later developed into counties and parishes. From these localities, in 1619, under authority from the company, representatives were elected who met with the governor and council at Jamestown and formed the first colonial assembly held on American soil. Its acts were duly submitted to the company in London for its approval or disapproval. Other assemblies were called, the tobacco industry was established and the principles upon which traffic in that staple was to be conducted with Europe were announced. Thus Virginia assumed the form of a proprietary province, with an English trading company as its proprietor.
7. Meantime west of England men had been making fishing voyages and voyages of discovery to northern " Virginia", which now was coming to be known as New England. In New 1620 a new charter was procured, the reorganized England company being known, in brief, as the New England Couacl1 - Council. Like the London patentees, this body was now fully incorporated and received a grant of the vast territory between 40 and 48 N. lat. and extending through to the South Sea (Pacific). Full rights of government, as well as of trade and settlement, were also bestowed. The moving spirit in this revived enterprise was Sir Ferdinando Gorges (q.v.), an Anglican and royalist from the west of England. For a time John Mason (q.v.) was his most active coadjutor. Such backing as the company received came from nobles and courtiers, and it had the sympathy of the court. But lack of resources and of active interest on the part of most of the patentees, together with the development of a Puritan interest in New England, led to the failure of this enterprise. No colony was established directly by the council itself, but that part of its vast territory which lay adjacent to the coast was parcelled out among the patentees and by them a few weak and struggling settlements were founded. They were all proprietary in character, and those along the northern coast were more or less connected with Anglican and royalist interests. But, as events proved, Plymouth Colony (founded in 1620), which was Puritan and Separatist to the core, became a patentee of the New England Council; and the colony of Massachusetts Bay (founded in 1628-1630), which was to become the citadel of Puritanism in America, procured the original title to its soil from the same source. At the outset both Massachusetts and Plymouth must be classed as proprietary settlements, though far different from such in spirit and destiny. Massachusetts soon (in 1629) secured a royal charter for its territory between the Merrimac and Charles rivers, and thus took a long step towards independence of the council. At the same time the Plymouth settlers were throwing aside the system of joint management of land which, as in the case of Virginia, had been imposed upon them by adventurers who had lent money for the enterprise; were paying their debts to these same adventurers and securing control of the trade of the colony; were establishing a system of self-government similar to that of Massachusetts. Thus a strong Puritan interest grew up in the midst of the domain which had been granted to the New England Council, and in connexion therewith the type of colony to which we have given the name corporate came into existence.
8. In order to understand the nature of the corporate colony, it is necessary to explain the internal organization of that type of company which, like the Virginia Company corporate of London, was founded for purposes of trade and colonies; colonization. It was composed of stockholders, who ** Virginia became members as the result of the purchase of Com f aa y- shares or of migration to the colony as planters, or of both acts combined. In the Virginia Company they were known as the " generality, " in the Massachusetts and other companies as the " freemen. " In them, when met as a democratically organized body under the name of " quarter court " or " general court," was vested the governing power of the company. It elected the officers, chief among whom were a treasurer or governor, and a council or board of assistants. These, as well as the subordinate officers, held for annual terms only. Four times a year, at the law terms, the general courts met for the transaction of business, elections being held at the spring meeting. Membership in such companies might be indefinitely increased through the issue and sale of shares. They were, in other words, open companies, whereas the New England Council was a closed body, its membership being limited to forty. The Massachusetts Company was an open corporation of the type just described.
9. In 1629 the prospects of Protestantism at large, and of Puritanism in England, were so dark that the founders of the Massachusetts Company, who were decidedly Massachu- p ur ;t an [ n spirit and inclined to nonconformity in Company: practice, resolved to remove with their charter and Removal of the governing body of their company into New Charter to England. Preparatory to this, John Winthrop was *" elected governor and a settlement was made of their business relations in England. After the removal had been made, the assistants and general court met in New England and business was carried on there exclusively by planters. An order was soon passed that none should vote or hold office who were not members of some one of the churches within the colony. As all these churches were Independent or Congregationalist in form and doctrine, this order gave a wholly new definition to the term " freemen. " It made of this colony something approximating to a biblical commonwealth, and subordinated trade, land-holding and settlement to the interests of the Puritan faith. The board of assistants now assumed political and judicial functions. As local settlements about Massachusetts Bay were founded, the general court, which before had been a primary assembly simply the freemen of the company came to consist partly of representatives elected by the freemen of the towns. In this way a second chamber that of the deputies was added to the assistants to form the general court of the colony. Taxes were levied by this body, and laws and orders proceeded from it which related to all functions of government. It elected or appointed the governor and other chief officials, and determined the times of its own meeting. The governor had no veto and the general court was the controlling organ in the system.
10. Of primary importance hi the affairs of the colony was everything which concerned religious belief and church government. The churches and their relation to the civil power presented the great questions upon which hinged its policy. This was true not only in its internal affairs, but in its relations with other colonies and with the mother country. An ecclesiastical system was developed in which Independent and Presbyterian elements were combined. By a rigid system of tests this was upheld against Antinomians, Baptists, Quakers and dissenters of all sorts. The securing of revenue from land and trade was considered subordinate to the maintenance of the purity of the faith. It was this which gave a point and vigour to the spirit of self-government in the New England colonies which is not perceptible elsewhere.
As a consequence of the Puritan migration from England and of the expulsion of dissenters from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut (q.v.), the New Haven Colony, and the towns about Narragansett Bay which became the colony of Rhode Island (q.v.), were settled. These gji were corporate colonies, organized upon fundamentally the same plan as Massachusetts but differing from it in minor particulars. Their settlers at the outset had no charters, but by means of plantation or town covenants assumed powers of government, which ultimately were vested in general courts similar to that of Massachusetts. Rhode Island was formed by a union of towns, but elsewhere the colony was coeval with or antedated the town. Connecticut and Rhode Island, the former in 1662 and the latter in 1663, secured royal charters by which they were incorporated within New England itself and the governments Colony, Rhode which they had established there were legalized. New Haven was absorbed by Connecticut in 1664 under the charter of 1662 (see CONNECTICUT), and Plymouth remained without a charter from the king until, toward the close of the ryth century, it became a part of the enlarged province of Massachusetts.
11. The most prominent feature of the New England land system was the " town grant, " which in every case became the territorial basis of a group settlement. Throughout New England, and in the outlying districts which were colonized by New Englanders, settlement was effected by groups. The process began in Plymouth and was extended through the entire section. The Puritan migration from Europe was of the same general character. Groups of people, animated by a common religious or political ideal, broke away from their original or temporary abiding-places and pushed farther into the wilderness, where tracts of land were granted to them by the general court. The corporate colonies did not seek profit from their land, but granted it freely to actual settlers, and in such amounts as suited their needs. No distinct land office was established by any New England colony. Land was not sold by the colony; nor, as a general rule, was it leased or granted to individuals. Rent formed no appreciable part of the colony revenue.
12. Over the founding of towns the general courts, as a rule, exercised a watchful supervision. Not only did the courts fix and maintain their bounds, but they issued regulations for the granting of lands, for common fields, fences, herds, the punishment of trespass, the admission of inhabitants and freeholders, the requirement that records of land titles should be kept, and the like. But subject to these general regulations, the allotment and management of its land was left to each town. The colonies had no land system apart from the town. It was partly in order to manage their lands that the towns were made centres of local government and town meetings or boards of town proprietors were established. By means of town action, taken in town meetings and by local officials, the land of each settlement was laid off as house lots, common and common fields, meadow and pasture. Detailed regulations were made for the management of common fields and for their ultimate division and allotment among their proprietors. The same was true of fences and herds. The result was an organization similar to the English manor, but with the lord of the manor left out; for in the case of the New England town administrative authority resided in the body of the freeholders. To this peculiarity in the form of New England settlement is due the prominence of the town, as compared with the county, in its system of local government. The town was the unit for purposes of taxation and militia service as well as of elections. It was also an important ecclesiastical centre, the parish usually corresponding with it in extent.
13. As a result of the process thus sketched, southern New England was settled by a population of English origin, with similar instincts and a form of political organization which was common to them all. Gorges, meantime, had secured (1639) a royal charter for his province of Maine, but Mason had died before he obtained such a guaranty for his settlements on the Piscataqua river. The small communities along that entire coast remained weak and divided. In 1635 the New England Council surrendered its charter. The helplessness of the Gorges family was insured by its adherence to the royalist cause in the English Civil War. Massachusetts availed itself of a forced interpretation of the language of its charter respecting its northern boundary to extend its control over all the settlements as far north-east as the Kennebec river. This was accomplished soon after 1650, and for the time Anglican and royalist interests throughout New England seemed hopelessly wrecked. New England had thus developed into a clearly defined section under Puritan domination. This fact was also clearly indicated by the organization, in 1643, of the New England Confederacy, or the United Colonies of New England (see NEW ENGLAND), which comprised the orthodox Puritan colonies, whose leading magistrates, as annually elected commissioners, for twenty years exercised an advisory control over New England.
1578-1690 14. The colonies of the middle and southern sections of the territory, which later became the United States, were wholly Middle and proprietary in form. This was true of New NetherSouthcrn land (founded by the Dutch West India Company Colonies, jjj T ^ ai ) and of New Sweden (settled under the authority of the Swedish Royal Company in 1638), as well as of the English colonies which were established on that coast. In the case of Virginia and of the Dutch and Swedish settlements, trading companies were the proprietors. But the later English colonies, beginning with Maryland in 1632, and continuing with the Carolinas (1663), New York (1664), New Jersey (1665), Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, afterwards Delaware (1681), were founded by individual proprietors or proprietary boards. Georgia (1732), the only English colony settled after 1681 on the continent, existed for twenty years under a proprietary board of trustees. By the efforts of adventurers of this class, put forth chiefly during the period of the Restoration, the entire coast-line from Florida to Acadia was permanently occupied by the English. But, unlike New England, the population of the other sections was of a mixed character, as were their economic and religious systems, and to an extent also their political institutions.
15- As has already been stated, in their internal structure and in the course of their history the proprietary provinces differed very materially from the corporate colonies. Those of later English origin also differed in some important respects from Virginia under the company and from New Netherland and New Sweden. The system of joint management of land and trade, which was so characteristic of early Virginia, was outgrown before the other proprietary provinces were founded. Neither did it prevail in the Dutch and Swedish provinces, but there the law and institutions of government of those nations existed, and no provision whatever was made for assemblies.
16. In the proprietary province the proprietor, or board of proprietors, was the grantee of powers, while in the corporate colony it was the body of the freemen organized as an assembly or general court. The proprietor might or might not be a resident of the province. He might exercise his powers in person, or, as was usually the case, delegate them to one or more appointees. In any case, the form of government of the proprietary province was essentially monarchical in character. The powers that were bestowed were fundamentally the same as those which were enjoyed during the middle ages by the counts palatine of Chester and Durham. In some charters express reference was made to Durham as a model. The normally developed provinces which resulted were miniature kingdoms, and their proprietors petty kings. As Coke said, their powers were king-like though not sovereign. This character arose from the fact that the grantee of power was the executive of the province. This branch of government was thereby brought into the forefront. At the beginning and for a long time thereafter it continued to bear the leading part in affairs. It was not so in the corporate colony, for there the freemen and the general court stood at the centre of the system, and their ultimate control, which no one dreamed of disputing, was maintained through a system of annual elections. In most of the corporate colonies the executive (i. e. the body of magistrates) was strong, but that was due to the political and social influence which its officials had gained, and not to their tenure of office. But the nature of the proprietary province demands further explanation.
17. In every case, apart from the ordinary rights of trade and the guarantees of the liberties of the colonists, the powers Government which were bestowed on the proprietors were of the territorial and governmental. The territory of Proprietary the provinces was granted under the conditions which by English law controlled private estates of land. An entire province, or any part of it, could be leased, sold or otherwise disposed of like a private estate. It was an estate of inheritance, descending to heirs. The attitude of proprietors toward it was that of landlords, investors or speculators in land. They advertised for settlers, and, in doing so, an ever present motive with them was the desire to secure more private income from land. In 1664 the duke of York sold New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret, and the sale was effected by deeds of lease and release. In 1708 William Penn mortgaged Pennsylvania, and under his will devising the province legal complications arose which necessitated a suit in chancery. Thus proprietors and proprietary boards changed with every generation or of-tener. All this, of course, was different in the corporate colony.
1 8. In all the later proprietary charters, except that of New York, the operation of the statute Quid emptores was suspended, so far as relations between the proprietor and his immediate grantees were concerned. By virtue of this provision each proprietor, or board, became the centre from which originated an indefinite number of grants. These were held directly of the proprietor and through him of the' Crown. In practice the same was true also of New York. The proprietors were thus left free to make grants on such conditions as they chose limited by the nature of their patents to erect or permit the erection ot manors, to devise the machinery necessary for surveying, issuing and recording grants, and collecting rents. Preparatory to the exercise of this power, the proprietors issued so-called " concessions " or " conditions of plantation, " stating the terms on which they would grant lands to colonists. These were often accompanied by descriptions of the country, which were intended to be advertisements for settlers. Under a system of head rights, analogous to that which existed in Virginia, land was thus bestowed on settlers upon easy terms. Proportional amounts of land were granted upon the importation of servants, and in this way a traffic in servants and their head rights to land was encouraged among planters and masters of merchant vessels. In all the provinces, except New Netherland, a quit rent was imposed on all grants. In the Dutch province rents were sometimes imposed, but they varied in character and differed from the English quit rent. In Maryland fines were levied on alienations. In Maryland and Pennsylvania the demand for land became so great that it was sold. In most of the provinces manorial grants were made, but in none except New Netherland did the manor become an institution of government. In all the provinces territorial affairs were administered directly by the provincial authorities, and not by towns as in New England. In Maryland a land office was fully organized, towns developed only to a very limited extent, and when they did originate they were in no sense village communities. Lots in them were granted by provincial authorities and they were subject to a quit rent. They were simply more densely populated parts of the counties, and, unless incorporated as boroughs, had no distinct institutional life. In almost all cases land, in the provinces, was granted to individuals, and individual ownership, with direct relations between the owners or tenants and the proprietary authorities, was the rule. This was in marked contrast to the conditions which have been described as existing in the corporate colonies. In the corporate colony the elements of the fief had been eliminated, but in the provinces they still survived to a considerable degree.
19. Had governmental powers not accompanied the territorial grants which have been described, these grants would have been estates of land, unusually large, no doubt, but nothing more. In cases where the governmental rights of proprietors were suspended or resigned into the hands of the Crown, they remained thereafter only private landlords. But the fact that rights of government were bestowed with the land made the territory a province and the proprietor its political head. The bestowment of rights of land carried with it not only the obligation to pay quit rent, but to take to the proprietor the oath of fidelity.
20. In the discussion of the corporate colony it was necessary to dwell first and chiefly on the legislature. But in the case of the proprietary province the executive, for the reason already mentioned, demands first attention. The provincial charters made the proprietors the executives of their provinces and for the most part left it to them to determine how and under what forms the governmental powers which they had received should be exercised. The powers which were definitely bestowed were executive and judicial in character the ordinance power, the authority to appoint all officers, to establish courts, to punish and pardon, to organize a military force and defend the provinces, to bestow titles of honour, to found churches and present to livings. The executive thus became the centre from and around which development in the province chiefly occurred. It gave to the proprietor an importance, especially at the outset, which was comparable with that enjoyed by the general courts in the corporate colonies. It made him in a derived and inferior sense the source, within the province, of office and honour, the fountain of justice, the commander of the militia, the recipient of the provincial revenue, the constituent part of the legislature. But in most cases the proprietors did not attempt to exercise these powers in person. Even if resident in their provinces they needed the assistance of officials. By means of commissioners they appointed a group of leading officials for their provinces, as a governor, councillors, a secretary, surveyor-general, receiver-general or treasurer, and somewhat later an attorneygeneral. These all held office at the pleasure of the proprietor, and were subject to guidance by his instructions.
Altogether the chief place among these officials was held by the governor. He was par excellence the agent for the proThe prietor for all purposes of administration. He Provincial regularly corresponded with the proprietor and Governor. rece j ve( j the latter's directions. In making appointments the proprietor was usually guided by his recommendations. In some cases he was a relative of the proprietor, and family influence in Maryland after the Restoration came to dominate the government of the province. In all his important acts the governor was required to take the advice of his council, and that body was expected to co-operate closely with him in all matters; but the governor was not bound to follow their advice. The relations between the two was the same as that between the king and his privy council in England. As settlements multiplied and counties and other local subdivisions were formed, other and inferior offices were created, the right of appointment to which rested with the governor, though it was exercised in the name of the proprietor. By means of an executive, thus organized, land was granted and the revenue from it collected, counties and other local divisions were established, relations were developed with the Indians, early preparations were made for defence, courts were opened and the administration of justice begun.
21. But in the later proprietary charters generally, with the exception of that issued to the duke of York, provision was made for assemblies. It was made, however, in very general terms, and it was left to the option of the proprietors to determine when, where and how they would call them. These legislatures did not originate in the natural or pre-existent rights of Englishmen, nor did the existence of a parliament in England make them necessary, though it greatly increased the difficulties of governing the colonies without them. Though they were not original in the sense which attached to the executive, they were immediately proven to be indispensable and their activity in the provinces gradually opened the way for the growth of modern democratic institutions.
22. When met in regular, form, the provincial legislature consisted of the governor, the council or upper house, and the The assembly or deputies. The latter, who were elected Provincial by the localities, constituted the only representative Legislature. p ar )- o f (_jj e legislature. In tenure and functions the governor and council were largely independent both of the deputies and of the electors. They were a part of the executive and were naturally swayed by a regard for the interests of the proprietor and by administrative traditions. Though a component of the legislature, the council was the legal advisor of the governor. In many cases the importance of the councils was increased by the fact that, with the governor, in early times they formed the highest judicial tribunal in the province. As the governor had the sole power of calling, proroguing and dissolving the general assembly, the council might advise him in such a way as to destroy the body itself or thwart its plans. The joint work of the council and assembly was subject to the veto of the proprietor, or of both the proprietor and his governor. The legislature of the province, therefore, differed materially from the general court, though in practice this was somewhat offset by the fact that in the New England colonies the magistrates were usually re-elected for a long series of terms.
23. In the province, as in the kingdom, the legislature was in a sense an expansion of the executive, developed out of it, and was to an extent controlled by it. Out of this relation arose the possibility of conflict between the two parts of the legislature that which represented the people and that which represented the proprietor. In the history of the provinces this formed the central line of cleavage. From the first the assemblies largely controlled taxation. Using this as a lever, they endeavoured to limit and define the powers of the executive and to extend the Sphere of legislation more widely. Fees, from which officials derived most of their support, were a favourite object of their regulation. Occasionally offices which had originally been appointive were made elective. Protests of various kinds were made against official cliques. British statutes which favoured liberty and the powers of parliament were often referred to as guides and ideals of the opposition. Now and again the lower house came to a deadlock with council or governor. Threatened or actual revolt was sometimes necessary to bring the executive to terms. By such tactics as these the popular dements in the constitutions of the provinces asserted themselves. The Sphere of ordinance was gradually limited and that of statute extended, while incidentally the system of government became more complex.
In a number of provinces the Carolinas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania the proprietors at various times initiated elaborate constitutions, in which not only a land system, but forms and functions of government tioa , were prescribed on a large scale. These were variously known as fundamental constitutions, concessions and agreements, frames of government, and in every case were submitted to the general assembly for its acceptance or rejection. Long struggles often ensued over the question of acceptance, which usually ended in the modification or rejection of the schemes as too cumbersome for use or because they reserved excessive powers to the provincial executive.
24. Though the main features in the form and development of the proprietary provinces have thus been indicated, it should be noted that their history was by no Course of means uniform. In New Netherland and New York Developoccurred a struggle for the establishment of a legislature, which continued at intervals for forty years and was not permanently successful until after New York had become a royal province. The proprietors of New Jersey never secured a royal charter, and therefore were not able to establish satisfactorily their claim to rights of government. As grants of land had been made to the settlers in certain localities within that province before its purchase by Berkeley and Carteret, opposition was made to the collection of quit rents, as well as to the enforcement of rights of government, and disturbances, resulting from these causes, became chronic. The province was also divided into East and West Jersey, the boards of proprietors being greatly increased in both, and West Jersey attaining an organization which was almost democratic in character. Within the vast reaches of the Carolina grant developed two provinces. One of these North Carolina was almost entirely neglected by the proprietors, and the weakened executive repeatedly succumbed to popular violence. In South Carolina many violent controversies occurred, especially over the efforts of the proprietors to compel the acceptance of the Fundamental Constitutions, which originated with Locke and Shaftesbury. But in the end this failed, and a simple form of government, such as was adapted to the needs of the province, was developed. In Pennsylvania the liberal policy of the proprietor led at the beginning to unusual concessions 1606-1760 in favour of the colonists. One of the most characteristic of these was the grant of an elective Council, which was intended to be aristocratic and the chief institution in the province. But owing to conflicts between it and the governors, affairs came to a deadlock. The total neglect of provision for defence by the Quaker province led to the suspension of Penn's powers of government for about two years after the English Revolution and the outbreak of the war with France. This did away with the elective Council for the time, and an appointive Council was soon substituted. Finally, in 1701, the Council was deprived of its powers of legislation and thereafter the legislature of Pennsylvania consisted of only one house the Assembly.
B. Development of Imperial Control, 1606-1760.
25. Turning now to the exercise of imperial control over the colonies, it is to be noted that it proceeded chiefly from the English Crown. It was exercised through the secreCro^n. tar y o j state, the privy council and a succession of boards subordinate to it which were known as commissioners of plantations or the board of trade; by the treasury and admiralty boards and their subordinate bureaus; by the attorney-general and the solicitor-general and by the bishop of London. The more continuous and intimate supervision proceeded from the privy council and the commissioners subordinate to it, and from the treasury board. The latter caused the auditing of such revenue as came from the colonies, supervised expenditures for them and had an oversight over appointments in the colonial service. The privy council received letters and petitions on almost every kind of colonial business, caused hearings and inquiries to be held, and issued letters, instructions and orders in council on an equally great variety of matters. It also acted as the regular court of appeal for the plantations. As time advanced, more of the administrative business passed directly into the office of one of the secretaries of state and the privy council became less active. The admiralty was concerned with the equipment of the navy for service in the colonies, and the high court of admiralty with the trial of prize cases and of cases arising from violations of the acts of trade. The assistance of the law officers of the Crown was sought in the drafting of charters, in the prosecution of suits for their recall, and in all cases which required the interpretation of the law as affecting the colonies and the defence of the interests of the British government in relation thereto. The bishop of London had supervision over the appointment and conduct of clergymen of the English Church in the colonies and over parish schools there. Not all of these boards and officials were active from the first, but they were created or brought into service in colonial affairs as the importance of the dominions increased.
26. The parliament by mentioning the dominions in its statutes could extend their provisions to the colonies. The early acts of supremacy and uniformity contained toy Control- suc ^ re f erence > but it was dropped after the Restora' tion and no serious attempt was ever made to enforce uniformity in the colonies. Parliament did not begin to legislate seriously for the colonies until after the Restoration. Then the acts of trade and navigation were passed, to which additions were made in the reign of William III. and from time to time during the 18th century. This body of legislation, including about fifty statutes, comprised the most important acts relating to the colonies which were passed by parliament. A few statutes relating to military affairs were passed about the middle of the 18th century. Certain other la.ws relating to currency and coinage, to naturalization, to the punishment of governors, to the post office, to the collection of debts, and to a few other miscellaneous subjects complete the colonial legislation of parliament prior to 1760. About one hundred statutes in all were passed. The colonists themselves imitated in a general way the organization and procedure of the English courts. The main features of the common law came spontaneously into force in the colonies. The legislatures of several of the colonies adopted large parts of the statute law of England. The colonists were always accustomed to avail themselves, as far as possible, of the great English statutes which guaranteed liberty. After about 1690 the obligation was very generally enforced upon the colonies of sending the acts of their assemblies to England for acceptance or rejection by the king in council. Thus a general agreement between colonial and English law was attained.
27. But this, though far-reaching, was only one of the objects which were sought through the exercise of imperial control. Its object was to maintain the rights of Great Britain over the colonies and her interests in them in all respects. The diplomacy of Great Britain concerned itself to an increasing extent, as the 18th century advanced, with the acquisition or losses of colonial territory, with the fixing of boundaries and with the securing of commercial interests. The interests of trade, more than any other subject, determined the colonial policy of England. The Church and her interests also demanded attention. In all these matters the English executive the Crown continuously, and for the most part exclusively, managed colonial affairs. During the Commonwealth in the i?th century parliament was the source of all activity, whether legislative or executive, but at other times, as we have seen, its legislation was confined chiefly to the subject of trade. The English courts also played a minor part except when, in conjunction with the executive, they were concerned in the revocation of colonial charters.
28. A natural condition which affected colonial administration as a whole and to a large extent determined its limits and character was the remoteness of the colonies isolation from England. With this the conditions of sparse of the and scattered settlements in a new continent in Colonies. the midst of savages were closely connected. At best three months were required for sending a despatch from London to America and procuring a return. This explains the large degree of self-government which the colonies possessed and the indifference with which their affairs were usually viewed, even by British officials. Only a relatively small part of colonial business came before English officials or received their serious attention. Only at long intervals and in summary fashion was it brought to the attention of parliament. It is believed that the affairs of the continental colonies were never seriously debated in parliament until after the beginning of the controversy which led to the American War of Independence. Social and political intercourse with the colonists and governmental control over them were therefore very imperfectly developed, as compared with that which existed within the realm. That is the real meaning of the distinction between the realm and the dominions. Over the counties and other local jurisdictions of the realm the control of Crown and central courts and parliament was continuously felt. In law and theory the same was true of the dominions; in fact, the control over them was almost wholly executive, and during most of the period it was to a degree unintelligent and weak. In theory the British Empire was a consolidated structure; in fact it was something more resembling a federation.
29. The central fact in colonial history during the 17th century was the development of the chartered colonies. At their founding, as we have seen, the Crown dele- Development gated rights of settlement and subordinate rights of the of government to proprietors, who used them in Chartered a variety of ways. The effect of this was to Coloa y- introduce a number of mesne lords between the king and his colonial subjects, a phenomenon which centuries before had vanished from England itself. The patentees governed the colonists, and the Crown only interfered at intervals to adjust matters. And when the Crown did this, its dealings were far more with the patentees and their officials than with the body of the colonists. The king had no officials of his own in the colonies, and a practical system of immunity existed. Under the first two Stuarts some rather desultory efforts were made to check the development of such a system in the early stages. After a controversy over a contract for the sole importation of tobacco, which became involved with the political struggles of the time in England, the charter of the Virginia Company of London was revoked (1624). A royal commission was appointed to readjust the affairs of Virginia and to inaugurate its government as a royal province, and the king declared that he desired the government of all his dominions to be monarchical in form. Several commissions were later appointed to manage the tobacco trade. In 1634 a board of commissioners of plantations was created and it received very large powers over the colonies. Of this body Archbishop Laud was the moving spirit. The year following the New England Council resigned its charter, a writ of quo warranto was issued against the Massachusetts charter, and a plan was nearly perfected for sending out Sir Ferdinando Gorges as royal governor, or rather governor-general, to New England. But means were lacking, the suit against the Massachusetts patent failed to accomplish its purpose, and troubles at home soon absorbed the attention of the government.
30. During the Great Rebellion in England New England was left practically to itself. Strife broke out in Maryland, over which the home government was scarcely able to exercise even a moderating influence. The Dutch from New Netherland and Europe were able to monopolize a large part of the carrying trade in tobacco and European goods. Virginia, with Barbadoes and a few other island colonies, assumed an attitude of distrust or hostility toward the new government in England. In 1651 and 1652 parliament sent out a commission, with an armed force, which reduced the island colonies to submission and adjusted affairs in Virginia by suspending government under Sir William Berkeley, the royalist governor, and leaving control in the hands of the Assembly. By a stretch of power the commissioners also took control of affairs in Maryland, but there they intensified rather than allayed the strife. Baltimore, however, managed to save his interests from total wreck, and at the Restoration was able fully to re-establish his authority.
31. During this period of unstable government in England the seeds were planted of a colonial policy which was henceCommcniai ^ or ' ;n * dominate imperial relations. It was then influences; that England entered upon the period of commercial a- rivalries and wars. The Cromwellian government s '' determined to wrest the control of the carrying Acts and trade from the Dutch, and the Navigation Act of other 1651 and the first Dutch War were the result.
General Robert Sedgwick was sent against New Netherland, but ended in attacking Acadia. At this time also the national hatred of Spain, which had so characterized the age of Elizabeth, reasserted itself and the Spanish seas were invaded, Hispaniola was attacked, and Jamaica was conquered. In connexion with these events plans were formed for a more systematic colonial administration, which Cromwell did not live to execute, but which were taken up by Clarendon, the duke of York, the earl of Shaftesbury and a large group of officials, lawyers and merchants who surrounded them. They took definite shape after the Restoration in the creation of a council for trade and a council for foreign plantations, in the passage of the acts of trade, in the conquest of New Netherland and the organization within it of three English provinces, in the settlement of the Carolinas, in a resolute attempt to remedy grievances and adjust disputes in New England. These events and their consequences give greater importance to the next three or four decades than to any later period until the colonial revolt.
32. The council for foreign plantations was continued, sometimes under a patent and sometimes as a committee of the privy council, until, in 1696, it was commissioned as the board of trade. As a board of inquiry and report, subordinate to the privy council, the most important business relating to the colonies was transacted before it. The acts of trade, in which the principles of the system were laid down, were passed in 1660, 1663, 1673 and 1696. They expanded and systematized the principles of mercantilism as they had long been accepted, and as in some particulars they had already been applied to the Virginia tobacco trade. The import and export trade of the colonies was required to be carried on in English and colonial built ships, manned and commanded by Englishmen. The policy of the staple was applied to the trade of the colonies by the enumeration of their chief products which could not be raised in England and the requirement that such of these as were exported should be brought to England and pay duties there, and that thence the supplies not needed for the English market should be sent to foreign countries. The same policy was applied to all colonial imports by the requirement that they should pass through English ports. In order to prevent intercolonial traffic in enumerated commodities, which might lead to smuggling, the act of 1673 provided for the levy of an export duty on them in the colonies in cases where a bond was not given to land them in the realm. In the 18th century severe restrictive measures were passed to prevent the growth of manufactures, especially of wool, hats and iron, in the colonies; but these acts proved mostly a dead letter, because the colonies had not reached the stage where such industries could be developed on any scale. Certain compensations, favourable to the colonies, also appear in the system, e.g. the measures to suppress the raising of tobacco in England and Ireland, in order that the colonists might have the monopoly of that market; the payment of bounties on the importation of naval stores and on the production of indigo by the colonists; the allowance, on the re-exportation of colonial products, of drawbacks of part or all of the duties paid on importation; the admission of colonial imports at lower rates of duty than were charged on the same products from foreign countries. In order to ensure the enforcement of these acts elaborate provisions became necessary for the issue of bonds, and this, with the collection of a duty in the colonies, led to the appointment of colonial customs officers who were immediately responsible to the commissioners of the customs and the treasury board in England. With them the governors were ordered to cooperate. Courts of vice-admiralty, with authority to try cases without a jury, were established in the colonies; and just before the close of the seventeenth century they were given jurisdiction over violations of the acts of trade, a power which they did not have in England. Naval officers were very generally provided for by colonial law, who were to co-operate with the customs officers in the entry and clearance of vessels; but in some cases their aim was rather to keep control over trade in colonial hands. It thus appears that the resolve to enforce the policy set forth in the acts of trade resulted in a noteworthy extension of imperial control over the colonies. How far it was successful in the immediate objects sought it is impossible to say. In some of the colonies and at some times the acts were practically nullified. Illegal trading was always carried on, especially in time of war. In such times it was closely allied with privateering and piracy. But in the large it is probable that the acts were effective, and their existence always furnished a standard to which officials were required by their instructions and oaths to conform. By the Act of Union of 1707 Scotland was admitted to the advantages of the English trade system. In 1733, in order to check the development of the French colonies and prevent the importation of their products into English possessions, the Molasses Act was passed. This provided for high A t * s specific duties on rum, molasses and sugar, when imported from foreign colonies into those of Great Britain. So high were these rates that they could not be collected, and therefore no serious attempt was made to enforce the act.
33. Returning again to the 17th century, in order to trace in other connexions the notable advance which was then made in colonial administration, we are to note that the conquest of New Netherland by the British in 1664 was an event oi great importance. Taken in connexion with the settlement of the Carolinas, it completed the hold which the English had upon the North American coast and gave them for the first time an extent of territory which could be profitably developed.
1606-1760 The occupation of New Motherland was effected by a royal commission, which was also empowered to hear complaints and report a plan for the settlement of disputes in New England. Precedents for such a commission existed in the past, and a little more than ten years later a similar body, accompanied by a military force, was sent to Virginia to adjust matters at the close of Bacon's rebellion. But the commission of 1664 was the most noteworthy example of its kind. Yet, though it succeeded at New Amsterdam and in the southern colonies of New England, it failed at Boston. Massachusetts would not admit its right to hear appeals. It did not succeed in wresting from Massachusetts the territory of New Hampshire and Maine, which the heirs of Gorges and Mason claimed.
34. In 1676 Edward Randolph was sent as a special agent to Massachusetts, to require it to send agents to England. He returned to England the sworn enemy of that colony and continued to be its tireless prosecutor. A series of negotiations ensued which lasted for almost a decade, and ended in the revocation of the Massachusetts charter by a degree in chancery, 1684. New Hampshire had already been organized as a royal province. Government under the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut was soon after suspended. All New England was then organized as a dominion or vice-royalty under Sir Edmund Andros. Assemblies were everywhere abolished and government was left wholly in the hands of the executive. New York also without an assembly and New Jersey were Dominion of soon after incorporated with the Dominion of New New England, its boundary being extended to the England. Delaware river (see NEW ENGLAND). After Bacon's rebellion in 1676 the lines of executive control were strengthened in Virginia, but the Assembly continued active. These rapid changes involved the downfall of the former system of chartered colonies and the substitution of royal provinces in their place. The effect of this was to introduce into the colonies a large number of officials of royal appointment the governors, members of the council, judges, secretaries, surveyors-general, receivers-general and attorneys-general. The entire executive and judiciary in a royal province was appointed directly or indirectly by the king. Its members held under commissions subject to the king's pleasure and were controlled by his instructions. The exclusiveness of the chartered jurisdictions no longer obtained, but the Crown through its officials was brought into direct relations with the body of the colonists. Government could now be carried on under relations analogous to those between Crown and people in England.
35. By the abolition of assemblies and the union of colonies on a large scale James II. did violence to the strongest feelings and traditions of the colonists. The New Englanders not only viewed the levy of taxes by prerogative with the utmost aversion, but they feared a general unsettlement of land titles, the destruction of much that was valuable in their system of town government, and the introduction of Anglican worship among them. They shared also in the fear, which was widespread among the colonists, that the Crown intended by an alliance with the French and Indians to force Roman Catholicism upon them. Therefore the fall of the Stuart government in England was the signal for an uprising at Boston (April 1689) followed by a less successful one at New York. The Dominion of New England at once collapsed and the old colony governments were generally restored. A revolt against the Catholic proprietor in Maryland resulted in the suspension of his powers of government and the organization of Maryland as a royal province. William III. granted a new charter to Massachusetts (1691) in which full provision was made for an assembly, but also for a governor and secretary of royal appointment. Rhode Island and Connecticut were allowed Colonial to remain under their corporate charters. New Reorganha- York and New Hampshire were organized as royal provinces with assemblies. Proprietary government struggled back into existence in New Jersey. In Pennsylvania the governmental powers of the proprietor were suspended for two years (1692-1694), because of his neglect of provision for defence; then they were restored and Pennsylvania continued under proprietary government until the War of Independence.
36. The transition from the system of chartered colonies to that of royal provinces was thus begun and well advanced towards completion. But it was a gradual process, and the later stages of it were not reached until the second decade of the 18th century. South Carolina became provisionally a royal province in 1719, and a parallel change was completed in North Carolina a decade later. Georgia received a royal government in 1752. But in 1715 Maryland was permitted to resume its proprietary form. After the Revolution of 1689 the change to royal governments did not involve in any case the abolition of colonial assemblies. Henceforward the Crown had a fully equipped executive in every royal province, and for the maintenance of its rights could depend upon its efforts and the influence which it was able to exert upon the assemblies. The governors exercised the royal rights of calling, proroguing and dissolving the assemblies; they assisted in initiating legislation and exercised the right of veto. All bills passed by the assemblies were required to be submitted to the king in council, for acceptance or disallowance. The upper houses of the legislature were the councils of the provinces. These were small bodies and consisted, in every case except Massachusetts, of royal appointees. Their support was in most cases given to the governors, and by that means they were greatly assisted in resisting the encroachments of the lower houses of assembly, which were elected by the freeholders. But, as a rule, the Crown made no provision for the salaries of its governors and other officials, and left them largely dependent for support on appropriations by the assemblies. In very many cases the withholding of salaries was successfully resorted to by the assemblies as a means of thwarting the executive or forcing it into submission. Under this system of balanced forces, analogous in general to that which was reached after the Revolution in England, the colonies entered upon the long period of the French wars.
C. The Struggle with the French, 1690-1760.
37. Early French discoveries and colonization in North America were confined chiefly to the valley and gulf of the St Lawrence. These led, in the early 17th century, to the establishment of the province of Canada. By 1610 the French had possessed themselves of the valley of the lower St Lawrence, and the relations with the Indian tribes were being determined. During the next fifty years Canada grew slowly into an autocratically governed province, in which a mild form of feudalism existed and in which the Catholic Church was so strong as to contest supremacy at times with the civil power. The fur trade became from the first a most important industry in the province. The Jesuits and other priestly orders undertook missionary work on a large scale among the natives. The fur trader and the missionary soon extended French influence through the region of the Great Lakes and involved the province in intimate relations with the Indian tribes, and that throughout a large area of country. Between the Iroquois and the French wars were almost continuous, but with the other Indian tribes the French were in general on friendly terms. The Iroquois, on the other hand, maintained friendly relations with the Dutch and afterwards with the English. This deeply affected relations between the English and the French, as well as the entire development of the province of New York.
38. Exploration was a most important incident of both the fur trade and the missionary enterprises of the French. Between 1670 and 1690 their work culminated in the great exploring activity of Marquette, Joliet and La Salle. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers were discovered and their courses were mainly or wholly traced. Explorers also penetrated far into the regions beyond the Mississippi. Posts were established at various points along the Great Lakes. During the first two decades of the 18th century the French also e established themselves on the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile being founded in 1702 and New Orleans in 1718.
Quebec and the Gulf ports were then connected by a series of forts which, though few and weak, sufficed for communication and for the establishment of a claim to the Mississippi Valley. They were Niagara and Detroit, commanding the approaches to lakes Erie and Huron; Fort Miami, on the Maumee river; Fort St Joseph, at the southern end of Lake Michigan; Vincennes and French Fort, on the Wabash; Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi opposite St Louis; Michillimackinac and Ste Marie, which guarded the upper lakes. French zeal and enterprise had thus seized upon the heart of the continent, and was prepared to oppose any westward movement which the English might in the future attempt. It seemed possible that English settlements might be confined to the coast, for they expanded slowly and no genius for exploration or sympathy with Indian life was shown. The tendency of British commercial policy was likewise to confine them there, for in no other way did it seem possible to restrict the trade of the colonists to British markets. The Indian alliances of the English were also far less extensive than those of the French. The provinces of South Carolina and Georgia had conflicts with the Spanish on the Florida frontier, and in these the Indian tribes of the south were also involved. But these rivalries were slight and local in character, when compared with the struggle for supremacy which was preparing between the French and English.
39. The conflict with the French was precipitated by events in Europe. It was the English Revolution of 1689 that opened the great conflict between France and England. The question of Protestantism versus Catholicism was involved, but at bottom the struggle was one for the balance of power among European states. Rival claims between the two powers in America, Africa and Asia existed at the beginning of the conflict, or originated and were intensified as it progressed. Questions of commercial and naval supremacy world-wide in extent were involved, and the colonial possessions of the two states were necessarily drawn into the struggle. In America it involved four intercolonial wars, which were closed respectively by the treaties of Ryswick(i69y), Utrecht (17 13), Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), and Paris (1763). Between the second and third wars intervened thirty years of peace, the early period of Hanoverian and Whig ascendancy in England, the so-called Walpole era. On the American continent during the first two wars the struggle was confined to the northern frontier, and consisted of devastating raids by the French and Indians, which in turn provoked retaliatory efforts on the part of the English. These took the form in part of attacks on Acadia and of unsuccessful efforts to conquer Canada by means of joint expeditions by sea and land. The favourite land route was that from New York by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal, while the expeditions by sea were forced to make the long and perilous voyage round Nova Scotia and through the Gulf and River St Lawrence to Quebec. In 1690, and again in 1711, an enterprise of this kind was actually undertaken. Acadia, " with its ancient limits, " and the claim of France to Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay territory were, however, ceded to England by the treaty of Utrecht.
