A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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[Footnote 1: Preble's _History of Steam Navigation _, pp. 35-66;
Thurston's _Robert Fulton_ in Makers of America Series.]

These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the August day,
1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment on the Hudson, that the era
of the steamboat opened. His vessel, called the _Clermont_, made the
trip up the river from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours.

[Illustration: Model of the Clermont[2]]

[Footnote 2: Made from the original drawings, and now in the National
Museum.]

Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreciated, and in
1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the Hudson. In 1809
Stevens sent his _Phoenix_ by sea to Philadelphia and ran it on the
Delaware. Another steamboat was on the Raritan River, and a third on
Lake Champlain. In 1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans,
and in 1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City and
New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.[3]

[Footnote 3: On the early steamboats see McMaster's _History of the
People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 486-494.]

%286. The Currency; the Mint.%--Quite as marvelous was the change
which in five and twenty years had taken place in money matters. When
the Constitution became law in 1789, there were no United States coins
and no United States bills or notes in circulation. There was no such
thing as a national currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of
foreign nations, there was no money which would pass all over our
country. To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank
bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. In
1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But the
Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more money, and as
their bills of credit already issued would wear out by use, the time was
near when there would be no currency except foreign coins. To prevent
this, Congress in 1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia,
and in 1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever would
bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made into coins without
cost to him. This was _free coinage._ As both gold and silver were to be
coined, the currency was to be _bimetallic_, or of two metals.[1] The
ratio of silver and gold was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of
silver must be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound of
gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and quarter dollar,
dime and half dime; the gold were to be the eagle, half eagle, and
quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be struck cents and half cents. As
some years must elapse before our national coins could become abundant,
certain foreign coins were made legal tender.

[Footnote 1: The first silver coin was struck in 1794; the first gold,
in 1795; the first cent and half cent, in 1793.]

%287. "Federal Money."%--The appearance of the new money was followed
by another change for the better. In colonial days the merchants and the
people expressed the debts they owed, or the value of the goods they
sold, in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the
Revolution, and after it, this was continued, although the Continental
Congress always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in
dollars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, and
dimes bearing the words "United States of America," they knew that
there really was a national coinage, or "Federal money," as they called
it, and between 1795 and 1798, one state after another ordered its
treasurer to use Federal money instead of pounds, shillings, and pence;
and thereafter in laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any
purpose, the amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants
and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms; but they came
at last into general use.

%288. Rise of the State Banks.%--Had the people been forced to depend
on the United States mint for money wherewith to pay the butcher and the
baker and the shoemaker, they would not have been able to make their
payments, for the machinery at the mint was worked by hand, and the
number of dimes and quarters turned out each year was small. But they
were not, for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the
states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each issued
notes, the people had all the currency they wanted.

In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there were but
four state banks in the whole country: one in Philadelphia, one in New
York, one in Boston, and one in Baltimore. By 1800 there were
twenty-six, in 1805 there were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were
eighty-eight.

In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank expired, and as
Congress would not renew it, many more state banks were created, each
hoping to get a part of the business formerly done by the National Bank.
Such was the "mania," as it was called, for banks, that the number rose
from eighty-eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was
far more than the people really needed.

Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesapeake Bay and
burned Washington. Then the banks in that part of the country boxed up
all their gold and silver and sent it away, lest the British should get
it. This forced them to "suspend specie payments"; that is, refuse to
give gold or silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they
suspended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one along the
seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one in Ohio, had stopped
paying coin. The New England banks did not suspend.

%289. No Small Change.%--The consequences of the suspension were very
serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, the dimes, half
dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, and the people were
again forced to do as they had done in 1789, and use "ticket money." All
the cities and towns, great and small, printed one, two, three, six and
one fourth, twelve and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets,
and sold them to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches,
and manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers--in fact, all
business men--did the same.

In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their
notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills
except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill
of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper
money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of
things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the
states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the
seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.]

%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%--Lest this state of
affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional
"power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in
1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at
Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public
money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be
established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could
issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes,
land, and all debts.

The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a
bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland
attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case
reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a
state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that
Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank.

SUMMARY

1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west
along three highways.

2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792),
Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union.

3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to
7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000
square miles.

4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of
great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time
that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were
built, and that the steamboat was introduced.

5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National
Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its
place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had
been forced to charter a new National Bank.

PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1709 TO 1815

_Territorial Changes. 1790-1812.

_ Movement of Population into the West._

Northern Stream. Checked by Indian war.
Indians quieted by Wayne.
Population again moved westward.

New states. 1791. Vermont.
1792. Kentucky.
1796. Tennessee.
1803. Ohio.
1812. Louisiana.

New Territories. 1798. Mississippi.
1800. Indiana.
1802. Mississippi enlarged.
1804. Orleans.
1805. Michigan.
1805. Louisiana (called Missouri
after 1812).
1809. Illinois.

_Expansion of Territory._ 1795. Spain accepts 31 deg. as the boundary.
1802. Georgia cedes her western territory.
1803. Louisiana purchased from France.

