A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses
to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly
swarmed with privateers.

In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European
waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in
France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around
Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not
then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did
so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and
the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea.

%159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin
Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_.
She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with
a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she
was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which
scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports
before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of
other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul
Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from
Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of
Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval
history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the
Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the
port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner
_Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France
in safety.

For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given
command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France.
Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north
end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel
after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in
his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor
Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The
two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought
one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three
hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck,
and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first
to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_.

[Illustration: Benjamin Franklin]

In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the
Americans lost 24--most of their navy.

%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%--It is not possible to mention all the
revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should,
however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners
who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and
Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the
financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at
Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy;
Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose
names have already been mentioned.

%161. The Treaty of Peace.%--The story is told that when Lord North,
the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he
threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all
over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris.

Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace
signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on
November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington
now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon.

[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a
week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 271-280.]

%162. Bounds of the United States.%--By the treaty of 1783 the
boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the
present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine
to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which
was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in
Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31 deg. north latitude; then eastward
along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by
what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic.

But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon
as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her
example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to
regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England
in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain
declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into
West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and
Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the
United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida
and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of
1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St.
Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake
Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession
of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as
evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of
peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the
country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it.
France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the
Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country
south to Spain and the United States.

[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the
country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)]

[Illustration: RESULTS OF THE %WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE% BOUNDARY DEFINED
BY TREATY 1783. AND TERRITORY HELD BY GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1796., AND
SPAIN 1783-1795]

The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the
United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty
with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our
western limit.

Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and
insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1]
and not 31 deg. as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the
country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved
over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2]

[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.]

[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 170-191; McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 280-292.]

The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844
square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an
era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But
unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite
unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace.

[Illustration: Washington's sword]

SUMMARY

1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became
governor of Massachusetts in 1774.

2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted
to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and
Concord, which opened the War for Independence.

3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned
to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed
the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made
Washington commander in chief.

4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which
taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the
British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and
Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York.

5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson
River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be
driven across the state and into Pennsylvania.

6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and
the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3,
1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of
the winter at Morristown.

7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which
city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the
Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed
the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge.

8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting
possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and
an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were
captured at Saratoga.

9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent
over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left
Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge,
overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British
then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from
Morristown to West Point.

10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked
the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779.

11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured
General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded
by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South
Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781.

12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to
fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by
Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender.

THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776

_In New England_.

1775. Concord and Lexington.
Continental Army formed.
Washington, commander in chief.
Battle of Bunker Hill.

1775-1776. Siege of Boston.

1776. Evacuation of Boston.

_In Canada_.

1775. Arnold's march to Quebec.
Montgomery's march to Montreal.
Capture of Montreal.

1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec.
Americans return to Ticonderoga.

1776. Howe sails for New York.
Washington marches to New York.
The Declaration of Independence.
Capture of New York.
Retreat across the Jerseys.
Surprise at Trenton.
1777. Battle of Princeton.
Washington at Morristown.
Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to
capture New York state and cut the colonies in two.
St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix.
Burgoyne captured at Saratoga.
Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and
moves against Philadelphia.
Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia.
Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
Philadelphia captured by the British.
1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge.
1778. Alliance with France.
Fleet and army sent from France.
Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York.
Washington follows him from Valley Forge.
Battle of Monmouth.
Washington on the Hudson.

CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781.

1778. The South invaded.
Savannah captured and Georgia overrun.
1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away
from the Hudson.
Wayne captures Stony Point.
Lincoln attacks Savannah.
1780. Clinton captures Charleston.
Campaign of Gates in South Carolina.
Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain.
Treason of Arnold.
1781. Greene in command in the South.
Battle of the Cowpens.
March of Cornwallis from Charleston.
Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina.
Cornwallis goes to Yorktown.
Washington hurries from New York.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris.
1783. Evacuation of New York.

THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER XII

UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

%163. How the Colonies became States.%--When the Continental Congress
met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter was received from
Massachusetts, where the people had penned up the governor in Boston and
had taken the government into their own hands, asking what they should
do. Congress replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts
Regulating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to make a
temporary government to last till the King should restore the old
charter. Similar advice was given the same year to New Hampshire and
South Carolina, for it was not then supposed that the quarrel with the
mother country would end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all
the governors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown
into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and Congress,
seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 1776) advised all
the colonies to form governments for themselves (p. 132). Thereupon they
adopted constitutions, and by doing so turned themselves from British
colonies into sovereign and independent states.[1]

[Footnote 1: All but two made new constitutions; but Connecticut and
Rhode Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till
1842. Vermont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to
the Congress (p. 243).]

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES WHEN PEACE WAS DECLARED in 1783 SHOWING
THE STATE CLAIMS]

%164. Articles of Confederation.%--While the colonies were thus
gradually turning themselves into the states, the Continental
Congress was trying to bind them into a union by means of a sort of
general constitution called "Articles of Confederation." By order of
Congress, Articles had been prepared and presented by a committee in
July, 1776, but it was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent
out to the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that six
states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters
gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and
that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio
valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not
have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands.
As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the
claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt
the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used
to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave
four reasons:

1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and
owned by France.

2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country
in 1763.

3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the
"proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian
country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of
English ownership.

4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now
that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized
by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states.

For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by
these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not
to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to
yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in
January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the
Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781,
her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other
states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made
them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a
form of government the states were pledged to obey.

%165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%--The form of
government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to
end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge
to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature.
Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected
each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to
Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each
state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years
out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent
them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became
members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were
allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken
down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on
deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting
but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes
of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was
called, "ordinance."

To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare
war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract
debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between
states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay
any tax for any purpose.

%166. Origin of the Public Domain%.--In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her
strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780),
and Virginia (1781).

As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their
land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of
the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the
Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was
called, was given on certain conditions:

1. That it should be cut up into states.

2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a
certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states.

3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of
the United States.

[Footnote 1: The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress
in October, 1789, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in
1785. In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and
accepted.]

Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts
ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their
western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land
for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships,
and ranges, and fixed the price per acre.

%167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%--When Virginia made her
cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the
Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami
rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia
Revolutionary soldiers. The other (in the present state of Indiana) was
given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was
reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. This, called
the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake
Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or
right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of
land titles she had granted.

[Illustration: TERRITORY OF THE %UNITED STATES% NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO
RIVER %1787%]

%168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%--Hardly had
Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of
Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent
to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000
acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and
3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company. The land was
gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out
settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for
them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very
famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered:

1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from
Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the
United States northwest of the river Ohio."

2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five
states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had
60,000 free inhabitants.

3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude except in punishment for crime.

4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants
twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a
governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt
such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After
there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were
to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten
men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house
and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in
Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the
judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council
and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to
Congress for approval.

Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the
state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few
months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country
west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition
that it _should_ be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is
now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of
them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery
was allowed.[1]

[Footnote 1: The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her
claim in 1802 (p. 246).]

%169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation.%--While Congress at
New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates
from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very
little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to
have serious defects.

_No Taxing Power_.--In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of
any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to
pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of
the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so
disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the
states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid.

_No Power to regulate Trade_.--In the second place, Congress had no
power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states.
This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that
time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not
allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods,
linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great
Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with
dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and
with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade
Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade
treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse,
Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States
unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber,
fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense
quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore
had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and
shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried
out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in
circulation.

%170. Paper Money issued.%--This left the people without any money
with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, and led at once to a
demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their
citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and
South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued
than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it,
whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to
compel people to use the paper. This merely put an end to business, for
nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to
issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and,
during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier,
prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or
loaned.[1]

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