40. As the great world-conflict progressed the relative importance of the colonial and maritime issues which were in, volved increased. The first two wars had their between origin primarily in European questions. The third British and war had its beginning in the Spanish West Indies, '"ritJt" anc ^ c l ear ly revealed the existence of the Bourbon Family Compact, which bound France and Spain together in active alliance. On the American continent its most striking event was the capture, in 1745, of Louisburg, a stronghold which the French had recently fortified on Cape Breton for the purpose of defending its interests in the Gulf of St Lawrence. This victory was secured largely by the efforts of the New England colonists. In the following year another plan for the conquest of Canada was thwarted by the necessities of war in Europe. At the close of the war Louisburg, too, was restored to the French. After this fashion did the world-struggle react upon the special interests of the English in North America, and perplex and irritate the colonists. In the fourth intercolonial war (1754-63) the struggle between the two nationalities in North America was decided. Events which immediately preceded this war the occupation of the Ohio Valley and the building of Fort Duquesne clearly revealed an intention on the part of the French to exclude the English from the Mississippi Valley and confine them to the Atlantic slope. A persistent effort was also made to recover Acadia. The western, as well as the northern, frontier was not threatened, and the war which followed affected all the colonies. Great Britain sent over a succession of commanders-in-chief. Great improvement was made upon the crude efforts at joint colonial action which had characterized the earlier wars. To as great a degree did the Albany Congress of 1754 (see ALBANY, NEW YORK) surpass in importance the meetings of governors and military officers which had occasionally been held in previous times, though its plan of colonial union failed to meet the approval both of the colonists and of the government of Great Britain. The campaigns of this war were all upon a comparatively large scale. Campaigns were carried on not merely along the line of Lake Champlain and in Acadia, but against Fort Duquesne (see PITTSBURG, PENN.), Oswego, and Fort Frontenac, Louisburg, and Quebec (q.v.) itself. The weak Spanish power was overthrown in Florida and expeditions were sent against the southern Indians. In all quarters, and especially after Pitt became secretary of state, the British assumed the offensive. The navy of Great Britain, as well as its army, was called into action on a much larger scale in America than ever before. The result was the conquest by the British of Canada, and with it of all North America east of the Mississippi river; the French claim to territory west of this river was ceded to Spain in 1762. 41. The wars with the French brought the problem of colonial defence among the English into greater prominence than ever before, and added it to the other questions which had been of practical moment from the first. Against the Indians the colonists in the 17th century had provided for their own defence. Chiefly with this object in view, each colony had developed a militia system, modelled in general after that of England. But such a force was not fitted for long campaigns or large operations. It was comparatively undisciplined; both officers and men were inexperienced and destitute of proper habits of command, as well as those of subordination; the commissariat was poor or totally lacking, and the men were able to remain away from their homes for only brief periods. The colonists possessed no navy, and for coast defence only a few rude forts. So poor were means of communication and so isolated were the colonies from one another, that co-operation in joint expeditions was very difficult. Equally difficult was it to secure proportional contributions of money from the colonies. Early in the French wars the British government prescribed quotas both of men and money to be raised by the colonies, but little attention was paid to these except by the colonies which were in immediate peril. Because of the limited amount of available money and the modest resources of the colonists heavy taxation was impossible, and the financing of the wars was a matter of great difficulty. The assemblies resorted to the issue of bills of credit, to which they gave the legal tender quality, and for the redemption of which in nearly all cases they made inadequate provision. The paper depreciated and in some colonies became worthless. Great confusion resulted, involving loss to all, and among the sufferers were British merchants. Strained relations were produced between the assemblies and the colonial executive, because the latter, acting under royal instructions, persisted in vetoing bills for additional issues of currency. For this reason, in addition to others, the assemblies withheld the salaries of governors and other officials, and in this way sought to coerce the executives into submission. In some colonies the Assembly secured the right of electing the treasurer, and in most of them appropriations were made specific. Thus by skilfully utilizing their control over the purse, and that during a long period of war, the colonial assemblies were able materially to limit the authority of the executives and to establish not a few privileges for 1763-1776 themselves and their constituents. It was in such ways as these that the constitutions of the provinces became developed and liberalized during the French wars. Many a precedent was then established which was utilized in the later struggle with the mother country. The home government on its part also became convinced that requisitions were altogether inadequate as a method of procuring revenue for general purposes.
42. The quality of the rank and file of the Canadian militia was not essentially different from that of the British colonies. But the Canadian government was autocratic. The power of the French was also concentrated in a single large province, and not distributed among thirteen or more colonies. These conditions greatly promoted military efficiency. When taken in connexion with their Indian alliances, they enabled the French to take the offensive in the earlier wars much oftener than did the English, and with much greater effect. The government at Quebec was not subject to the limitations of quotas and requisitions. There were no assemblies to thwart its will. The English frontier was also more accessible and more exposed than was the lower part of the valley of the St Lawrence. Quebec was in every sense a citadel to which additional security was given during a large part of every year by the intense cold of the Canadian winter. But so superior were the training and enterprise of the French coureur de bois that, with his Indian allies, he was far better able than the English farmer or artisan to penetrate the wilderness, whether in winter or in summer, and massacre the exposed dwellers on the frontier. It was this class which gave the French the superiority in the long succession of raids by which the English frontier was laid waste.
43. Though the French by their skill and boldness achieved a remarkable success, their defects and weaknesses were equally evident. The flow of population from France to America was never great, and even it was diminished by tjie exclusion of Huguenots. The natural growth of population within New France was not rapid. The result was that the French colonists did not become sufficiently numerous to maintain the interests to which their vast claims and possessions gave rise. The disparity between their numbers and those of the British colonists became greater with every generation. At the opening of the last intercolonial war the proportion of English to French colonists was approximately 15 to i. New York alone had about the same population as that of all the French colonies on the North American continent combined. The resources of the British exceeded those of the French colonists to a corresponding degree. Had the decision of the questions at issue depended upon population and wealth alone, the issue could not long have remained doubtful. But the tendencies arising from these fundamental conditions were to such an extent offset by other circumstances, already alluded to, that the result of the struggle was for a long time uncertain. Had it been confined to the forces of the colonies alone, it would perhaps never have been decided. The English could have defended the territory which they occupied; so could the French. Moreover, with the French and English thus facing one another, it would have been impossible for the latter to have declared their independence. The French would never have desired to do this. Therefore, the two peoples must apparently have remained in the condition of colonists for an indefinite period. But the motherlands were to be the decisive factors in the problem, which thus depended to an extent on complications which existed in Europe or even on remoter seas and continents. When the climax of the struggle was reached the result might have been different if France at the time had not been so deeply involved in the politics of central Europe.
44. Of the first importance in reaching a decision were the fleets and armies of Great Britain and France, or those parts of them which were available for use on the continent of North America. During the larger part of the period under review the French neglected their fleet, while the English steadily advanced toward naval and commercial supremacy. But the first conspicuous service on the northern coasts was that which was rendered by Commodore Peter Warren and his squadron at the capture of Louisburg in 1745. In the next .year a large French fleet was despatched to North America, but it accomplished nothing. In the last intercolonial war the operations before Louisburg in 1758 and at Quebec (q.v.) in 1759 decisively proved the superiority of the British navy. The colonies also, in the later stages of the struggle, contributed loyally toward the .result. France failed to make her natural military superiority effective in North America, and therefore her power on that continent had to yield before the combined attacks of Great Britain and her colonies by land and sea.
D. The Colonial Revolt, 1763-1776.
45. The Treaty of Paris (1763), by which the period of colonial wars but not the struggle between England and France was concluded, added vast stretches of territory to the British dominions of Great Britain in North America. The Acquisitions Floridas, Canada and Louisiana as far west as the f Territory. Mississippi river now came into the possession of the English. Of the islands which were occupied, the two most important Guadaloupe and Martinique were restored to the French. The retention of Canada in preference ts these involved an important change in the nature and objects of British colonization. Hitherto tropical colonies had been preferred to those in northern climes. The occasion of this had been the view that, as England was not over-populated, colonies were not needed as " homes for a surplus population." Instead, they were estimated in proportion to their commercial value. The ideal was a self-sufficing commercial empire. The supporters of this view now argued that the islands which had been conquered from the French were more valuable than Canada and should be retained in preference to the northern continental territories, which had yet produced nothing for export except furs. But the government did not hesitate. Following the lead of Pitt, it was now bent upon continental expansion. Canada and the West were retained and the most important French islands were given back. The development of modern industry the so-called industrial revolution had already begun in Great Britain. Its effect was vastly to increase the population of the British Isles and to necessitate an overflow into the unoccupied regions of the globe. Colonies therefore began to be regarded from this point of view, and the retention of Canada opened the way for the change. Henceforth, as time progressed, colonies were to be valued as homes for a surplus population quite as much as sources of raw materials and food supplies. The retention of Canada and the West also coincided exactly with the desires of the continental colonies. The chief gains of the war went therefore to them and not to the island colonies. They now possessed a continental domain which was adequate to their need for expansion, and their long-cherished desire to be rid of the French was gratified. Though, as expansion progressed, conflicts with the Indian tribes of the interior, and that on a large scale, were to be expected, the conquest of the French removed the sense of dependence on Great Britain for military aid which the northern colonies in particular had previously felt.
46. In consequence of the policy thus adopted, largely increased burdens were devolved on the imperial government, while the conquest and the events which led to changed it strengthened imperialist sentiment and ambi- colonial tions. The course of action which was at first Policy of favoured by leading officials, both in England G ^ t ala . and the colonies, was a more systematic adminis- streagtheat ration of Indian affairs, the employment oltogof sufficient regular troops under the commander-in- ^J' chief to defend the newly acquired territory, the maintenance of posts with English settlers in the interior on a scale sufficient to prevent the French or Spanish from securing the trade of the region. Improved methods of administration were urged through the press by Thomas Pownall, Henry McCulloh, Francis Bernard and Dr John Campbell. French methods were praised and the shortcomings of the surviving chartered colonies were again emphasized. This all required additional revenue, as well as administrative vigour, and that at a time when Great Britain was specially burdened with debt and when several of the colonies had recently incurred heavy expenditures. The large acquisitions of territory also necessitated some changes in the acts of trade. The necessity for their more vigorous enforcement was revealed by the existence of a large contraband trade between the colonists and the enemy during the later years of the war and also of a considerable illegal trade with Europe. These conditions, together with the conviction that, as the continental colonies had reaped the chief advantages of the war, some favour should be extended to the islands, led to the passage of the Sugar Act by the Grenville ministry in 1764. It also caused a resort to writs of assistance in two of the colonies, and finally the legalization of them in all the colonies by act of parliament (r767). The aid of the navy was directly invoked in the enforcement of the trade laws, and the activity of the customs officials and of the admiralty courts in the colonies was increased. Garrisons of regular troops numbering several thousand with a commander-in-chief were now present in the colonies in time of peace, and their aid might possibly be invoked by the civil power to suppress disorder. The Sugar Act itself was a trade and revenue act combined, and the fact was expressed in the preamble of the measure. It was intended directly to affect the traffic between the northern colonies and the foreign West Indies in lumber and food-stuffs, molasses and rum. The duty on foreign molasses, for which provision had been made in the Molasses Act of 1733, was halved; but now it was proposed really to collect this duty. A cry was immediately raised in New England that, if the duty was collected, the manufacture of rum of which molasses was the staple material would be lessened or wholly prevented and a most important industry sacrificed. The fisheries would incidentally suffer. The supply of coin, with which colonial balances were paid in England, they also said, would be lessened. Another act of parliament, passed about this time, prohibited the bestowment of the legal tender quality on colonial bills of credit. Though parliament regarded this act as a necessary remedy for the excesses of which many of the colonies had been guilty in the issue of paper money, it was generally regarded in America as a blow at a necessary system of credit. In spite, however, of the opposition and criticism which it provoked in the northern colonies, it is probable that the Sugar Act could have been permanently enforced. The Act of Trade of 1673 and the Molasses Act though the latter was not fully executed were two early instances of the exercise by parliament of the right to tax the colonies. Had the Sugar Act been enforced, a clear and decisive precedent in favour of this right would have been established. In view of the general situation, that was probably as far as the British government should have gone at that time. But it immediately committed itself to another and still more significant measure, and the two acts combined caused an outburst of protest and resistance from the colonists.
47. Repeatedly in earlier years the imposition of a stamp duty upon the colonies had been suggested. Archibald Cummings, William Keith, ex-governor of Pennsylvania, and Governor George Clinton of New York had prominently urged this policy. With the outbreak of the fourth intercolonial war comprehensive plans of parliamentary taxation were repeatedly proposed. The cost of the regular troops which must be stationed in America was estimated at about 300,000 annually. The Sugar Act was expected to yield about 45,000 a year. It was thought that the colonies should raise about 100,000 more as their reasonable share of the cost. George Grenville resolved to secure this by means of a stamp duty. This would fall upon the island colonies equally with those of the continent, though it would be expended chiefly for the enlarged military force on the mainland. Though its simplicity and ease of collection recommended it, the Stamp Act was a purely fiscal measure, and its character was not concealed by any features which allied it to the earlier acts for the regulation of XXVII. 22 trade. It involved an extension of the British system of stamp duties to the colonies, and was intended to draw revenue directly from many lines of their activity. It was passed by parliament in 1765, almost without debate and with scarcely a thought that it would be resisted. It provided for the appointment of officials to distribute the stamped papers in the colonies and further extended the power of the admiralty courts by giving them jurisdiction over violations of this act. The legal theory upon which the act was based was that of the unqualified sovereignty of parliament as the representative body for the whole empire, and that its authority, if it chose to use it, was as effective for purposes of taxation as for the regulation of trade or other objects of legislation. But never before, during the century and a half of colonial history, had the taxing power been so Stamp ACL unqualifiedly exercised or in such trenchant force as by this statute. It followed close on the heels of the Sugar Act, which itself had aroused much hostile criticism. The two measures also came at a time when the consciousness of strength among the colonists had been increased by the defeat and expulsion of the French. Moreover, at the time when the policy was initiated, George III. had undertaken to crush the Whig party and to revive the latent prerogatives of his office. This resulted in the formation of a series of coalition ministries. Vacillation and uncertainty were thus introduced into the colonial policy of the government. The royal policy also brought into the public service in England and kept there an unusually large group of inferior men who persistently blundered in the treatment of colonial questions. It was only with the accession of the North ministry, in 1770, that permanence and a certain consistency were secured. But, in the view of the colonists, the prestige of the government had by that time been seriously lowered, and the stubborn self-will of the king became the only available substitute for broad and intelligent statesmanship.
48. Determined opposition to the Stamp Act was shown in all the colonies, by or before the time (Nov. i) when it was to go into effect. The forms assumed by this opposition were such as characterized the entire controversy with Great Britain until the opening of hostilities in 1775. It consisted in the passage of resolutions of protest by the lower houses of some of the colonial legislatures; in the calling of a congress at New York, which was attended by delegates from nine of the colonies; in the activity of mobs organized under the name of the " Sons of Liberty " in all the large seaports and in some smaller inland towns; and, finally, in a somewhat widely extended movement against the importation of British, or even foreign, goods and in favour of frugality and the encouragement of home manufactures. The newspaper press also sprang into much greater activity than ever before, and many notable pamphlets were published in defence of the colonial cause. The most important resolutions at the outset were those adopted by the Virginia House of Burgesses and by the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. Through the first-named body the dramatic eloquence of Patrick Henry (q.v.) forced five resolutions. Two others, which threatened resistance and the coercion of any who should venture to uphold the home government, failed to pass, but the whole seven were published broadcast through the colonies. The calling of a general congress was proposed by the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. Prominent among its members was James Otis, who had already distinguished himself by radical opposition to measures of the government, especially in the case against writs of assistance which was argued before the superior court in 1761. Samuel Adams (q.v.), already a prominent man, was now elected a member of the house from Boston. He almost immediately became its leader, drafting its most important resolutions and papers, and to a large extent directing its policy. With the aid of others he was able greatly to increase the activity of the town-meeting in Boston, and in the course of a few years to develop it on occasion into a great popular convention, which could be utilized to overawe the government. Throughout New England the town and its institutions served well the purposes of opposition and 1763-1776 facilitated its extension over large areas. The county system of the provinces along the middle and southern coast was not so well adapted to these purposes, and their population was more dispersed. The intense Puritan spirit, with its century and a half of pronounced independence, both in polity and temper, was also lacking outside New England; though on the frontiers of the provinces from Pennsylvania southward was a Scottish-Irish population which exhibited many of the New England characteristics. But the tenant farmers of New York, the German pietist sects of Pennsylvania, the Quakers wherever they had settled, and in general the adherents of the English Church were inclined toward indifference or, as the controversy progressed, toward positive loyalism. Hence the mixture of nationalities in the Middle Colonies greatly increased the difficulty of rousing that section to concerted action. In Pennsylvania the issues were obscured by a struggle on the part of the western counties to secure equal representation with those of the east. This helped to make loyalists of the Quakers. Special grievances also produced among the frontier settlements of North and South Carolina quite as much dislike of the officials and social leaders of the tide-water region as they could possibly feel toward Crown and parliament. Throughout the struggle New England and Virginia exhibited a unity and decision in action which were not equalled elsewhere.
49. But to return to the Stamp Act. Before the meeting of the Congress at New York outbreaks of mob violence in Boston had forced the stamp distributor there to resign and had wrecked the house of Thomas ' Hutchinson, the chief justice. Owing largely to the indecision of the elective council, the government had proved powerless to check the disorder. The resolutions passed by the Congress, as well as its petitions to the home government, gave authoritative form to the claims of the colonial opposition in general, though the body which issued them, like all the congresses which followed until 1776, was extra-legal and, judged by the letter of the law, was revolutionary. In these utterances, as later, the colonists sought to draw their arguments from British precedents and their own history. As they owed allegiance in common with subjects within the realm, so the rights of the two were the same. The two British rights which, it was claimed, were violated by the Stamp Act were the right to trial by jury and the right to be taxed only by an assembly in which they were represented. The former grievance was simply an incident of the latter, and was occasioned by the extension of the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts. The tax was a direct grievance. Therefore, for purposes of legislation like this these bodies denied that parliament was representative of the whole empire (so-called virtual representation), and asserted that it represented only the realm. For purposes of taxation, their assemblies, they affirmed, were the only representative bodies they had known. Therefore, ignoring the earlier and tentative measures by which parliament had actually taxed the colonies, and falling back upon the sweeping declarations of their assemblies, they denied the right of parliament to tax them. They declared that the recent policy of parliament was wholly an innovation and insisted upon a return to the Constitution as it was before 1763. The doctrine of natural right and compact was also resorted to with increasing emphasis in New England utterances. For purposes of government they had all along acknowledged and now did so expressly that parliament bound them; and the inference would have been fair that they were represented in it. But they did not draw this inference, nor did they seek by any scheme of reform to secure representation in the imperial legislature. James Otis was the only colonial leader who ever contemplated the possibility of such a solution. Adams early declared it to be undesirable. The British never proposed it, and therefore it played practically no part in the discussion.
50. The decisive blows, however, were struck by the mobs in the colonies and by the government itself in England. As the time for the execution of the Stamp Act approached, more or less violent demonstrations occurred in New York 'and in many other localities. The stamp distributors were forced to resign. Everywhere in the original continental colonies the use of stamped papers was prevented, except to a slight extent in Georgia. Business requiring the use of stamps was in part suspended, but far more generally it was carried on without their use. Without the aid of the militia, which in no case was invoked, the colonial executives proved indisposed or powerless to enforce the act and it was effectively nullified. In England the petitions of the colonists produced little effect. There the decisive events were the accession of the Rockingham ministry to power and the clamours of the merchants which were caused by the decline in American trade. What might have happened if Grenville had remained in office, and if the duke of Cumberland had not been suddenly removed by death, it would be impossible to tell. But the serious lack of adjustment between British politics and colonial government is illustrated by the fact that, more than three months before the Stamp Act was to go into effect, the ministry whose measure it was resigned, and a cabinet which was indifferent, if not hostile, to it was installed in office. Preparations were soon made for its repeal. The slight extent to which relations with the colonies had been defined is indicated by the fact that the debates over the repeal contain the first serious discussion in parliament of the constitution of the British Empire. While the colonies were practically united in their views a great variety of opinions was expressed in parliament. On the question of right Lord Mansfield affirmed the absolute supremacy of parliament in realm and dominions, while Camden and Pitt drew the same sharp line of distinction between taxation and legislation upon which the colonists insisted, and denied the right of parliament to tax the colonies. The debates at this time gave rise to the fancied distinction between internal and external taxes, of which much was made for a few months and then it was dropped. But motives of expediency, arising both from conditions in the colonies and in England, proved decisive, and in the spring of 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed, while its repeal was accompanied with the passage of a statute (The ff epe aiofthe Declaratory Act) affirming the principle that Great stamp Act; Britain had the right to bind the colonies in all"" Declarecases whatsoever. This measure was received with toly AcL demonstrations of joy in the colonies, but the prestige of the home government had received a severe blow, and the colonists were quick to resent further alleged encroachments.
51. These soon came in the form of a colonial Mutiny Act and of the so-called Townshend Acts (1767). The former was intended largely to meet the needs of the troops stationed in the West and in the new colonies, but it also affected the older colonies where garrisons of regular soldiers existed. The act provided for a parliamentary requisition for barrack supplies, and partly because it included certain articles which were not required for the soldiers in Europe, the New York legislature at first refused to make the necessary appropriation. Partly through the influence of the governor, it later came to think better of it and in a non-committal way appropriated the supplies required. But meantime in England the Pitt-Grafton ministry had come into office, in which the brilliant but reckless Charles Townshend was chancellor of the exchequer. Pitt himself was disabled by illness, and the ministry, lacking his control, steadily disintegrated. Townshend availed himself of this situation to spring upon his colleagues and upon parliament a new measure for colonial taxation, and with it a bill legalizing writs of assistance and establishing a board of commissioners of the customs in America, and a third bill suspending the functions of the assembly of New York until it should comply with the terms of the Mutiny Act. These Bills all became law. Before the last-mentioned one reached the colonies, the New York Assembly had complied, and therefore the necessity for executing this act of parliament was avoided. The establishment of a customs board at Boston, of itself, did not provoke much criticism. But the Act of Trade and Revenue, which provided for the collection in the colonies of duties on glass, lead, painters' colours, paper and tea, and that out of the revenue raised therefrom salaries should be paid to the governors and judges in America, opened anew the controversy over taxation.
52. John Dickinson, in his Letters of a Farmer (1767-1768), denied in toto the authority of parliament to tax the colonies, and his argument was widely accepted. Massachusetts petitioned the home government, and in a circular letter conveyed its views to the other colonies and asked an expression of theirs in return. This provoked Hillsborough, the incumbent of the new colonial secretaryship, to order the Massachusetts house to rescind its action and the other colonies to treat the letter with contempt. The Massachusetts assembly refused to rescind and was dissolved by the governor. The activity of the customs officials at Boston in seizing John Hancock's sloop, " Liberty," occasioned rioting, which in turn was followed by the transfer of two regiments to Boston. Several vessels of war were also stationed in its harbour (autumn of 1768). Deprived of their assembly, the towns of Massachusetts chose deputies, who met in convention, but without important result. Favourable replies to its circular letter were, however, received from a majority of the colonies. Resolutions against the new act were passed by many colonial assemblies, and in several cases petitions were sent to England. But, either because these addresses were not sent through the regular constitutional channels, or because they expressed views inconsistent with the Declaratory Act, they were laid on the table or rejected outright. The king and ministers expressed the view that the Americans were opposed to all restrictions, and that in Massachusetts treason or misprision of treason had already been committed. In this they had the support of large majorities in parliament. The statute of 35 Henry VIII., for the punishment in England of such offences when committed outside the realm, was now revived, and the royal officials in Massachusetts were instructed to collect evidence against suspected popular leaders with a view to their deportation across sea for trial. Though sufficient evidence was not found, nothing could have been better calculated to increase the exasperation of the colonists than a threat of this kind. It drew from the Virginia burgesses strong addresses and resolutions of protest. Fear lest the English Church would induce the government to establish a colonial episcopate caused much discussion at this time, especially in New England, and led to plans for joint action on the part of Dissenters, in self-defence. Though the government never sanctioned the plan, the fears which were aroused by its discussion contributed appreciably to the general agitation. In the course of 1769 the policy of commercial nonintercourse was again revived, and resolutions in favour of its enforcement were passed by many local bodies. But it was found difficult to enforce these, and, as the colonies were prosperous, trade, open and illicit, with Europe continued to be large. The British merchants did not clamour for relief, as they had done at the time of the Stamp Act, but gave loyal support to the policy of the government. The king was also steadily gaining an ascendancy, which in 1770 was permanently established by the accession of Lord North to the premiership. Thus, on both sides of the ocean, parties were bracing themselves for a struggle, the one for and the other against the principle of the Declaratory Act. The question of revenue was now largely obscured by that cf right and power.
53. It cannot be said that the Townshend Revenue Act was nullified, for to a certain limited extent it was executed. But _ _ in 1770, on the specious plea that the duties were uncommercial because they were levied on British manufactures, all except the duty on tea 3d. per Ib were repealed, and a drawback of one-fourth and later of three-fifths of this duty was granted on the re-exportation of tea to the colonies. But the preamble of the act was retained, and with it the principle of taxation. For this reason opposition continued and non-importation agreements, especially against tea, were maintained. But after the collision which occurred between the troops and the people in Boston, in March 1770, the soldiers were removed from that town and affairs became more quiet. For more than a year it seemed as if the controversy was wearing itself out and that the old relations would be restored.
But the conduct of certain naval officers and small vessels of war which had been trying to suppress illegal trade in Narragansett Bay led, in June 1772, to the destruction of the schooner " Gaspee." The inquiry which necessarily followed this, together with legislation for the protection of the royal dockyards, ships and supplies, again revealed the possibility that colonists might be removed to England for trial. About the same time provision was made for the payment by the home government of the salaries of the governors and of the judges of the superior court of Massachusetts while those officials continued to hold at the pleasure of the Crown. These events occasioned a movement in Massachusetts and Virginia which led at once to the organization oi committees of correspondence, and these ultimately extended far and wide throughout the colonies. At the same time in England the East India Company appealed to parliament for relief from the losses caused by the transfer of the American trade so largely to the Dutch, and in response the Tea Act was passed authorizing the company to import its teas into the colonies and providing that the English duties should be wholly drawn back on exportation, and that no compensation need be made to the government for consequent loss of revenue. This, it was expected, would enable the company to out-compete the Dutch. But popular uprisings prevented the reception or sale of the tea at any of the ports and culminated in the destruction (Dec. 16, 1773) of 340 chests at Boston. As the king and the North ministry were now fully intrenched in power, coercion was at once resorted to and affairs were thus brought to a crisis.
54. Those among the colonists who were intelligent enough to watch the courss of events had long felt that they were being enveloped in a network of relations over which they had no control. This was a result of the development of the empire, with its world-wide interests and its policies the motives for which had their origin in conditions which by the colonists were dimly perceived, if perceived at all. They were particularists whose views and resources were alike narrow, but whose perception of their interests was clear. The Quebec Act, which was passed by parliament near the close of the session of 1774, furnished a case in point. Owing to the failure of the imperial government to secure the revenue which it had hoped to collect under the Stamp Act and the later statutes, it had been forced to abandon its plans for the vigorous administration of Indian affairs and of the West. In view of these facts, it was thought wisest and cheapest to commit the immediate charge of the West to the province of Quebec, and therefore to extend its bounds southward to the Ohio. The Roman Catholic religion was recognized as legal within Quebec, and no provision was made for an assembly. Its extension also indicated a purpose to prevent the westward movement of population across the mountains, which was already beginning from the Middle and Southern colonies. It is true that this act involved the possibility of danger to the colonies, but exaggerated inferences were drawn respecting it and the motives which probably impelled its passage. So it had been with the distinctively imperialist measures from the first and so it was to continue.
55. But the acts of the session of 1774 which were of most immediate importance were those which directly affected Massachusetts, where lay the centre of disturbance. One of these closed the port of Boston, another substituted an appointed for an elected council in Massachusetts and took the selection of jurors out of the hands of the people, and a third made possible the removal from Massachusetts of the trials of persons indicted for capital offences committed in support of the government into neighbouring colonies or to Great Britain, where a fair hearing was considered possible. General Thomas Gage, who had been commander-in-chief in America, was now appointed governor of Massachusetts, with authority to uphold the new acts with military force. As soon as knowledge of the fate impending over Boston reached the other colonies, conventions, local and provincial, were held, and the plan of a general congress, as proposed by Massachusetts and Virginia, was adopted. Delegates were chosen from all the colonies except Georgia, though that province fell into line when the 1763-1776 second Congress met. The members were instructed to the general effect that they should consult together and adopt such measures as were best calculated to secure the just rights of the colonists and redress their grievances. Voting by colonies, but occasionally listening to utterances which implied that Americans were now thrown into a single mass, this body sent addresses to the king, to the people of the colonies, of Quebec First and of Great Britain, and prepared a declaration Continental oi rights. It is a significant fact that an address Congress. was not sen j to e jt ner of the houses of parliament. In its statement of rights the Congress (known as the First Continental Congress) limited itself to those which it believed had been infringed since 1763. These acts they described as innovations, and claimed themselves to be the true conservatives who only desired peace on the basis of the former Constitution. Even Joseph Galloway's elaborate plan of union (see GALLOWAY) between Great Britain and the colonies was debated at great length and was laid on the table by a majority of only one, though later all reference to it was expunged from the record. But, on the other hand, the warlike " Suffolk Resolves " (see MILTON, Mass.) were approved, as was the opposition which Massachusetts was making to the recent acts of parliament; and the view was expressed that, if an attempt were made to execute them by force, all America should support Massachusetts. Though the work of this Congress was deliberative, it performed one positive act which contained the germ out of which new governments were to develop. That was the issue of the Association, or nonimportation and non-exportation agreement, accompanied with resolutions for the encouragement of agriculture and home manufactures and for the organization of committees to carry these measures into effect. Coercion, according to the principle of the boycott, was to be applied by the colonies and other local bodies to all who declined to accept and obey the terms of the Association. This policy had been followed at intervals since the time of the Stamp Act. It had been revived and urged by very many local and protion^orNoa". vincial bodies during the past few months. The importation Congress had been called with a view to its enforceand Non- me nt throughout the continent. Its issue of the 'Agreement" Association gave this policy wide extension, and at the same time strengthened the system of committees, whose energies were henceforth to be chiefly devoted to its enforcement. The Association became the touchstone by which loyalty to the colonies, or loyalty to the king, was determined. Those whose loyalty to the king forbade their submission to the new regulations now felt the coercive power of committees, even to the extent of virtual trial, imprisonment or banishment. Local bodies, acting under general regulations of Congress, and all revolutionary in character, accomplished these results and thus laid the foundation of the new governments. From this action the First Continental Congress derived its chief significance.
56. The line of policy thus indicated was not such as would conciliate the home government, though it is doubtful if at that time anything short of an acknowledgment of the principle of the Declaratory Act would have been effective. All measures of congresses and committees, everything which did not emanate from the assemblies and come through legal channels, savoured of sedition and was little likely to secure a hearing. The Association, with its threats and coercive spirit, and depending as it did upon extra-legal bodies for enforcement, was a direct blow at the commercial system of the empire and could scarcely help provoking retaliation. When the Congress adjourned, some of its members predicted war. In New England the impression that war was inevitable was widespread. In Massachusetts a provincial congress was at once organized, which assumed the reins of government and began to prepare for defence. A committee of safety was chosen to carry on the work during recesses of the Congress. Thomas Gage, the governor, began fortifying Boston, while he looked about for opportunities to seize military stores which the colonists were accumulating.
The raising of voluntary militia companies was soon begun in Virginia. In South Carolina, as earlier in Boston and New York, a quantity of tea was now actually destroyed, and a general committee assumed practical control of the province. From New York City and Philadelphia as centres the process of revolutionizing the two most conservative provinces was carried on. When parliament met, at the close of 1774, the king and ministers declared that a most daring spirit of resistance existed in Massachusetts, which was countenanced by the other colonies, where unlawful combinations against the trade of Great Britain were already widely extended. In these opinions the government had the support of the majority in the two houses, and in a joint address the rebellion in Massachusetts was declared to be a fact. As a conciliatory measure Chatham proposed that parliament agree by resolution not to levy any tax upon the colonies, but that the Continental Congress be required to make a free grant of a perpetual revenue which should be fully at the disposition of parliament, the Congress fixing the quota which should be paid by each province. But the imperialist and mercantilist ideas of Chatham were expressed in the further provisions that the system of trade and navigation should not be changed and that the army might be lawfully kept in any part of the dominions where it was deemed necessary, though it should never be used to violate the just rights of the people. Edmund Burke, in his great speech on conciliation, advocated a return to the system of requisitions and did not consider a representation of the colonists in parliament as a possibility. But these motions were rejected, and a resolution introduced by Lord North was passed. This contained no recognition of extra-legal bodies, but provided that when the assembly of any colony should engage to support civil government within the colony and contribute according to its ability to the common defence, the king and parliament would then forbear to levy any more taxes on that province except what were necessary for the regulation of trade. The colonies, with the exception of New York, North Carolina and Georgia, were excluded from the fisheries, as a counterstroke to the Association. North's resolution proved utterly futile, and the two parties drifted steadily toward war, though, as Burke never tired of asserting, the British government in its military estimates made no adequate provision for meeting the crisis.
57. On the 1pth of April 1775 hostilities began in Massachusetts. They had been narrowly escaped two months before, when, on a Sunday, Gage had sent an expedition _ i c i u r AT Outbreak of by water to Salem in search of powder. Now, on a Hostilities; week-day, a force was sent overland to Concord, Lexington 20 m. from Boston, to seize or destroy the military "*"' stores which the colonists had brought together that village. The minute-men were warned to oppose the approaching force, and at Lexington (q.v.), a village situated on the road to Concord, occurred a skirmish in which the first blood of the American War of Independence was shed. The troops marched on to Concord (q.v.) and destroyed such of the stores as had not been removed or concealed. On their return march they were pursued by a galling fire from behind fences and buildings, and had it not been for the arrival of a relieving force the command would have been destroyed before it reached the protection of the British vessels of war at Boston. The " Lexington alarm " brought in throngs of militiamen from all parts of New England. Officers were appointed by the provincial congress of Massachusetts and by similar bodies in the other colonies, and immediately the so-called siege of Boston began. Cannon, as well as every other form of military equipment, were now in great demand. In order to secure a supply of the former and at the same time strike a telling blow at British authority in the north, Ticonderoga (q.v.) was surprised and taken on the loth of May. Men from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire Grants (later Vermont) co-operated in this enterprise. It was soon followed by a dash into Canada, by steps which involved New York in the affair, and by the organization of a military force under General Philip Schuyler for permanent service on the northern frontier.
Meantime reinforcements reached Boston, led by Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne, and it was resolved to extend the British lines by occupying the heights of Dorchester on the south and those of Charlestown on the north. The Americans, hearing of this, seized Breed's Hill, overlooking Charlestown, where they hastily threw up a redoubt on the night of the 16th of June. The British might easily have entrapped them, but instead on the next day the American position was assaulted on the left and carried, though with much difficulty and after a loss to the assailants of more than 1000 men. Such was the battle of Bunker Hill (?..), one of the most dramatic encounters in the war which was then beginning. In connexion with all these events the Americans, as in their earlier conventions and manifestoes, claimed to be acting on the defensive. But it was not difficult to perceive that, especially in New England, this claim only imperfectly concealed an intensely aggressive spirit. (For military events of the war, see AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.)
58. The news of the outbreak of hostilities aroused strong feeling throughout the colonies. The Second Continental Congress met under its influence. Its members, however, had been chosen and instructed before the clash of arms, and for that reason the course which had been worked out for them differed only slightly, if at all, from that which had been followed by their predecessors. To a certain extent the new body adhered to the former course of action. But a state of war now existed in New England and on the Canadian border. Troops were expected soon to arrive at New York. Reports of these events were thrust upon the attention of Congress at once, and the provinces involved asked for advice as to what course they should pursue. The northern frontier especially demanded attention. As a result of these events in the colonies generally the Association was being changed from a system of co-operation against British trade into a union for purposes of defence. This new situation the Congress was forced to meet. This it did largely by resolutions of advice to the colonies, but also by positive orders. Of the former class were the resolutions about the procuring of military supplies, the assumption of powers of government by the various colonies, and concerning defence at New York City, on the northern frontier and, later, in the Highlands of the Hudson. Of a more decisive character was the appointment of officers for the army, George Washington being made commander-in-chief, the prescribing of their pay, the issue of continental bills of credit, the issue of articles of war, the regulation of trade and of Indian affairs, and the establishment of postal communication. As the colonies were passing through a strong reaction against executive authority, Second the Congress did its business with the help of Continental temporary committees and did not seek to establish Congress. a permanent executive. The same was true for a time of the congresses and conventions in the different colonies. As the movement progressed through 1775 and the early months of 1776, executive authority in the royal and proprietary provinces collapsed. The assemblies were either dissolved or ceased to meet. The governors, their authority gone, retired on board British vessels of war, returned to England or, perchance, found themselves prisoners in the hands of the revolutionists. This gradual fall of the old governments, imperial and colonial, was the revolution on its negative side. The rise of the system of congresses, conventions and committees, deriving their authority from the people, was the revolution on its positive side, and foreshadowed the new federal system which was rising on the ruins of the half-federated empire. The process in the different colonies was as varied as were their social and political conditions.
59. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the corporate system of government, which they had inherited from the 17th century, necessitated no change. The general assemblies always had been the centres of power, and the leading officials were elective for short terms and were subject to the control of the electorate. So far as the internal organization of the colonies was concerned that was all which the revolution demanded. In the two proprietary provinces Pennsylvania and Maryland the executives were not so directly interested and pledged to support the imperial government as were those of the royal provinces. But Governor Robert Eden of Maryland was so tactful that, though the last Assembly met in 1774, he was able, with the courts, to keep up some form of government there in the name of the Crown and proprietor until the early summer of 1776. In Pennsylvania the proprietors, though in sympathy with the British government, never sought actively to influence events in their province. So strong was the conservative spirit there that the proprietary Assembly even met though without a quorum as late as September 1776, at the time when the convention was completing the first constitution of the state. In the royal provinces the prorogation of the legislatures for indefinite or prolonged periods caused them early to disappear that of Massachusetts in October 1774. The burgesses of Virginia last met for business in May 1774. They were prorogued to several later dates, but the governor was CoUapae0 f never again able to meet them. The long and im- the Royal portant session of January-March 1775 was the last Govern. ever held by the New York Assembly. In April 1775 meats - Governor John Martin of North Carolina met the Assembly for the last time, and even then the Provincial Convention was in session at the same time and place and the membership of the two bodies was the same. In May 1 7 7 5 disappeared the Assembly of Georgia; in June those of New Hampshire and South Carolina met for the last time. Governor William Franklin was able to meet the Assembly of New Jersey as late as November, but months before that date the Provincial Convention had practically assumed the control of affairs. The royal courts and executives continued some form of activity a few months longer and then totally vanished.
60. After Bunker Hill the command at Boston had been transferred from Gage to Sir William Howe. In July Washington took command of the colonists and gradually established some degree of order and discipline among them. Though the American levies were raw and ever fluctuating in numbers, the British never seriously attempted to break through their lines. Indeed, it was not the plan of the British to make New England the chief seat of war. As early as the 2nd of August 1775 Lord Dartmouth wrote to General Gage on " the obvious advantages that would attend the taking Possession of New York and the hazard of the Army's continuing at Boston." On the 5th of September he wrote to Howe that every day's intelligence exhibited this fact in a clearer light. Rhode Island was considered as a convenient naval station, and steps were soon taken to secure possession of it and its surrounding waters. This indicates what was necessarily the fact, that the British would so plan the war as to secure the maximum of advantage from their fleet. This would give them an easy command of the entire coast, and enable them to secure a foothold at strategic centres. Hence it was that, though the arrival of a fresh supply of cannon enabled Washington to fortify Dorchester Heights, this simply enabled him to hasten a process for which Howe had long been preparing. The evacuation occurred Evacuation on the 17th of March 1776, and the British force of Boston; withdrew temporarily to Halifax. Meantime the 2,"""%?," i . . * 4 ! . Expeditions bold expeditions of Arnold and Montgomery against against Canada suggesting the joint efforts of the French Canada. wars had met with only a partial success. Montreal had been occupied, but the assault upon Quebec had failed. A small American force awaited the return of spring in Canada, in order that they might renew the struggle for that colony.
61. The view, as it was now repeatedly expressed by king and parliament, was that the colonists were in open rebellion. North's offer of conciliation was peremptorily rejected by Congress. The acts of parliament were being openly resisted, and Congress in its manifestoes had ignored the two houses. Therefore the British government stood committed to coercion. That was the meaning of the legislation of the winter of 1776 the prohibition of trade with the rebellious colonies, the increase 1776-1783 of the estimates for the army and navy, the employment of German auxiliaries for service in America. Preparations were made to send a large military and naval force against the colonies the following season, and that it should operate in part against the insurgents in New York and the southern colonies and in part through Canada. New England was no longer to be the direct object of attack. The Howes, as commanders of the royal army and navy, were appointed commissioners to grant assurance of peace and pardon and the repeal of the obnoxious acts, provided submission was made and some way could be found by parliament in which an imperial revenue for purposes of defence could be secured from the colonies. Military operations, meanwhile, should be directed against points of least resistance, and in that way, if possible, the union of the colonies should be broken. The trend of British policy indicated that an invasion from Canada might be attempted and the effort be made to hold Charleston, Philadelphia, and especially New York as strategic points on the coast.
62. The course of events in the colonies by which this situation was met was the ereqtion of a system of feeble defences about New York and the removal thither of the army of about 9000 men in the spring of 1776; the fitting out of privateers to prey on British commerce and of a few small armed vessels by the colonies and the general government to watch the coast and procure supplies; the disarming of loyalists; the opening of American ports to the trade of all peoples who were not subject to the British Crown; and the tentative opening of relations with France. As the result of a combination of 01 luck, bad management and American energy the British suffered a repulse at Charleston, South Carolina, in June, which was analogous to the affair of the year before at Bunker Hill, and which necessitated a postponement of their plans in the South. The Congress and the various revolutionary bodies in the colonies were forced to carry on war upon a constantly increasing scale. They had to assume powers of government and gradually to perfect their organization for the purpose. Committees in Congress became more permanent. Conditions approximating to those which existed the year before in New England extended through the colonies generally. On the isth of May 1776, as the result of various earlier applications on the subject, and especially of one from certain Whigs in New York, the Congress recommended to the assemblies and conventions of the colonies where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs had been established, " to adopt such government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness of their constituents in particular and of America in general." The preamble to this resolution set forth as facts the statements that the colonies had been excluded from the protection of the Crown, that no answer had been given to their petitions for redress, and that the whole force of the kingdom was to be used for their destruction, and therefore that it was no longer reasonable or honest for the colonists to take the oaths or affirmations necessary for the support of government under the Crown. Organize- Though the preamble was warmly debated, it was tloaot State adopted. And this act marked a turning-point, for men*" tne P r 8 ress f events from that time to the declaraDedaratloa tion of independence was rapid and decisive. The otindc- colonies now becoming states one after another, peadeace. j n response t o letters from Philadelphia, empowered their delegates to concur in declaring independence. On the 7th of June R. H. Lee of Virginia introduced in Congress a resolution " that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states," that it was expedient forthwith to take effectual measures for securing foreign allies, and that a plan of confederation should be formed. John Dickinson and others, speaking for the Middle Colonies, argued that the order of procedure should be reversed. But John Adams and the more aggressive party insisted that the proposed declaration would simply state the facts and would open the way for foreign alliances; that it was useless to wait for unanimity. The debate showed that the delegates from the Middle Colonies and South Carolina could not act, and so the decision was postponed for three weeks. In the interval steps were taken to draft a plan of treaties and articles of confederation. A board of war and ordnance, the earliest germ of an executive department, was also Created by Congress. At the end of the three weeks the delegates from all the colonies except Georgia, South Carolina and New York had received instructions favourable to independence. The two former left their delegates free, and under the influence of the British attack on Charleston they voted for independence. News had just come that Howe had landed with a large force at Sandy Hook as events proved, it was an admirably equipped army of 30,000 men, supported by a fleet. Under the impression of these stirring events Dickinson and his leading supporters ceased their opposition, and the Declaration, substantially in the form given to it by Thomas Jefferson, was agreed to (July 4, 1776), only three adverse votes being cast. The delegates from New York took no part, but a few days later the act was approved by the convention of that state. The signing of the document by the members took place at a later time. Thus triumphed the tendencies toward self-government which had been predominant hi the continental colonies from the first, and which the system of imperial control had only superficially modified and restrained. But the most significant part of the document for the future was the preamble, in which the democratic aspirations of the new nation were set forth, the spirit to which Thomas Paine had just made so powerful an appeal in his Common Sense. Governments, it was said, derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and when any system becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to abolish it and to institute a new government, establishing it upon such principles and under such forms as seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. (See INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION or.)
E. The Struggle to Maintain Independence, 1776-1783. 63. Viewed from one standpoint, the declaration of independence was apparently an act of the utmost recklessness. The people were by no means a unit in its support, and in several of the states widespread indifference to it, or active sympathy with the British, prevailed. In New York, South Carolina and Georgia a condition of civil war came sooner or later to exist. The United States, as yet, had no international status, and it would seem that that must be secured, if at all, by a series of victories which would ensure independence. But how could these be won against the greatest naval power on the globe, supported by veteran armies of continental and British troops? The colonies had no money; the few vessels which, as a collective body, they did send out, were more like privateers than anything else. Their army was an undisciplined throng of militiamen, serving on short enlistments, without organized commissariat, and for the most part under inexperienced officers. Its numbers, too, were far inferior to those of the British. Taxation by the Continental Congress for the support of the war Finance; was not among the possibilities of the case. The Weaknesses colonies were struggling against taxation by one *"^ efeds imperial body, and it was not likely that they would American submit to similar impositions at the hands of another. Genera/ The Congress, moreover, as has truly been said, was Government. little more than a general committee or interstate council of safety, and had to proceed largely by way of advice. A strong tendency also toward the provision for immediate needs by the issue of bills of credit had been inherited from the period of the French wars, and resort was again had to that device. The battle of Bunker Hill had been immediately followed by an order of Congress for the issue of $2,000,000 in that form of currency. Issues followed in rapidly increasing amounts, until by the close of 1779 $241,000,000 had been authorized. The states put out nearly as much ($209,000,000), Virginia and the two Carolinas issuing the largest amounts. All that Congress could do to secure the redemption of its issues was to recommend to the states to provide the means therefor; but this they failed to do, or even to provide for the redemption of their own issues. The continental paper money depreciated until it became worthless, as to a large extent did that of the states also. The states decreed it to be legal tender, and dire threats were uttered against those who refused to receive the bills; but all to no purpose. The Congress also tried to induce the states to tax themselves for the general cause and was forced to rely on requisitions for the purpose. The colonies had insisted that the system of requisitions was good enough for the mother country, but when applied by Congress it proved as complete a failure as when resorted to by the Crown. The revolution was therefore never financed. It early became necessary to resort to loans and that chiefly from foreign sources. It was therefore an absolute necessity that the colonies should secure international recognition and status. Then loans were obtained from the governments of France and Spain and from private bankers in Holland to the amount of about $7,830,000.
64. The collapse of royal government left the colonies in a chaotic state. The old institutions had disappeared and new ones could not be immediately developed to take their place. But the institutions of local government, the town and county systems, were left intact, and upon these as a basis the new fabrics were erected. It was therefore easier to construct the governments of the states than to define and develop the general government. At first little else was intended than that the Congress should be the mouthpiece of the patriot party. It proceeded mainly by way of recommendation, and looked to the' states, rather than to itself, as the ultimate sources of authority. Upon them it depended for the execution of its measures. The common will, as well as enactment, was lacking which would have given the force of positive law to the measures of Congress. As the war proceeded the states grew jealous of the central body and tried to prevent appeals to it from the state courts in prize cases. Under the pressure of war, moreover, the enthusiasm, which had been strong at the outset, declined, and it became increasingly difficult to secure co-operation or sacrifice toward any general enterprise. At the same time, war devolved upon Congress an enormous burden of work. It was forced to devise general policies and provide for their execution, and also to attend to an infinite number of administrative details. This was due not only to the exigencies of the time, but to the fact that no general executive was developed. As was characteristic not only of this revolution, but of all others, the committee system underwent an enormous development. " The whole congress," wrote John Adams, " is taken up, almost, in different committees, from seven to ten in the morning. From ten to four or sometimes five we are in congress, and from six to ten in committees again." " Out of a number of members," writes another, " that varied from ten dozen to five score, there were appointed committees for a hundred varying purposes." Upon its president and secretary the Congress was forced to depend not a little for the diligence and ability which was requisite to keep the machine going. But as the war progressed most of the able members were drawn off into the army, into diplomatic service or into official service in the states. Sectional and state jealousies also developed and became intense. By many the New Englanders were regarded with aversion, and members from that section looked with dislike upon the aristocrats from the South. As the Congress voted by states the smaller commonwealths were often moved by jealousy of their larger rivals to thwart important measures. But, above all, the conduct of the war and foreign relations occasioned infinite jealousies and cabals, while many of the most important measures seemed to meet with downright indifference. Washington's correspondence abounds in evidence of these facts, while it is well known that he was the object against whom one of the cabals of the time was directed. Benjamin Franklin was the object of somewhat similar jealousies. But, as time passed, rudimentary executive departments, beginning with the board of war and the postmaster-general, were developed, and some advance was made toward a working and permanent system. In 1781 the offices of foreign secretary, superintendent of finance, secretary of war and secretary of marine were created.
65. For a time, and indeed during most of the struggle, the course of the land war seemed to justify these criticisms and gloomy fears. Until its very close the campaign of 1776, from the American standpoint, was a dismal failure. The battle of Long Island was lost by the Americans and, as at Bunker Hill, it would have been quite possible for the British to have captured the entire force which opposed them on Long Island. Howe compelled Washington to evacuate New York City. On the 16th of November the practical abandonment of the state of New York by the main army was necessitated Washington. by the capture of Fort Washington. Earlier in the year the Americans had been compelled to retire from Canada, while the Tories in northern New York were contributing valuable aid to the British.
66. But there was another side to the picture, and already certain faint outlines of it might be discerned. The British commander was proceeding slowly, even according to established European methods. At almost every step he was failing to seize the advantages that were within his reach, while Washington was learning to play a losing game with consummate patience and tact. Although he was constantly trying to rouse Congress and the states to more vigorous action, he showed no disposition to break with the civil power. Already, too, the physical obstacles arising from the wooded and broken character of the country, and from the extremely poor means of communication, were becoming apparent to the British; while the Americans always had the alternative, if too hard pressed, of withdrawing beyond the mountains. After Washington had crossed the Delaware, Howe, instead of seizing Philadelphia and driving Congress and the American army to some remote places of refuge, as he might have done, prepared for winter quarters. Washington seized the opportunity to return across the Delaware and surprise the British outposts at Trenton (Dec. 26, 1776) and Princet6n (Jan. 3, 1777), and thus secured a safe post of observation for the winter at Morristown. Confidence was to an extent restored, the larger part of New Jersey was regained, and many loyalists were compelled to take the oath of allegiance. Howe's plan for the next campaign involved the strengthening of his army by large reinforcements from home and by all the men who could be spared from Canada. With this force he proposed to capture Philadelphia and thereby to bring the War of Independence to an end in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. New England and the states farther south could then be dealt with in detail. But Howe was overruled by Lord George Germain, the colonial secretary, whose plan included an invasion from Canada, in which Tories and Indians should share, while Howe should advance up the Hudson and meet the northern forces at Albany. If this ambitious scheme should succeed, the British would occupy the valley of the Hudson and New England would be cut off from the rest of the colonies. General Burgoyne was appointed to command the northern expedition. But the failure of the plan was almost ensured from the outset by neglect on the part of British officials to instruct General Howe as to his part in its execution, while Burgoyne was forced to surrender near Saratoga on the 17th of October. Meanwhile, Howe, who had long waited for instructions respecting the northern expedition, was finally informed that he might undertake the Pennsylvania campaign, but with the hope that at its close he would still be able to march up the Hudson. Thereupon, embarking his army, Howe sailed for Chesapeake Bay, at the head of which he landed and advanced towards Philadelphia. Washington's army opposed his march at the Brandywine (Chad's Ford), but was defeated (Sept. n, 1777) and forced to retire beyond Philadelphia. The British then entered the city (Sept. 26) and the Congress withdrew to Lancaster, and later to York, in the interior of Pennsylvania. The British fleet had in the meantime arrived in Delaware Bay, and, after a prolonged and brave defence, had captured Forts Mercer and Mifflin. When the winter began the Delaware, as well as lower New York and Rhode Island, was in the possession of the British. With the fragments of an army Washington retired to Valley Forge (q.v.).
1776-1783 67. But the influence of Burgoyne's surrender in Europe was to prove a turning-point in the war. Since 1763 a strong sentiment at the French court had been favourable to a resumption of war with Great Britain. An opportunity was now presented by the colonial revolt. In November 1775 the Congress created a committee of secret correspondence, which, in April 1777, was developed into a committee of foreign affairs, and this continued until 1781, when the office of foreign secretary was established. To Congress, and to the members who were serving on its secret committee, the possible attitude of France was known from an early date. The necessity of securing supplies and loans from Europe was also imperative, though the United States had nothing to pledge in repayment except the future products of her soil. In February 1776 Silas Deane (q.v.) was sent to Paris, ostensibly as a business agent, and with the connivance of the French government supplies were sent to America and American vessels were received into French ports. Soon American privateers were bringing their prizes into French harbours, and British commerce began to suffer from these attacks. On the French side Beaumarchais and others actively co-operated in this. In the autumn of 1776 Congress appointed three commissioners to France, and resolved that Spain, Prussia, Austria and other European states should be approached with a view to securing recognition and aid. In December 1776 Franklin, who, with Deane and Arthur Lee, had been appointed commissioner to France, arrived at Paris, bringing with him proposals for treaties of commerce and alliance. But, though the attitude of the French court toward the Americans was friendly, and though it continued to send secret aid, and to exert a favourable influence upon Spain, yet it could not be Fnach- induced to abandon its outward appearance of American neutrality until after the news of Burgoyne's Alliance. surre nder arrived. Then the real purpose of the French government was revealed. On the 6th of February 1778 the treaties were signed, and in the following summer war between France and England began. The influence of France under the Family Compact was also persistently used to bring Spain into the alliance. The latter was naturally hostile to England, but her aversion to colonial revolts and her desire to substitute mediation for war kept her from declaring against England until April 1779. In October 1779 Henry Laurens (q.v.) was elected minister to the Netherlands, and sailed for Europe, taking with him a plan of a commercial treaty. But Laurens and his papers were captured by the British at sea, and partly by that event the Netherlands were forced into war with England. With the other states of northern Europe they undertook to defend the interests of neutrals against the arrogant enforcement by Great Britain of the rights of search at sea. Thus the conflict expanded into a commercial and naval war, Great Britain being confronted by the larger part of Europe.
68. The conclusion of the treaty of alliance by France was immediately followed by the equipment of a fleet under the comte d'Estaing, which sailed from Toulon in April 1778, having on board M Conrad Alexandre Gerard de Rayneval, who had been accredited as minister to the United States, and Silas Deane, who was returning to report to Congress. Sir Henry Clinton had now succeeded Howe in command of the British army. The certainty that a French fleet would soon appear in American waters made it necessary for the British to evacuate Philadelphia and return to a point on the coast where the army could be in easy communication with the fleet. This fact shows how the French alliance had changed the nature of the war. It now became to a large extent a contest between the two navies, the principal evolutions of which occurred in West Indian and European seas. (See AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.) In the north the British now relatively neglected the land war, and refrained from sending such forces to the eastern coast as had supported Howe in 1776. The Americans, on the other hand, had a naval force upon which they relied, in the hope that the blockade of their coasts might be raised and trade routes opened more freely. On the evacuation of Philadelphia in June Washington's army pursued the British as they retired toward New York, and the indecisive battle of Monmouth was fought on the 28th of June. It did not prevent Clinton from reaching New York, and that city continued to be the centre of British power and operations in the north until the close of the war. The Congress returned to Philadelphia, where Gerard was received, and where he was soon exercising an influence favourable to the policies of Washington and opposed to the clique of which General Horatio Gates was the leader. Washington's army came gradually to occupy a line of forts, of which West Point in the Highlands of the Hudson was the citadel. From there as a centre it was possible to communicate with Newport on the east and with the Delaware region on the south, and at the same time to prevent the British from gaining access to the interior of the country. Though the fleet of D'Estaing carried a heavier equipment of cannon than did that of Admiral Howe, the French commander did not choose to risk an ^attack on New York, but passed eastward to Newport. Howe followed him, while Washington and his generals planned active cooperation with the new allies by land. But a sudden storm so dispersed and injured the fleets that the French admiral retired to Boston for repairs and later sailed for the West Indies.
69. While the war and foreign relations were thus developing, the states were organizing their governments and Congress was beginning to consider articles of confederation between the states. In this way an effort was made s ututios. to gather up and make permanent the positive results of the revolution. As under the chartered and royal governments of the colonial period the source of political authority had been the Crown, now by a necessary reaction this was sought in the people. This principle had been stated in the Declaration of Independence, and had been implied throughout the earlier controversy and in much of the history of the colonies as well. The colonies had insisted on a more precise definition of the powers of government ; they had opposed parliament because its powers were undefined and therefore dangerous. Following these ideas, the states now described their institutions of government and defined their powers by means of written constitutions. These were formulated by the provincial congresses which had now become the legislatures or, as they came to insist upon a more specific expression of the popular will, by conventions chosen for the purpose by the electors. Connecticut and Rhode Island retained their colonial charters. In the earlier days of hasty and temporary devices, the constitutions, like statutes, had been promulgated by the legislatures which formed them and had been put into force by their authority alone. But as time passed and more permanent arrangements became necessary an express popular approval of the instruments was insisted upon and was obtained before they were put into force. The establishment of state governments in this way began before the issue of the Declaration of Independence. It was actively continued during 1776 and the early months of the following year, by which time all of the states had secured at least a temporary constitution. ' South Carolina and New Hampshire revised theirs before the close of the war. Massachusetts did not secure a constitution which suited her until 1780, but then her procedure corresponded in all particulars with what was to be later American practice in such matters. Of the constitutions of the revolutionary period the two most striking features were the bills of rights and the provisions which were made concerning the executives and their relations to the legislatures. The men of that generation were jealous of government. They insisted upon individual rights, not as acquired and guaranteed by the state, but as original, natural and inhering in time prior to all governments. Governments were instituted for the common benefit, protection and security. Officials were trustees and were accountable to the people. There should be no hereditary title to office or power. There should be no titles of nobility, and in Virginia the system of entails was swept away. Monopolies were declared to be inconsistent with the spirit of a free state. The doctrine that it was unlawful to resist arbitrary power was declared to be absurd. Freedom of the press and of conscience was asserted, and no obstacles to fair and speedy jury trials were to be tolerated. Elections should be free and frequent, and a preference was expressed for short terms of office. The legislature was universally regarded as the most important department of government. Although the principle of the separation of powers was recognized, in eight states provision was made that the executives should be elected by the legislatures, eleven withheld from them the veto, and the states generally provided for a council to advise them. So manifold and important, however, were the restrictions on suffrage that the states were as yet far from being democracies. On the other hand, many wild and impractical ideas were cherished, and there were anarchic tendencies, which were revealed soon after the war and still later, under the influence of the French Revolution.
70. The first draft of the Articles of Confederation between the states was prepared by John Dickinson in the early summer The Articles of 1776 and was reported. The report was debated at Con- for some weeks after the issue of the Declaration of federation, independence. Owing to the pressure of war it was then laid aside until the autumn of 1777. By that time the feeling in favour of state sovereignty had so increased that the impossibility of securing assent to the articles in any form had begun to be feared. But the document was completed and submitted to the states in November 1777, when all were encouraged by the news of Burgoyne's surrender. The system for which provision was made in this document was a " confederacy," or " firm league of friendship " between the states, for their common defence, security and general welfare. The Congress was to be continued, and was to consist of delegates annually appointed by the legislature of each state and paid by their states. No attempt was made to create an executive for the confederacy, though authority was given to Congress to appoint a council of state which should manage general affairs, especially during recesses of Congress. To Congress various general powers were entrusted, as deciding on peace and war and superintending the conduct of the same, building a navy, controlling diplomatic relations, coining money and emitting bills of credit, establishing post offices, regulating Indian trade, adjusting boundary disputes between the states. The financial powers entrusted to Congress included those of borrowing money and determining necessary expenditures, but not the power to tax. For supplies the general government had to depend on requisitions from the states. The same system also had to suffice for the raising and equipment of troops. Congress could not make its laws or orders effective in any matter of importance. This was simply a continuation of the policy under which the revolution was being conducted. The Americans had thought that the military and financial concerns of the British Empire could be managed under a system of requisitions, and now they were bent upon trying it in their own imperial relations. The control of trade was also practically left with the states, the Americans in this matter failing to live up to the requirements of the British system. The predominance of the states was further ensured by the provision that no votes, except those for daily adjournment, could be carried without the assent of a majority of all the states, and no important measure without the consent of nine states. But a common citizenship was declared to exist, and Congress received authority to establish a court of appeal which might pass finally on all disputes between states. Taken as a whole, the Articles of Confederation would bear favourable comparison with other schemes of their kind, and they fairly represented the stage of development to which the American states had then attained. The defects which existed in them were reflections of the immaturity, political and social, which had always been apparent in the Americans as colonists and which was to characterize them as a nation for generations to come.
71. We have seen that, on the whole, the attitude of Great Britain, after the peace of 1763, was not favourable to the colonization of the Mississippi Valley. To the colonists the Quebec Act gained in offensiveness by seeming to imply that it was intended to exclude them from the West. But all such plans were swept away by the outbreak of the War of Independence. Already, before the beginning of hostilities, emigrants had begun to flock across the mountains. Plans were on foot for the establishment of a number of commonwealths, or proprietary provinces, as the case might be. Vandalia was planned in western Virginia, Watauga in western North Carolina. Daniel Boone and his associates pushed farther west into the Kentucky region, and there it was proposed to establish the commonwealth of Transylvania. Other similar projects were started, all repeating in one form or another the political methods which were used when the seaboard colonies were first settled. The backwoodsmen who managed these enterprises were extreme individualists, believed in the propriety of resistance to governments, and were in full sympathy with the War of Independence. They desired to escape to the free land and life of the West and be rid of the quitrents and other badges of dependence which still lingered in the East. The states which had claims in the West opposed the founding of independent settlements there and, if possible, induced the settlers to be content with the status of counties within some one of the eastern states. After the beginning of the War of Independence, the British from Detroit incited Indian raids for the purpose of destroying or driving out the settlers, especially in Kentucky. These provoked the expeditions of George Rogers Clark (<?..), in 1778 and 1779. With a force of Virginians he seized Kaskaskia and later, after a long march, captured Vincennes and compelled General Henry Hamilton, who had come with a relief force from Detroit, to surrender. This secured to the Americans a permanent hold upon the North- West. But Spain, after she entered upon the war, was determined, if possible, to wrest the valley of the Mississippi from the British and to keep all, or the larger part of it, for herself. To that end, operating from New Orleans, her troops took possession of Natchez, and other posts on the lower Mississippi, and occupied Mobile and Pensacola. These events prevented the possibility of the expulsion of the Americans from the West, but devolved upon their representatives at Paris the necessity of engaging in a diplomatic contest against Spain for the purpose of securing the Mississippi as the western boundary of the United States. But meanwhile the occupation of the West by Americans had a notable influence upon the ratification of the Articles of Confederation.
72. Within the Confederacy a fundamental line of cleavage was that between the large and small states. It was jealousy on the part of the latter, their fear lest they might 3 / be absorbed by their larger neighbours, which had coafederanecessitated the adoption of the plan that in the tloa RatiCongress the delegates should vote by states. When ed ' the articles were referred to the states for ratification, the difficulty reappeared. Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, with Virginia and the three states to the south of it, had large claims to territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, which were without hope of westward extension, hesitated to enter the Confederacy, if the large states were to be still further increased by additions to their areas of vast stretches of western country. They insisted that before ratification the states which had claims to western lands should surrender these for the common benefit of the United States. Maryland insisted upon this until, in the end, the cause of state equality and of nationality triumphed. Congress declared that the ceded lands should be formed into states, which should become members of the union with the same rights as other states. When, in 1781, this course of action had become possible, Maryland ratified the articles and they came into effect. The possibility of the expansion of the United States through the development of territories was thus ensured.
73. So far as the North American continent was concerned, the character of the last stage of the struggle with Great Britain 1776-1783 was determined by the fact that the British resolved to transfer the main seat of war to the Southern states, in the hope that Georgia and South Carolina might be detached from the Union". At the close of 1778 Savannah was captured. In September 1779 D'Estaing returned and assaulted the South'" Savannah, but, failing to capture it, sailed for France.
In 1780 Clinton sailed from New York, besieged Charleston with a force much superior to that of Lincoln, and captured it (May 12). State government in South Carolina ceased. But the chance of detaching those states from the Union and of bringing the war in that region to an end was finally lost by the British. This was chiefly due to an order which recalled the paroles of many of those who had surrendered at Charleston and required that they should perform military service under the British. The attempt to enforce this order, with the barbarities of Colonel Banastre Tarleton and certain Tory bands, provoked a bloody partisan conflict in the upper districts, especially of South Carolina, which contributed more than any other cause to turn the scale against the British in the remote South. By the winter of 1781 they were forced back to Charleston and Savannah. (See AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.)
74. During the summer of 1780 Washington was prevented from accomplishing anything in the North by the demoralized condition of the finances and by the decline of public spirit. It was very difficult to secure recruits or supplies. The pay of the troops had fallen so into arrears that some of them had already begun mutiny. A second French squadron and military force, under De Ternay and Rochambeau, landed at Newport, but they were at once shut up there by the British. Clinton and Cornwallis were now planning that the latter, having put down resistance in the remote South, should march through North Carolina and Virginia to Baltimore and Philadelphia and that a junction of the two British forces should be effected which, it was believed, would complete the ruin of the American cause. This, too, was the period of Arnold's treason and the death of Andre. But the turn of the tide in favour of the Americans began with the partisan warfare in South Carolina, which delayed the northward march of Cornwallis, who retired to Wilmington and thence marched north with a small force into Virginia, and in July retired to Yorktown, in the peninsula of Virginia. Washington and Rochambeau had meantime been planning a joint move against the British at New York, or possibly in Virginia, and a letter was sent to De Grasse, the French admiral in the West Indies, suggesting his co- operation. De Grasse replied that he would sail for the Chesapeake. This confirmed Washington and Rochambeau in the opinion that they should march at once for Virginia and, after junction with the force of Lafayette, co-operate with De Grasse against Cornwallis. By well-timed movements the forces were brought together before Yorktown (q.v.), and Cornwallis was forced to surrender on the 19th of October 1781.
75. As the effect of this event was to drive Lord North from power in England, it proved to be the last important operation _ of the war in America. The king was compelled Peace'. to P ve wav - Rockingham was called into office at the head of a cabinet which considered the recognition of American independence to be indispensable. The negotiations fell into the hands of Shelburne, the friend of Franklin and disciple of Adam Smith. Richard Oswald was the leading British agent, while Franklin, Jay, John Adams and Henry Laurens were the American negotiators. From the first the acknowledgment of independence, the settlement of the boundaries and the freedom of fishing were insisted on as necessary terms by the Americans. Free commercial intercourse and the cession of Canada to the United States, partly in payment of war claims and partly to create a fund for the compensation of loyalists, were also put forward as advisable conditions of peace. The first three points were early conceded by the British. They also agreed to restrict Canada to its ancient limits. But discussions later arose over the right to dry fish on the British coasts, over the payment of debts due to British subjects prior to the war, and over the compensation of the loyalists. Adams vigorously insisted upon the right to dry and cure fish on British coasts, and finally this concession was secured. Franklin was opposed to the demands of the loyalists, and they had to be content with a futile recommendation by Congress to the states that their claims should be adjusted. It was also agreed that creditors on either side should meet with no lawful impediment to the collection of their debts. Both France and Spain considered the claims of the Americans to be excessive, and were not inclined to yield to them. But the Americans negotiated directly with the British .and the articles were signed without consultation with the French government. This course was offensive to Vergennes, but it was insisted upon as necessary, especially by Jay and Adams, while the diplomatic skill of Franklin prevented a breach with France. Peace was formally ratified on the 3rd of September 1783- 76. The American army was now disbanded. Since the close of active military operations both officers and men had been striving to secure their pay, which was hopelessly in arrears. Congress had voted half -pay to the officers for h'f e, and many had agreed to accept a commutation of this in the form of full pay for a certain number of years. Certificates for these amounts were issued. But in this, as in other cases, it was found impossible to procure the money for the purpose from the states. Parts of the army repeatedly mutinied, and it was only the influence of Washington which prevented a general outbreak against Congress and the civil government. When the disbandment was finally effected the officers found their certificates depreciated in value and the states indisposed to honour them. They consequently received only a small part of their due, and the privates scarcely anything. This deplorable result was due in part to poverty, but quite as much to bad faith. The country was left in a most demoralized condition, the result of the long war and the general collapse of public and private credit which had accompanied it. It should not be forgotten that the conflict had taken to a considerable extent the form of a civil war. In many of the states Loyalists and Whigs had been arrayed against one another, and had been more or less fully incorporated with the two contending armies. In general the Loyalists showed less capacity for combined action than did their opponents, and in the end they were everywhere defeated. The real tragedy of the conflict will be found, not in the defeat of the British, but in the ruin of the Loyalists. It was accompanied by wholesale confiscations of property in many quarters, and by the permanent exile of tens of thousands of the leading citizens of the republic. These were the emigres of the War of American Independence, and their removal deeply affected property relations and the tone and structure of society in general. Many of those who had been social and political leaders were thus removed, or, if they remained, their influence was destroyed (see LOYALISTS). New men and new families rose in their places, but of a different and in some ways of an inferior type. By this process sympathizers with the War of Independence gained and kept the ascendancy. British and monarchical influences were weakened, and in the end the permanence of republican institutions was ensured. But, as had been foreseen, society in this period of transition exhibited so many repulsive features as almost to cause the stoutest hearts to despair.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Sources: The records in which are contained the materials for the internal history of any one of the British colonies are the land papers, the minutes of the executive council, the journals of the upper and lower houses of the legislature, the laws and the correspondence and miscellaneous papers which originated from the intercourse between the colonial authorities especially the governor and the home government or other colonies and states. Every one of the original states has published these records in part, in series which are known under the general names of colonial records or archives or documents, or provincial papers. The first seven volumes of the Provincial Papers of New Hampshire (Concord) contain general records, while other volumes are filled with local and miscellaneous records. Massachusetts has published Records of the Colony of New Plymouth (12 vols., Boston, 1885-1887), the Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686 (5 vols., Boston, 1853-1854), the Records of the Court of Assistants (i vol.), and its laws for the entire colonial period. Connecticut has printed The Colonial Records of Connecticut (15 vols., Hartford, 1850-1890), and the Records of the Colony of New Haven, 1638-1665 (2 vols., Hartford, 1857-1858). The Records of the Colony of Rhode Island fill 10 vols. (Providence, 1856-1865). New York has published the Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland (l vol.), the Colonial Laws of New York from 1664 to the Revolution (5 vols., Albany, 1894), The Journal of the Legislative Council, 1691-177$ (2 vols., 1861), the Journal of the Votes and Proceedings of the General Assembly, 1691-1765 (2 vols., 17641766), the Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York (15 vols., 1853-1883), Minutes of the Albany Commissioners for Detecting Conspiracies (3 vols., 1909-1910) and the Documentary History of the State of New York (4 vols., 1849-1851). New Jersey has published the Grants and Concessions (i vol.), edited by Learning and Spier, and 28 vols. of The Archives of the State of New Jersey (Newark, 1880 sqq.). Pennsylvania has published 16 vols. of Colonial Records, 1683-1790 (Philadelphia, 1852) and four series of Pennsylvania Archives (1852-1856, 1874-1893, 1894-1895, etc.), the latter containing miscellaneous records relating to the colonies and the War of Independence. Under the title of Statutes at Large (n vols.) its laws to the close of the War of Independence have been published. The Archives of Maryland (27 vols., Baltimore) contain the proceedings of the council, the assembly and the provincial court, with the laws, for a part of the colonial period. The Records of the Virginia Company of London (2 vols., Washington, 1906) have been printed; also Henning's Statutes at Large (13 vols., 1819-1823), and the Journal of the House of Burgesses for the later provincial period. Under the titles of Colonial Records (1886 ) and State Records, North Carolina has published the sources of her early history very fully, except the land papers and laws. Thomas Cooper's Statutes of South Carolina (4 vols., to 1782) contain practically all of its sources which that state has published. Georgia has published 12 vols. of Colonial Records, containing minutes of the trustees and of the governor and council. The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660 (London, 1860), and for 1661-1700 (13 vols., London, 1880-1910), the Acts of the Privy Council Colonial, 1613-1720 (2 vols., London, 1908-1910), and the Calendars of Treasury Papers (for the 18th century) cover relations between the British government and the colonies. Additional matter may also be found in many of the reports of the British Historical MSS. Commission. Hazard's Historical Collections (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1792-I7_94) is still valuable. B. Parley Poore's Federal and State Constitutions (2 vols., Washington, 1877) contains the texts of the colonial charters and state constitutions; and a similar collection was edited by F. N. Thorpe (7 vols., ibid., 1909). The records of many New England towns have been printed, as a]so those of New York City, Philadelphia and Albany. The Original Narratives of Early American History (1906-1910), edited byj. F. Jameson, Contain reprints of much source material.
Cobbett's Parliamentary History, Almon's Remembrancer (17 vols., London, 17751784), and the writings of the British statesmen of the period, contain much material which is indispensable to the history of the War of Independence on its British side. Of official matters relating to the period of the War of Independence, special reference should be made to the Public Journals of the Continental Congress (13 vols.), and the Secret Journals (4 vols.). A new and improved edition (1908 sqq.) has been edited by W. C. Ford and G. Hunt. Indispensable to the student is Peter Force's American Archives (9 vols., Washington, 1837-1853), covering the years 1774 to 1776 inclusive. Francis Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols., Washington, 1889), and the earlier and less complete edition of the same by Jared Sparks (12 vols., Boston, 1829-1830), are also of great value. Alden Bradford's Massachusetts State Papers is valuable for that province. The journals of committees of safety, provincial congresses, conventions and early state legislatures are also for the most part in print. The colonial and revolutionary newspapers contain material of great variety. Semi-official also are the writings of the statesmen of the War of Independence John and Samuel Adams, Jefferson, Dickinson, Franklin, Washington, Jay, all of which exist in very satisfactory editions. Henri Doniol's Histoire de la participation de la France a I'etablissement des Etats-Unis d'Amerique (5 vols., Paris, 1886-1900) is a diplomatic history of the War of Independence and the peace, dealing chiefly with France.
The states all have historical societies, and there are many private and local societies in addition. Of these the most prominent are the societies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. In addition, mention should be made of the Prince Society of Boston, the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Mass., the Essex Institute of Salem, Mass., the Narragansett Club of Providence, R.I., and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. The American Historical Association (Washington, D.C.) publishes valuable monographs; the second volume of the Report of the Association for 1905 is a detailed Bibliography of American Historical Societies (Washington, 1907).
Standard Histories: Of these the histories of the states first demand attention. Jeremy. Belknap's History of New Hampshire (3 vols., 1784-1792; enlarged, 3 vols., Boston, 1813); Thomas Hutchinson's History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (3 vols., Boston, 1767, and vol. iii., London, 1828); Samuel Greene Arnold's History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1636-1790 (2 vols., New York, 1859^1860); Benjamin Trumbull's Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, to 1764 (New Haven, 1818; revised, 2 vols., New London, 1898); John Romeyn Brodhead's History of the State of New York (2 vols., New York, 1853-1871); William Smith's History of the Late Province of New York, from its Discovery to 1762 (2 vols., New York, 1829- 1830); Samuel Smith's History of the Colony of Nova Ccesaria, or New Jersey, to 1721 (Burlington, N.J., 1765; 2nd ed., Trenton, 1877); Robert Proud's History of Pennsylvania from 1681 till after the year 1742 (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1797-1798) ; John Leeds Bozman's History of Maryland, 1633-1660 (2 vols., Baltimore, 1837); John V. L. McMahon's A Historical View of the Government of Maryland from its Colonization to the Present Day (Baltimore, 1833); William Stith's History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia (Williamsburg, 1747); John Daly Burk's History of Virginia (3 vols., Petersburg, 1804-1805); Francois Xavier Martin's History of North Carolina (2 vols., New Orleans, 1829); William James Rivers's Sketch of the History of South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Government by the Revolution of 1719 (Charleston, 1856); Edward McCrady's South Carolina (4 vols., New York, 1897-1902) covering the period from 1670 to 1783 and Charles Colcock Jones's (jun.) History of Georgia (2 vols., Boston, 1883) are especially noteworthy. William Bradford's History of Plimouth Plantation (latest edition, Boston, 1898), and John Winthrop's History o/ New England. 1630-1649 (2 vols., Boston, 1825-1826), are essentially original sources, as are the Writings of Captain John Smith (Arber's ed.) for early Virginia. So are Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States (2 vols., Boston, 1890), and the First Republic in America (Boston, 1898). Philip Alexander Bruce's Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., New York, 1896) and W. B. Weeden's Economic and Social History of New England (2 vols., Boston, 1890) are of great value. Edmund B. O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland (2 vols., New York, 1846-1848), John Gorham Palfrey's History of New England (5 vols., Boston, 1858-1890) and I. B. Richman's Rhode Island, its Making and its Meaning (New York, 1902), are valuable for colonial New York, New England and Rhode Island respectively. George Bancroft's History of the United States (6 vols., 1884-1885) still has a great reputation, though it is altogether inadequate for the colonial period. Richard Hildreth's History of the United States (6 vols., New York, 1849-1852) is dry but accurate. John Andrew Doyle's English in America (5 vols., New York, 1882-1907) is valuable for the 17th century. Herbert L. Osgood's American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., New York, 1904-1907) discusses the institutional history of the period. John Fiske has popularized the history of the times in a number of excellent works, some of them of decided originality. Francis Parkman's France and England in North America (12 vols., latest ed., Boston, 1898) is a classic on the history of Canada and its relations with the British colonies. William Kingsford's History of Canada (10 vols., Toronto, 18871898), and Frangois Xavier Garneau's Histoire du Canada (4 vols., Quebec, 1845-1852), may be cited as holding places of special authority. Justin Winsor's Christopher Columbus (Boston, 1891), Cartier to Frontenac (ibid., 1894), and later volumes, are especially valuable for the history of exploration, discovery and cartography. The American Nation (22 vols., New York, 1903-10.07), a co-operative history, edited by A. B. Hart, outlines the political history of the country as a whole. Edward Channing's History of the United States (8 vols., New York, 1905 sqq.), and Elroy McKendree Avery's History of the United States and Its People (15 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1905 sqq.) devote much space to the colonies and War of Independence. Sir George Otto Trevelyan's American Revolution (3 vols., London, 1 899^- 1904) is a brilliant literary performance. Of special value is Lecky's study of the same subject in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century (8 vols., London, 1878-1890). George Louis Beer's Origins of the British Colonial System (New York, 1908) and his British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765 (New York, 1907), Justin Harvey Smith's Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony (2 vols., New York, 1907) and S. G. Fisher's Struggle for American Independence (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1908) are valuable monographs. For biography see the " American Statesmen Series " (16 vols., Boston) and Samuel V. Wells's Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams (3 vols., Boston, 1865); James Kendall Hosmer's Life of Thomas Hutchinson (Boston, 1896); William Garrott Brown's Life of Oliver Ellsworth (New York, 1905); B. J. Lossing's Life and Times of Philip Schuyler (2 vols., New York, 1860^1873) and Bayard Tuckerman's Philip Schuyler, Major-General in the American Revolution (New York, 1903) ; George Washington Greene's Life of Nathanael Greene (3 vols., Boston, 1867-1871) and William Johnson's Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene (Charleston, 1822); William -Thompson Reed's Life and Correspondence of George Reed (Philadelphia, 1870); Charles Janeway Stille's Life and Times of John Dickinson (Philadelphia, 1891); William Wirt Henry's Patrick Henry (3 vols., New York, 1891); John Marshall's Life of George Washington (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1804-1807) ; C. Tower's The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution (2vols., ibid., 1895) ; F. Kapp's Life of Frederick William von Steuben (New York, 1859), and his Life of John KoJb (New York, 1884). Moses Coit Tyler's Literary History of the American Revolution (2 vols., New York, 1783-1789 1897) is of unique interest. Lorenzo Sabine's Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (2 vols., Boston, 1864), and Claude Halstead Van Tyne's The Loyalists in the American Revolution (New York, 1902) ; Herbert Friedenwald's The Declaration of Independence (New York, 1904), and John Hampden Hazelton's the Declaration of Independence Its History (New York. 1906), are valuable special studies. Many important monographs have appeared in the "Johns Hopkins University Studies," "the Columbia University Studies," the "Harvard Historical Studies," and among the publications of the universities of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The Carnegie Institution has issued the first volume of a report, edited by C. M. Andrews and F. G. Davenport, on materials in British archives for the period before 1783. The bibliography of American history receives adequate treatment in Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., Boston, 1886-1889) and in J. N. Larned's Literature of American History (Boston, 1902). (H. L. O.)
F. The Struggle for National Government, 1783-1789.
77. The long struggle to secure the ratification of the Articles of Confederation had given time for careful consideration of the new scheme of government. Maryland's persistent criticism had prepared men to find defects in them. Conventions of New England states, pamphlets, and private correspondence had found flaws in the new plan; but a public trial of it was a necessary preliminary to getting rid of it. The efforts of the individual states to maintain the war, the disposition of each state to magnify its own share in the result, the popular jealousy of a superior power, transferred now from parliament to the central government, were enough to ensure the articles some lease of life. A real national government had to be extorted through the " grinding necessities of a reluctant people."
78. Congress and its committees had already begun to declare that it was impossible to carry on a government efficiently under the articles. Its expostulations were to be continued for several years before they were heard. In the. meantime it did not neglect the great subject which concerned the essence of nationality the western territory. Virginia had made a first offer to cede her claims, but it was not accepted. A committee of Congress now made a report (1782) maintaining the validity of the rights which New York had transferred to Congress; and Territorial * n tne next year Vi r g m i a made an acceptable offer. Cessions. Her deed was accepted (March i, 1784); the other , claimant states followed; and Congress, which was not authorized by the articles to hold or govern territory, became the sovereign of a tract of some 430,000 sq. m., covering all the country between the Atlantic tier of states and the Mississippi river, from the British possessions nearly to the Gulf of Mexico.
79. In this territory Congress had now on its hands the same question of colonial government in which the British parliament had so signally failed. The manner in Government. wn ' c ^ Congress dealt with it has made the United States the country that it is. The leading feature of its plan was the erection, as rapidly as possible, of states, similar in powers to the original states. The power of Congress over the Territories was to be theoretically absolute, but it was to be exerted in encouraging the development of thorough self-government, and in granting it as fast as the settlers should TheOrdi- become capable of exercising it. Copied in succeedoaace of ing acts for the organization of Territories, and still 1787 - controlling the spirit of such acts, the Ordinance of 1787 (July 13, 1787) is the foundation of almost everything which makes the modern American system peculiar.
80. The preliminary plan of Congress was reported by a committee of which Thomas Jefferson (q.v.) was chairman, and was adopted by Congress on the 23rd of April 1784. It provided for the erection of seventeen states, north and south of the Ohio, with some odd names, such as Syjvania, Assenisipia, Mesopotamia, Polypotamia and Pelisipia. These states were for ever to be a part of the United States, and to have republican governments. The provision, "After the year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, other than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," represented Jefferson's feeling on this subject, but was lost for want of seven states in its favour.
81. The final plan of 1787 was reported by a committee of which Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was chairman. The prohibition of slavery was made perpetual, and a fugitive slave clause was added. The ordinance covered only the territory north of the Ohio, and provided for not less than three nor more than five states. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin have been the resultant states. At first Congress was to appoint the governor, secretary, judges and militia generals, and the governor and judges were, until the organization of a legislature, to make laws subject to the veto of Congress. When the population reached 5000 free male adult inhabitants the Territory was to have an assembly of its own, to consist of the governor, a legislative council of five, selected by Congress from ten nominations by the lower house, and a lower House of Representatives of one delegate for every 500 free male inhabitants. 1 This assembly was to choose a delegate to sit, but not to vote, in Congress, and was to make laws not repugnant to " the principles and articles " established and declared < in the ordinance. These were as follows : the new states or Territories were to maintain freedom of worship, the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, proportionate representation, bail, moderate fines and punishments, and the preservation of liberty, property and private contracts ; they were to encourage education and keep faith with the Indians; they were to remain for ever a part of the United States; and they were not to interfere with the disposal of the soil by the United States, or to tax the lands of the United States, or to tax any citizen of the United States for the use of the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi or St Lawrence rivers. These articles were to be unalterable unless by mutual consent of a state and the United States. The transformation of the Territory, with its limited government, into a state, with all the powers of an original state, was promised by Congress as soon as the population should reach 60,000 free inhabitants, or, under certain conditions, before that time.
82. The Constitution, which was adopted almost immediately afterwards, provided merely (art. iv, 3) that " Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory or other property belonging to the United States," and that " new states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." Opinions have varied as to the force of the Ordinance of 1787. The Southern school of writers have been inclined to consider it ultra vires and void; and they adduce the fact that the new Congress under the Constitution thought it necessary to re-enact the ordinance (Aug. 7, 1789). The opposite school have inclined to hold the ordinance as still in force. Even as to the Territorial provision of the Constitution, opinions have varied.
83. In the interval of the settlement of the territorial question the affairs of the " league of friendship," known as the United States, had been going from bad to worse, culminating in 1786. The public debt amounted in 1783 to about $42,000,000, of which $8,000,000 was owed abroad in Holland, France and Spain. Congress had no power to levy taxes for the payment of interest or principal; it could only make requisitions on the states. In the four years ending in 1786 requisitions had been made for $10,000,000 and the receipts from them had amounted to but one-fourth of what had been called for. Even the interest on the debt was falling into arrears, and the first instalment of the principal fell due in 1787. To pay this, and subsequent annual instalments of $1,000,000, was quite impossible. Robert Morris, the financier of the War of Independence, resigned in 1783 rather than " be the minister of injustice," hoping thus to force upon the states the necessity of granting taxing powers to Congress. Washington, on retiring from the command-in-chief, wrote a circular letter to the governors of all the states, urging the necessity of granting to Congress some power to provide a national revenue. Congress (April 18,1783) appealed to the states for power to levy specific duties on certain enumerated articles, and 5% on others. It was believed that with these duties and the requisitions, which were now to be met by internal taxation, $2,500,000 per annum could be raised. Some of the states ratified the proposal; others ratified it with modifications; others rejected it, or changed their votes; and it never received the necessary ratification of all the states. The obedience to the requisitions grew more lax. In 1786 a committee of Congress reported that any further reliance on requisitions would be " dishonourable to the understandings of those who entertain such confidence."
1 When the total number should reach 25, the legislature itself was to have the power of regulating the number and proportion. Property qualifications were prescribed for electors, representatives and members ol the council.
84. In the states the case was even worse. Some of them had been seduced into issuing paper currency in such profusion that they were almost bankrupt. Great Britain, in the treaty of peace, had recognized the independence of the individual states, naming them in order; and her government followed the same system in all its intercourse with its late colonies. Its restrictive system was maintained, and the states, vying with each other for commerce, could adopt no system of counteracting measures. Every possible burden was thus shifted to American commerce; and Congress could do nothing, for, though it asked for the power to regulate commerce for fifteen years, the states refused it. The decisions of the various state courts began to conflict, and there was no power to reconcile them or to prevent the consequences of the divergence. Several states, towards the end of this period, began to prepare or adopt systems of protection of domestic productions or manufactures, aimed at preventing competition by neighbouring states. The Tennessee settlers were in insurrection against the authority of North Carolina; and the Kentucky settlers were disposed to cut loose from Virginia. Poverty, with the rigid execution of process for debt, drove the farmers of western Massachusetts into an insurrection (Shays's Insurrection) which the state had much difficulty in suppressing; and Congress was so incompetent to aid Massachusetts that it was driven to the expedient of imagining an Indian war in that direction, in order to transfer troops thither. Congress itself was in danger of disappearance from the scene. ' 'The necessity for the votes of nine of the thirteen states for the passage of important measures made the absence of a state's delegation quite as effective as a negative vote. Congress even had to make repeated appeals to obtain a quorum for the ratification of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1784 Congress actually broke up in disgust, and the French minister reported to his government " There is now in America no general government neither Congress, nor president, nor head of any one administrative department." Everywhere there were symptoms of a dissolution of the Union.
85. Congress was evidently incompetent to frame a new plan of national government; its members were too dependent on Proposals their states, and would be recalled if they took part fora in framing anything stronger than the articles. Conven</on. The idea of a convent ; on o f t h e states, independent of Congress, was in the minds and mouths of many; Thomas Paine had suggested it as long ago as his Common Sense pamphlet: " Let a continental conference be held ... to frame a continental charter . . . fixing the number and manner of choosing members of Congress, members of assembly . . . drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between them." To a people as fond of law and the forms of law as the Americans there was a difficulty in the way. The articles had provided that no change should be made in them but by the assent of every state legislature. If the work of such a convention was to be subject to this rule, its success would be no greater than that of Congress; if its plan was to be put into force on the ratification of less than the whole number of states, the step would be more or less revolutionary. In the end the latter course was taken, though not until every other expedient had failed; but the act of taking it showed the underlying consciousness that union, independence and nationality were now inextricably complicated, and that the thirteen had become one in some senses.
86. The country drifted into a convention by a roundabout way. The navigation of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac needed regulation; and the states of Maryland and Virginia, having plenary power in the matter, appointed delegates to arrange such rules. The delegates met (1785) at Alexandria, Va. (?.i>.), and at Washington's house, Mount Vernon. Maryland, in adopting their report, proposed that Pennsylvania and Dela- , ware be asked to nominate commissioners, and Convention , .. . . ... ^. f of 1786. Virginia went further and proposed a meeting 01 commissioners from all the states to frame commercial regulations for the whole. The convention met (1786) at Annapolis (q-v.), Maryland, but only five states were represented, and their delegates adjourned, after recommending another convention at Philadelphia in May 1787.
87. Congress had failed in its last resort a proposal that the states should grant it the impost power alone; New York's veto had put an end to this last hope. Confessing its helplessness, Congress approved the call for a second convention; twelve of the states (all but Rhode Island) chose delegates; and the convention met at Philadelphia (May 25, 1787), with an abler body of men than had been seen in Congress since the first two Continental Congresses. Among others, Virginia sent Washington, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, George Mason and George Wythe; Pennsylvania: Franklin, Robert and Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson; Massachusetts: Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong; Connecticut: William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth; New York: Alexander Hamilton; New Jersey: William Paterson; and South Carolina the two Pinckneys and John Rutledge. With hardly an exception the fifty-five delegates were clear-headed, moderate men, with positive views of their own and firm purpose, but with a willingness to compromise.
88. Washington was chosen to preside, and the convention began the formation of a new Constitution, instead of proposing changes in the old one. Two parties were formed at once. The Virginia delegates offered a plan pj^,. (see RANDOLPH, EDMUND), proposing a Congress, of two houses, having power to legislate on national subjects, and to compel the states to fulfil their obligations. This is often spoken of as a " national " plan, but very improperly. It was a " large-state " plan, proposed by those states which had or hoped for a large population. It meant to base representation in both houses on population, so that the large states could control both of them, and it left the appointment of the president or other executive and the Federal judges to Congress so that the whole administration of the new government would fall under large-state control. On behalf of the "small states" Paterson of New Jersey brought in another plan. 1 It continued the old Confederation, with its single house and equal state vote, but added the power to regulate commerce and raise a revenue, and to compel the states to obey requisitions. The large states had a general majority of six to five, but the constant dropping off of one or more votes, on minor features, from their side to that of the small states prevented the hasty adoption of any radical measures. Nevertheless, the final collision could not be evaded; the basis of the two plans was in the question of one or two houses, of equal or proportionate state votes, of large-state supremacy or of state equality. In July the large states began to show a disposition to force their plan through, and the small states began to threaten a concerted withdrawal from the convention.
89. The Connecticut delegates, from their first appearance in the convention, had favoured a compromise. They had been trained under the New England system, in which the assemblies were made up of two houses, one p mm i se representing the people of the whole state, according to population, and the other giving an equal representation to the towns. They proposed that the new Congress should be made up of two houses, one representing the states in proportion to their population, the other giving an equal vote to each state. At a deadlock the convention referred the proposition to a committee, and it reported in favour of the Connecticut compromise. Connecticut had been voting in the large-state list, and the votes of her delegates could not be spared from their slender majority; 1 now another of the large states, North Carolina, came over to Connecticut's proposal, and it was adopted. Thus the first great struggle of the convention resulted in a compromise, which took shape in an important feature of the Constitution, the Senate.
90. The small states were still anxious, in every new question, to throw as much power as possible into the hands of their 1 A third plan was introduced by Charles Pinckney; for a discussion of this plan see the separate article on PINCKNEY.
1783-1789 special representative, the Senate; and that body thus obtained its power to act as an executive council as a restraint The Work on tne president in appointments and treaties. of the ' This was the only survival of the first alignment Convention. o f parties; but new divisions arose on almost every proposal introduced. The election of the president was given at various times to Congress and to electors chosen by the state legislatures; and the final mode of choice, by electors chosen by the states, was settled only two weeks before the end of the convention, the office of vice-president coming in with it. The opponents and supporters of the slave trade compromised by agreeing not to prohibit it Tor twenty years. Another compromise included three-fifths of the slaves in enumerating population for representation. This provision gave the slaveholders abnormal power as the number of slaves increased.
91. Any explanation of the system introduced by the Constitution must start with the historical fact that, while the national government was practically suspended, from 1776 until 1789, the only power to which political privileges had been given by the people was the states, and that the state legislatures were, when the convention met, politically omnipotent, with the exception of the few limitations imposed on them by the early state constitutions. The general rule, then, is that the Federal government has only the powers granted to it by the Federal Constitution, while the state has all governmental powers not forbidden to it by the state or the Federal Constitution. But the phrase denning the Federal government's powers is no longer " expressly granted, " as in the Articles of Confederation, but merely " granted, " so that powers necessary to the execution of granted powers belong to the Federal government, even though not directly named in the Constitution. This question of the interpretation or " construction " of the Constitution is at the bottom of real national politics in the United States: the minimizing parties have sought to hold the Federal government to a strict construction of granted powers, while their opponents have sought to widen those powers by a broad construction of them. The strict-construction parties, when they have come into power, have regularly adopted the practice of their opponents, so that construction has pretty steadily broadened.
92. Popular sovereignty, then, is the basis of the American system. But it does not, as does the British system, choose its legislative body and leave unlimited powers to it. It makes its " Constitution " the permanent medium of its orders or prohibitions to all branches of the Federal government and to many branches of the state governments: they must do what the Constitution directs and leave undone what it forbids. The people, therefore, are continually laying their commands on their governments; and they have instituted a system of Federal courts to ensure obedience to their commands. A British court must obey the act of parliament ; the American court is bound and sworn to obey the Constitution first, and the act of Congress or of the state legislature only so far as it is warranted by the Constitution. But the American court does not deal directly with the act in question; it deals with individuals who have a suit before it. One of these individuals relies on an act of Congress or of a state legislature; the act thus comes before the court for examination ; and it supports the act or disregards it as " unconstitutional, " or in violation of the Constitution. If the court is one of high rank or reputation, or one to which a decision may be appealed, as the United States Supreme Court, other courts follow the precedent, and the law falls to the ground. The court does not come into direct conflict with the legislative body; and, where a decision would be apt to produce such a conflict, the practice has been for the court to regard the matter as a " political question " and refuse to consider it.
93. The preamble states that " we, the people of the United States, " establish and ordain the Constitution. Events have shown that it was the people of the whole United States that established 'the Constitution, but the people of 1787 seem to have inclined to the belief that it was the people of each state for itself. This belief was never changed in the South; and in 1861 the people of that section believed that the ordinances of secession were merely a repeal of the enacting clause by the power which had passed it, the people of the state. An account of the form of government established bv the Constitution appears elsewhere (see UNITED STATES: VII. Constitution and Government, pp. 646 sqq.).
94. The Constitution's leading difference from the Confederation is that it gives the national government power over individuals. The Federal courts are the principal agent in securing this oveladl- ess ? nt ' a l power; without them, the Constitution might vlduals ' eas ''y have been as dismal a failure as the Confederation.
It has also been a most important agent in securing to the national government its supremacy over the states. From this point of view the most important provision of the Constitution is the grant of jurisdiction to Federal courts in cases involving the construction of the Constitution or of laws or treaties made under it. The 25th section of the Judiciary Act of 1 789 permitted any Supreme Court justice to grant a writ of error to a state court in a case in which the constitutionality of a Federal law or treaty had been denied, or in which a state law objected to as in violation of the Federal Constitution had been maintained. In such cases, the defeated party had the right to carry the " Federal question " to the Federal courts. It was not until 1816 that the Federal courts undertook to exercise this power; it raised a storm of opposition, but it was maintained, and has made the Constitution' what it professed to be " the supreme law of the land. '' Treason was restricted Treason to the act of levying war against the United States, or of adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. The states, however, have always asserted their power to punish for treason against them individually. It has never been fully maintained in practice; but the theory had its effect in the secession period.
95. The system of the United States is almost the only national system, in active and successful operation, as to which the exact location of the sovereignty is still a mooted question.
The contention of the Calhoun school that the separate So vere/z-n(y states were sovereign before and after the adoption of the Constitution, that the Union was purely voluntary, and that the whole people, or the people of all the other states, bad no right to maintain or enforce the Union against any state has been ended by the Civil War. But that did not decide the location of the sovereignty. The prevalent opinion is still that first formulated by Madison: that the states were sovereign before 1789; that they then gave up a part of their sovereignty to the Federal government ; that the Union and the Constitution were the work of the states, not of the whole people; and that reserved powers are reserved to the people of the states, not to the whole people. The use of the bald phrase " reserved to the people, " not to the people of the several states, in the loth amendment, seems to argue an underlying consciousness, even in 1789, that the whole people of the United States was already a political power quite distinct from the states, or the people of the states; and the tendency of later opinion is in this direction. The restriction to state lines seems to be a self-imposed limitation by the national people, which it might remove, as in 1789, if an emergency should make it necessary.
96. By whatever sovereignty the Constitution was framed and imposed, it was meant only as a scheme in outline, to be filled up afterwards, and from time to time, by legislation. The Deta n s ol idea is most plainly carried out in the Federal judiciary : iaeSvstem the Constitution only directs that there shall be a " Supreme Court, and marks out the general jurisdiction of all the courts, leaving Congress, under the restriction of the president's veto power, to build up the system of courts which shall best carry out the design of the Constitution. But the same idea is visible in every department, and it has carried the Constitution safely through a century which has radically altered every other civilized government. It has combined elasticity with the limitations necessary to make democratic government successful over a vast territory, having infinitely diverse interests, and needing, more than almost anything else, positive opportunities for sober second thought by the people. A sudden revolution of popular thought or feeling is enough to change the House of Representatives from top to bottom; it must continue for several years before it can make a radical change in the Senate, and for years longer before it can carry this change thrgugh the judiciary, which holds for life; and all these changes must take place before the full effects upon the laws or Constitution are accomplished. But minor changes are reached in the meantime easily and naturally in the course of legislation. The members of the Convention of 1787 showed their wisdom most plainly in not trying to do too much ; if they had done more they would have done far less.
97. The convention adjourned on the 17th of September 1787, having adopted the Constitution. Its last step was a resolution that the Constitution be sent to the Congress of the Confederation, with the recommendation that it submitted to conventions elected by the people of each state for ratification or rejection; that, if nine states should ratify it, Congress should appoint days for the popular election of electors, and that then the new Congress and president should, " without delay, proceed to execute this Constitution." Congress resolved that the report of the convention be sent to the several legislatures, to be submitted to conventions; and this was all the approval the Constitution ever received from Congress. Both Congress and the convention were careful not to open the dangerous question, How was a government which was not to be changed but by the legislatures of all the states to be entirely supplanted by a different system through the approval of conventions in three-fourths of them ? They left such questions to be opened, if at all, in the less public forum of the legislatures.
98. Before the end of the year Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey had ratified; and Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts followed during the first two months of 1788. Thus far Federalists tne on 'y strong opposition had been in MassaandAnti- chusetts, a " large state." In it the struggle began Federalists, between the friends and the opponents of the Constitution, with its introduction of a strong Federal power; and it raged in the conventions, legislatures, newspapers and pamphlets. In a classic series of papers, the Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, with the assistance of James Madison and John Jay, explained the new Constitution and defended it. As it was written before the Constitution went into force, it speaks much for the ability of its writers that it has passed into a standard textbook of American constitutional law.
99. The seventh and eighth states Maryland and South Carolina ratified in April and May 1788; and, while the conventions of Virginia and New York were still wrangling over the great question, the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified, and the Constitution passed out of theory into fact. The Anti-Federalists of the Virginia and New York conventions offered conditional ratifications of all sorts; but the Federalists stubbornly refused to consider them, and at last, by very slender majorities, these two states ratified. North Carolina refused to ratify the Constitution, and in Rhode Island it was referred to the several towns instead of to a convention and was rejected by an overwhelming majority, the Federalists, who advocated the calling of a convention, refraining from voting (112). Congress named the first Wednesday of January 1789 as the day for the choice of electors, the first Wednesday in February for the choice of president and vice-president, and the first Wednesday in March ^ or ^ e mau !? ura tion of the new government, at New York City. The last date fell on the 4th of March, which has been the limit of each president's term since that time.
100. When the votes of the electors were counted before Congress, it was found that Washington had been unanimously Pan of the elected president, and that John Adams, standing Confedera- next on the list, was vice-president. Long before tion. t ne inauguration the Congress of the Confederation had expired of mere inanition; its attendance simply ran down until (Oct. 21, 1788) its record ceased, and the United States got on without any national government for nearly six months. The struggle for nationality had been successful, and the old order faded out of existence.
101. The first census (1790) followed so closely upon the inauguration of the Constitution that the country may fairly be said to have had a population of nearly four millions in 1789. Slavery la Something over half a million of these were slaves, of the United African birth or blood. Slavery of this sort had taken states. root j n almost a u the colonies, its original establishment being everywhere by custom. When the custom had been sufficiently established statutes came in to regulate a relation already existing. But it is not true, as the Dred Scott decision held long afterwards (215), that the belief that slaves were chattels simply, things, not persons, held good at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. Times had changed somewhat. The peculiar language of the Constitution itself, describing a slave as a " person held to service or labour," under the laws of any state, puts the general feeling exactly: slaves were persons from whom the laws of some of the states withheld personal rights for the time. In accordance with this feeling most of the Northern states were on the high road towards abolition of slavery. Vermont had never allowed it. In Massa*hNorfii. a cnusetts it was swept out by a summary court decision that it was irreconcilable with the new state constitution. Other states soon began systems of gradual abolition, which finally extinguished slavery north of Maryland, but so gradually that there were still 18 apprentices for life in New Jersey in 1860, the last remnants of the former slave system. In the new states north of the Ohio slavery was prohibited by the ordinance of 1787 (81), and the prohibition was maintained in spite of many attempts to get rid of it and introduce slavery.
102. The sentiment of thinking men in the South was exactly the same, or in some cases more bitter from their personal entanglement with the system. Jefferson's language as to slavery is irreconcilable with the chattel notion; ^ c *""u'/i no abolitionist agitator ever used warmer language than he as to the evils of slavery; and the expression, " our brethren," used by him of the slaves, is conclusive. Washington, George Mason and other Southern men were almost as warm against slavery as Jefferson, and there were societies for the abolition of slavery in the South. In the Constitutional convention of 1787 the strongest opposition to an extension of the period of non-interference with the slave trade from 1800 to 1808 came from Virginia, whereas every one of the New England states, in which the trade was an important source of profit, voted for this extension. No thinking man could face with equanimity the future problem of holding a separate race of millions in slavery. Like most slave laws, the laws of the Southern states were harsh: rights were almost absolutely withheld from the slave, and punishments of the severest kind were legal; but the execution of the system was milder than its legal possibilities might lead one to imagine. The country was as yet so completely agricultural that Southern slavery kept all the patriarchal features possible to such a system.
103. Indeed, the whole country was almost exclusively agricultural, and, in spite of every effort to encourage manufactures by state bounties, they formed the meagrest Agriculture element in the national production. Connecticut, Commerce which now teems with manufactures, was just begin- and Manuning the production of tinware and clocks; Rhode facturt!S ' Island and Massachusetts were just beginning to work in cotton from models of jennies and Arkwright machinery surreptitiously obtained from England; and other states, beyond local manufactures of paper, glass and iron, were almost entirely agricultural, or were engaged in industries directly dependent on agriculture. Commerce was dependent on agriculture for export and manufactured imports were enough to drown out every other form.
104. There were but five cities in the United States having a population of more than 10,000 New York (33,000), Philadelphia (28,500), Boston (18,000), Charleston (16,000)
and Baltimore (13,000). The oopulation of the city of New York is now greater than that of the original thirteen states in 1790; the state of New York has now about twice as many inhabitants as the thirteen had in 1790; and the new states of Ohio and Illinois, which had hardly any white inhabitants in 1789, have each a larger population than the whole thirteen then had. Imports have swollen from $23,000,000 to $1,475,612,580 (1909); exports from $20,000,000 to $1,728,203,271 (1909), since 1790. The revenues of the new government in 1790 were $4,000,000; the expenditures, excluding interest on the public debt, but $i,ooo,coo; now both the revenues and the expenditures are about $1,000,000,000. It is not easy for the modern American to realize the poverty and weakness of his country at the* inauguration of the new system of government, however he may realize the simplicity of the daily life of its people.
105. Outside the cities communication was slow. One stage a week was enough for the connexion between the great cities; and communication elsewhere depended on private conveyance. The Western settlements were just beginning to make the question more serious. Enterprising land companies were the moving force which had impelled the passage of the Ordinance of 1787; and the first column of their settlers was pouring into Ohio and forming connexion with their predecessors in Kentucky and Tennessee. Marietta and Cincinnati had been founded. But the intending settlers were obliged to make the journey down the Ohio river from Pittsburg in bullet-proof flat-boats, for protection against the Indians, and the return trip depended on the use of oars. For more than twenty years these flat-boats were the chief means of river commerce in the West ; and in the longer trips, as to New Orleans, the boats were generally broken up at the end and sold for lumber, 1789-1801 the crew making the trip home on foot or on horseback. John Fitch and others were already experimenting on what was soon to be the steamboat; but the statesman of 1789, looking at the task of keeping under one government a country of such distances, with such difficulties of communication, may be pardoned for having felt anxiety as to the future. To almost all thinking men of the time the Constitution was an experiment, and the unity of the new nation a subject for very serious doubt.
106. The comparative isolation of the people everywhere, the lack of books, the poverty of the schools and newspapers, were tore a ^ influences which worked strongly against any pronounced literary development. Poems, essays and paintings were feeble imitations of European models; history was annalistic, if anything; and the drama hardly existed. In two points the Americans were strong, and had done good work. Such men as Jonathan Edwards had excelled in various departments of theology, and American preaching had reached a high degree of quality and influence; and, in the line of politics, the American state papers rank among the very best of their kind. Having a very clear perception of their political purposes, and having been restricted in study and reading to the great masters of pure and vigorous English, and particularly to the English translators of the Bible, the American leaders came to their work with an English style which could hardly have been improved. The writings of Franklin, Washington, the Adamses, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jay and others show the secret of their strength in every page. Much the same reasons, with the influences of democracy, brought oratory, as represented by Patrick Henry, Fisher Ames, John Randolph and others, to a point not very far below the mark afterwards reached by Daniel Webster. The effect of these facts on the subsequent development of the country is not often estimated at its full value. All through an immigration of every language and dialect under heaven the English language has been protected in its supremacy by the necessity of going back to the " fathers of the republic " for the first, and often the complete, statement of principles in every great political struggle, social problem or lawsuit.
107. The cession of the " North- West Territory " by Virginia and New York had been followed up by similar cessions by Massachusetts (1785), Connecticut (1786) and South Settlement. Carolina (1787). North Carolina did not cede Tennessee until early in 1790, nor Georgia her western claims until 1802. Settlement in all these regions was still very sparse. The centres of Western settlement, in Tennessee and Kentucky, had become more firmly established, and a new one, in Ohio, had just been begun. The whole western limits of settlement of the old thirteen states had moved much nearer their present boundaries; and the acquisition of the Western title, with the liberal policy of organization and government which had been begun, was to have its first clear effects during the first decade of the new government. Almost the only obstacle to its earlier success had been the doubts as to the attitude which the Spanish authorities, at New Orleans and Madrid, would take towards the TheMiasia- new sett l ements - They nad already asserted a claim sippi River. tnat tne Mississippi was an exclusively Spanish stream from its mouth up to the Yazoo, and that no American boat should be allowed to sail on this part of it. To the Western settler the Alleghanies and bad roads were enough to cut him off from any other way to a market than down the Mississippi; and it was not easy to restrain him from a forcible defiance of the Spanish claim. The Northern states were willing to allow the Spanish claim for a period of years in return for a commercial treaty; the Southern states and the Western settlers protested angrily; and once more the spectre of dissolution appeared, not to be laid again until the new government had made a treaty with Spain in 1795 (see PINCKNEY, THOMAS), securing common navigation of the Mississippi.
1 08. Contemporary authorities agree that a marked change Social hac * come over tne People since 1775, and few of Commons, them seem to think the change one for the better.
Many attribute it to the looseness of manners an<J morals introduced by the French and British soldiers; others to the general effects of war; a few, Tories all, to the demoralizing effects of rebellion. The successful establishment of nationality would be enough to explain most of it; and if we remember that the new nation had secured its title to a vast western territory, of unknown but rich capacities, which it was now moving to reduce to possession by emigration, it would seem far more strange if the social conditions had not been somewhat disturbed.
G. The Development of Democracy, 178^-1801.
109. All the tendencies of political institutions in the United States had certainly been towards democracy; but it cannot be said that the leading men were hearty or unanimous Democracy in their agreement with this tendency. Not a few in the United of them were pronounced republicans even before states - 1775, but the mass of them had no great objections to a monarchical form of government until the war-spirit had converted them. The Declaration of Independence had been directed rather against the king than against a king. Even after popular sovereignty had pronounced against a king, class spirit was for some time a fair substitute for aristocracy. As often happens, democracy at least thought of a Caesar when it apprehended class control. Certain discontented officers of the Continental Army proposed to Washington that he become king, but he promptly and indignantly put the offer by. The suggestion of a return to monarchy in some form, as a possible road out of the confusion of the Confederation, occurs in the correspondence of some of the leading men; and while the Convention of 1787 was holding its secret sessions a rumour went out that it had decided to offer a crown to an English prince.
no. The state constitutions were democratic, except for property or other restrictions on the right of suffrage, or provisions carefully designed to keep the control of at least one house of the state legislature " in the hands of property." The Federal Constitution was so drawn that it would have lent itself kindly either to class control or to democracy. The electoral system of choosing the president and vice-president was altogether anti-democratic, though democracy has conquered it: not an elector, since 1796, has disobeyed the purely moral claim of his party to control his choice. Since the Senate was to be chosen by the state legislatures, " property," if it could retain its influence in those bodies, could control at least one house of Congress. The question whether the Constitution was to have a democratic or an anti-democratic interpretation was to be settled in the next twelve years.
in. The states were a strong factor in the final settlement, from the fact that the Constitution had left to them the control of the elective franchise: they were to make its conditions what each of them saw fit. Religious tests for the right of '" suffrage had been quite common in the colonies ; property {" tests were almost universal. The former disappeared ' shortly after the War of Independence; the latter survived in some of the states far into the constitutional period. But the desire to attract immigration was always a strong impelling force to induce states, especially frontier states, to make the acquisition of full citizenship and political rights as easy and rapid as possible. This force was not so strong at first as it was after the great stream of immigration began about 1848, but it was enough to tend constantly to the deyelopmentof democracy. In later times, when state lawsallow the immigrant to vote even before the period assigned by Federal laws allows him to become a naturalized citizen, there have been demands for the modification of the ultra state democracy; but no such danger was apprehended in the first decade.
112. The Anti-Federalists had been a political party, but a party with but one principle. The absolute failure of that principle deprived the party of all cohesion; and the Q aalza . Federalists controlled the first two Congresses almost tloa onhe entirely. Their pronounced ability was shown in New their organizing measures, which still govern the a veram American system very largely. The departments " of state, of the treasury, of war, of justice, and of the post-office were rapidly and successfully organized; acts were passed for the regulation of seamen, commerce, tonnage duties, lighthouses, intercourse with the Indians, Territories, and the militia; a national capital was selected; a national bank was chartered; the national debt was funded, and the state debts were assumed as part of it. The first four years of the new system showed that the states had now to deal with a very different power from the impotent Congress of the Confederation. The new power was even able to exert pressure upon the two states which had not ratified the Constitution, though the pressure was made as gentle as possible. As a first step, the higher duties imposed on imports from foreign countries were expressly directed to apply to imports from North Carolina and Rhode Island. North Carolina having called a second convention, her case was left to the course of nature; and the second convention ratified the Constitution (November 21, 1789). The Rhode Island legislature asked that their state might not be considered altogether foreigners, made their duties agree with those of the new government, and reserved the proceeds for " continental " purposes. Still no further steps were taken. A bill was therefore introduced, directing the president to suspend commercial intercourse with Rhode Island, and to demand from her her share of the continental debt. This was passed by the Senate, and waited but two steps further to become law. Newspaper proposals to divide the little state between her two nearest neighbours were stopped by her ratification of the Constitution (May 29, 1 790) . The " old thirteen " were thus united under Completion the Constitution; and yet, so strong is the American of the prejudice for the autonomy of the states that these Union. 1^,. two were a n owe( i to enter in the full conviction that they did so in the exercise of sovereign freedom of choice. Their entrance, however, was no more involuntary than that of others. If there had been real freedom of choice, nine states would never have ratified: the votes of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York were only secured by the pressure of powerful minorities in these states, backed by the almost unanimous votes of the others.
113. Protection was begun in the first Tariff Act, whose object, said its preamble, was the protection of domestic manufactures.
The duties, however, ranged only from 7! to 10%, era g in 8 about 8 5%- The svstem > too > had rather a political than an economic basis. Until 1789 the states had controlled the imposition of duties. The separate state feeling was a factor so strong that secession was a possibility which every statesman had to take into account. Hamilton's object, in introducing the system, seems to have been to create a class of manufacturers, running through all the states, but dependent for prosperity on the new Federal government and its tariff. This would be a force which would make strongly against any attempt at secession, or against the tendency to revert to control by state legislatures, even though it based the national idea on a conscious tendency towards the development of classes. The same feeling seems to have been at the bottom of his establishment of a national bank, his assumption of state debts, and most of the general scheme which his influence forced upon the Federalist party. (See HAMILTON, ALEXANDER; and FEDERALIST PARTY.)
114. In forming his cabinet Washington had paid attention to the opposing elements which had united for the temporary purpose of ratifying the Constitution. The national Cabin" element was represented by Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, and Henry Knox, secretary of war; the particularist element (using the term to indicate support of the states, not of a state) by Jefferson, secretary of state, and Edmund Randolph, attorney-general. At the end of 1792 matters were in train for the general recognition of the existence of two parties, whose struggles were to decide the course of the Constitution's development. The occasion came in the opening of the following year, when the new nation was first brought into contact with the French Revolution.
115. The controlling tendency of Jefferson and his school was to the maintenance of individual rights at the highest possible TheJetter- point, as the Hamilton school was always ready to son School assert the national power to restrict individual rights of Politics. or tne g enera i good. Other points of difference are rather symptomatic than essential. The Jefferson school supported the states, in the belief that they were the best bulwarks for individual rights. When the French Revolution began its usual course in -America by agitation for the " rights of man," it met a sympathetic audience in the Jefferson party and a cold and unsympathetic hearing from the Hamilton school of Federalists. The latter were far more interested in securing the full recognition of the power and rights of the nation than in securing the individual against imaginary dangers, as they thought them. For ten years the surface marks of distinction between the two parties were to be connected with the course of events in Europe; but the essence of distinction was not in the surface marks.
1 1 6. The new government was not yet four years old; it was not familiar, nor of assured permanency. The only national governments of which Americans had had previous experience were the British government and Jon School. Confederation: in the former they had had no share, and the latter had had no power. The only places in which they had had long-continued, full, and familiar experience of selfgovernment were their state governments: these were the only governmental forms which were then distinctly associated in their minds with the general notion of republican government. The governing principle of the Hamilton school, that the construction or interpretation of the terms of the Constitution was to be such as to broaden the powers of the Federal government, necessarily involved a corresponding trenching on the powers of the states. It was natural, then, that the Jefferson school should look on every feature of the Hamilton programme as " anti-republican," meaning, probably, at first no more than opposed to the state system, though the term soon came to imply something of monarchical and, more particularly, of English tendencies. The disposition of the Jefferson school to claim for themselves a certain peculiar title to the position of " republicans " developed into the appearance of the first Republican, or the Democratic-Republican, party, about 1793.
117. Many of the Federalists were shrewd and active business men, who naturally took prompt advantage of the opportunities which the new system offered. The Republicans pgrt therefore believed and asserted that the whole Differences. Hamilton programme was dictated by selfish or class interest; and they added this to the accusation of monarchical tendencies. These charges, with the fundamental differences of mental constitution, exasperated by the passion which differences as to the French Revolution seemed to carry with them everywhere, made the political history of this decade a very unpleasant record. The provision for establishing the national capital on the Potomac (1790) was declared to have been carried by a corrupt bargain; and accusations of corruption were renewed at every opportunity. In 1793 a French agent, TheNat , oaal Edmond Charles Edouard Genet (1765-1834), ap- capital. peared to claim the assistance of the United States Genet's for the French republic, and went to the length of Mlssloa - commissioning privateers and endeavouring to secure recruits, especially for a force which he expected to raise for the conquest of Louisiana from Spain. Washington decided to issue a proclamation of neutrality, the first act of the kind in American history. It was the first indication, also, of the policy which has made the course of every president, with the exception of Polk, a determined leaning to peace, even when the other branches of the government have been intent on war. Genet, however, continued his activities, and made out- The Whisky rageous demands upon the government, so that finally insarrecWashington demanded and secured (1794) his recall. 1 *""* The proclamation of 1793 brought about the first distinctly party feeling; and it was intensified by Washington's charge that popular opposition in western Pennsylvania (1794) to the new excise law (see WHISKY INSURRECTION) had been Aamlssloa fomented by the extreme French party. Their name, of Vermont, Democrat, was applied by the Federalists to the whole Kentucky Republican party as a term of contempt, but it was not accepted by the party for some twenty years; then the compound title " Democratic-Republican " became, as it 1 Genet, fearing the fate of his fellow Girondists in France, remained in the United States and became a naturalized American citizen.
1789-1801 ""Treaty.
^796 >f still is, the official title of the party. There was no party opposition, however, to the re-election of Washington in 1792, or to the admission of Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796) as new states.
118. The British government had accredited no minister to the United States, and it refused to make any commercial treaty or to give up the forts in the western territory of the United States, through which its agents still exercised a commanding influence over the Indians. In the course of its war with France, the neutral American vessels, without the protection of a national navy, fared badly. A treaty negotiated in 1 794 by Chief-Justice John Jay (q.v.) settled these difficulties ^ or l ^ e following twelve years. But, as it engaged the United States against any intervention in the war on behalf of France, was silent on the subject of the right of search, and agreed to irksome limitations on the commercial privileges of the United States, the Republicans, who were opposed to the negotiation of any treaty at this time with Great Britain, made it very unpopular, and the bitter personal attacks on Washington grew out of it. In spite of occasional Republican successes, the Federalists retained a general control of national affairs; they elected John Adams president in 1796, though Jefferson was chosen vice-president with him; and the national policy of the Federalists kept the country out of entangling alliances with any of the European belligerents. To the Republicans, and to the French republic, this last point of policy was only a practical intervention against France and against the rights of man.
119. At the end of Washington's administration the French Directory broke off relations with the United States, demanding the abrogation of Jay's treaty and a more pronounced sympathy with France. Adams sent three envoys, C. C. Pinckney (q.v.), John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry (q.v.), to endeavour to re-establish the former relations; they were The met by demands for " money, a great deal of "X.Y.z." money," as a prerequisite to peace. They refused; Mission. tne j r i e tt ers home were published, 1 and the Federalists at last had the opportunity of riding the whirlwind of an intense popular desire for war with France. Intercourse with France was suspended by Congress (1798); the treaties with France were declared at an end; American frigates were authorized to capture French vessels guilty of depredations on American commerce, and the president was authorized to issue letters of marque and reprisal; and an American army was formed, Washington being called from his retirement at Mount Vernon to command it. The war never went beyond a few sea-fights, in which the little American navy did- itself credit, and Napoleon, seizing power the next year, renewed the peace which should never have been broken. But the quasi-war had internal consequences to the young republic which surpassed in interest all its foreign difficulties: it brought on the crisis which settled the development of the United States towards democracy.
120. The reaction in Great Britain against the indefinite " rights of man " had led parliament to pass an alien law, a sedition law suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and an act giving wide and loosely defined powers to magistrates for the dispersion of meetings to petition for redress of raiitL grievances. The Federalists were in control of a Congress of limited powers; but they were strongly tempted by sympathies and antipathies of every sort to form their programme on the model furnished from England. The measures which they actually passed were based only on that construction of the Constitution which is at the bottom of all American politics; they only tended to force the Constitution into an anti-democratic direction. But it was the fixed belief of their opponents that they meant to go farther, and to secure control by some wholesale measure of political persecution.
121. Three alien laws were passed in June and July 1798.
1 In these letters as published the letters X, Y and Z were substituted for the names of the French agents with whom the American envoys dealt ; and the letters are known as the X Y Z correspondence.
The first (repealed in April 1802) raised the number of years necessary for naturalization from five to fourteen. The third (still substantially in force) permitted the arrest or The Allen removal of subjects of any foreign power with and Sedition which the United States should be at war. The Laws - second, which is usually known as the Alien Law, was limited to a term of two years; it permitted the president to arrest or order out of the country any alien whom he should consider dangerous to the country. As many of the Republican editors and local leaders were aliens, this law really put a large part of the Republican organization in the power of the president elected by their opponents. The Sedition Law (to be in force until March 1801 and not renewed) made it a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to publish or print any false, scandalous and malicious writings against the government of the United States, either house of Congress, or the president, or to stir up sedition or opposition to any lawful act of Congress or of the president, or to aid the designs of any foreign power against the United States. In its first form the bill was even more sweeping than this and alarmed the opposition thoroughly.
122. Most of the ability of the country was in the Federalist ranks; the Republicans had but two first-rate men Jefferson and Madison. In the sudden issue thus forced The between individual rights and national power, Republican Jefferson and Madison could find but one bulwark Opposition. for the individual the power of the states; and their use of it gave their party a pronounced list to state sovereignty from which it did not recover for years. They objected to the Alien Law on the grounds that aliens were under the jurisdiction of the state, not of the Federal government ; that the jurisdiction over them had not been transferred to the Federal government by the Constitution, and that the assumption of it by Congress was a violation of the Constitution's reservation of powers to the states; and, further, because the Constitution reserved to every " person," not to every citizen, the right to a jury trial. They objected to the Sedition Law on the grounds that the Constitution had specified exactly the four crimes for whose punishment Congress was to provide; that criminal libel was not one of them; and that amendment I. forbade Congress to pass any law restricting freedom of speech or of the press. The Federalists asserted a common-law power in Federal judges to punish for libel, and pointed to a provision in the Sedition Law permitting the truth to be given in evidence, as an improvement on the common law, instead of a restriction on liberty.
123. The Republican objections might have been made in court, on the first trial. But the Republican leaders had strong doubts of the impartiality of the Federal judges, who were Federalists. They resolved to entrench the party in the state legislatures. The Virginia legislature in 1798 passed Virginia ana a series of resolutions prepared by Madison, Kentucky and the Kentucky legislature in the same year Resolutions. passed a series prepared by Jefferson (see KENTUCKY: History). Neglected or rejected by the other states, they were passed again by their legislatures in 1799, and were for a long time a documentary basis of the Democratic party. The leading idea expressed in both was that the Constitution was a " compact " between the states, and that the powers (the states) which had made the compact had reserved the power to restrain the creature of the compact, the Federal government, whenever it undertook to assume powers not granted to it. Madison's idea seems to have been that the restraint was to be imposed by a second convention of the states. Jefferson's idea is more doubtful; if it meant that the restraint should be imposed by any state which should feel aggrieved, his scheme was merely Calhoun's idea of nullification; but there are some indications that he agreed with Madison.
124. The first Congress of Adams's term of office ended in 1799. Its successor, elected in the heat of the French war excitement, kept the Federalist policy up to its first pitch. Out of Congress the execution of the objectionable laws the Laws.
had taken the shape of political persecution. Men were arrested, tried and punished for writings which the people had been accustomed to consider within legitimate political methods. The Republican leaders made every trial as public as possible, and gained votes constantly, so that the Federalists began to be shy of the very powers which they had sought. Every new election was a storm-signal for the Federalist party; and the danger was increased by schism in their own ranks.
125. Hamilton was now a private citizen of New York; but he had the confidence of his party more largely than its nominal head, the president, and he maintained close and confidential relations with the cabinet which Adams Federalist Schism.
had taken unchanged from Washington. The Hamilton faction saw no way of preserving and consolidating the newly acquired powers of the Federal government but by keeping up and increasing the war feeling against France; Adams had the instinctive leaning of an American president towards peace. Amid cries of wrath and despair from his party he accepted the first overtures of the new Napoleonic government, sent envoys to negotiate a peace, and ordered them to depart for France when they delayed too long. Then, discovering flat treachery in his cabinet, he dismissed it and blurted out a public expression of his feeling that Hamilton and his adherents were " a British faction." Hamilton retorted with a circular letter to his party friends, denouncing the president; the Republicans intercepted it and gave it a wider circulation than its author had intended; and the Hamilton faction tried so to arrange the electoral vote that C. C. Pinckney should be chosen 1800 01 president in 1800 and Adams should be shelved into the vice-presidency. The result depended on the electoral vote of New York; and Aaron Burr, who had introduced the drill and machinery of a modern American political party there, had made the state Republican and secured a majority for the Republican candidates. These (Jefferson and Burr) received the same number of electoral votes (73),* and the House of Representatives (controlled by the Federalists) was thus called upon to decide which should be president. There was an effort by the Federalists to disappoint the Republicans by making Burr president; but Jefferson obtained that office, Burr becoming vice-president for four years. This disputed election, however, led to the adoption in 1804 of the 12th amendment to the Constitution, which prescribed that each elector should vote separately for president and vice-president, and thus prevent another tie vote of this kind; this amendment, moreover, made very improbable the choice in the future of a president and a vice-president from opposing parties.
126. The "Revolution of 1800" decided the future development of the United States. The new dominant party entered upon its career weighted with the theory of state ' V ,gw'!', tt sovereignty; and a civil war was necessary before this dogma, put to use again in the service of slavery, could be banished from the American system. But the democratic development never was checked. From that time the interpretation of the Federal Constitution has generally favoured individual rights at the expense of governmental power. As the Republicans obtained control of the states they altered the state constitutions so as to cut out all the arrangements that favoured property or class interests, and reduced political power to the dead level of manhood suffrage. In most of the states outside of New England this process was completed before 1815; but New England tenacity was proof against the advancing revolution until about 1820. For twenty years after its downfall of 1800 the Federalist party maintained its hopeless struggle, and then it faded away into nothing, leaving as its permanent memorial the excellent organization of the Federal government, which its successful rival hardly changed. Its two successors the Whig and the second Republican party have also been broad-constructionist parties, but they have admitted democracy as well; the Whig party adopted popular methods at least, and the Republican went further in the direction of individual rights, securing the emancipation of enslaved labour.
1 Adams received 65, Pinckney 64 and John Jay I.
127. The disputed election of 1800 was decided in the new capital city of Washington, to which the government had just been removed, after having been for ten years at Philadel- The New pma. Its streets and parks existed only on paper, capital. The Capitol had been begun; the Executive Mansion was unfinished, and its audience room was used by Mrs Adams as a drying room for clothes; and the congressmen could hardly find lodgings. The inconveniences were only an exaggeration of the condition of other American cities. Their sanitary conditions were bad, and yellow fever and cholera from time to time reduced several of them almost to depopulation. More than once, during this decade, the fever visited Philadelphia and New York, drove out most of the people, and left grass growing in the streets. The communication between the cities was still wretched. The traveller was subject to every danger or annoyance that bad roads, bad carriages, bad horses, bad inns and bad police protection could combine to inflict upon him. But the war with natural obstacles had fairly begun, though it had little prospect of success until steam was brought into use as the ally of man.
128. About this time the term "the West" appears. It meant then the western part of New York, the new territory north of the Ohio, and Kentucky and Tennessee. In settling land boundaries New York had transferred (1786) to Massachusetts, whose claims crossed her territory, the right to (but not jurisdiction over) a large tract of land in central New York, and to another large tract in the Erie basin. The sale of this land had carried population considerably west of the Hudson. After other expeditions against the Ohio Indians had been defeated, one under General Anthony Wayne had compelled them in 1794-95 to give up all the territory now in the state of Ohio. Settlement received a new impetus. Between 1790 and 1800 the population of Ohio had risen from almost nothing to 45,000, that of Tennessee from 36,000 to 106,000, and that of Kentucky from 74,000 to 221,000 the last-named state now exceeding six of the " old thirteen " in population. The difficulties of the western emigrant, however, were still enormous. He obtained land of his own, fertile land and plenty of it, but little else. The produce of the soil had to be consumed at home, or near it; ready money was scarce and distant products scarcer; and comforts, except the very rudest substitutes of home manufacture, were unobtainable. The new life bore most hardly upon women; and, if the record of woman's share in the work of American colonization could be fully made up, the price paid for the final success would seem enormous.
129. The number of post offices rose during these ten years from 75 to 903, the miles of post routes from 1900 to 21,000, and the revenue from $38,000 to $231,000. These //)// figures seem small in comparison with the 61,158 post offices, 430,738 m. of post routes (besides 943,087 m. of rural delivery routes), and a postal revenue of $191,478,663 in 1908, but the comparison with the figures of 1790 shows a development in which the new Constitution, with its increased security, must have been a factor.
130. The power of Congress to regulate patents was already bearing fruit. Until 1789 this power was in the hands of the states, and the privileges of the inventor were Pateats restricted to the territory of the patenting state.
Now he had a vast and growing territory within which all the profits of the invention were his own. Twenty patents were issued in 1793, and 23,471 one hundred years afterwards; but one of the inventions of 1793 was Eli Whitney's cotton gin.
131. When the Constitution was adopted it was not known that the cultivation of cotton could be made profitable in the Southern states. The " roller gin " could clean Cottoa only 6 Ib a day by slave labour. In 1784 eight bags of cotton, landed in Liverpool from an American ship, were seized on the ground that so much cotton could not be the produce of the United States. Eli Whitney (q.v.) invented the saw-gin, by which the cotton was dragged through parallel wires with openings too narrow to allow the seeds to pass; and one slave could now clean 1000 Ib a day. The exports of cotton leaped from 189,000 Ib in 1801-1829 1791 to 21,000,000 Ib in 1801, and doubled in three years more. The influence of this one invention, combined with the wonderful series of British inventions which had paved the way for it, can hardly be estimated in its commercial aspects. Its political influences were even wider, but more unhappy. The introduction of the commercial element into the slave system of the South robbed it at once of the patriarchal features which had made it tolerable; while it developed in slave-holders a new disposition to defend a system of slave labour as a " positive good." The abolition societies of the South began to dwindle as soon as the results of Whitney's invention began to be manifest.
132. The development of a class whose profits were merely the extorted natural wages of the black labourer were certain; and its political power was as certain, though it er showed itself clearly until after 1830. And ''''this class was to have a peculiarly distorting effect on the political history of the United States. Aristocratic in every sense but one, it was ultra-Democratic (in a purely party sense) in its devotion to state sovereignty, for the legal basis of the slave system was in the laws of the several states. In time, the aristocratic element got control of the party which had originally looked to state rights as a bulwark of individual rights; and the party was finally committed to the employment of its original doctrine for an entirely different purpose the suppression of the black labourer's wages.
H. Democracy and Nationality, 1801-1820 133. When Jefferson took office in 1801 he succeeded to a task larger than he imagined. His party, ignoring the natural Democracy forces which tied the states together even against and their wills, insisted that the legal basis of the bond Nationality. was m j ne power of any state to withdraw at will. This was no nationality; and foreign nations naturally refused to take the American national coin at any higher valuation than that at which it was current in its own country. The urgent necessity was for a reconciliation between democracy and nationality; and this was the work of this period. An underlying sense of all this has led Democratic leaders to call the war of 1812-15 the " Second War of Independence "; the result was as much independence of past ideas as of Great Britain.
134. The first force in the new direction was the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803. Napoleon had acquired it from Spain, Louisiana and> fearm S an attack upon it by Great Britain, offered it to the United States for $15,000,000. The Constitution gave the Federal government no power to buy and hold territory, and the party was based on a strict construction of the constitution. Possession of power forced the strictconstruction party to broaden its ideas, and Louisiana was bought, though Jefferson quieted his conscience by talking for a time of a futile proposal to amend the Constitution so as to grant the necessary power. (See LOUISIANA PURCHASE; and JEFFERSON, THOMAS.) The acquisition of the western Mississippi basin more than doubled the area of the United States, and gave them control of all the great river-systems of central North America. The difficulties of using these veT& were removed almost immediately by Robert Fulton's utilization of steam in navigation (1807). Within four years steamboats were at work on western waters; and thereafter the increase of steam navigation and that of population stimulated one another. The " centre of population " has been carefully ascertained by the census Popu/awon authorities for each decade, and it represents the westward movement of population very closely. During this period it advanced from about the middle of the state of Maryland to its extreme western limit; that is, the centre of population was in 1830 nearly at the place which had been the western limit of population in 1770.
135. Jefferson also laid the basis for a further acquisition in the future by sending an expedition under Meriwether Lewis (q.v.) and William Clark to explore the territory north of the then Spanish territory of California and west of the steamboat.
Rocky Mountains the " Oregon country " as it was afterwards called. The explorations of this party (1804-1806), with Captain Robert Gray's discovery of the Columbia river (1792), made the best part of the claims of the United States to the country forty years later.
136. Jefferson was re-elected in 1804,* serving until March, 1809; his party now controlled almost all the states outside of New England, and could elect almost any one whom it chose to the presidency. Imitating Washington in refusing a third term of office, Jefferson established more firmly the precedent, not since violated, restricting a president to two terms, though the Constitution contains no such restriction. The great success of his presidency had been the acquisition of Louisiana, which was a violation of his party principles; but all his minor successes were, like this, recognitions of the national sovereignty which he disliked so much. After a short and brilliant naval war the Barbary pirates were reduced to submission (1805). The long-continued control of New Orleans by Spain, and the persistent intrigues of the Spanish authorities, looking towards a separation of the whole western country from the United States, had been ended by the acquisition of Louisiana, and the full details concerning them will probably remain for ever hidden in the secret history of the early West. They had left behind a dangerous ignorance of Federal power and control, of which Aaron Burr (q.v.) took advantage (1806-07). Organizing an expedition in Kentucky and Tennessee, probably for the conquest of the Spanish colony of Mexico, he was arrested on the lower Mississippi and brought back to Virginia. He was acquitted; but the incident opened up a vaster view of the national authority than democracy had yet been able to take. It had been said, forty years before, that Great Britain had long arms, but that three thousand miles was too far to extend them; it was something to know now that the arms of the Federal government were long enough to reach from Washington city to the Mississippi.
137. All the success of Jefferson was confined to his first four years; all his heavy failures were in his second term, in which he and his party as persistently refused to Difficulties recognize or assert the inherent power of the nation w"* Great in international affairs. The Jay treaty expired in Bri tain. 1806 by limitation, and American commerce. was thereafter left to the course of events, Jefferson refusing to accept the only treaty which the British government was willing to make. All the difficulties which followed may be summed up in a few words: the British government was then the representative of the ancient system of restriction of commerce, and had a powerful navy to enforce its ideas; the American government was endeavouring to force into international recognition the present system of neutral rights and unrestricted commerce, but its suspicious democracy refused to give it a navy sufficient to command respect. The American government apparently expected to gain its objects without the exhibition of anything but moral force.
138. Great Britain was now at war, from time to time, with almost every other nation of Europe. In time of peace European nations followed generally the old restrictive principle of allowing another nation, like the United States, no commercial access to their colonies; but, when they were at war with Great Britain, whose navy controlled the ocean, they were very willing to allow the neutral American merchantmen to carry away their surplus colonial produce. Great Britain had insisted for fifty years that the neutral nation, in such cases, was really intervening in the war as an ally of her enemy; but she had so far modified her claim as to admit that " transhipment," or breaking bulk, in the United States was enough to qualify the commerce for recognition. The neutral nation thus gained a double freight, and grew rich in the traffic; the belligerent nations no longer had commerce afloat for British vessels to capture; and the " frauds of the neutral flags " became a standing subject of complaint among British merchants and naval officers. About 1805 British prize courts 1 Jefferson received 162 electoral votes and his opponent, C. C. Pinckney, only 14.
began to disregard transhipment and to condemn American vessels which made the voyage from a European colony to the mother country by way of the United States. This was really a restriction of American commerce to purely American productions, or to commerce with Great Britain direct, with the payment of duties in British ports.
139. The question of expatriation, too, furnished a good many burning grievances. Great Britain maintained the old German rule of perpetual allegiance, -though she tfoa. a ' r/a " h a( i modified it by allowing the right of emigration. The United States, founded by immigration, was anxious to establish what Great Britain was not disposed to grant, the right of the subject to divest himself of allegiance by naturalization under a foreign jurisdiction. Four facts thus tended to break off friendly relations: (i) Great Britain's claim to allegiance over American naturalized subjects; (2) her claim to the belligerent right of search of neutral vessels; (3) her claim of right to impress for her vessels of war her subjects who were seamen wherever found; and (4) the difficulty of distinguishing native-born American from British subjects, even if the right to impress naturalized American subjects were granted. British naval officers even undertook to consider all who spoke the English language as British subjects, unless they could produce proof that they were native-born Americans. The American sailor who lost his papers was thus open to impressment. A particularly flagrant case of seizure of Americans occurred in 1807. On the 27th of June the British ship " Leopard " fired upon the American frigate " Chesapeake," which, after having lost 3 men killed and 18 wounded, hauled down its flag; the British commander then seized four of the " Chesapeake's " crew. This action aroused intense anger throughout the country, and but for the impotence of the government would undoubtedly have led to immediate war. The American government in 1810 published the cases of such impressments since 1803 as numbering over 4000, about one-third of the cases resulting in the discharge of the impressed man; but no one could say how many cases had never been brought to the attention of a government which never did anything more than remonstrate about them.
140. In May 1806 the British government, by orders in council, declared a blockade of the whole continent of Europe from Brest to the Elbe, about 800 m. In November, after the battle of Jena, Napoleon answered by the " Berlin decree," in which he assumed to blockade the British Isles, thus beginning his " continental system." A year later the British government answered by further orders in council, forbidding American trade with any Berlin and country from which the British flag was excluded, Milan allowing direct trade from the United States to Decrees. Sweden only, in American products, and permitting American trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touching in England and paying duties. Napoleon retorted with the " Milan decree," declaring good prize any vessel which should submit to search by a British ship; but this was evidently a vain fulmination.
141. The Democratic party of the United States was almost exclusively agricultural and had little knowledge of or sympathy with commercial interests; it was pledged vy ' to the reduction of national expenses and the debt, and did not wish to take up the responsibility for a navy; and, as the section of country most affected by the orders in council, New England, was Federalist, and made up of the active and irreconcilable opposition, a tinge of political feeling could not but colour the decisions of the dominant party. Various ridiculous proposals were considered as substitutes for a ne" cessarily naval war; and perhaps the most ridiculous was adopted. Since the use of non-intercourse agreements as revolutionary weapons against Great Britain, an overweening confidence in such measures had sprung up, and one of them was now resorted to the embargo of the 22nd of December 1807, forbidding foreign commerce altogether. It was expected to starve Great Britain into a change of policy; and its effects may be seen by comparing the $20,000,000 exports of 1790, $49,000,000 of 1807 and $9,000,000 of 1808. It does not seem to have struck those who passed the measure that the agricultural districts also might find the change unpleasant; but that was the result, and their complaints reinforced those of New England, and closed Jefferson's second term in a cloud of recognized misfortune. The pressure had been slightly relieved by the substitution of the Non-Intercourse Law of the 1st of March 1809 for the embargo; it prohibited commercial intercourse with Great Britain and France and their dependencies, leaving ff oa .i ater . other foreign commerce open, prohibited the impor- course Law. tation from any quarter of British and French goods, Election and forbade the entrance of British or French vessels, Otl8 8. public or private, into any port of the United States. Madison, Jefferson's secretary of state, who succeeded Jefferson in 1809, having defeated the Federalist candidate C. C. Pinckney in the election of 1808, assumed in the presidency a burden which was not enviable. New England was in a ferment, and was suspected of designs to resist the restrictive system by force; and the administration did not face the future with confidence.
142. The Non-Intercourse Law was to be in force only " until the end of the next session of Congress " and was to be abandoned as to either belligerent which should abandon its attacks on neutral commerce, and maintained against the other. In 1810 the American government was led to believe that France had abandoned its system. Napoleon continued to enforce it in fact; but his official fiction served its purpose of limiting the nonintercourse for the future to Great Britain, and thus straining relations between that country and the United States still further. The elections of 1811-1812 resulted everywhere in the defeat of " submission men " and in the choice of new members who were determined to resort to war against Great Britain. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford and other new men seized the lead in the two houses of Congress, and forced Madison, it is said, to agree to a declaration of war as a condition of his renomination in 1812 when he defeated De Witt Clinton by an electoral vote of 1 28 to 89. (See MADISON.) Madison sent to Congress a confidential Elect i oa " war message " on the 1st of June and on the 18th of 1812. war was declared. The New England Federalists War with always called it "Mr Madison's war," but the n * /aflA president was about the most unwilling participant in it.
143. The national democracy meant to attack Great Britain in Canada, partly to gratify its western constituency, who had been harassed by Indian attacks, asserted to r/ ^ have been instigated from Canada. Premonitions J of success were drawn from the battle of Tippecanoe, in which William Henry Harrison had defeated in 1811 the north-western league of Indians formed by Tecumseh (q.v.). Between the solidly settled Atlantic states and the Canadian frontier was a wide stretch of unsettled or thinly settled country, which was itself a formidable obstacle to war. Ohio had been Theatre t admitted as a state in 1802, and Louisiana was u,eWar. admitted in 1812; but their admission had been due to the desire to grant them self-government rather than to their full development in population and resources. Cincinnati was a little settlement of 2500 inhabitants; the fringe of settled country ran not very far north of it; and all beyond was a wilderness of which little was known to the authorities. The case was much the same with western New York; the army which was to cross the Niagara river must journey almost all the way from Albany through a very thinly peopled country. It would have been far less costly, as events proved, to have entered at once upon a naval war; but the crusade against Canada had been proclaimed all through Kentucky and the West, and their people were determined to wipe out their old scores before the conclusion of the war. (For the military and naval events of the war see AMERICAN WAR OF 1812.)
144. The war opened with disaster General William Hull's surrender of Detroit; and disaster attended it for two years. Political appointments to positions in the regular army were 1801-1829 numerous, and such officers were worse than useless. The war department showed no great knowledge, and poverty put its little knowledge out of service. Futile attempts at i nvas i n were followed by defeat or abortion, until the political officers were weeded out at the end of the year 1813, and Jacob Brown, Winfield Scott, E. W. Ripley and others who had fought their way up were put in command. Then for the first time the men were drilled and brought into effective condition; and two successful battles in 1814 Chippewa and Lundy's Lane threw some glory on the end of Chippewa . .
aodLuady's the war. So weak were the preparations even for Laae. defence that a British expedition in 1814 met no Washington e g ec ti ve resistance when it landed and burned Washington. For some of the disasters the responsibility rested as much, or more, upon the war department as upon the officers and soldiers in the field.
145. The American navy was but a puny adversary for the British navy, which had captured or shut up in port all the other navies of Europe. But the small number of AmeritheNavy can vesse l s > with the superabundance of trained officers, gave them one great advantage: the training and discipline of the men, and the equipment of the vessels, had been brought to the very highest point. Captains who could command a vessel but for a short time, yielding her then to another officer who was to take his sea service in rotation, were all ambitious to make their mark during their term. " The art of handling and fighting the old broadside sailing frigate " had been carried in the little American navy to a point which unvarying success and a tendency to fleet -combats had now made far less common among British captains. Altogether the American vessels gave a remarkably good account of themselves.
146. The home dislike to the war had increased steadily with the evidence of incompetent management by the administration. Feeling The Federalists, who had always desired a navy, la New pointed to the naval successes as the best proof of agaad. j o jj v wn j cn tne war na( j been undertaken and managed. New England Federalists complained that the Federal government utterly neglected the defence of their coast, and that Southern influence was far too strong in national affairs. They showed at every opportunity a disposition to adopt the furthest stretch of state sovereignty, as stated in the Kentucky Resolutions; and every such development urged the national democracy unconsciously further on the road to nationality. When the New England states sent delegates to meet at Hartford, Hartford Conn. (?..), and consider their grievances and Convention. the best remedies a step perfectly proper on the Democratic theory of a " voluntary Union " treason was suspected, and a readiness to suppress it by force was plainly shown. The recommendations of the convention came to nothing; but the attitude of the dominant party towards it is one of the symptoms of the manner in which the trials of actual war were steadily reconciling democracy and nationality. The object .which Hamilton had sought by high tariffs and the development of national classes had been attained by more natural and healthy means.
147. In April 1814 the first abdication of Napoleon took place, and Great Britain was able to give more attention to her American antagonist. The main attack was to be made on Louisiana, the weakest and most distant portion of the Union. A fleet and army were sent thither, but the British assault was completely repulsed (Jan. 8, 1815) by the Americans under Andrew Jackson. Peace had been made at Ghent fifteen days before the battle was fought, but the news of the battle and the peace reached Washington almost together, the former going far to make the latter tolerable.
148. The United States really secured a fairly good treaty. It is true that it said not a word about the questions of impressment, search and neutral rights, the grounds of the war; Great Britain did not abandon her position on any of them. But everybody knew that circumstances had changed. The new naval power whose frigates alone in the past twenty years had shown their ability to fight English frigates on equal terms was not likely Peace.
to be troubled in future with the question of impressment; and in fact, while not renouncing the right, the British government no longer attempted to enforce it. The navy, it must be confessed, was the force which had at last given the United States a recognized and cordial acceptance in the family of nations; it had solved the problem of the reconciliation of democracy and nationah'ty.
149. The remainder of this period is one of the barrenest in American history. The opposition of the Federalist party to the war completed the measure of its unpopularity, and Extinction it had only a perfunctory existence for a few years of the longer. Scandal, intrigue and personal criticism Federalist became the most marked characteristics of Ameri- Party - can politics until the dominant party broke at the end of the period, and real party conflict was renewed. But the seeds of the final disruption are visible from the peace of 1814. The old-fashioned Republicans looked with intense suspicion on the new form of Republicanism generated by the war, a type which instinctively bent its energies toward the further development of national power. Clay was the natural leader of the new Democracy; but John Quincy Adams and others of Federalist antecedents or leanings took to the new doctrines kindly; and even Calhoun, Crawford and others of the Southern interest were at first strongly inclined to support them. One of the first effects was the revival of protection and of a national bank.
1 50. The charter of the nat ional bank had expired in 1 8 1 1 , and the dominant party had refused to recharter it. The attempt to carry on the war by loans resulted in almost a bank- Bank of the ruptcy and in a complete inability to act efficiently. United As soon as peace gave time for consideration, a second staies - bank was chartered (April 10, 1816) for twenty years, with a capital of $35,000,000, one-fifth of which was to be subscribed for by the national government. It was to have the custody of the government revenues, but the secretary of the treasury could divert the revenues to other custodians, giving his reasons for such action to Congress.
151. Protection was advocated again on national grounds, but not quite on those which had moved Hamilton. The additional receipts were now to be expended for fortifications and other national defences, and for national roads and canals, the latter to be considered solely as military measures, with an incidental benefit to the people. Business distress among the people gave additional force to the proposal. The war and blockade had been .an active form of protection, under which American manufactures had sprung up in great abundance. As soon as peace was made English manufacturers drove their American rivals out of business or reduced them to desperate straits. Their cries for relief had a double effect. They gave the spur to the nationalizing advocates of protection, and, as most of the manufacturers were in New England or New York, they developed in the citadel of Federalism a class which looked for help to a Republican Congress, and was therefore bound to oppose the Federalist party. This was the main force which brought New England into the Republican fold before 1825. An increase in the number of t ures spindles from 80,000 in 1811 to 500,000 in 1815, and in cotton consumption from 500 bales in 1800 to 90,000 in 1815, the rise of manufacturing towns, and the rapid development of the mechanical tendencies of a people who had been hitherto almost exclusively agricultural, were influences which were to be reckoned with in the politics of a democratic country.
152. The tariff of 1 81 6 imposed a duty of about 2 5 % on imports of cotton and woollen goods, and specific duties on iron imports, except pig-iron, on which there was an ad valorem Tariffof duty of 20%. In 1818 this Suty also was made '*'* specific (50 cents a cwt.). The ad valorem duties carried most of the manufacturers through the financial crisis of 1818-1819, but the iron duties were less satisfactory. In English manufacture the substitution of coke for charcoal in iron production led to continual decrease in price. As the price went down the specific duties were continually increasing the absolute amount of protection. Thus spared the necessity for improvements in production, the American manufacturers felt English competition more keenly as the years went by, and called for more protection.
153. James Monroe (q.v.) succeeded Madison as president in 1817, and, re-elected with hardly any opposition in 1820, he Bra of served until 1825. ' So complete was the supremacy Good of the Republican party that this is often called Feeling." ^ era of goO( j f ee ii ng . i t came to an end when a successor to Monroe was to be elected; the two sections of the dominant party then had their first opportunity for open struggle. During Monroe's two terms of office the nationalizing party developed the policy on which it proposed to manage national affairs. This was largely the product of the continually swelling western movement of population. The influence of the steamboat was felt more and more every year, and the want of a similar improvement in land transport was correspondingly evident. The attention drawn to western New York by the war had filled that part of the state with a new population. The southern Indians had been completely overthrown by Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812, and forced to cede their lands. Admission The admission of the new states of Indiana (1816), ofNew Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), States. Maine (1820) and Missouri (1821) all but Maine the product and evidence of western growth were the immediate results of the development consequent upon the war. All the territory east of the Mississippi, except the northern part of the North-West Territory, was now formed into self-governing states; the state system had crossed the Mississippi; all that was needed for further development was the locomotive engine. The four millions of 1790 had grown into thirteen millions in 1830; and there was a steady increase of one-third in each decade.
154. The urgent demand of western settlers for some road to a market led to a variety of schemes to facilitate intercourse between the East and the West the most successful being that completed in New York in 1825, the Erie Canal. The Hudson river forms the great natural breach in the barrier range which runs parallel to the Atlantic coast. When the traveller has passed up the Hudson through that range he sees before him a vast champaign country extending westward to the Great Lakes, and perfectly adapted by nature for a canal. Such a canal, to turn western traffic into the lake rivers and through the lakes, the canal, and the Hudson to New York City, was begun by the state through the influence of De Witt Clinton, was derisively called " Clinton's big ditch " until its completion, and laid the foundations for the great commercial prosperity of New York state and city. Long before it was finished the evident certainty of its success had seduced other states into far less successful enterprises of the kind and had established as a nationalizing policy the combination of high tariffs and expenditures for internal improvements which was long known as the " American system." 2 The tariffs of duties on The imports were to be carried as high as revenue results "American would justify; within this limit the duties were System." to be defined for purposes of protection; and the superabundant revenues were to be expended on enterprises which would tend to aid the people in their efforts to subdue the continent. Protection was now to be for national benefit, not for the benefit of classes. Western farmers were to have manufacturing towns at their doors, as markets for the surplus which 1 In 1816 Monroe received 183 electoral votes and his opponent, Rufus King,34; in 1820 Monroe received 231 and his opponent, John Quincy Adams, I.
2 For a generation the making of " internal improvements " by the Federal government was an issue of great political importance. In 1806 Congress made an appropriation for the National or Cumberland Road, eventually constructed from Fort Cumberland, Md., to Vandalia, 111. The policy of making such improvements was opposed on the ground that the Constitution gave to the Federal government no power to make them, that it was not an "enumerated power," and that such improvements were not a " necessary and proper " means of carrying out any of the enumerated powers. Others argued that the Federal government might constitutionally make such improvements, but could not exercise jurisdiction over them when made.
had hitherto been rotting on their farms; competition among manufacturers was to keep down prices; migration to all the new advantages of the West was to be made easy at national expense; and Henry Clay's eloquence was to commend the whole policy to the people. The old Democracy, particularly in the South, insisted that the whole scheme really had its basis in benefits to classes, that its communistic features were not such as the Constitution meant to cover by its grant of power to Congress to levy taxation for the general welfare, and that any such legislation would be unconstitutional. The dissatisfaction in the South rose higher when the tariffs were increased Tariffs of in 1824 and 1828. The proportion of customs 1824 aod revenue to dutiable imports rose to 37% in 1825 1828 ' and to 44% in 1829; and the ratio to aggregate imports to 33% in 1825 and 37% in 1829. As yet, Southern dissatisfaction showed itself only in resolutions of state legislatures.
155. In the sudden development of the new nation circumstances had conspired to give social forces an abnormally materialistic cast, and this had strongly influenced the expression of the national life. Its literature and its art had amounted to little, for the American people were still engaged in the fiercest of warfare against natural difficulties, which absorbed all their energies.
156. In international relations the action of the government was strong, quiet and self-respecting. Its first weighty action took place in 1823. It had become pretty evident that the Holy Alliance, in addition to its interventions in Europe to suppress popular risings, meant to aid Spain in bringing her revolted South American colonies to obedience. Great Britain had been drifting steadily away from the alliance, and George Canning, the new secretary, determined to call in the weight of the transatlantic power as a check upon it. A hint to the American minister was followed by a few pregnant passages in Monroe's annual message in December, " We could not view," he said, " any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them [the South American states], or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States." If both the United States and Great Britain were to take this ground the fate of a fleet sent by the Alliance across the Atlantic was not in much doubt, and the project was at once given up.
157. It was supposed at the time that Spain might transfer her colonial claims to some stronger power; and Monroe therefore said that " the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." This declaration and that quoted above constitute together the " Monroe doctrine " as originally proclaimed. The doctrine has remained the rule of foreign intercourse for all American parties. Added to the already established refusal of the United States to become entangled in any European wars or alliances, it has separated Europe and America to their common advantage. (See MONROE DOCTRINE.)
158. By a treaty with Russia (1825) that power gave up all claims on the Pacific coast south of the present limits of Alaska. The northern boundary of the United States had The been defined by the treaty of 1783; and, after the North-west acquisition of Louisiana, a convention with Great Boua dary. Britain (1818) settled the boundary on the line of 49 N. lat. as far west as the Rocky Mountains. West of these mountains the so-called Oregon country, on whose limits the two powers could not agree, was to be held in common possession for ten years. This common possession was prolonged by another convention (1827) indefinitely, with the privilege to either power to terminate it, on giving twelve months' notice. This arrangement lasted until 1846 (see OREGON: History).
159. Monroe's term of office came to an end in March 1825. He had originally been an extreme Democrat, who could hardly speak of Washington with patience; he had slowly modified his views, and his tendencies were now eagerly claimed by 1801-1829 Election 011824.
Party Divergence.
the few remaining Federalists as identical with their own. The nationalizing faction of the dominant party had scored almost all the successes of the administration, and the divergence between it and the opposing faction was steadily becoming more apparent. All the candidates for the presidency in 1824 Andrew Jackson, a private citizen of Tennessee; William H. Crawford, Monroe's secretary of the treasury; John Quincy Adams, his secretary of state; and Henry Clay, the speaker of the House of Representatives claimed to be Republicans alike; but the personal nature of the struggle was shown by the tendency of their supporters to call themselves " Adams men " or " Jackson men," rather than by any real party title. Calhoun was supported by all groups for the vicepresidency, and was elected without difficulty. The choice of a president was more doubtful.
160. None of the four candidates had anything like a party organization behind him. Adams and Clay represented the nationalizing element, as Crawford and Jackson ^ not > ^ ut th ere tne likeness among them stopped. The strongest forces behind Adams were the new manufacturing and commercial interests of the East; behind Clay were the desires of the West for internal improvements at Federal expense as a set-off to the benefits which the seaboard states had already received from the government; and the two elements were soon to be united into the National Republican or Whig party (?..). Crawford was the representative of the old Democratic party, with all its Southern influences and leanings. Jackson was the personification of the new democracy not very cultured, perhaps, but honest, and hating every shade of class control instinctively. As he became better known the whole force of the new drift of things turned in his direction. Crawford was taken out of the race, just after the electors had cast their votes, by physical failure, and Adams, later, by the revival of ancient quarrels with the Federalists of New England; and the future was to be with Clay or with Jackson. But in 1824 the electors gave no one a majority; and the House of Representatives, voting by states, gave the presidency to Adams.
161. Adams's election in 1825 was due to the fact that Clay's friends in the House- unable to vote for him, as he was the Tne Adams lowest in the electoral vote, and only three names Administra- were open to choice in the House very naturally gave tion 1825- their votes to Adams. As Adams appointed Clay to the leading position in his cabinet, the defeated party at once raised the cry of " bargain and intrigue," one of the most effective in a democracy, and it was kept up throughout Adams's four years of office. Jackson had received the largest number of electoral votes, though not a majority, 1 and the hazy notion that he had been injured because of his devotion to the people increased his popularity. Though demagogues made use of it for selfish purposes, this feeling was an honest one, and Adams had nothing to oppose to it. He tried vigorously to uphold the " American system," arid succeeded in passing the tariff of 1828; he tried to maintain the influence of the United States on both the American continents; but he remained as unpopular as his rival grew popular. In 1828 Adams was easily displaced by Jackson, the electoral vote being 178 to 83. Calhoun was re-elected vice-president.
162. Jackson's inauguration in 1829 closes this period, as it ends the time during which a disruption of the Union by the Election of peaceable withdrawal of any state was even possible. 1828. De- The party which had made state sovereignty its mocracyaaa bulwark in 1798 was now in control of the govern- atty ' ment again; but Jackson's proclamation in his first term, in which he warned South Carolina that " disunion by armed force is treason," and that blood must flow if the laws were resisted, speaks a very different tone from the speculations of 1 Jackson received 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37; in the House of Representatives Adams received the votes of 13 states, Jackson of 7, and Crawford of 4. For vice-president Calhoun received 182 electoral votes, and his principal competitors, Nathan Sanford, of New York, and Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, received 30 and 24 respectively.
Jefferson on possible future divisions of the United States. And even the sudden attempt of South Carolina to exercise independent action ( 172-173) shows that some interest dependent upon state sovereignty had taken alarm at the drift of events, and was anxious to lodge a claim to the right before it should slip from its fingers for ever. Nullification was only the first skirmish between the two hostile forces of slavery and democracy.
163. When the vast territory of Louisiana was acquired in 1803 the new owner found slavery already estabh'shed there by custom recognized by French and Spanish law. Congress tacitly ratified existing law by taking no action; slavery continued legal, and spread further through the territory; and the state of Louisiana entered as a slave state in 1812. The next state to be carved out of the territory was Missouri, admitted in 1821. ATerritory, on applying for admission as a state, brings a constitution for inspection by Congress; and when it was found that the new state of Missouri proposed to recognize and continue slavery, a vigorous opposition spread through the North and West, and carried most of the senators and representatives from those sections with it. In the House of Representatives these two sections had a greatly superior number of members; but, as the number of Northern and Southern states had been kept about equal, the compact Southern vote, with one or two Northern allies, generally retained control of the Senate. Admitted by the Senate and rejected by the House, Missouri's application hung suspended for two years until it was successful by the admission of Maine, a balancing Northern state, 2 and by the following arrangement, known as the Missouri Compromise of 1820: Missouri was to enter as a slave state; slavery was for ever prohibited throughout the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of lat. 36 30', the main southern boundary of Missouri; and, though nothing was said of the territory south of the compromise line, it was understood that any state formed out of it was to be a slave state, if it so wished (see MISSOURI COMPROMISE and MISSOURI, History). Arkansas entered under this provision in 1836.
1 64. The question of slavery was thus setat rest for the present, though a few agitators were roused to more zealous opposition to the essence of slavery itself. In the next decade these agitators succeeded only in the conversion of a few recruits, but these recruits were the ones who took up the work at the opening of the next period and never gave it up until slavery was ended. It is plain now, however, that North and South had already drifted so far apart as to form two sections, and it became evident during the next forty years that the wants and desires of these two sections were so divergent that it was impossible for one government to make satisfactory laws for both. The chief cause was not removed in 1820, though one of its effects was got out of the way for the time.
165. The vast flood of human beings which had been pouring westward for years had now pretty well occupied the territory east of the Mississippi, while, on the west side of that stream, it still showed a disposition to hold to river valleys. The settled area had increased from 240,000 sq. m. in 1790 to 633,000 sq. m. in 1830, with an average of 20-3 persons to the square mile. There was still a great deal of Indian territory in the Southern states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, for the Southern Indians were among the finest of their race ; they had become semicivilized, and were formidable antagonists to the encroaching white race. The states interested had begun preparations for their forcible removal, in public defiance (see GEORGIA: History) of the attempts of the Federal government to protect the Indians (1827); but the removal was not completed until 1835. In the North, Wisconsin and Michigan, with the northern halves of Illinois and Indiana, were still very thinly settled, but everything indicated early increase of population. The first lake steamboat, the " Walk-in-the-Water," had appeared at Detroit in 1818, and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 added to the. number * A prompt admission of Missouri would have balanced the slave and free states, but Alabama's admission as a slave state balanced them in 1819.
of such vessels. Lake Erie had seven in 1826; and in 1830, while the only important lake town, Detroit, was steamboat, hardly yet more than a frontier fort, a daily line of steamers was running to it from Buffalo, carrying the increasing stream of emigrants to the western territory.
166. The land system of the United States had much to do with the early development of the West. From the first settlement, the universally recognized rule had been that System 1 . ^ absolute individual property in land, with its corollary of unrestricted competitive or " rack " rents; and this rule was accepted fully in the national land system, whose basis was reported by Jefferson, as chairman of a committee of the Confederation Congress (1785). The public lands were to be divided into " hundreds " each ten miles square and containing one hundred mile-square plots. The hundred was called a " township," and was afterwards reduced to six miles square, of thirty-six mile-square plots of 640 acres each. From time to time principal meridians and east and west base lines have been run, and townships have been determined by their relations to these lines. The sections (plots) have been subdivided, but the transfer describes each parcel from the survey map, as in the case of " the south-west quarter of section 20, township 30, north, range i east of the third principal meridian." The price fixed in 1790 as a minimum was $2 per acre; it has tended to decrease, and no effort has ever been made to gain a revenue from it. When the nation acquired its western territory it secured its title to the soil, and always made it a fundamental condition of the admission of a new state that it should not tax United States lands. To compensate the new states for the freedom of unsold public lands from taxation, one township in each thirty-six was reserved to them for educational purposes; and the excellent public school systems of the Western states have been founded on this provision. The cost of obtaining a quarter section (160 acres), under the still later homestead system of granting lands to actual settlers, has come to be only about $26; the interest on this, at 6%, represents an annual rent of one cent per acre making this, says F. A. Walker, as nearly as possible the " no-rent land " of the economists.
167. The bulk of the early westward migration was of home production; the great immigration from Europe did not begin until about 1847. The West as well as the East thus had its institutions fixed before being called upon to absorb an enormous foreign element.
I. Industrial Development and Sectional Divergence, 1829-1850.
168. The eight years 1829-1837 have been called " the reign of Andrew Jackson "; his popularity, his long struggle for the New presidency, and his feeling of his official ownership Political of the subordinate offices gave to his administration Methods. at j east an a pp ea rance of Caesarism. But it was a strictly constitutional Caesarism; the restraints of written law were never violated, though the methods adopted within the law were new to national politics. Since about 1800 state politics in New York and Pennsylvania had been noted for the systematic use of the offices and for the merciless manner in which the officeholder was compelled to work for the party which kept him in place. The presence of New York and Pennsylvania politicians in Jackson's cabinet taught him to use the same system. Removals, except for cause, had been relatively rare before; but under Jackson men were removed almost exclusively for the purpose of installing some more serviceable party tool; and a clean sweep was made in the civil service. Other parties adopted the system, and it remained the rule at a change of administration until comparatively recent years.
169. The system brought with it a semi-military reorganization of parties. Hitherto nominations for the more important The New offices had been made mainly by legislative caucuses; Orgaaiza- candidates for president and vice-president were nominated by caucuses of congressmen, and candiParties. d a t e s for the higher state offices by caucuses of the state legislatures. Late in the preceding period " conventions " of delegates from the members of the party in the state were held in New York and Pennsylvania; and in 1831-1832 this became the rule for presidential nominations. It rapidly developed into systematic state, county, and city " conventions "; and the result was the appearance of that complete political machinery, the American political party, with its local organizations, and its delegates to county, state and national conventions. The Democratic machinery was the first to appear, in Jackson's second term (1833-1837). Its workers were paid in offices, or hopes of office, so that it was said to be built on the " cohesive power of public plunder "; but its success was immediate and brilliant. The opposing party, the Whig party (q.i>.), had no chance of victory in 1836; and its complete overthrow drove its leaders into the organization of a similar machinery of their own, which scored its first success in 1 840. Since that time these strange bodies, unknown to the law, have governed the country by turns; and their enormous growth has steadily made the organization of a third piece of such machinery more difficult or hopeless.
170. The Bank of the United States had hardly been heard of in politics until the new Democratic organization came into hostile contact with it. A semi-official demand Bank of the upon it for a political appointment was met by a United refusal; and the party managers called Jackson's st *te*. attention to an institution which he could not but dislike the more he considered it. His first message spoke of it in unfriendly terms, and every succeeding message brought a more open attack. The old party of Adams and Clay had by this time taken the name of Whigs, probably from the notion that they were struggling against " the reign of Andrew Jackson," and they adopted the cause of the bank with eagerness. The bank charter did not expire until 1836, but in 1832 Clay brought up a bill for a new charter. It was passed and vetoed; and the Whigs made the veto an important issue of the presidential election of that year. They were beaten; Jackson was re-elected, receiving 219 electoral votes, and Clay, his Whig opponent, only 49, and the bank party could never again get a majority in the House of Representatives for the charter. The insistence of the president on the point that the charter was a " monopoly " bore weight with the people. But the president could not obtain a majority in the Senate. He determined to take a step which would give him an initiative, and which his opponents could not induce both houses to unite in overriding or punishing. Taking advantage of the provision that the secretary of the treasury might order the Removal public funds to be deposited elsewhere than in the of the bank or its branches, he directed the secretary to DeposUs. deposit all the public funds elsewhere. Thus deprived of its great source of dividends, the bank fell into difficulties, became a state bank after 1836, and then went into bankruptcy. (See BANKS AND BANKING: United States; and JACKSON, ANDREW.)
171. All the political conflicts of Jackson's terms of office were close and bitter. Loose in his ideas before 1829, Jackson showed a steady tendency to adopt the strictest construction of the powers of the Federal government, except in such official perquisites as the offices. He grew into strong opposition to all traces of the " American system," and vetoed opposition bills for internal improvements unsparingly; and to the his feeling of dislike to all forms of protection is as " Amerlca f> evident, though he took more care not to make it too public. There are many reasons for believing that his drift was the work of a strong school of leaders Martin Van Buren, Thomas H. Benton, Edward Livingston, Roger B. Taney, Levi Woodbury, Lewis Cass, W. L. Marcy and others who developed the policy of the party, and controlled it until the great changes of parties about 1850 took their power from them. At all events, some persistent influence made the Democratic party of 1830-1850 the most consistent and successful party which had thus far appeared in the United States.
172. Calhoun (q.v.) and Jackson were of the same stock^ Scottish-Irish much alike in appearance and characteristics, the former representing the trained and edu- cated logic of the race, the latter its instincts and passions. Jackson was led to break off his friendly relations with 1829-1850 Nullifies- Calhoun in 1830, and he had been led to do so more easily because of the appearance of the doctrine of nullification (q.i>.), which was generally attributed, correctly enough, to the authorship of Calhoun. Asserting, as the Republican party of 1798 had done, the sovereign powers of each state, Calhoun held that, as a means of avoiding secession and violent struggle upon every occasion of the passage of an act of Congress which should seem unconstitutional to any state, the state might properly suspend or " nu ^'fy " ^ operation of the law within its jurisdiction, in order to protect its citizens against oppression. The passage of the Tariff Act of 1832, which organized and systematized the protective system, forced the Calhoun party into action. A state convention in South Carolina (q.v.) on the 24th of November 1832 declared the Tariff Act null, and made ready to enforce the declaration.
173. But the time was past when the power of a single state could withdraw it from the Union. The president issued a proclamation, warning the people of South Carolina against any attempt to carry out the ordinance of nullification; he ordered a naval force to take possession of Charleston harbour to collect the duties under the act; he called upon Congress for additional executive powers, and Congress passed what nullifiers called the " bloody bill," putting the land and naval forces at the disposal of the president for the collection of duties against " unlawful combinations "; and he is said to have announced, privately and profanely, his intention of making Calhoun the first victim of any open conflict. Affairs looked so threatening that an unofficial meeting of " leading nullifiers " agreed to suspend the operation of the ordinance until Congress should adjourn; whence it derived the right to suspend has never been stated.
174. The president had already asked Congress to reduce the duties; and many Democratic members of Congress, who had Tariff of y^ded to the popular clamour for protection, were 1833. ver y glad to use " the crisis " as an excuse for now voting against it. A compromise Tariff Act, scaling down all duties over 20% by one-tenth of the excess every two years until 1842, when the remaining excess over 20% should be dropped, was introduced by Clay and became law. Calhoun and his followers claimed this as all that the nullification ordinance had aimed at; and the ordinance was formally repealed. But nullification had received its death-blow; even those Southern leaders who maintained the right of secession refused to recognize the right of a state to remain in the Union while nullifying its laws; and, when protection was reintroduced by the tariff of 1842, nullification was hardly thought of.
175. All the internal conditions of the United States were completely altered by the introduction of railways. For twenty The ' y ears P ast th e Americans had been pushing in every Locomotive, direction which offered a hope of the means of recon- ciling vast territory with enormous population. Stephenson's invention of the locomotive came just in time, and Jackson's two terms of office marked the outburst of modern American life. The miles of railway were 23 in 1830, 1098 in 1835, some 2800 in 1840, and thereafter they about doubled every five years until 1860.
176. A railway map of 1840 shows a fragmentary system, designed mainly to fill the gaps left by the means of communica- t ' on * n use * n I ^3- ^ ne or two snort lines run back i nto the country from Savannah and Charleston; another runs north along the coast from Wilmington to Baltimore; several lines connect New York with Washington and other points; and short lines elsewhere mark the openings which needed to be filled at once a number in New England and the Middle states, three in Ohio and Michigan, and three in Louisiana. Year after year new inventions came in to increase Anthracite. ano - a *d this development. The anthracite coal of the Middle states had been known since 1790, but no means had been devised to put the refractory agent to work. It was now successfully applied to railways (1836), inn. and to tne manufacture of iron (1837). Hitherto wood had been the best fuel for iron-making; now the states which relied on wood were driven out of competition, Kaiiw a ofHS4O* and production was restricted to the states in which nature had placed coal alongside of iron. Steam navigation across the Atlantic was established in 1838. The telegraph ocean Navicame next, S. F. B. Morse's line being erected in gation. The 1844. The spread of the railway system brought Tele ra P 1 '- with it, as a natural development, the rise of the American system of express companies, whose first phases of individual enterprise appeared in 1839. No similar period in American history is so extraordinary for material development as the decade 1830-1840. At its beginning the country was an overgrown type of colonial life; at its end American life had been shifted to entirely new lines, which it has since followed. Modern American history had burst in with the explosiveness of an Arctic summer.
177. The steamboat had aided Western development, but the railway aided it far more. Cities and states grew as if the oxygen of their surroundings had been suddenly West increased. The steamboat influenced the railway, settlement. and the railway gave the steamboat new powers.
Vacant places in the states east of the Mississippi were filling up; the long lines of emigrant waggons gave way to the new and better methods of transport; and new grades of land were made accessible. Chicago was but a frontier fort in 1832; within a half-dozen years it was a flourishing town, with eight steamers connecting it with Buffalo, and dawning ideas of its future development of railway connexions. The maps change from decade to decade, as mapmakers hasten to insert new cities which have sprung up. Two new states, Admission Arkansas and Michigan, were admitted (1836 and of Arkansas 1837). The population of Ohio grew from 900,000 M< * to 1,500,000, that of Michigan from 32,000 to 212,000, and that of the country from 13,000,000 to 17,000,000, between 1830 and 1840.
178. With the change of material surroundings and possibilities came a steady amelioration of social conditions and a development of social ideals. Such features of the past as imprisonment for debt and the cruel indiffer- conditions. ence of old methods of dealing with crime began to disappear; the time was past when a state could use an abandoned copper mine as its state prison, as Connecticut had formerly done (see SIMSBURY, Connecticut). The domestic use of gas and anthracite coal, the introduction of expensive aqueducts for pure water, and the changing life of the people forced changes in the interior and exterior of American dwellings. Wood was still the common building material; imitations of Greek architecture still retained their vogue; but the interiors were models of comfort in comparison with the houses even of 1810. In the " new " regions this was not yet the case, and here social restraints were still so few that society seemed to be reduced almost to its primitive elements. Western steamers reeked with gambling, swindling, duelling and every variety of vice. Public law was almost suspended in some regions; and organized associations of counterfeiters and horse-thieves terrorized whole sections of country. But this state of affairs was altogether temporary, as well as limited in its area; the older and more densely settled states had been well prepared for the change and had never lost command of the social forces, and the process of settling down went on, even in the newer states, with far more rapidity than could reasonably have been expected. Those who took part in the movements of population in 1830- 1840 had been trained under the rigid forms of the previous American life; and these soon re-asserted themselves. The rebound was over before 1847, and the Western states were then as well prepared to receive and digest the great immigration which followed as the older states would have been in 1830.
179. A distinct American literature dates from this period. Most of the publications in the United States were still cheap reprints of foreign works; but native productions Llierature no longer followed foreign models with servility. Between 1830 and 1840 Whittier, Longfellow, Holmes, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Bancroft and Prescott joined the advanceguard of American writers Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Drake, Irving and Cooper; and even those writers who had already made their place in literature showed the influence of new conditions by their growing tendency to look less to foreign models and methods. (See AMERICAN LITERATURE.) Popular education was improved. The new states had from the first endeavoured to secure the best possible system of common schools. The attempt came naturally from the political instincts of the class from which the migration came; but the system which resulted was to be of incalculable service during the years to come. Their absolute democracy and their universal use of the English Common language have made the common schools most School successful machines for converting the raw material System. o { immigration into American citizens. This supreme benefit is the basis of the system and the reason for its existence and development, but its incidental advantage of educating the people has been beyond calculation. It was an odd symptom of the general change that American newspapers took a new form during these papers. ten ye ars - The old " blanket-sheet " newspaper, cumbrous to handle and slow in all its ways, met its first rival in the type of newspaper which appeared first in New York City, in the Sun, the Herald and the Tribune (1833, 1835 and 1841). Swift and energetic in gathering news, and fearless, sometimes reckless, in stating it, they brought into American life, with very much that is evil, a great preponderance of good.
1 80. The chaos into which a part of American society had been thrown had a marked effect on the financial institutions of the country, which went to pieces before it for a ' time. It had not been meant to make the public lands of the United States a source of revenue so much as a source of development. The sales had touched their high-water mark during the speculative year 1819, when receipts from them had amounted to $3,274,000; in other years they seldom went above $2,000,000. When the railway set the stream of migration moving faster than ever, and cities began to grow like mushrooms, it was natural that speculation in land should feel the effects. Sales rose to $3,200,000 in 1831, to $4,000,000 B, . g. . j. .
in 1833, to $5,000,000 in 1834, to $15,000,000 in 1835, and to $25,000,000 in 1836. In 1835 the president announced to Congress that the public debt was extinguished, and that some way of dealing with the surplus should be found. Calhoun's proposal, that after the year 1836 any surplus in excess of $5,000,000 should be divided among. the states as a loan, was adopted, as regards the surplus (almost $37,000,000) of that year; and some $28,000,000 still carried on the books of the treasury as unavailable funds were actually distributed before the crisis of 1837 put an end to the surplus and to the policy. The states had already taken a hand in the general speculation by beginning works of public improvement. Foreign, particularly English, capital was abundant; and states which had been accustomed to think a dozen times over a tax of a hundred thousand dollars now began to negotiate loans of millions of dollars and to appropriate the proceeds to the digging of canals and the construction of railways. Their enterprises were badly conceived and badly managed, and only added to the confusion when the crash came. If the Federal government and the states felt that they were rich, the imaginations of individuals ran riot. Every one wanted to buy; prices rose, and every one was growing richer on paper. The assessed value of real estate in New York City in 1832 was $104,000,000; in 1836 it had grown to $253,000,000. In Mobile the assessed value rose from $1,000,000 to $27,000,000. Fictitious values were the rule.
181. When Jackson in 1833 ordered the government revenues to be deposited elsewhere than in the Bank of the United States, there was no government agent to receive them. The secretary of the treasury selected banks at various points in which the revenue should be deposited by the collecting officers; but these banks were organized under charters from their states, as were all banks except that of the United States. The theory of the dominant party denied the constitutional power of Congress to charter a bank, and the states had not yet learned how to deal with such institutions. Their grants of bank charters had been based on ignorance, intrigue, favouritism or corruption, and the banks were utterly unregulated. The Democratic feeling was that the privilege of forming banking Corporacorporations should be open to all citizens, and it Uoas. soon became so. Moreover, it was not until after the crash that New York began the system of compelling such deposits as would really secure circulation, which was long afterward further developed into the present national bank system. In most of the states banks could be freely organized with or without tangible capital, and their notes could be sent to the West for the purchase of government lands, which needed to be held but a month or two to gain a handsome profit. (See BANKS AND BANKING: United States.) " Wild-cat banks " sprang up all over the country; and the " pet banks," as those chosen for the deposit of government revenues were called, went into speculation as eagerly as the banks which hardly pretended to have capital.
182. The Democratic theory denied the power of Congress to make anything but gold or silver coin legal tender. There have been " paper-money heresies " in the party; but there was none such among the new school of circular"* 6 Democratic leaders which came in in 1829; they were " hard-money men." In July 1836 Jackson's secretary of the treasury ordered land agents to take nothing in payment for lands except gold or silver. In the following spring the full effects of the order became evident; they fell on the administration of Van Buren, Jackson's successor. 1 Van Buren had been Jackson's secretary of state, the representative man of the new Democratic schocl, and, in the opinion of the opposition, the evil genius of the Jackson administration; and it seemed to the Whigs poetic justice that he should bear the weight of his predecessor's errors. The " specie circular " turned the tide of paper back to the East, and when it was presented for payment most of the banks suspended specie payment with hardly a struggle. There was no longer a thought of buying; every one wanted to sell; and prices ran down with a rapidity even more startling than that with which they had risen. Failures, to an extent and on a scale unprecedented in the United States, made up the "panic of 1837." Many of the states had left their bonds in the hands of their agents, and, on the failure of the latter, found that the bonds had been hypothecated or disposed of, so that the states got no return from them except a debt which was to them enormous. Saddled suddenly with such a burden, and unable even to pay interest, some of the states " repudiated " their obligations; and repudiation was made successful by the fact that a state could not be sued by its creditors except by its own consent. Even the Federal government felt the strain, for its revenues were locked up in suspended banks. A little more than a year after Congress had authorized the distribution of its surplus revenues among the states Van Buren was forced to call it into special session to provide some relief for the government itself.
183. Van Buren held manfully to the strictest construction of the powers of the Federal government. He insisted that the panic would best right itself without government subinterference, and, after a four years' struggle, he treasury succeeded in making the " sub-treasury scheme " law (1840). It cut off all connexion of the government with banks, putting collecting and disbursing officers under bonds to hold money safely and to transfer it under orders from the treasury, and restricting payments to or by the United States to gold and silver coin. Its passage had been preceded by another commercial crisis (1839), more limited in its field, but more discouraging to the people. It is true that Jackson, in dealing with the finances, had " simply smashed things," leaving his successor to repair damages; but it is far from certain that this was not the best way available at the time. The wisest scheme of financial reform would have had small chance 'In the election of 1836 Van Buren received 170 electoral votes, W. H. Harrison (Whig) 73, Hugh L. White 26, Daniel Webster 14 and W. P. Mangum n.
1829-1850 Election of 1840.
of success with the land-jobbers in Congress, and Van Buren,'s firmness found the way out of the chaos.
184. Van Buren's firmness was unpopular, and the Whig party now adopted methods which were popular if somewhat demagogical. It nominated William H. Harrison in 1840; it contrasted his homely frontier virtues with Van Buren's " ostentatious indifference to the misfortunes of the people " and with the supposed luxury of his life in the White House; and, after the first of the modern " campaigns " of mass meetings and processions, Harrison was elected, receiving 234 electoral votes and Van Buren only 60. He died on the 4th of April 1841, only a month after his inauguration, and the vice-president, John Tyler, became president. Tyler was of the extreme Calhoun school, which had shown some disposition to grant to Van Buren a support which it had refused to Jackson; and the Whigs had nominated Tyler to retain his faction with them. Now he was the nominal leader of the party, while his politics were opposite to theirs, and the real leader of the party, Clay, was ready to force a quarrel upon him. The quarrel took place; the Whig majority in Congress was not large enough to pass any measures over Tyler's veto; and the first two years of his administration were passed in barren conflict with his party. The " sub-treasury " law "' was re P ealecl ( l8 4!); the tariff of 1842 introduced a modified protection; and there the Whigs were forced to stop. Their dissensions made Democratic success comparatively easy, and Tyler had the support of a Democratic House behind him during the last two years of his term.
185. The success of the Democratic machinery, and the reflex of its temporary check in 1840, with the influences brought to bear on it by the returning Calhoun faction, were such as to take the control of the party out of the hands of the leaders who had formed it. They had had high regard for political principle, even though they were willing to use doubtful methods for its propagation; these methods had now brought out new men, who looked mainly to success, and to close connexion with the controlling political element of the South as the easiest means of attaining success. When the Democratic convention of 1844 met it was expected to renominate Van Buren. A majority of the delegates had been sent there for that purpose, but many of them would have been glad to be prevented from doing so. They allowed a resolution to be passed making a two-thirds vote necessary for nomination; Van Buren was unable to command so many votes; and, when his name was withdrawn, James K. Polk was nominated. The Whigs nominated Clay.
186. The beginning of the abolitionist movement in the United States, the establishment of the Liberator (1831), and of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833), Movement. an d tne subsequent divisions in it, are dealt with elsewhere (see GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD). Up to that time " abolition " had meant gradual abolition; it was a wish rather than a purpose. Garrison called for immediate abolition. The basis of the American system was in the reserved rights of the states, and slavery rested on their will, which was not likely to be changed. But the cry was kept up. The mission of the Abolitionists was to force the people to think of the question; and, in spite of riots, assaults and persecution of every kind, they fulfilled it manfully. In truth, slavery was more and more out of harmony with the new economic conditions which were taking complete control of the North and West, but had hardly been felt in the South. Thus the two sections, North and South, were more and more disposed to take opposite views of everything in which slavery was involved, and it had a faculty of involving itself in almost everything. The status of slavery in the Territories had been settled in 1820; that of slavery in the states had been settled by the Constitution; but even in minor questions the intrusive element had to be reckoned with. The Abolitionists sent their documents through the mails, and the South wished the Federal government to interfere and stop the practice. The Abolitionists persisted in petitioning Congress for the passage of various measures which Congress regarded as utterly unconstitutional; and the disposition of Congress to deny or regulate the right of petition in such matters (see ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY) excited the indignation of Northern men who had no sympathy with abolition. But the first occasion on which the views of the two sections came into flat contrast was on the question of the annexation of Texas.
187. The United States had had a vague claim to Texas until 1819, when the claim was surrendered to Spain in part compensation for Florida. On the revolt of Mexico Texas became a part of that republic. It was colonized by Americans, mainly southerners and slave-holders, seceded from Mexico in 1835, and defeated the Mexican armies and established its independence in the following year. Southern politicians desired its annexation to the United States for many reasons. Its people were kindred to them; its soil would widen the area of slavery; and its territory, it was hoped, could be divided into several states, to reinforce the Southern column in the Senate. People in the North were either indifferent or hostile to the proposal; Van Buren had declared against it, and his action was a reason for his defeat in the Democratic convention. On the other hand, there were indications that the joint occupation of the Oregon country could not last much longer. American immigration into it had begun, while the Hudson's Bay Company, the British tenant of the soil, was the natural enemy of immigration. To carry the sentiment of both sections, the two points were coupled; and the Democratic convention declared for the reannexation of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon.
1 88. One of the cardinal methods of the political Abolitionists was to nominate candidates of their own against a doubtful friend, even though this secured the election of an open enemy. Clay's efforts to guard his condemnation of the Texas annexation project were just enough to push the Liberty party (q.v.), the political Abolitionists, into voting for candidates of their own in New York; on a close vote their loss was enough to throw the electoral votes of that state to Polk, and its votes decided the result. 5/^/011 Polk was elected (November 1844);* and Texas of 1844. was annexed to the United States in the following Admission spring. At the next meeting of Congress (1845) ofTej "*- Texas was admitted as a state.
189. West of Texas the northern prolongation of Mexico ran right athwart the westward movement of American population; and, though the movement had not yet reached the barrier, the Polk administration desired further acquisitions from Mexico. The western boundary of Texas was undefined; a strip of territory claimed by Texas was settled exclusively by Mexicans; but the Polk administration directed General Zachary Taylor, the American commander in Texas, to cross the Nueces river and seize the disputed territory. Collisions with Mexican troops followed; they were beaten in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and were chased across the Rio Grande. Taylor followed and took the city of Monterey.
190. On the news of the first bloodshed Congress declared war against Mexico, over the opposition of the Whigs. A land and naval force took possession of California, and a land expedition occupied New Mexico, so that the authority of Mexico over all the soil north of her present boundaries was abruptly terminated (1846). At the opening of 1847 Taylor fought the last battle in northern Mexico (Buena Vista), defeating the Mexicans, and General Winfield Scott, with a new army, landed at Vera Cruz for a march upon the city of Mexico. Scott's march was marked by one successful battle after another, usually against heavy odds; and in September he took the capital city and held it until peace was made (1848) by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Among the terms of peace was the cession of the present California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, the consideration being a payment of $15,000,000 by the United States and the assumption of some $3,000,000 of debts due by Mexico to American citizens. With a subsequent rectification of frontier (1853) by the Gadsden Treaty (see GADSDEN, JAMES), this cession 1 Polk received 170 electoral votes and Clay 105.
added some 500,000 sq. m. to the area of the United States; Texas itself made up a large additional area. The settlement of the north-east and north-west boundaries (see MAINE and OREGON) by the Webster-Ashburton and Buchanan-Pakenham treaties (1842, 1846) with the Texas and Mexican cessions, gave the United States the complete territorial form retained until the annexation of Alaska in 1867.
191. In the new territory slavery had been forbidden under Mexican law; and its annexation brought up the question of slavery la its status under American law. He who remembers the New the historical fact that slavery had never been more Territory, than a custom, ultimately recognized and protected by state law, will not have much difficulty in deciding about the propriety of forcing such a custom by law upon any part of a territory. But, if slavery was to be excluded from the new territory, the states which should ultimately be formed out of it would enter as free states, and the influence of the South in the Senate would be decreased. For the first time the South appears as a distinct imperium in imperio in the territorial difficulties which began in 1848.
192. The first appearance of these difficulties brought out in the Democratic party a solution which was so closely in line "Squatter w ith the prejudices of the party, and apparently so Sove- likely to meet all the wishes of the South, that it relgniy." Dac j e f a j r to carrv the party through the crisis without the loss of its Southern vote. This was " squatter sovereignty," the notion that it would be best for Congress to leave the people of each Territory to settle the question of the existence of slavery for themselves. The broader and democratic ground for the party would have been that which it at first seemed likely to take the " Wilmot Proviso," a condition proposed to be added to the act authorizing acquisitions of territory, providing that slavery should be forbidden in all territory to be acquired under the act (see WILMOT, DAVID). In the end apparent expediency carried the dominant party off to " squatter sovereignty," and the Democratic adherents of the Wilmot Proviso, with the Liberty party and the anti-slavery Whigs, united in 1848 under the Party."' name . of the Free Soil P artv (?") ' The Whi 8 s had no solution to offer; their entire programme, from this time to their downfall as a party, consisted in a persistent effort to evade or ignore all difficulties connected with slavery.
193. Taylor, after the battle of Buena Vista, resigned and came home, considering himself ill-used by the administration.
He refused to commit himself to any party; and the Whigs were forced to accept him as their candidate in 1848. The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass; and the Free Soil party, or " Free-Soilers," nominated Van Buren. By the vote of the last-named party the Democratic candidate lost New York and the election, and Taylor was elected president, receiving 163 electoral votes, while Cass received 127. Taking office in March 1849, he had on his shoulders the whole burden of the territorial difficulties, aggravated by the discovery of gold in California and the sudden rise of population there. Congress was so split into factions that it could for a long time agree upon nothing; thieves and outlaws were too strong for the semi-military government of California; and the Calif omians, with the approval of the president, proceeded to form a constitution and apply for admission as a state. They had so framed their constitution as to forbid slavery; and this was really the application of the Wilmot Proviso to the richest part of the new territory, and the South felt that it had been robbed of the cream of what it alone had fought cheerfully to obtain.
194. The admission of California was not secured until September 1850, soon after Taylor's sudden death (July 9), . .. , , , an d then only by the addition of a bonus to Texas, Admission of ., ,. . . , . , .. ,, -, ...
California, the division of the rest of the Mexican cession into the Territories of Utah and New Mexico without prohibition of slavery, and the passage of a fugitive slave law. The slave trade, but not slavery, was forbidden in the District of Columbia. The whole was generally known as the Compromise Measures of 1850 (q.v.). Two of its features need notice.
As has been said, slavery was not mentioned in the act; and the status of slavery in the Territories, was thus left uncertain. Congress can veto any legislation of a territorial legislature, but, in fact, the two houses of Congress were hardly ever able to unite on anything after 1850, and both these Territories did establish slavery before 1860, without a Congressional veto. The advantage here was with the South. The other point, the Fugitive Slave Law (q.v.), was a special demand of the South. The Constitution contained clauses directing that fugitive criminals and slaves should be delivered up, on requisition, by the state to which they had fled. In the case of criminals the delivery was directed to be made by the executive of the state to which they had fled; in the case of slaves no delivering authority was specified, and an act of Congress in 1793 had imposed the duty on Federal judges or on local state magistrates. Some of the states had passed " Personal Liberty Laws," forbidding or Personal limiting the action of their magistrates in such cases, Liberty and the act of 1850 transferred the decision of such Laws. cases to United States commissioners, with the assistance of United States marshals. It imposed penalties on rescues, and denied a jury trial.
195. The question of slavery had taken up so much time in Congress that its other legislation was comparatively limited. The rates of postage were reduced to five and ten cents for distances less and greater than 300 m. (1845); and the naval school at Annapolis was established in the same year. The military academy at West Point had been established as such in 1802. When the Democratic party had obtained complete control of the government, it re-established (by act of 6th August, 1846), the "sub-treasury," or independent treasury, which is still the basis of the treasury system.
In the same year, after an exhaustive report by Robert J. Walker, Folk's secretary of the treasury, the tariff of 1846 was passed; it reduced duties, and moderated the application of the protective principle. Apart from a slight reduction of duties in 1857, this remained in force till 1861.
196. Five states were admitted during the last ten years of this period: Florida (1845), Texas j (i84s), Iowa (1846), Wisconsin (1848) and California (1850). The early entrance ^ m i ssloo of Iowa, Wisconsin and Florida had been due largely / Florida, to Indian wars the Black Hawk War (see BLACK Iowa and HAWK) in Iowa and Wisconsin (1832), and the Semi- Wisconsin. nole War in Florida (1835-37), after each of which the defeated Indians were compelled to cede lands as the price of peace. The extinction of Indian titles in northern Michigan brought about the discovery of the great copper fields of that region, whose existence had been suspected long before it could be proved. Elsewhere settlement followed the lines already marked out, except in the new possessions on the Pacific coast, whose full possibilities were not yet known. Railways in the Eastern states were beginning to show something of a connected system; in the South Hallways they had hardly changed since 1840; in the West and they had only been prolonged on their original lines. Telegraphs. The telegraph was brought into use in 1844; but it is not until the census of 1860 that its effects are seen in the fully connected network of railways which then covers the whole North and West.
197. The sudden development of wealth in the country gave an impetus to the spirit of invention. Charles Goodyear's method of vulcanizing rubber (1839) had come into laveotloa use. Cyrus Hall M'Cormick had made an invention whose results have been hardly less than that of the locomotive in their importance to the United States. He had patented a reaping machine in 1834, and this, further improved and supplemented by other inventions, had brought into play the whole system of agricultural machinery, whose existence was scarcely known elsewhere until the London " World's Fair " of 1851 brought it into notice. A successful sewing-machine came in 1846; the power-loom and the surgical use of anaesthetics in the same year; and the rotary press for printing in 1847.
1850-1861 The Mormons.
198. All the conditions of life were changing so rapidly that it was natural that the minds of men should change with them or become unsettled. This was the era of new sects, of communities, of fantastic proposals of every kind, of transcendentalism in literature, religion, and politics. Not the most fantastic or benevolent, but certainly the most successful, of these was the sect of Mormons or Latter-day Saints. They settled in Utah in 1847, calling their capital Salt Lake City, and spreading thence through the neighbouring Territories. They became a menace to the American system; their numbers were so great that it was against American instincts to deprive them of self-government; while their polygamy and total submission to their hierarchy made it impossible to erect them into a state having complete control of marriage and divorce. The difficulty was lessened by their renunciation of polygamy in 1890 (see MORMONS).
199. The material development of the United States since 1830 had been extraordinary, but every year made it more evident that the South was not sharing in it. It is plain now that the fault was in the labour system of the South: her only labourers were slaves, and a slave who was fit for anything better than field labour was prima facie a dangerous man. The divergence had as yet gone only far enough to awaken intelligent men in the South to its existence, and to stir them to efforts as hopeless as they were earnest, to find some artificial stimulus for Southern industries. In the next ten years the process was to show its effects on the national field.
J. Tendencies to Disunion, 1850-1861.
200. The Abolitionists had never ceased to din the iniquity of slavery into the ears of the American people. Calhoun, Slavery Webster and Clay, with nearly all the other political and the leaders of 1850, had united in deploring the wickedSectioas. ness o f t nese fanatics, who were persistently stirring up a question which was steadily widening the distance between the sections. They mistook the symptom for the disease. Slavery itself had put the South out of harmony with its surroundings. Even in 1850, though they hardly yet knew it, the two sections had drifted so far apart that they were practically two different countries.
201. The South remained much as in 1790; while other parts of the country had developed, it had stood still. Power*" The remnants of colonial feeling, of class influence, which advancing democracy had wiped out elsewhere, retained all their force here, aggravated by the effects of an essentially aristocratic system of employment. The ruling class had to maintain a military control over the labouring class, and a class influence over the poorer whites. It had even secured in the Constitution provision for its political power in the representation given to three-fifths of the slaves. The twenty additional members of the House of Representatives were not simply a gain to the South ; they were still more a gain to the " black districts," where whites were few, and the slaveholder controlled the district. Slave-owners and slave-holders together, there were but 350,000 of them; but they had common interests, the intelligence to see them, and the courage to contend for them. The first step of a rising man was to buy slaves; and this was enough to enrol him in the dominant class. From it were drawn the representatives and senators in Congress, the governors, and all the holders of offices over which the " slave power," as it came to be called, had control. Not only was the South inert; its ruling class, its ablest and best men, united in defence of tendencies hostile to those of the rest of the country.
202. Immigration into the United States was not an important factor in its development until about 1847. The immigrants, so late as 1820, numbered but 8000 per annum; their number did not touch 100,000 until 1842, and then it fell for a year or two almost to half that number. In 1847 it rose again to 235,000, in 1849 to 300,000, and in 1850 to 428,000; all told, more than two and a quarter million persons from abroad settled in the United States between 1847 and 1854. Leaving cut the dregs of the immigra- tion, which settled down in the seaboard cities, its best part was a powerful nationalizing force. It had not come to any particular state, but to the United States; it had none of the traditional prejudices in favour of a state, but a strong feeling for the whole country; and the new feelings which it brought in must have had their weight not only on the gross mass of the people, but on the views of former leaders.' And all the influences of this enormous immigration were confined to the North and West. The immigration avoided slave soil as if by instinct. So late as 1880 the census reported that the Southern states, except Florida, Louisiana and Texas, are " practically without any foreign element "; but it was only in 1850-1860 that this differentiating circumstance began to show itself plainly. And, as the sections began to differ further in aims and policy, the North began to gain heavily in ability to ensure its success.
203. Texas was the last slave state ever admitted; and, as it refused to be divided, the South had no further increase of numbers in the Senate. Until 1850 the admission of a free state had been so promptly balanced by the admission of a slave state that the senators of the two sections had remained about equal in number; in 1860 the free states had 36 senators and the slave states only 30. As the representation in the House had changed from 35 free state and 30 slave state members in 1790 to 147 free state and 90 slave state in 1860, and as the number of presidential electors is the sum of the numbers of senators and representatives, political power had passed away from the South in 1850. If at any time the free states should unite they could control the House of Representatives and the Senate, elect the president and vice-president, dictate the appointment of judges and other Federal officers, and make the laws what they pleased. If pressed to it, they could even control the interpretation of the laws by the Supreme Court. No Federal judge could be removed except by impeachment, but an act of Congress could at any time increase the number of judges to any extent, and the appointment of the additional judges could reverse the opinion of the court.
204. In circumstances so critical a cautious quiescence and avoidance of public attention was the only safe course for the " slave power," but that course had become impossible. The numbers interested had become too large to be subject to complete discipline; all could not be held in cautious reserve; and, when an advanced proposal came from any quarter of the slave-holding lines, the whole army was shortly forced up to the advanced position. Every movement of the mass was necessarily aggressive; and aggression meant final collision. If collision came it must be on some question of the rights of the states; and on such a question the whole South would move as one man.
205. The Protestant churches of the United States had reflected in their organization the spirit of the political institutions under which they lived. Acting as purely voluntary associations, they had been organized into governments by delegates, much like the " conventions " which had been evolved in the political parties. The omnipresent slavery question intruded into these bodies, and split them. The Methodist Episcopal Church was thus divided into a Northern and a Southern branch in 1844, and the equally powerful Baptist Church met the same fate in the following year. Two of the four great Protestant bodies were thus no longer national; it was only by the most careful management that the integrity of the Presbyterian Church was maintained until 1861, when it also yielded; and only the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches retained their national character.
206. The political parties showed the same tendency. Each began to shrivel up in one section or the other. The notion of " squatter sovereignty," attractive at first to the Western democracy, and not repudiated by the South, enabled the Democratic party to pass the crisis of 1850 without losing much of its Northern vote, while Southern Whigs began to drift in, making the party continually Tendencies to Disunion.
more pro-slavery. This could not continue long without beginning to decrease its Northern vote, but this effect did not become plainly visible until after 1852. The efforts of the Whig party to ignore the great question alienated its anti-slavery members in the North, while they did not satisfy its Southern members. The Whig losses were not at first heavy, but, as the electoral vote of each state is determined by the barest plurality of the popular vote, they were enough to defeat the party almost everywhere in the presidential election of 1852. The Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott and the Democrats Franklin Pierce; and Pierce carried all but four of the thirty-one states, and was elected, receiving 254 out of the 296 electoral votes. This revelation of hopeless weakness was the downfall of the Whig party; it maintained its organization for four years longer, but the life had gone out of it. The future was with the Free Soil party, though it had polled but few votes in 1852.
207. During the administration of Taylor (and Vice- President Millard Fillmore, who succeeded him) Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Polk and Taylor were removed by death > and there was a stead y drift of other Political leaders out of public life. New men were pushing in everywhere, and in both sections they showed the prevailing tendency to disunion. The best of them were unprecedentedly radical. Charles Sumner, William H. Seward, and Salmon P. Chase came into the Senate, bringing the first accession of recognized force and ability to the antislavery feeling in that body. The new Southern men, such as Jefferson Davis, and the Democratic recruits from the Southern Whig party, such as Alexander H. Stephens, were ready to take the ground on which Calhoun had always insisted that Congress was bound not merely to the negative duty of not attacking slavery in theTerritories, but to the positive duty of protecting it. This, if it should become the general Southern position, was certain to destroy the notion of "squatter sovereignty," and thus to split the Democratic party, which was almost the last national ligament that now held the two fragments of the Union together.
208. The social disintegration was as rapid. Northern men travelling in the South were naturally looked upon with increasing suspicion, and were made to feel that they were on a so ^ a ^ en m s y m P at hi es - Some of the worst phases of democracy were called into play in the South; and, in some sections, law openly yielded supremacy to popular passion in the cases of suspected Abolitionists. Southern conventions, on all sorts of subjects, became common; and in these meetings, permeated by a dawning sense of Southern nationality, hardly any proposition looking to Southern independence of the North was met with disfavour.
209. Calhoun, in his last and greatest speech, called attention to the manner in which one tie after another was snapping.
But he ignored the real peril of the situation its Dfn7on. 0/dan S erous ^ acts: tnat tne South was steadily growing weaker in comparison with the North, and more unable to secure a wider area for the slave system; that it was therefore being steadily forced into demanding active Congressional protection for slavery in the Territories; that the North would never submit to this; and that the South must submit or bring about a collision by attempting to secede.
210. Anti-slavery feeling in the North was stimulated by the manner in which the Fugitive Slave Law was enforced immediately after 1850. The chase after fugitive slave Law s l aves was prosecuted in many cases with circum' stances of revolting brutality, and features of the slave system which had been tacitly looked upon as fictitious were brought home to the heart of the free states. (See FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS.) The added feeling showed its force when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress (1854). It organized the two new Territories of g; ansas an( j Nebraska. Both of them were for ever _ ., , , , ,. . ,-, free soil by the terms of the Missouri Compromise (17.11.). But the success of the notion of squatter sovereignty in holding the Democratic party together while Divergence ' ' KansasNebraska destroying the Whig party had intoxicated Stephen A. Douglas (</..), and other Northern Democrats; and they now applied the doctrine to these Territories. They did not desire " to vote slavery up or down," but left the decision to the people of the two Territories and the essential feature of the Missouri Compromise was specifically repealed.
211. This was the grossest political blunder in American history. The status of slavery had been settled, by the Constitution or by the compromises of 1820 and 1850, on every square foot of American soil; right or wrong, the settlement was made. The Kansas-Nebraska Act took a great mass of territory out of the settlement and flung it into the arena as a prize for which the sections were to struggle. The first result of the act was to throw parties into chaos. An American or " KnowNothing" (q.v.) party, a secret oath-bound organiza- fhe tion, pledged to oppose the influence or power of "American foreign-born citizens, had been formed to take the place Party-" of the defunct Whig party. It had been quite successful in state elections for a time, and was now beginning to have larger aspirations. It, like the Whig party, intended to ignore slavery, but, after a few years of life, the questions complicated with slavery entered its organization and divided it also. Even in 1854 many of its leaders in the North were forced to take position against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, while hosts of others joined in the opposition without any party organization. No American party ever rose sc swiftly as this latter; with no other party name than the awkward The title of " Anti-Nebraska men," it carried the Republican Congressional elections of 1854 at the North, forced Parf y- many of the former Know-Nothing leaders into union with it, and controlled the House of Representatives of the Congress which met in 1855. The Democratic party, which had been practically the only party since 1852, had now to face the latest and strongest of its broad-ccnstructionist opponents, one which with the nationalizing features of the Federalist and Whig parties combined democratic feelings and methods, and, above all, had a democratic purpose at bottom. It acknowledged, at first, no purpose aimed at slavery, only an intention to exclude slavery from theTerritories; but, under such principles, it was the only party which was potentially an anti-slavery party, the only party to which the enslaved labourer of the South could look with the faintest hope of aid in reaching the status of a man. The new party had grasped the function which belonged of right to its great opponent, and it seized with it its opponent's original title. The name Democrat had quite taken the place of that first used Republican but the latter had never passed out of popular remembrance and liking at the North. The new party took quick and skilful advantage of this by assuming the old name (see REPUBLICAN PARTY), and early in 1856 the two great parties of the present Democratic and Republican were drawn up against one another.
212. The foreign relations of the United States during Pierce's term of office were overshadowed by the domestic difficulties, but were of importance. In the Koszta case (1853) national protection had been afforded on foreign soil to a person who had only taken the preliminary steps to naturalization (see MARCY, W. L.). Japan had been opened to American intercourse and commerce (1854). But the question of slavery was more and more thrusting itself even into foreign relations. A great Southern republic, to be founded at first by the slave states, but to take in gradually the whole territory around the Gulf of Mexico and include the West Indies, was soon to be a pretty general ambition among slave-holders, and its first phases appeared during Pierce's administration. Efforts were begun to obtain Cuba from Spain; and the three leading American ministers abroad, meeting at Ostend, Ostend united in declaring the possession of Cuba to be Manifesto; essential to the well-being of the United States Filibuster(1854). (See BUCHANAN, JAMES.) " Filibustering " '"*' expeditions against Cuba or the smaller South American states, intended so to revolutionize them as to lay a basis for an 1850-1861 of 18/6 application to be annexed to the United States, became common, and taxed the energies of the Federal government. But these yielded in importance to the affairs in Kansas.
213. Nebraska was then supposed to be a desert, and attention was directed almost exclusively to Kansas. No sooner had its organization left the matter of slavery to be decided by its " people " than the anti-slavery people of the North and West felt it to be their duty to see that the " people " of the Territory should be anti-slavery in sympathy. Emigrant associations were formed, and these shipped men and families to Kansas, arming them for their protection in the new country. Southern newspapers called for similar measures in the South, but the call was less effective. Southern men without slaves, settling a new state, were uncomfortably apt to prohibit slavery, as in California. Only slaveholders were trusty pro-slavery men; and such were not likely to take slaves to Kansas and risk their ownership on the result of the struggle. But for the people of Missouri, Kansas would have been free soil at once. Lying across the direct road to Kansas, the Missouri settlers blockaded the way of free-state settlers, crossed into Kansas, and voted profusely at the first Territorial election. The story of the contest between the freestate and pro-slavery settlers is told elsewhere (see KANSAS: History) ; here it need only be said that the struggle passed into a real civil war, the two powers mustering considerable armies, fighting battles, capturing towns and paroling [prisoners. The struggle was really over in 1857, and the South was beaten. There were, however, many obstacles yet to be overcome before the new state of Kansas was recognized by Congress, after the withdrawal of the senators of the seceding states (1861).
214. In the heat of the Kansas struggle came the presidential election of 1856. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan, declaring, as usual, for the strictest limitations of the P owers f the Federal government on a number of points specified, and reaffirming the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act the settlement of slavery by the people of a Territory. The remnant of the Whig party, including the Know-Nothings of the North and those Southern men who wished no further discussion of slavery, nominated the president who had gone out of office in 1853, Millard Fillmore. The Republican party nominated John C. Fremont; the bulk of its manifesto was taken up with protests against attempts to introduce slavery into the Territories; but it showed its broad-construction tendencies by declaring for appropriations of Federal moneys for internal improvements. The Democrats were successful in electing Buchanan; 1 but the position of the party was quite different from the triumph with which it had come out of the election of 1852. It was no longer master of twenty-seven of the thirty-one states; all New England and New York, all the North-West but Indiana and Illinois, all the free states but five, had gone against it; its candidate no longer had a majority of the popular vote. For the first time in the history of the country a distinctly antislavery candidate ha'd obtained an electoral vote, and had even come near obtaining the presidency. Fillmore had carried but one state, Maryland; Buchanan had carried the rest of the South, with a few states in the North, and Fremont the rest of the North and none of the South. If things had gone so far that the two sections were to be constituted into opposing political parties, it was evident that the end was near.
215. Oddly enough the constitutionality of the Compromise of 1820 had never happened to come before the Supreme Court TheDred for consideration. In 1856-1857 it came up for Scott the first time. One Dred Scott, a Missouri slave Decision. who had been taken m tQ juj no j Sj a f ree state)
and in 1836 to Minnesota, within the territory covered by the Compromise, and had some years after being taken back to Missouri in 1838 sued for his freedom, was sold (1852) to a citizen of New York. Scott then transferred his suit from 1 Buchanan received 174 electoral votes, Fremont 114 and Fillmore 8. The popular vote was: for Buchanan, 1,838,169; for Fr6mont, 1,341,264; for Fillmore, 874,534.
the state to the Federal courts, under the power given them to try suits between citizens of different states, and the case came by appeal to the Suprsme Court. Its decision, announced on the 6th of March 1857, put Scott out of court on the ground that a slave, or the descendant of slaves, could not be a citizen of the United States or have any standing in Federal courts. The opinion of Chief Justice Taney went on to attack the validity of the Missouri Compromise, for the reasons that one of the Constitutional functions of Congress was the protection of property; that slaves had been recognized as property by the Constitution, and that Congress was bound to protect, not to prohibit, slavery in the Territories. 2 The mass of the Northern people held that slaves were looked upon by the Constitution, not as property, but as " persons held to service or labour " by state laws; that the Constitutional function of Congress was the protection of liberty as well as of property; and that Congress was thus bound to prohibit, not to protect, slavery in the Territories. A large part of the North flouted the decision of the Supreme Court, and the storm of angry dissent which it aroused did the disunionists good service at the South. From this time the leading newspapers in the South maintained that the radical Southern view first advanced by Calhoun, and but slowly accepted by other Southern leaders, as to the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the Territories, had been confirmed by the Supreme Court ; that the Northern Republicans had rejected it; even the " squatter sovereignty " of Northern Democrats could no longer be submitted to by the South.
216. The population of the United States in 1860 was over 31,000,000, an increase of more than 8,000,000 in ten years. As the decennial increases of population became Admission larger, so did the divergence of the sections in popu- of Minnesota lation, and still more in wealth and resources. Two aad Ore x a - more free states came in during this period Minnesota (1858) and Oregon (1859) and Kansas was clamouring loudly for the same privilege. The free and slave states, which had been almost equal in population in 1790, stood now as 19 to 12. And of the 12,000,000 in slave states, the 4,000,000 slaves and the 250,000 free blacks were not so much a factor of strength as a possible source of weakness and danger. No serious slave rising had ever taken place in the South; but John Brown's j oaa attack (1859) on Harper's Ferry as the first move Brown's in a project to rouse the slaves (see BROWN, JOHN), Kald - and the alarm which it carried through the South, were tokens of a danger which added a new horror to the chances of civil war. It was not wonderful that men, in the hope of finding some compromise by which to avoid such a catastrophe, should be willing to give up everything but principle, nor that offers of compromise should urge Southern leaders further into the fatal belief that " the North would not fight."
217. Northern Democrats, under the lead of Douglas, had been forced already almost to the point of revolt by the determination of Southern senators to prevent the admission of Division Kansas as a free state, if not to secure her admission of the as a slave state. When the Democratic convention Democratk of 1860 met at Charleston the last strand of the y ' last national political organization parted; the Democratic party itself was split at last by the slavery question. The Southern delegates demanded a declaration in favour of the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the Territories. It was all that the Douglas Democrats could then do to maintain themselves in a few Northern states; such a declaration meant political suicide everywhere, and they voted it down. The convention divided into two bodies. The Southern body adjourned to Richmond, and the Northern and Border state convention to Baltimore. Here the Northern delegates, by seating some delegates friendly to Douglas, 2 In his decision Taney, referring to the period before the adoption of the Constitution, wrote: " They (negroes) had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so 'far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This was intended to be merely a historical statement, but it is often incorrectly quoted as if it referred to the status of the negro in 1857.
provoked a further secession of border state delegates, who, in company with the Richmond body, nominated John C. Breckinridge (q.v.) and Joseph Lane for president and vice-president. The remainder of the original convention nominated Douglas and H. V. Johnson.
218. The remnant of the old Whig and Know-Nothing parties, now calling itself the Constitutional Union party, met Constitu- a ^ Baltimore and nominated John Bell (q.v.) tioaai Union and Edward Everett. The Republican convention Party; me t at Chicago. Its " platform " of 1856 had k een soroewhat broad-constructionist in its nature and leanings, but a strong Democratic element in the party had prevented it from going too far in this direction. The election of 1856 had shown that, with the votes of Pennsylvania and Illinois, the party would have then been successful, and the Democratic element was now ready to take almost anything which would secure the votes of these states. This state of affairs will go to explain the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for president, with Hannibal Hamlin, a former Democrat, for vice-president, and the declaration of the platform in favour of a protective tariff. The mass of the platform was still devoted to the necessity of excluding slavery from the Territories. To sum The Parties U P : tne ^ e ^ P art y wished to have no discussion of aadsiavery slavery; the Douglas Democrats rested on " squatter lathe Terri- sovereignty " and the Compromise of 1850, but would tories. accept the decision of the Supreme Court; the Republicans demanded that Congress should legislate for the prohibition of slavery in the Territories; and the Southern Democrats demanded that Congress should legislate for the protection of slavery in the Territories.
219. No candidate received a majority of the popular vote, Lincoln standing first and Douglas second. But Lincoln and Hamlin had a clear majority of the electoral of 1860. vote, and so were elected, Breckinridge and Lane coming next. 1 It is worthy of mention that, up to the last hours of Lincoln's first term of office, Congress would always have contained a majority opposed to him but for the absence of the members from the seceding states. The interests of the South and even of slavery were thus safe enough under an anti-slavery president. But the drift of events was too plain. Nullification had come and gone, and the nation feared it no longer. Even secession by a single state was now almost out of the question; the letters of Southern governors in 1860, in consultation on the state of affairs, agree that no state would secede without assurances of support by others. If this crisis were allowed to slip by without action, even a sectional secession would soon be impossible.
220. In October 1860 Governor W. H. Gist, of South Carolina, sent a letter to the governor of each of the other cotton states Secession. exce P t Texas, asking co-operation in case South Carolina should resolve upon secession, and the replies were favourable. The democratic revolution which, since 1829, had compelled the legislature to give the choice of presidential electors to the people of the states had not affected South Carolina; her electors were still chosen by the legislature. That body, after having chosen the state's electors on the 6th of November, remained in session until the telegraph had brought assurances that Lincoln had secured a sufficient number of electors to ensure his election; it then (on the loth ) summoned a state convention and adjourned. The state convention, which is a legislative body chosen for a special purpose, met first at Columbia and then at Charleston, and on the 20th of December unanimously passed an " ordinance of secession," repealing the acts by which the state had ratified the Constitution and its amendments, and dissolving " the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the ' United States of America.' " The convention took all steps necessary to prepare for war, and adjourned. Similar ordinances were passed by conventions in ' * Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, Breckinridge 72, Bell 39 and Douglas 12. Their popular votes were 1,866,352, 847,514, 587.830 and 1,375,157 respectively.
XXVII. 23 Mississippi (Jan. 9, 1861), Florida (Jan. 10), Alabama (Jan. n), Georgia (Jan. 19), Louisiana (Jan. 26) and Texas (Feb. i).
221. The opposition in the South did not deny the right to secede, but the expediency of its exercise. Their effort was to elect delegates to the state conventions The Arguwho would vote not to secede. They were beaten, meat for says A. H. Stephens, by the cry, originally uttered Secet > s 'o a - by T. R. R. Cobb before his state legislature (Nov. 12, 1860), "we can make better terms out of the Union than in it." That is, the states were to withdraw individually, suspend the functions of the Federal government within their jurisdiction for the time, consider maturely any proposals for guarantees for their rights in the Union, and return as soon as satisfactory guarantees should be given. A second point to be noted is the difference between the notions Action at of a state convention prevalent in the North the state and in the South. The Northern state convention < a ' was generally considered as a preliminary body, whose action was not complete or valid until ratified by a popular vote. The Southern state convention was looked upon as the incarnation of the sovereignty of the state, and its action was not supposed to need a popular ratification. When the conventions of the seceding states had adopted the ordinances of secession, they proceeded to other business. They appointed delegates, who met at Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, formed a provisional constitution (Feb. 8) for the "Confederate States," chose a provisional ( president and vice-president (Jefferson Davis and / e( / era < e A. H. Stephens), and established an army, treasury, states." and other executive departments. The president and vice-president were inaugurated on the 18th of February. The permanent constitution, adopted on the nth of March, was copied from that of the United States, with variations meant to maintain state sovereignty, to give the cabinet seats in Congress, and to prevent the grant of bounties or any protective features in the tariff or the maintenance of internal improvements at general expense; and it expressly provided that in all the territory belonging to the Confederacy but lying without the limits of the several states " the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government " (see CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA).
222. Under what claim of Constitutional right all this was done passes comprehension. That a state convention should have the final power of decision on the Constituquestion which it was summoned to consider is tionai quite as radical doctrine as has yet been heard R <8 r * te - of; that a state convention, summoned to consider the one question of secession, should go on, with no appeal to any further popular authority or mandate, to send delegates to meet those of other states and form a new national government, which could only exist by warring on the United States, is a novel feature in American Constitutional law. It was revolution or nothing. Only in Texas, where the call of the state convention was so irregular that a popular vote could hardly be escaped, was any popular vote allowed. Elsewhere the functions of the voter ceased when he voted for delegates to the state convention; he could only look on helplessly while that body went on to constitute him a citizen of a new nation.
223. The Border states were in two tiers North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas next to the seceding states, and Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri TfieBorrfe/ next to the .free states. None of these was willing SMtes .
to secede. There was, however, one force which might draw them into secession. A state which did not wish to secede, but believed in state sovereignty and the abstract right of secession, would be inclined to take up arms to resist any attempt by the Federal government to coerce a seceding state. In this way, in the following spring, the original seven seceding states were reinforced by four of the Border states.
224. In the North and West surprisingly little attention was given to the systematic course of procedure along the 1861-1865 Gulf. The people of those sections were very busy; they had heard much of this talk before, and looked upon it as a kind of stage-thunder, the inevitable accompaniment of Feeling la recent presidential elections. Republican politicians, * with the exception of a few, were inclined to refrain from public declarations of intention. Some of them such as Seward, showed a disposition to let the " erring sisters " depart in peace, expecting to make the loss good by accessions from Canada. A few, like Senator Zachariah Chandler, believed that there would be " blood-letting," but most of them were still doubtful as to the future. In the North the leaders and the people generally shrank from the prospect of war, and many were prepared to make radical concessions to avert hostilities. Among the various proposals to this end that offered in the Senate by John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and known as the Crittenden Compromise, was perhaps received with most favour. This took the form of six proposed amendments to the Constitution, of which two were virtually a rephrasing of the essential feature of the Missouri Compromise and of the principle of popular or squatter sovereignty, and others provided that the national government should pay to the owner of any fugitive slave, whose return was prevented by opposition in the North, the full value of such slave, and prohibited the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia" so long as it exists in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland or either." This proposed compromise was rejected by the Senate by a close vote on the 2nd of March 1861. A Peace Congress, called by Virginia, met in Washington from the 4th to the 27th of February 1861 , 21 states being represented, and proposed a constitutional amendment embodying changes very similar to those of the Crittenden Compromise, but its proposal was not acted upon by Congress. Democratic politicians were hide-bound by their repetition of the phrase " voluntary Union "; they had not yet hit upon the theory which carried the War Democrats through the final struggle, that the sovereign state of New York could make war upon the sovereign state of South Carolina for the unfriendly act of secession, and that the war was waged by the non-seceding against the seceding states. President Buchanan publicly condemned the doctrine of secession, though he added a confession of his inability to see how secession was to be prevented if a state should be so wilful as to attempt it. Congress did nothing, except to admit Kansas as a free state Admission . ..
of Kansas; and adopt the protective Morrill tariff; even after Morriu its members from the seceding states had withdrawn, Tgf! Hot those who remained made no preparations for conflict, and, at their adjournment in March 1861, left the Federal government naked and helpless.
225. The only sign of life in the body politic, the half-awakened word of warning from the Democracy of the North and West, was. its choice of governors of states. A remarkT" a ' 3 ' e 8 rou P f men . soon to be known as the " war governors" Israel Washburn of Maine, Erastus Fairbanks of Vermont, Ichabod Goodwin of New Hampshire, John Albion Andrew of Massachusetts.William Sprague of Rhode Island, William Alfred Buckingham of Connecticut, Edwin Dennison Morgan of New York, Charles Smith Olden of New Jersey, Andrew Gregg Curtin of Pennsylvania,William Dennison of Ohio, Oliver Perry Morton of Indiana, Richard Yates of Illinois, Austin Blair of Michigan, Alexander Williams Randall of Wisconsin, Samuel Jordan Kirkwood of Iowa, and Alexander Ramsey of Minnesota held the executive powers of the Northern states in 1861-1862. Some of these governors, such as Andrew and Buckingham, as they saw the struggle come nearer, went so far as to order the purchase of warlike material for their states on their private responsibility, and their action saved days of time.
226. The little army of the United States had been almost Seizure of P u t ou *- f consideration; wherever its detachments Untied could be found in the South they were surstates rounded and forced to surrender and were trans*roperty. f erred to tne North. After secession, and in some of the states even before it, the forts, arsenals, mints, custom- houses, ship-yards and public property of the United States had been seized by authority of the state, and these were held until transferred to the new Confederate States organization. In the first two months of 1861 the authority of the United States was paralysed in seven states, and in at least seven more its future authority seemed of very doubtful duration.
227. Only a few forts, of all the magnificent structures with which the nation had dotted the Southern coast, remained to it the forts near Key West, Fortress Monroe at the p os itionot mouth of Chesapeake Bay, Fort Pickens at Pensa- tbe Remaincola and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour. Both log Fort*. the last-named were beleaguered by hostile batteries, but the administration of President Buchanan, intent on maintaining the peace until the new administration should come in, instructed their commanding officers to refrain from any acts tending to open conflict. The Federal officers, therefore, were obliged to look idly on while every preparation was made for their destruction, and even while a vessel bearing supplies for Fort Sumter was driven back by the batteries between it and the sea.
228. The divergence between the two sections of the country had thus passed into disunion, and was soon to pass into open hostility. The legal recognition of the custom of slavery, acting upon and reacted upon by every step in their economic development and every difference in their natural characteristics, surroundings and institutions, had carried North and South further and faster apart, until the elements of a distinct nationality had appeared in the latter. Slavery had had somewhat the same effect on the South that democracy had had on the colonies. In the latter case the aristocracy of the mother-country had made a very feeble struggle to maintain the unity of its empire. It remained to be seen, in the American case, whether democracy would do better.
K.The Civil War, 1861-1865.
229. Secession had taken away many of the men who had for years managed the Federal government, and who understood its workings. Lincoln's party was in power embarrassfor the first time; his officers were new to the meats of the routine of Federal administration; and the circum- Ooverameat. stances with which they were called upon to deal were such as to daunt any spirit. The government had become so nearly bankrupt in the closing days of Buchanan's administration that it had only escaped by paying double interest, and that by the special favour of the New York banks, which obtained in return the appointment of John A. Dix as secretary of the treasury. The army had been almost broken up by captures of men and material and by resignations of competent and trusted officers. The navy had come to such a pass that, in February 1861, a House committee reported that only two vessels, one of twenty, the other of two guns, were available for the defence of the entire Atlantic coast. And, to complicate all difficulties, a horde of clamorous office-seekers crowded Washington.
230. Before many weeks of Lincoln's administration had passed, the starting of an expedition to provision Fort Sumter brought on an attack by the batteries around the Port fort, and after a bombardment of 36 hours the Sumter. fort surrendered (April 14, 1861). It is not necessary nisingia to rehearse the familiar story of the outburst of tbeNorth - feeling which followed this event and the proclamation of President Lincoln calling for volunteers. The 75,000 volunteers called for were supplied three or four times over, and those who were refused felt the refusal as a personal deprivation.
231. There had been some belief in the South that the North-West would take no part in the impending conflict, and that its people could be persuaded to keep up friendly relations with the new nationality until / s the final treaty of peace should establish all the fragments of the late Union upon an international basis. In the spring months of 1861 Douglas, who had long been denounced as the tool of the Southern slave-holders, was spending the closing days of life in expressing the determination of the North- West that it would never submit to have " a line of custom-houses " between it and the ocean. The batteries which Confederate authority was erecting on the banks of the Mississippi were fuel to the flame. Far-off California, which had been considered neutral by all parties, pronounced as unequivocally for the national authority.
232. The shock of arms put an end to opposition in the South as well. The peculiar isolation of life in the South precluded the more ignorant voter from any comth state"" Prisons of the power of his state with any other; to him it was almost inconceivable that his state should own or have a superior. The better educated men, of wider experience, had been trained to think state sovereignty the foundation of civil liberty, and, when their state spoke, they felt bound to " follow their state." The president of the Confederate States issued his call for men, and it also was more than met.
233. Lincoln's call for troops met with an angry reception wherever the doctrine of state sovereignty had a foothold.
The governors of the Border states generally ' returned it with a refusal to furnish any troops.
Two states, North Carolina and Arkansas, seceded and joined the Confederate States. In two others, Virginia and Tennessee, the state politicians formed " military leagues " with the Confederacy, allowing Confederate troops to take possession of the states, and then submitted the question of secession to " popular vote." The secession of these states was thus accomplished, and Richmond became the Confederate capital. The same process was attempted in Missouri, but failed, and the state remained loyal. The politician class in Maryland and Kentucky took the extraordinary course of attempting to maintain neutrality; but the growing power of the Federal government soon enabled the people of the two states to resume control of their governments and give consistent support to the Union. Kentucky, however, had troops in the Confederate armies; and one of her citizens, the late vice-president, John C. Breckinridge, left his place in the Senate and became an officer in the Confederate service. Delaware cast her lot from the first with the Union.
234. The first blood of the war was shed in the streets of Baltimore, when a mob attempted to stop Massachusetts troops on their way to Washington (April 19). For a time ' there was difficulty in getting troops through Maryland because of the active hostility of a part of its people, but this was overcome, and the national capital was made secure. The Confederate lines had been pushed up to Manassas Junction, about 30 m. from Washington. When Congress, called into special session by the president for the 4th of July, came together, the outline of the Confederate States had been fixed. Their line of defence held the left bank of the Potomac from Fortress Monroe nearly to Washington; thence, at a distance of some 30 m. from the river, to Harper's Ferry; thence through the mountains of western Virginia and the southern part of Kentucky, crossing the Mississippi a little below Cairo; thence through southern Missouri to the eastern border of Kansas; and thence south-west through the Indian Territory and along the northern boundary of Texas to the Rio Grande. The length of the line, including also the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, has been estimated at 11,000 m. The territory within it comprised about 800,000 sq. m., with a population of over 9,000,000 and great natural resources. Its cotton was almost essential to the manufactories of the world; in exchange for it every munition of war could be procured; and it was hardly possible to blockade a coast over 3000 m. in length, on which Blockade. tne blockading force had but one port of refuge, and that about the middle of the line. Nevertheless President Lincoln issued his first call for troops on the 15th of April, President Davis then issued a proclamation (on the 17th) offering letters of marque and reprisal against the commerce of the United States to private vessels, and on the Lincoln answered with a proclamation announcing the blockade of the Southern coast. The news brought out proclamations of neutrality from Great Britain and France, and, according to subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court, made the struggle a civil war, though the minority held that this did not occur legally until the act of Congress of the 13th of July 1861, authorizing the president, in case of insurrection, to shut up ports and suspend commercial intercourse with the revolted district.
235. The president found himself compelled to assume powers never granted to the executive authority, trusting to the subsequent action of Congress to validate his suspension action. He had to raise and support armies and of "Habeas navies; he even had to authorize seizures of neces- Corpus," sary property, of railroad and telegraph lines, arrests of suspected persons, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in certain districts. Congress supported him, and proceeded in 1863 to give the president power to suspend the writ anywhere in the United States ; this power he promptly exercised. The Supreme Court, after the war, in the Milligan case (4 Wallace, 133) decided that no branch of the government had power to suspend the writ in districts where the courts were open that the privilege of the writ might be suspended as to persons properly involved in the war, but that the writ was still to issue, the court deciding whether the person came within the classes to whom the suspension applied. This decision, however, did not come until " arbitrary arrests," as they were called, had been a feature of the entire war. A similar suspension took place in the Confederate States.
236. When Congress met (July 4, 1861) the x absence of Southern members had made it heavily Republican. It decided to consider no business but that connected with the war, authorized a loan and the raising "&*** of 500,000 volunteers, and made confiscation of property a penalty of rebellion. While it was in session the first serious battle of the war Bull Run, or Manassas took place (July 21), and resulted in the defeat of the Federal army. (For this and the other battles of the war see AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, and the supplementary articles dealing with particular battles and campaigns.) The over-zealous action of a naval officer in taking the Confederate envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell out of the Toe British steamer " Trent " sailing between two neutral "Trent" ports almost brought about a collision between Case ' - the United States and Great Britain in November. But the American precedents were all against the United States, and the envoys were given up.
237. The broad-construction tendencies of the Republican party showed themselves more plainly as the war grew more serious; there was an increasing disposition to cut paper every knot by legislation, with less regard to the Currency; constitutionality of the legislation. A paper cur- s ' av *O'' rency, commonly known as " greenbacks " (?..), was adopted and made legal tender (Feb. 25, 1862). The first symptoms of a disposition to attack slavery appeared: slavery was prohibited (April 16) in the District of Columbia and the Territories (June 19); the army was forbidden to surrender escaped slaves to their owners; and slaves of insurgents were ordered to be confiscated. In addition to a homestead act (see HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION LAWS) giving public lands to actual settlers at reduced rates, Congress began a further development of the system of granting public lands to railways. Another important act (1862) granted public lands for the establishment of agricultural and mechanical colleges (see MORRIIX, J. S.).
238. The railway system of the United States was but twenty years old in 1850, but it had begun to assume some consistency. The day of short and disconnected lines had passed, and the connexions which were to develop into railway systems had appeared. Consolidation of smaller companies had begun; the all-rail route across the state of New York was made up of more than a dozen original companies at its consolidation in 1853. The Erie railway, chartered in 1832, was completed from 1861-1865 Grants Piermont to Dunkirk, New York, in 1851; and another line the Pennsylvania was completed from Harrisburg to Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1854. These were at least the germs of great trunk lines. The cost of American railways has been only from one-half to one-fourth of the cost of European railways; but an investment in a Far Western railway in 1850-1860 was an extra-hazardous risk. Not only did social conditions make any form of business hazardous; the new railway often had to enter a territory bare of population, and there create its own towns, farms and traffic. Whether it could do so was so doubtful as to make additional inducements to capital necessary. The means attempted by Congress in 1850, * n *-^ e case ^ ^he Illinois Central railroad, was to grant public lands to the corporation, reserving to the United States the alternate sections. At first grants were made to the states for the benefit of the corporations; the act of 1862 made the grant directly to the corporation.
239. The vital military and political necessity of an immediate railway connexion with the Pacific coast was hardly open to doubt in 1862; but the necessity hardly justified the terms which were offered and taken. The Union Pacific railroad was incorporated; the United States government was to issue to it bonds, on the completion of each 40 m., to the amount of $16,000 per mile, to be a first mortgage; through Utah and Nevada the aid was to be doubled, and for some 300 m. of mountain building to be trebled; and, in addition to this, alternate sections of land were granted. The land-grant system, thus begun, was carried on extensively, the largest single grants being those of 47,000,000 acres to the Northern Pacific (1864) and of 42,000,000 to the Atlantic & Pacific line (1866).
240. Specie payments had been suspended almost everywhere towards the end of 1861; but the price of gold was but ^_^ JO2's at the beginning of 1862. About May its Paper. " price in paper currency began to rise. It touched 170 during the next year, and 285 in 1864; but the real price probably never went much above 250. Other articles felt the influence in currency prices. Mr D. A. Wells, in 1866, estimated that prices and rents had risen 90% since 1861, while wages had not risen more than 60%.
241. The duties on imports were driven higher than the original Merrill tariff had ever contemplated. The average rates, which had been 18% on dutiable articles and 12% Tariftand on the aggregate in 1860-1861, rose, before the internal end of the war, to nearly 50 % on dutiable Revenue ar ticles and 35 % on the aggregate. Domestic manufactures sprang into new life under such hothouse encouragement; every one who had spare wealth converted it into manufacturing capital. The probability of such a result had been the means of getting votes for an increased tariff; free traders had voted for it as well as protectionists. For the tariff was only a means of getting capital into positions in which taxation could be applied to it, and the " internal revenue " taxation was merciless beyond precedent. The annual increase of wealth from capital was then about $550,000,000; the internal revenue taxation on it rose in 1866 to $310,000,000, or nearly 60%.
242. The stress of all this upon the poor must have been great, but it was relieved in part by the bond system on which Bonds. *- ne war was conducted. While the armies and navies were shooting off large blocks of the crops of 1880 or 1890, work and wages were abundant for all who were competent for them. It is true, then, that the poor paid most of the cost of the war; it is also true that the poor had shared in that anticipation of the future which had been forced on the country, and that, when the drafts on the future came to be redeemed, it was done mainly by taxation on luxuries. The destruction of a Northern railway meant more work for Northern iron mills and their workmen. The destruction of a Southern road was an unmitigated injury; it had to be made good at once, by paper issues; the South could make no drafts on the future, by bond issues, for the blockade had put cotton out of the game, and Southern bonds were hardly saleable. Every expense had to be met by paper issues; each issue forced prices higher; every rise in p apcr prices called for an increased issue of paper, with issues in increased effects for evil. A Rebel War-Clerk's tbe Soath - Diary gives the following as the prices in the Richmond market for May 1864: " Boots, '$200; coats, $350; pantaloons, $100; shoes, $125; flour, $275 per barrel; meal, $60 to $80 per bushel; bacon, $9 per pound; no beef in market; chickens, $30 per pair; shad, $20; potatoes, $25 per bushel; turnip greens, $4 per peck; white beans, $4 per quart or $120 per bushel; butter, $15 per pound; lard, same; wood, $50 per cord." How the rise in wages, always far slower than other prices, could meet such prices as these one must be left to imagine. Most of the burden was sustained by the women of the South.
243. The complete lack of manufactures told heavily against the South from the beginning. As men were drawn from agriculture in the North and West, the increased demand for labour was shaded off into an increased demand for agricultural machinery; every increased percentage of power in reaping-machines liberated so many men for service at the front. The reapingmachines of the South the slaves were incapable of any such improvement, and, besides, required the presence of a portion of the possible fighting-men at home to watch them. There is an evident significance in the exemption from military duty in the Confederate States of " one agriculturist on such farm, where there is no white male adult not liable to duty, employing 15 able-bodied slaves between ten and fifty years of age." But, to the honour of the enslaved race, no insurrection took place.
244. The pressing need for men in the army made the Confederate Congress utterly unable to withstand the growth of executive power. Its bills were prepared by the confederate cabinet, and the action of Congress was quite per- Congress functory. The suspension of the writ of habeas ""I Presicorpus, and the vast powers granted to President aeat " Davis, or assumed by him under the plea of military necessity, with the absence of a watchful and well-informed public opinion, made the Confederate government by degrees almost a despotism. It was not until the closing months of the war that the expiring Confederate Congress mustered up courage enough to oppose the president's will. (See CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.) The organized and even radical opposition to the war in the North, the meddlesomeness of Congress and its " committees on the conduct of the war," were no doubt unpleasant to Lincoln but they carried the country through the crisis without the effects visible in the South.
245. Another act of Federal legislation the National Bank Act (Feb. 25, 1863; supplemented by the act of June 3, 1864) should be mentioned here, as it was closely connected with the sale of bonds. The banks were to National be organized, and, on depositing United States Banking bonds at Washington, were to be permitted to s fstem. issue notes up to 90% of the value of the bonds deposited. As the redemption of the notes was thus assured, they circulated without question all over the United States. By a subsequent act (1865) the remaining state bank circulation was taxed out of existence. (See BANKS AND BANKING: United States.)
246. At the beginning of 1862 the lines of demarcation between the two powers had become plainly marked. The western part of Virginia had separated itself from Admission the parent state, and was admitted as a state (1863) of West under the name of West Virginia. It was certain ylr x lala - that Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri had been saved to the Union, and that the battle was to be fought out in the territory to the south of them.
247. At the beginning of the war the people and leaders of the North had not desired to interfere with slavery, but circumstances had been too strong for them. Lincoln had declared that he meant to save the Union as he best could by preserving slavery, by destroying it, or by destroying part and preserving part of it. Just after the battle of Antietam (17 Sept. 1862) he issued his proclamation calling on the revolted The Emanci- states to return to their allegiance before the next pationPro- year, otherwise their slaves would be declared ciamatioa. f ree men j,j o s t a t e returned, and the threatened declaration was issued on the 1st of January 1863. As president, Lincoln could issue no such declaration; as commander-in-chief of the armies and navies of the United States he could issue directions only as 19 the territory within his lines; but the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his lines. It has therefore been debated whether the proclamation was in reality of any force. It may fairly be taken as an announcement of the policy which was to guide the army, and as a declaration of freedom taking effect as the lines advanced. At all events, this was its exact effect. Its international importance was far greater. The locking up of the world's source of cotton supply had been a general calamity, and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected that the English and French governments, or at least one of them, would intervene in the war for the purpose of raising the blockade and releasing the Southern cotton. The conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery made intervention impossible for governments whose peoples had now a controlling influence on their policy and intelligence enough to understand the issue.
248. Confederate agents in England were numerous and active. Taking advantage of every loophole in the British Foreign Enlistment Act, they built and sent to sea e " Alabama " and " Florida," which for a time almost drove Federal commerce from the ocean. Whenever they were closely pursued by United States vessels they took refuge in neutral ports until a safe opportunity occurred to put to sea again. Another, the " Georgia," was added in 1863. All three were destroyed in 1864. (See ALABAMA ARBITRATION.) Confederate attempts to have ironclads equipped in England and France were unsuccessful.
249. The turning-point of the war was evidently in the early days of July 1863, when the victories of Vicksburg and The Current Gettysburg came together. The national governof Success ment had at the beginning cut the Confederate changes. States down to a much smaller area than might well have been expected; its armies had pushed the besieging lines far into the hostile territory, and had held the ground which they had gained; and the war itself had developed a class of generals who cared less for the conquest of territory than for attacking and destroying the opposing armies. The great drafts on the future which the credit of the Federal government enabled the North to make gave it also a startling appearance of prosperity; so far from feeling the war, it was driving production of every kind to a higher pitch than ever before.
250. The war had not merely developed improved weapons and munitions of war; it had also spurred the people on to a more careful attention to the welfare of the soldiers, the fighting men drawn from their own number. The sanitary commission, the Christian commission, and other voluntary associations for the physical and moral care of soldiers, received and disbursed very large sums. The national government was paying an average amount of $2,000,000 per day for the prosecution of the war, and, in spite of the severest taxation, the debt grew to $500,000,000 in June 1862, to twice that amount a year later, to $1,700,000,000 in June 1864, and reached its maximum on the 31st of August 1865 $2,845,907,626. But this lavish expenditure was directed with energy and judgment. The blockading fleets were kept in perfect order and with every condition of success. The railway and telegraph were brought into systematic use for the first time in modern warfare. Late in 1863 Edwin M. Stanton, the secretary of waf, moved two corps of 23,000 men from Washington to Chattanooga, 1200 m., in seven days. A year later he moved another corps, 15,000 strong, from Tennessee to Washington in eleven days, and within a month had collected vessels and transferred it to North Carolina.
251. On the other hand, the Federal armies now held almost all the great southern through lines of railroad, except the Georgia lines and those which supplied Lee from the South.
The want of the Southern people was merely growing <to * p ~ in degree, not in kind. The conscription, sweeping from the first, had become omnivorous; towards the end of the war every man between seventeen and fifty-five was legally liable to service, and in practice the only limit was physical incapacity. In 1863 the Federal government also was driven to conscription. The first attempts to carry it out resulted in forcible resistance in several places, the worst being the " draft riots " in New York (July), when the city was in the hands of the mob for several days. All the resistance was put down; but exemptions and substitute purchases were so freely permitted that the draft in the North had little effect except as a stimulus to the states in filling their quotas of volunteers by voting bounties.
252. In 1864 Lincoln was re-elected with Andrew Johnson as vice-president. The Democratic Convention had declared that, after four years of failure to restore the Union by war, during which the Constitution had been vio- lated in all its parts under thapleaof military necessity, a cessation of hostilities ought to be obtained, and had nomi- nated General George B. McClellan and G. H. Pendleton. Farra- gut's victory in Mobile Bay (Aug. 5), by which he sealed up the last port, except Wilmington, of the blockade-runners, and the evidently staggering condition of the Confederate resistance in the East and the West, were the sharpest comment- aries on the Democratic platform; and its candi- dates carried only three of the twenty-five states which took part in the election. 1 The thirty-sixth state Nevada had been admitted in 1864.
253. The actual fighting of the war may be said to have ended with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox, Va., on the gth of April 1865.
All the terms of surrender named -by Grant were generous: no private property was to be surrendered; both officers and men were to be dismissed on parole, not to be disturbed by the United States government so long as they preserved their parole and did not violate the laws; and he instructed the officers appointed to receive the paroles " to letall the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals home with them to work their little farms." It should be stated, also, to Grant's honour that, when the politicians afterwards undertook to repudiate some of the terms of surrender, he personally intervened and used the power of his own name to force an exact fulfilment. General Joseph E. Johnston, with the only other considerable army in the field, surrendered on much the same terms at Durham Station, N.C. (April 26), after an unsuccessful effort at a broader settlement. All organized resistance had now ceased; Union cavalry were ranging the South, picking up government property or arresting leaders; but it was not until May that the last detached parties of Confederates gave up the contest.
254. Just after Lee's surrender President Lincoln died by assassination (April 15), the crime of a half -crazed enthusiast. Even this event did not impel the American people to any vindictive use of their success for the punish- ment of individuals. In the heat of the war, in 1862, Congress had so changed the criminal law that the punish- ment of treason and rebellion should no longer be death alone, but death or fine and imprisonment. Even this modified punish- ment was not Inflicted. There was no hanging; some of the leaders were imprisoned for a time, but never brought to trial.
255. The armies of the Confederacy are supposed to have been at their strongest (700,000) at the beginning The of 1863; and it is doubtful whether they contained Opposing 200,000 men in March 1865. The dissatisfaction Armles - of the southern people at the manner in which Davis 'Lincoln received 212 electoral votes and McClellan only 21; but Lincoln's popular vote was only about 407,000 in excess of McClellan's, out of about 4,000,000.
had managed the war seems to have been profound; and it was only converted into hero-worship by the ill-advised action of the Federal government in arresting and imprisoning him. Desertion had become so common in 1864, and the attempts of the Confederate government to force the people into the ranks had become so arbitrary, that the bottom of the Confederacy, the democratic elements which had given it all the success it had ever obtained, had dropped out of it before Sherman moved northward from Savannah; in some parts the people had really taken up arms against the conscripting officers. On the contrary, the numbers of the Federal armies increased steadily until March 1865, when they were a few hundreds over a million. As soon as organized resistance ceased, the disbanding of the men began; they were sent home at the rate of about 300,000 a month about 50,000 being retained in service as a standing army. The cost of the Civil War has been variously estimated: by Mulhall (Dictionary of Statistics, co^otthe 4th ed ^ 1899> p S4J) at SSS)0001000 and (p. 586)
at 740,000,000; by Nicolay and Hay (Abraham Lincoln, vol. x., p. 339) at $3,250,000,000 to the North and $1,500,000,000 to the South; by Edward Atkinson (the Forum, October 1888, p. 133), including the first three years of Reconstruction at $5,000,000,000 to the North and $3,000,000,000 to the South. The last alone of these estimates is an approximation to the truth. The ordinary receipts of the government for the four fiscal years 1862 to 1865 totalled $729,458,336, as compared with $196,963,373 for the four preceding years, 1858-1861; the difference representing the effort of the treasury to meet the burden of war. In the same period more than $2,600,000,000 was secured in loans upon the credit of the nation; and this total was raised by later borrowings on account of the war to more than $2,800,000,000. The immediate and direct cost of the struggle to the North was therefore about $3,330,000,000. To this sum must be added, in order to obtain the final and total cost: (i) the military pensions paid on account of the war since 1861 about $3,600,000,000 up to 1909, inclusive; (2) the interest on the war debt, approximately $3,024,000,000 in the same period; (3) the expenditures made during the war by state and local governments, which have never been totalled, but may be put at $1,000,000,000; and (4) the abnormal expenditures for army and navy during some years following the war, which may be put, conservatively, at $500,000,000. The result is a total of some $11,450,500,000 for the North alone. But the cost to the South also was enormous; $4,000,000,000 cannot be an exaggeration. It follows that, up to 1909, the cost of the war to the nation had approximated the tremendous total of $15,500,000,000.
256. In return for such an expenditure, and the death of probably 300,000 men on each side, the abiding gain was incalculable. The rich section, which had been kept back * n tlle general development by a single institution, and had been a clog on the advance of the whole country, had been dragged up to a level with the rest of the country. Free labour was soon to show itself far superior to slave labour in the South; and the South was to reap the largest material gain from the destruction of the Civil War. The persistent policy of paying the debt immediately resulted in* the higher taxation falling on the richer North and West. As a result of the struggle the moral stigma of slavery was removed. The power of the nation, never before asserted openly, had made a place for itself; and yet the continuing power of the states saved the national power from a development into centralized tyranny. And the new power of the nation, by guaranteeing the restriction of government to a single nation in central North America, gave security against any introduction of international relations, international armament, international wars, and continual war taxation into the territory occupied by the United States. Finally, democracy in America had certainly shown its ability to maintain the unity of its empire.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Sources: The proceedings of the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1788 are in The Journals of Congress, vols. viii. to xiii., and The Secret Journals of Congress, 4 vols. There is a new and greatly improved .edition of the Journals (Washington, 1904- ), edited by W. C. Ford and Gaillard Hunt from the originals in the Library of Congress. The debates of Congress for the period from 1789 to 1824, were collected from newspapers, abridgedand published under the title of The Annals of Congress (43 vols., Washington, 1834-1856). The principal debates from 1825 to 1837 are in the Register of Debates in Congress (29 vols., Washington, 1825-1837), and from 1833 to 1 1873 the debates are in the Congressional Globe (108 vols., Washington, 1834-1873). There is an Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, by T. H. Benton (16 vols., New York, 1860). The acts of Congress, together with important documents, are in the appendices of the Annals, Register and Globe. See also United States Statutes at Large, from 1789 to 1865 (13 vols., Boston, 1845-1866), vol. vii. contains the treaties between the United States and the Indian tribes to 1845 ; and Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, edited by C. J. Kappler under direction of the Senate committee on Indian affairs ( Washington, 1904). Treaties of the United States have been published in Statutes at Large, and in Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776-1909 (Washington, 1910) which superseded a collection of 1889 edited by John H. Haswell. The decisions of the United States Supreme Court were reported from 1789 to 1800 by A. J. Dallas (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1790-^1807); from 1801 to 1815 by William Cranch (9 vols., Washington, 1804-1817); from 1816 to 1827 by Henry Wheaton (12 vols., New York, 1816^-1827); from 1828 to 1842 by Richard Peters (16 vols., Philadelphia, et ^.,1828-1842); from 1843 to 1860 by B. C. Howard (24 vols., Philadelphia, et al., 1843-1860) ; in 1861 and 1862 by J. S. Black (2 vols., Washington, 1862-1863); and from 1863 to 1874 by J. W. Wallace (23 vols., Washington, 1865-1876). There is a valuable collection of Cases on constitutional law, in 2 vols., by J. B. Thayer (Cambridge, 1894-1895). A large portion of the important executive documents are contained in The Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 17891897, compiled by J. D. Richardson (10 vols., Washington, 1896-1899), and the American State Papers: Documents Legislative and Executive (38 vols., Washington, 1832- 1861); two volumes of these State Papers relate to commerce and navigation, 17891823; five to finance, 17891828; six to foreign relations, 1789-1859; two to Indian affairs, 1789-1827; seven to military affairs, 1789-1838; four to naval affairs, 1789-1836; eight to public lands, 17891837; one to the post office department; two to miscellaneous affairs. There is considerable firsthand material on the framing and ratification of the Constitution in the Documentary History of the Constitution, 1786-1870 (5 vols., Washington, 1894-1905), and The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution . . . together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, by Jonathan Elliot (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1861;2nded., 1888). See also J. F. Jameson, "Studies in the History of the Federal Convention of 1787," in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1902, vol. i.; and Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia, 1888), edited by J. B. McMaster and F. D. Stone. For the Civil War by far the most important source is the vast compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, in four series, an atlas and a general index (Washington, 1880-1900). The material in William MacDonald's Select Documents Illustrative of the History of the United States, 1776-1861 (New York, 1898) relates almost wholly to constitutional development, foreign relations and banking. A. B. Hart's American History told by Contemporaries (New York, 1901), of which vol. iii. and part of vol. iv. are collected from this period, consists largely of contemporary narratives, correspondence and extracts from diaries on a great variety of subjects. The Library of Congress has 333 vols. of Washington Manuscripts, 135 vols. of Jefferson Manuscripts, 75 vols. of Madison Manuscripts, 64 vols. of Alexander Hamilton Manuscripts, more than 200 letters between Jackson and Van Buren, a collection of Polk papers, the more important part of Webster's correspondence, a few Clay letters, 22 vols. of Salmon P. Chase papers besides over 6300 letters, and 440 Blennerhassett manuscripts. The Massachusetts Historical Society has the Adams papers ; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has the Buchanan papers; the Historical Society of New Hampshire has a large collection of Webster papers ; and the Historical Society of Chicago has some of the Polk papers. Various valuable reports on manuscript materials available to students of this period have been published in the Annual Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission of the American Historical Association, and there is much valuable material in the Annual Reports of the association and in the volumes of the A merican Historical Review. The American Historical Association has published an index in its " Bibliography of American Historical Societies," edited by A. P. C. Griffin, in vol. ii. of its Annual Report for 1905 (Washington, 1907). See also, for social and economic sources, Documentary History of American Industrial Society (Cleveland, O., 1910 sqq.). Among the most useful published works of the public men of the period are: The Writings of George Washington edited by W. C. Ford (14 vols., New York, 1889-1893); Complete Works of Alexander Hamilton, edited by H. C. Lodge (9 vols., New York, 1885-1886), and The Works of John Adams . . . with a Life of the Author, edited, with Life, by C. F. Adams (ip vols., Boston, 1850-1856), representing the Federalists; The Writings of James Madison, edited by Gaillard Hunt (9 vols., New York, 1900-1010), and The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, edited by P. L. Ford (10 vols., New York, 1892-1899), representing -the Anti-Federalists OP Republicans; The Writings of James Monroe, edited by S. H. Hamilton (7 vols., New York, 1898-1903); Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, comprising Portions of his Diary from 1795 to 1848, edited by C. F. Adams (12 vols., Philadelphia, 1874-1877); Works of Henry Clay, comprising his Life, Correspondence and Speeches, edited, with Life, by Calvin Colton (ip vols., New York, 1904) and Thomas Hart Benton's Thirty Years' View; or, a History of the Working of the American Government (2 vols., New York, 1854-1856), for the "Middle Period"; The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, edited by J. W. Mclntyre (18 vols., Boston, 1903) ; Letters of Daniel Webster, edited by C. H. van Tyne (New York, 1902); Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, comprising his Speeches, Letters, State Papers and Miscellaneous Writings, edited by J. G. Nicolay and John Hay (2 vols., New York, 1902) ; The Works of William H. Seward, edited by G. E. Baker (5 vols., 2nd ed., Boston, 1883-1890), and The Works of Charles Sumner (15 vols., Boston, 1870-1883), for the Northern view ; The Works of John C. Calhoun, edited by R. K. Cralte (6 vols., New York, 1854-1855); Alexander H. Stephens, Constitutional View of the Late War between the States (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1868-1870), and Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (2 vols., New York, 1881), for the Southern view.
Secondary Works: Three large and important secondary works cover the whole, or nearly the whole, period from the War of Independence to the Civil War. They are: James Schouler, History of the United States of America under the Constitution (rev. ed., 6 vols., New York, 1899), scholarly and comprehensive, but lacking in clearness, and, in the latter portion, unfair to the South; J. B. Me Master, History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War (7 vols., New York, 1883-1910), especially valuable for its treatment of social and economic conditions and for material gathered from newspapers; H. E. von Hoist, Constitutional and Political History of the United States (2nd ed., 8 vols., Chicago, 1899), chiefly a treatment of the constitutional aspects of slavery by a German with strong ethical and strong anti-slavery sentiments. The period is ably treated in sections by A. C. McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution, vol. x. of " The American Nation Series " (New York, 1905) ; J. S. Bassett, The Federal System, vol. ii. of " The American Nation Series " ; Henry Adams, History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison (9 vols., New York, 1891), quotes freely from records in foreign archives; J. W. Burgess, The Middle Period, 1817-1858 (New York, 1901), andl J. F. Rhodes, History of the United Slates from the Compromise of 18^0 (7 vols., New York, 1900-1906), which, although written largely from Northern sources, is for the most part fair and judicial. For lists of works dealing with special events (e.g. the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law, etc.), see the articles devoted to those subjects. See also vols. xii. to xxi. of " The American Nation Series, " consisting of Edward Channing, The Jeffersonian System; K. C. Babcock, The Rise of American Nationality; F. J. Turner, Rise of the New West; William MacDonald, Jacksonian Democracy; A. B. Hart, Slavery and Abolition; G. P. Garrison, Westward Expansion; T. C. Smith, Parties and Slavery; F. E. Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War; and J. K. Hosmer, The Appeal to Arms, and Outcome of the Civil War. For further study of the Civil War see Edward McPherson, Political History of the United States during the Great Rebellion (Washington, 1864; 3rd ed., 1876), chiefly a compilation of first-hand material; J. W. Burgess, The Civil War and the Constitution (2 vols., New York, 1901). The best account of the military operations of the Mexican War is in R. S. Ripley, The War with Mexico, (2 vols., New York, 1849). For a list of works relating to the military events of the War of 1812 and the Civil War see the separate articles on those subjects. On the War with France, 1798, see G. W. Allen, Our Naval War with France (New York, 1909). On the development of the West there are: H. B. Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States (Baltimore, 1885) ; B. A. Hinsdale, The Old North-West (revised ed., New York, 1899), a scholarly work; Justin Winsor, The Westward Movement (Boston, 1897), a storehouse of facts, but dry for the general reader; Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West (4 vols., New York, 1889-1896), a graphic outline. Other important works on special subjects are: Edward Stanwood, History of the Presidency (Boston, 1898), a study of presidential campaigns; J. P. Gordy, History of Political Parlies in the United States (2 vols., rev. ed., New York, 1900-1902); E. D. Warfield, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 (New York, 1887); Freeman Snow, Treaties and Topics in American Diplomacy (Boston, 1894) ; J. B. Moore, A Digest of International Law (6 vols., Washington, 1906), and History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States has been a Party (6 vols., Washington, 1898); E. S. Maclay, History of the United States Navy from 1775 to 1894 (3 vols., New York, 1897-1902); G. W. Allen, Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs (Boston, 1905); J. R. Spears, History of our Navy (4 vols., New York, 1897); D. R. Dewey, Financial History of the United States (New York, 1903) ; W. G. Sumner, History of Banking in the United States (New York, 1896); R. C. H. Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903) ; F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United States (41)1 ed., New York, 1898); E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States (New York, 1907) ; E. D. File, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War (New York, 1910), and I. L. Bishop, History of American Manufactures (3 vols., 3rd ed., Philadelphia, 1867). For biographies of the leading statesmen of the period see American Statesmen, edited by J. F. Morse, jun. (32 vols., new ed., Boston, 1899); see also the bibliographies at the close of the biographical sketches of statesmen in this edition of the Ency. Brit. There is a " Critical Essay on Authorities " in each volume of The American Nation; and both The Literature of American History, edited by J. N. Larned (Boston, 1902), and Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study oj America History, are valuable bibliographical guides. (A. J. ; C. C. W.)
L. History, 1865-1910.
257. The capitulation of Lee (April 9, 1865), followed by the assassination of Lincoln (April 15) and the surrender of the last important Confederate army, under J. E. Johnston, marked the end of the era of war and the beginning of that of Reconstruction, a problem which involved a revolution in the social and political structure of the South, in the relation of state and nation in the American Federal Union, and in the economic life of the whole country.
258. Economically the condition of the South was desperate. The means of transport were destroyed; railways and bridges were ruined; Southern securities were valueless; the Confederate currency system was completely disorganized. Great numbers of the emancipated negroes wandered idly from place to place, trusting the Union armies for sustenance, while their former masters toiled in the fields to restore their plantations.
259. The social organization of the South had been based on negro slavery. Speaking generally, the large planters had constituted the dominant class, especially s^Mond in the cotton states; and in the areas of heaviest Economic negro population these planters had belonged for Conditioner the most part to the old Whig party. Outside taeSouta - of the larger plantation areas, especially in the hill regions and the pine barrens, there was a population of small planters and poor whites who belonged in general to the Democratic party. In the mountain regions, where slavery had hardly existed, there were Union areas, and from the poor whites of this section had come Andrew Johnson, senator and war governor of Tennessee, who was chosen vice-president on the Union ticket with Lincoln in 1864 as a recognition of the Union men of the South. Accidental as was Johnson's elevation to the presidency, there was an element of fitness in it, for the war destroyed the former ruling class in the Southern States and initiated a democratic revolution which continued after the interregnum of negro government. Of this rise of the Southern masses Johnson was representative.
260. The importance of personality in history was clearly illustrated when the wise and sympathetic Lincoln, who had the confidence of the masses of the victorious Distrust of North, was replaced by Johnson, opinionated and President intemperate, whose antecedents as a Tennessean and Johnson, Democrat, and whose state rights' principles and indifference to Northern ideals of the future of the negro made him distrusted by large numbers of the Union Republican party.
261. The composition of this party was certain to endanger its stability when peace came. It had carried on the war by a coalescence of Republicans, War Democrats, Whigs, Ua i oa Constitutional Unionists and Native Americans, Republican who had rallied to the cause of national unity. Parf y- At the outset it had asserted that its purpose was not to interfere with the established institutions in slave states, but to defend the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several states unimpaired. But the war had destroyed slavery, as well as preserved the Union, and the civil status of the negro and the position of the revolted states now became burning questions, reviving old antagonisms and party factions. To the extremists of the Radical wing it seemed in accordance with 1865-1910 the principles of human liberty that the negro should not only be released from slavery but should also receive full civil rights, including the right to vote on an equality with the whites. This group was also ready to revolutionize Southern society by destroying the old ascendancy of the great planter class. Of this idealistic school of radical Republicans, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, was the spokesman in the Senate, and Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, in the House.
262. For many years before the war parties had differed on such important questions as the tariff, internal improvements and foreign policy; and the South had used its alliance with the Northern Democracy to resist the economic demands of the industrial interests of the North. A return of Southern congressmen, increased in numbers by the inapplicability to the new conditions of the constitutional provision by which they had representation for only a fraction of the slaves, might mean a revival of the old political situation, with the South and the Northern Democracy once more in the saddle.
263. Any attempt to restore the South to full rights, therefore, without further provision for securing for the freedmen Northern the reality of their freedom, and without some Attitude means of establishing the political control of the towards the victorious party, would create party dissension. South. Even Lincoln had aroused the bitter opposition of the radical leaders by his generous plan of Reconstruction. Johnson could have secured party support only by important concessions to the powerful leaders in Congress; and these concessions he was temperamentally unable to make. The masses of the North, especially in the first rejoicings over the peace, were not ungenerous in their attitude; and the South, as a whole, accepted the results of defeat in so far as to acquiesce in the permanence of the Union and the emancipation of the slaves, the original issues of the war.
264. In the settlement of the details of Reconstruction, however, there were abundant opportunities for the hatred engendered by the war to flame up once more. As it became clear that the Northern majority was determined to exclude the leaders of the South from political rights in the reconstruction of the Union, and especially as the radicals disclosed ' their purpose to ensure Republican ascendancy by subjecting the section to the rule of the loyalist whites and, later, to that of the emancipated negroes, good will disappeared, and the South entered upon a fight for its social system. The natural leaders of the people, men of intelligence and property, had been the leaders of the section in the war. Whatever their views had been at first as to secession, the great majority of the Southern people had followed the fortunes of their states. To disfranchise their leaders was to throw the control into the hands of a less able and small minority of whites; to enfranchise the blacks while disfranchising the white leaders was to undertake the task of subordinating the former political people of a section to a different race, just released from slavery, ignorant, untrained, without property and fitted only to follow the leadership of outside elements. The history of this attempt and its failure constitutes much of that of the Reconstruction. ' 265. These underlying forces were in reality more influential than the constitutional theories which engaged so much of the discussion in Congress, theories which, while they afford evidence of the characteristic desire to proceed constitutionally were really urged in support of, or opposition to, the interests just named.
266. The most extreme northern Democrats, and their southern sympathizers, starting from the premise that conTheortes stitulionally the Southern states had never been out Regarding f the Union, contended that the termination of the status hostilities restored them to their former rights in the of the Federal Union unimpaired and without further Mates action - Tnis theory derived support from President Lincoln's view that not states, but assemblages of individuals, had waged war against the government. The theory of the extreme Republican Radicals was formulated by Sumner and Stevens. The former contended that, while the states could not secede, they had by waging war reduced themselves to mere Territories of the United States, entitled only to the rights of Territories under the Constitution. Stevens went further and, appealing to the facts of secession, declared the Southern states conquered provinces, subject to be disposed of under international law at the will of the conqueror. In the end Congress adopted a middle ground, holding that while the states could not leave the Union, they were, in fact, out of normal relations, and that the constitutional right of the Federal government to guarantee republican governments to the various states gave to Congress the power to impose conditions precedent to their rehabilitation.
267. It is necessary to recall the initiation of Reconstruction measures by President Lincoln rightly to understand the position which was taken by President Johnson. President Impatient of theoretical discussion, Lincoln laid Lincoln's down practical conditions of restoration in his pro- Policy. clamation of the 8th of December 1863. In this he offered amnesty to those who would take an oath of loyalty for the future and accept the acts of Congress and the proclamation of the president with reference to slaves. From the amnesty he excepted the higher military, civil and diplomatic officers of the Confederacy as well as those who had relinquished judicial stations, seats in Congress, or commissions in the army or navy to aid the rebellion, and those who had treated persons in the Federal service otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war. The proclamation provided, further, that when in any of the seceding states (except Virginia, where the president had already recognized the loyal government under Governor Francis H. Pierpont) a number of persons not less than one-tenth of the voters in 1860 should have taken the above described oath, and, being qualified voters under the laws of the state in 1860, should have established a state government, republican in form, it should be recognized. Lincoln's comprehension of Southern difficulties was shown in his declaration in this proclamation that the president would not object to such provisions by the states regarding the freedmen as should, while declaring their freedom and providing for their education, recognize their condition as a labouring, landless and homeless class.
268. Although Lincoln expressly pointed out that the admission of the restored states to representation Aultude of in Congress rested exclusively with the respective congress; houses, and announced his readiness to consider the First other plans for Reconstruction, heated opposition * cco "*' fn " > by the radicals in Congress was called out by this proclamation. They feared that it did not sufficiently guarantee the abolition of slavery, which up to this time rested on the war powers of the president, and they asserted that it was the right of Congress, rather than that of the president, to determine the conditions and the process of Reconstruction. In a bill which passed the House by a vote of 73 to 59 and was concurred in by the Senate, Congress provided that Reconstruction was to be begun only when a majority of the white male citizens of any one of the Confederate States should take oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The president should then invite them to call a constitutional convention. The electors of this convention would be required to take an oath of allegiance which excluded a much larger class than those deprived of the benefit of the amnesty proclamation, for it eliminated all who had voluntarily borne arms against the United States, or encouraged hostility to it, or voluntarily yielded support to any of the Confederate governments. In addition to entrusting the formation of a constitution to the small minority of thorough-going loyalists, the bill required that the state constitution should exclude a large proportion of the civil and military officers of a Confederate government from the right of voting, and that it should provide that slavery be for ever abolished and that state and Confederate debts of the war period should never be paid. In July 1864 Lincoln gave a " pocket veto " to the bill and issued a proclamation explaining his reasons for refusing to sign, whereupon Benjamin F. Wade and Henry W. Davis (q.v.), leaders of the radicals, violently attacked the president. The triumph of Lincoln in the election of 1864 did not clearly signify the will of the people upon the conditions of Reconstruction, or upon the organ of government to formulate them, for the declaration of the Democratic convention that the war was a failure over-' shadowed the issue, and the Union party which supported Lincoln was composed of men of all parties.
269. On January 3 1st 1865 the House concurred in the vote of the Senate in favo.ur of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the t Union. Four years earlier Congress had submitted 'to the states another Thirteenth Amendment by the terms of which no amendment should ever authorize Congress to interfere with slavery within the states. But owing to the war this amendment had remained unratified, and now Congress proposed to place beyond constitutional doubt, or the power of states to change it, the emancipation of slaves. By the 18th of December 1865 the amendment had been ratified and was proclaimed in force.
270. In the meantime, Louisiana, in accordance with Lincoln's proclamation, had adopted a constitution and abolished slavery within the state. Owing to the obstructive tactics of Sumner, aided by Democrats in the Senate, Congress adjourned on the 4th of March 1865 without having recognized this new state government as legitimate. "If we are wise and discreet," said Lincoln, " we shall reanimate the states and get their governments in successful operation with order prevailing and the Union re-established before Congress comes together in December."
271. Such was the situation when Johnson took up the presidency upon Lincoln's death. After an interval of uncertainty, in which he threatened vengeance against various Southern leaders and gave the radicals some hope that he would favour negro suffrage, President Johnson accepted the main features of Lincoln's policy. Congress not being in session, he was able to work out an executive Reconstruction on the lines of Lincoln's policy during the summer and autumn of 1865. On the 29th of May he issued a proclamation of amnesty, requiring of those who desired to accept its provisions an oath to support the Constitution and Union, and the laws and proclamations respecting the emancipation of slaves. Certain specified classes of persons were excepted, including certain additions to those excluded by Lincoln, especially " all persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion and the estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars." This provision was characteristic of Johnson, who disliked the Southern planting . aristocracy, and aimed at placing the preponderant power in the hands of the Democratic small farmers, who had been his supporters. To those of the excepted classes who would ask pardon from the president, he promised a liberal clemency. As part of his system he issued Policy of another proclamation in which he appointed a President governor for North Carolina and laid down a Johnson. pj an f or Reconstruction. By this proclamation it was made the duty of the governor to call a convention chosen by the loyal people of the state, for the purpose of altering the state constitution and establishing a state government. The right to vote for delegates to this convention was limited to those who had taken the oath of amnesty and who had been qualified to vote prior to the secession of the state. To the state itself was to be left the determination of the future qualifications of electors and office-holders.
272. Already Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas had governments which had been recognized by Lincoln. Between the 13th of June and the 13th of July 1865 Johnson applied the same process which he had outlined for North Carolina to the remaining states of the Confederacy. Before Congress met in December all the Confederate states, except Texas (which delayed until the spring of 1866), had formed constitutions and elected governments in accordance with the presidential plan. All of their legislatures, except that of Mississippi, ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.
273. Gradually, however, the South turned to its former leaders to shape its policy, and the radical Republicans of the North were alarmed at the rapidity of the process 6f restoration on these principles. The disorganized and idle condition of the former slaves constituted a serious element in the Southern situation, as Lincoln had foreseen. The negroes expected a grant of land from confiscated Southern estates, and it was difficult to preserve order and to secure a proper labour supply.
274. Under these conditions the efforts of the South to provide security for their communities by bodies of white militia were looked upon with apprehension by the North, and there was sufficient conflict between the two races to give colour to charges that the South was not accepting in good faith the emancipation of the slaves. Especially irritating to Northern sentiment were the so-called " black codes " or " peonage laws," passed by the newly elected Southern legislatures. Southern They rested on the belief that it was necessary "Black that the former slaves should be treated as a separate cbrfe *-" and dependent class, and varied in severity in the different states. Some of these imposed special disabilities upon the negro in the matter of carrying weapons and serving as witnesses. Vagrancy laws and provisions regarding labour contracts which had precedents in colonial and English legislation, but were specifically framed to restrain the negroes only, were common. Mississippi denied them the right to own land, or even to rent it outside of incorporated towns; South Carolina restricted them to husbandry and to farm or domestic service, unless specially licensed. Although several of the Southern states, perceiving that their course was likely to arouse the North to drastic measures, repealed or mitigated the most objectionable laws, the North had received the impression that an attempt had been made to restore slavery in disguised form.
275. The problem of succouring and protecting the negroes had forced itself upon the attention of the North from the beginning of the war, and on the 3rd of March 1865 The Congress had created the Freedmen's Bureau (q.v.), Freedmen's with the power to assign abandoned lands, in the Bureau - states where the war had existed, to the use of the freedmen; to supervise charitable and educational activities among them; to exercise jurisdiction over controversies in which a freedman was a party; and to regulate their labour contracts. The local agents of the bureau were usually Northern men; some of them gave the worst interpretation to Southern conditions and aroused vain hopes in the negroes that the lands of the former masters would be divided among them; and later many of them became active in the political organization of the negro.
276. Although the national government itself had thus recognized that special treatment of the freedmen was necessary, Congress, on assembling in December 1865, was disposed to regard the course of the South in this respect with deep suspicion. Moreover, as the Thirteenth Amendment was now ratified, it was seen that the South, if restored according to the presidential policy, would return to Congress with added representatives for the freed negroes. Only three-fifths of the negro slaves had been counted in apportioning representatives in Congress; though now free they were not allowed to vote.
277. Under the leadership of the Radicals Congress refused, therefore, to receive the representatives of the states which had met the conditions of the president's proclamations. A joint committee of fifteen took the whole subject of Reconstruction under advisement, and a bill was passed continuing the Freedmen's Bureau indefinitely. When this was vetoed by President Johnson (Feb. 19, 1866) Congress retaliated by a concurrent resolution (March 2) against admitting any reconstructed state until Congress declared it entitled to recognition, thus asserting for the legislative body the direction of Reconstruction.
278. While the measure was under consideration the president in an intemperate public address stigmatized the leaders of the radicals by name as labouring to destroy the principles 1865-1910 of the government and even intimated that the assassination of the president was aimed at. It was hardly possible to close th breach after this, and the schism between the f^at he' President and the leaders of the Union Republican President party was completed when Congress passed (April and Con- 9, 1866) the Civil Rights Bill over Johnson's veto. cTtf*>/ /I w The act declared the freedmen to be citizens of the em. United States with the same civil rights as white persons and entitled to the protection of the Federal government. It provided punishment for those who, relying upon state authority, should discriminate against the negroes.
279. To place this measure beyond the danger of overthrow by courts, or by a change of party majority, on the 13th of The June 1866 Congress provided for submitting to the Fourteenth states a Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Amend- This g ave constitutional guarantee of citizenship and equal civil rights to freedmen, and, in effect, provided that when in any state the right to vote should be denied to any of the male inhabitants twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in the state should be reduced in the proportion which the number of such citizens bore to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in the state. This section of the amendment, therefore, left the states the option between granting the suffrage to the negro or suffering a proportionate reduction in the number of representatives in Congress. It was a fair compromise which might have saved the South from a long period of misrule and the North from the ultimate breakdown of its policy of revolutionizing Southern political control by enfranchisement of the blacks and disfranchisement of the natural leaders of the whites. But the South especially resented that section of the amendment which disqualified for Federal or state office those who, having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, afterwards engaged in rebellion, which involved the repudiation of their leaders. The amendment further safeguarded the validity of the United States debt and declared null the war debt of the seceding states and the Confederacy and forbade the payment of claims for emancipation.
280. In order to ensure the passage of this amendment the Radical leaders proposed bills which declared that, after its adoption, any of the seceding states which ratified it should be readmitted to representation. But it also provided that the higher classes of officials of the Confederacy should be ineligible to office in the Federal government. These bills were allowed to await the issue of the next election.
281. For further protection of the rights of the negro, Congress succeeded in passing, over President Johnson's veto, an act continuing the Freedmen's Bureau for two years. Tennessee having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment was (July 24, 1866) restored to representation and Congress adjourned, leaving the issue between the president and the legislative body to the people in the Congressional elections.
282. The campaign brought with it some realignment of party. President Johnson having broken with the leaders of the Union Republican party was more and more forced to rely alignments. u P on Democratic support, although his executive appointments were still made from the ranks of the Republicans. The so-called National Union Convention, which met in Philadelphia in midsummer in an effort to abate sectionalism, and to endorse the president's policy, included a large number of War Democrats who had joined the Union party after the secession of the South, many moderate Southerners, a fragment of the Republican party, and a few Whigs, especially from the Border states. They claimed that the southern States had a right to be represented in Congress. Other meetings friendly to the Radicals were called, and under the designation of Union-Republican party they declared for the Congressional policy. While the campaign for elections to Congress was in progress the president made a journey to Chicago, speaking at various cities en route and still further alienating the Republicans by coarse abuse of his opponents. As a result of the autumn elections two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives were opposed to him. Almost contemporaneously every seceding state except Tennessee rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, and thereby paved the way for the entire triumph of the Northern extremists, who favoured negro suffrage on idealistic grounds or as a means for forcing the South to agree to the Republican policy.
283. In the ensuing winter and spring Congress completed the conquest of the president, awed the Supreme Court, and provided a drastic body of legislation to impose negro suffrage on the South. By the Tenure of Office Act (March 2, 1867) Congress forbade the president to remove civil officers without the consent of the Senate, and at the same time by Teaun f another act required him to issue military orders only off e Actf through the general of the army (Grant), whom the president was forbidden to remove from command or to assign to duty at another place than Washington, unless at the request of the officer or by the prior assent of the Senate. These extraordinary invasions of the presidential authority were deemed necessary to prevent Johnson from securing control of the military arm of the government, and to protect Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, and General Grant. Fearing lest the president might take advantage of the interim during which Congress would not be in session, the Fortieth Congress was required to meet on the 4th of March immediately following the expiration of the thirty-ninth.
284. The Reconstruction Act of the 2nd of March 1867 provided for the military government of the Southern states while the drastic policy of Congress was being carried Kecottsiruc . out. It was passed over the veto of the president tloa Act of and declared that no legal governments or adequate March 2, protection for life or property existed in the 1867 ' seceding states, except Tennessee. These states it divided into five military districts, each to be placed under the command of a general of the army, whose duty it was to preserve law and order, using at discretion either local civil tribunals or military commissions. But the existing civil governments were declared provisional only and subject to the paramount authority of the United States to abolish, modify, control, or supersede them. The act further provided that a constitutional convention might be elected by the adult male citizens of the state, of whatever race, colour or previous condition, resident in the state for a year, except such as might be disfranchised for rebellion or felony. No persons excluded from holding office under the Fourteenth Amendment were eligible for election to the convention or entitled to vote for its members.
285. When the convention, thus chosen under negro suffrage, and with the exclusion of Confederate leaders, should have framed a state constitution conforming to the Federal Constitution and allowing the franchise to those entitled to vote for the members of the convention, the constitution was to be submitted for the approval of Congress. If this were obtained and if the state adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, and this amendment became a part of the Federal Constitution, then the state should be entitled to representation in Congress; but the senators and representatives sent to Congress were required to take the " ironclad oath," which excluded those who had fought in the Confederate service, or held office under any government hostile to the United States, or given support to any such authority.
286. By the pressure of military control Congress thus aimed at forcing the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the acceptance of negro suffrage in the state con- Supplestitutions of the South. A supplementary act of the mentary 23rd of March 1867 and an act of interpretation Actm. passed on the ipth of July completed this policy of " thorough." In the registration of voters the district commanders were required to administer an oath which excluded those disfranchised for rebellion and those who after holding state or Federal office had given aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.
287. Against this use of military power to govern states in time of peace the Supreme Court interposed no effective obstacle. Like the executive it was subordinated to Congress. Supreme It ' s true that in the case ex parte Milligan, Court decided in December 1866, the court held military Decisions, commissions unlawful where the ordinary civil tribunals were open. In the case of Cummings v. Missouri (Jan. 14, 1867) it decided also that a state test oath excluding Confederate sympathizers from professions was a violation of the prohibition of ex post facto laws; and the court (ex parte Garland) applied the same rule to the Federal test oath so far as the right of attorneys to practise in Federal courts was concerned.
288. But threats were made by the .radicals in Congress to take away the appellate jurisdiction of the court, and even to abolish the tribunal by constitutional amendment. The judges had been closely divided in these cases and, when the real test came, the court refused to set itself in opposition to Congress. When Mississippi attempted to secure an injunction to prevent the president from carrying out the Reconstruction acts, and when Georgia asked the court to enjoin the military officers from enforcing these acts in that state, the Supreme Court refused (April and May 1867), pleading want of jurisdiction. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase argued that if the president refused to obey the court could not enforce its decree, while if he complied with the order of the court, and if the House of Representatives impeached him for refusing to enforce the law, the Supreme Court would be forced to the vain attempt to enjoin the Senate from sitting as a court of impeachment.
289. In one instance it seemed inevitable that the court would clash with Congress; the McCardle case involved an editor's arrest by military authority for criticizing that authority and the Reconstruction policy. But Congress, apprehending that the majority of the court would declare the Reconstruction acts unconstitutional, promptly repealed that portion of the act which gave the court jurisdiction in the case, and thus enabled the judges to dismiss the appeal. Afterwards, when the Reconstruction policy had been accomplished, the court, in the case of Texas v. While (1869), held that the Constitution looked to " an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states "; and that although the secession acts were null, and the Federal obligations of the seceding states remained unimpaired, yet their rights were suspended during the war. It also held that in re-establishing the broken relations of the state with the Union, Congress, under the authority to guarantee to every state a republican form of government, was obliged to regard the freedmen as part of the people of the state, and was entitled to decide what government was the established one. This decision, though it did not involve the direct question of the constitutionality of theReconstructionacts, harmonized with the general doctrines of the Congressional majority.
290. The powerful leaders of the Republicans in Congress had been awaiting their opportunity to rid themselves of Impeach- President Johnson by impeachment. After various meat of failures to convince a majority of the House that President articles should be preferred against him, an opporJohasoa. tun j ty seeme <} to present itself when Johnson, in the summer recess of 1867, suspended Secretary Stanton and made General Grant the acting secretary of war. The Senate, on reassembling, refused to consent to the suspension, and General Grant yielded his office to Stanton, thus spoiling the president's plan to force Stanton to appeal to the courts to obtain his office and so test the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act. This proved to be a turning-point in Grant's political career, for by his break with Johnson he gained new support among the masses of the Republican party. To Johnson's foes it seemed that the president had delivered himself into their hands when he next defied Congress by taking the decisive step of removing Stanton in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act, and the House announced to the Senate (Feb. 25, 1868) its decision to bring articles of impeachment against Texas v.
White.
the president. But careful reading of the law showed that it could not be relied on as conclusive ground for impeachment, for it provided that cabinet officers should hold office during the term of the president by whom they were appointed and for one month thereafter, subject to removal with the consent of the Senate. As Stanton had been appointed by President Lincoln and had merely continued under Johnson, a doubtful question was raised. The leaders, therefore, incorporated additional charges in the articles of impeachment which they pushed through the House of Representatives. By these the president was accused of attempting to bring the legislative branch into disgrace by his public utterances and of stigmatizing it as a Congress of only part of the states. This raised the question whether it was necessary to show a legal, technical crime or misdemeanour as the necessary ground of impeachment. Had the theory of the leaders that this was not the case been successful, the executive would have been reduced to an obvious dependence upon Congress. In the spring of 1868, however, the trial by the Acquittal by Senate resulted in a verdict of acquittal. (See the senate. JOHNSON, ANDREW.)
291. Meanwhile the military Reconstruction of the South and the organization of the negro vote progressed effectively. The party management of the negroes was conducted by " carpet-baggers," as the Northern '^en'" men who came South to try their fortunes under and" Scaiathese new conditions were nicknamed, and by the wags"; the white loyalists of the South, to whom was given V l ^" the name " scalawags." In the work of marshalling the freedmen's vote for the Republican party secret societies like the Loyal League, or Union League (?.!>.), played an important part. As the newly enfranchised mass of politically untrained negroes passed under Northern influence politically, the Southern whites drew more and more together in most of the former Confederate States, and although they were unable under the existing conditions to take control, they awaited their opportunity. A " Solid South " was forming in which old party divisions gave way to the one dominant antagonism to Republican ascendancy by negro suffrage; and a race antagonism developed which revealed the fact that underneath the slavery question was the negro question.
292. Politically the important fact was that the Republicans had rejected the possibility of reviving the old party lines in the South, and had gambled upon the expectation of wielding the united coloured vote with such leadership and support as might be gained from former Northerners and loyal whites. In the end negro rule failed, as was inevitable when legal disabilities and military force were removed; but the masses of the Southern whites emerged with a power which they had not possessed under the old rule of the planting aristocracy. For the time being, however, negro votes gave control to the Republicans. In South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana the negroes were in a majority; in Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas they were in the minority; while in Georgia the two races were nearly evenly balanced.
293. The white leaders of the South were divided as to the best means of meeting the problem. Some advocated that those entitled to vote should register, and then poiicyot refrain from the polls, in order to defeat the con- the South; stitutions made under negro suffrage, for the law the Kurequired them to be ratified by a majority of the Kla * taan ' qualified voters. Others would have the white race bear no part in the process. Societies such as the " Ku-KIux Klan " and the " Knights of the White Camelia " were organized to intimidate or restrain the freedmen. But for the present the Republicans carried all before them in the South. Some of the new state^ constitutions imposed severe disfranchisement upon the former dominant class, and before the end of July 1868 all of the former Confederate States, except Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, which was proclaimed in effect. By the beginning of 1870 these three states had also ratified the amendment, as had 1865-1910 Georgia a second time, because of her doubtful status at the time of her first ratification.
294. By the summer of 1868 Arkansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida, Slx having satisfied the requirements of the Recon- Souihera struction acts, were entitled to representation in status Re- Congress. But Georgia, did not choose her senators unt '' a ^ ter tne adjournment of Congress, and, inasmuch as the state excluded the negro members of the legislature in September, Congress on reassembling returned the state to military rule until its submission. Alabama was restored in spite of the fact that her white voters had remained away from the polls in sufficient numbers to prevent a majority of all the voters registered from having ratified the constitution of the state, as the Reconstruction acts had required. The nominating conventions and the campaign of 1868 gave interesting evidence of the trend of political and economic events. Party lines, which had broken down in the North when all united in saving the Union, were once more reasserting themselves. President Johnson, who had been elected by the Union Republican party, had found his most effective support among the Democrats. The Republicans turned to General Grant, a Democrat before the outbreak of the war. His popularity with the Republicans was due not only to his military distinction, but also to his calm judgment in the trying period of the struggle between the president and Congress. He was seriously considered by the Democrats until he broke with Johnson in the Stanton episode.
295. The Republican nominating convention met on the 20th of May 1868, a few days after the failure of the impeachment proceedings, and it chose Grant as Relubficaa tne candidate for the presidency. The platform Convention; supported the Congressional Reconstruction measures. Grant Upon the vital question whether universal negro yt," e ttte<l suffrage should be placed beyond the power of Presidency, states to repeal it by a new constitutional amendment, the platform declared: " The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal states properly belongs to the people of those states." Nowhere in the North was the negro an important element in the population, but the North had shown an unwillingness to apply to itself the doctrines of negro rights which had been imposed upon the South. Between 1865 and 1868 Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio and Michigan had refused to give the negro the right to vote within their own bounds, and this plank was evidence Of the unwillingness of the party to make a direct issue of universal negro suffrage. Although the platform failed to indicate the future proposals of the Republican leaders on the negro question, on the topics of finance and currency it clearly showed that the party was controlled by economic interests which were to exercise increasing influence upon it. It pronounced in favour of payment of the public debt, not only according to the letter but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. The significance of this lay in its challenge to the Democratic agitation on the currency question.
296. It was this question which gave the tone to the proceedings of the Democracy at their convention in July 1868. The situation can best be presented by a brief review of the financial history just preceding the convention. Together with the discussion over political Reconstruction in the South, Congress and the administration had been obliged to deal with the reconstruction of debt, taxation and currency in the nation at the close of four years of expensive war. At its maximum point the debt had risen to $2,758,000,000, of a complicated variety of forms, and of the total less than one-half was funded. The problems of funding, readjustment of taxation, and resumption of specie payments proved to be so complicated with the industrial growth of the nation that they led to issues destined to exert a long continued influence.
297. The various war tariffs, passed primarily for the sake of increased revenue, had been shaped for protection under the influence of the manufacturing interests, and they Finance; had been framed also with reference to the need of the Tariff; compensating the heavy internal taxes which were Internal imposed upon the manufacturers. When the war Reveaue - ended public sentiment demanded relief from these heavy burdens, and especially from the irksome internal taxes. The rapidly growing grain-raising districts of the Middle West exhibited a lively discontent with the protective tariff, but this did not prevent the passage in 1867 of the Wool and Woollens Act, which discriminated in favour of the woollen manufacturers and raised the ad valorem duty on wool. In spite of several large reductions of internal revenue, the national debt was being extinguished with a rapidity that only a prosperous and growing nation could have endured.
298. The currency question, however, furnished the economic issue which was most debated in the period of Reconstruction. One set of interests aimed at rapidly reducing ng the volume of the currency by retiring the legal currency tender notes, or " greenbacks," issued during the Question; war, on the ground that they had been provided only as a war measure, that the country needed a contraction of this currency, and that specie payments would be hastened by the wi