_Industrial Progress_
First carpet mill.
First brooms.
First United States gold and silver coins.
First press in Tennessee.
Daily newspapers.
Discovery of hard coal.
Cotton gin.
Manufacture of clocks.
Sewing thread.
Rise of manufactures.
Dependence of United States on Great Britain before 1807.
Effect of the embargo.
Manner of encouraging manufactures.
_Agricultural Progress_
Effect of the French war.
State of agriculture in
New England.
New York and Pennsylvania.
The South.
_Improvements in Transportation_
Demand for roads and canals.
The national pike.
Steamboats.
Early forms.
Fitch's.
Fulton's.
Stevens's.
Rapid introduction of.
_Financial Condition_
Federal money.
The United States mint established.
Free coinage.
Bimetallism.
Coins struck.
Federal money comes slowly into use.
State Banks.
What led to the chartering of state banks.
Their rapid increase.
Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the
United States.
General suspension in 1814.
Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States.

CHAPTER XX

SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES

%291. Monroe inaugurated.%--The administration of Madison ended on
March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were
sworn into office. They had been nominated at Washington in February,
1816, by a caucus of Republican members of Congress, for no such thing
as a national convention for the nomination of a President had as yet
been thought of. The Federalists did not hold a caucus; but it was
understood that their electors would vote for Rufus King for
President.[1]

[Footnote 1: In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana
having been admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen
and King three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the
first time since 1789.]

[Illustration: on the right of the previous paragraph, with caption
"James Monroe"]

%292. Death of the Federalist Party.%--The inauguration of Monroe
opens a new era of great interest and importance in our history. From
1793 to 1815, the questions which divided the people into Federalists
and Republicans were all in some way connected with foreign countries.
They were neutral rights, Orders in Council, French Decrees,
impressment, embargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England,
the insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treachery of
Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with England; every Republican
was a warm supporter of France.

But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Napoleon was sent
to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there was no longer any foreign
question to divide the people into Federalists and Republicans. This
division, therefore, ceased to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist
party never put up a candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist
not only as a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years
there was one great party, the Republican, or, as it soon began to be
called, the Democratic.

%293. The "Era of Good Feeling."%--A sure sign of the disappearance
of party and party feeling was seen very soon after Monroe was
inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington with the intention of
visiting and inspecting all the forts and navy yards along the eastern
seaboard and the Great Lakes. Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New
York, then to Boston, and then to Portland; where he turned westward,
and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his way
to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor and Niagara,
whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then back to Washington.

Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere
was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of
Federalism. "The visit of the President," said a Boston newspaper,
"seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party. People _now meet in
the same room_ who, a short while since, _would scarcely pass along the
same street_". Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston "party
feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great
_national feeling_ has animated every class of our citizens." So it was
everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times
the "era of good feeling," the whole country took up the expression and
used it, and the eight years of Monroe's administration have ever since
been so called.

%294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%--Though all was quiet and
happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening
along our northern, western, and southern frontier. During the war with
England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the
white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to
take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the allies
of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would
secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them. When
England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began
to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and
children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent
to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and
Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks
and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English
traders as spies.[1]

[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster's
_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 430-456.]

%295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%--This was
serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had
invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties
were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his
violent acts would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, and
in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the
United States and British America.

When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and
fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish
one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south
from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the
forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the
summit of the Rocky Mountains.

%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%--The country beyond the Rocky
Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the
United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years
to come the country should be held in joint occupation.

%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%--One year later (1819) the boundary
of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us
East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always
claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande.
By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the
Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32 deg., then a north line to the
Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then
northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky
Mountains; then a north line to 42 deg., and then along that parallel to the
Pacific Ocean.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.]

%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%--The Oregon country was thus
restricted to 42 deg. on the south, and though it had no limit on the north
the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51 deg., which he
declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to
extend from 42 deg. to 51 deg., and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But
Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be
preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all
this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the
Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant
colonies in either North or South America.

%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%--This was a
new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the
boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration
regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas.

Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality
(p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in
European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been asserted
repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the
wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed,
of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World
nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822
it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously.

[Footnote 1: See Washington's _Farewell Address_; Jefferson's _Inaugural
Address_, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803;
Monroe's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817,
Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also _American History Leaflets_,
No. 4.]

[Illustration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%]

Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America
(Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in
1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United
States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help
to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for
the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these
powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they
decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great
Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be
discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics
destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked
the American minister in London if the United States would join with
England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the
South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was
protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England
suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish
America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in
persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation
against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe
thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain,
and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced
three great guiding principles now known as the

%300. Monroe Doctrine.%--

1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared that the
American continents were no longer open to colonization by
European nations.

Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said,

2. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of
Europe.

3. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of
North or South America, nor oppress, nor in any other manner seek to
control the destiny of any of the nations of this hemisphere.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 1-54; Tucker's _Monroe
Doctrine_.]

The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle in South
American affairs, and the next year (1824) Russia agreed to make no
settlement south of 54 deg. 40'.

SUMMARY

1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the
last time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead,
and the "era of good feeling" opened.

2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of Ghent
were disposed of:

A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a
point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.

B. Oregon was held in joint occupation.

C. The line 54 deg. 40' was established.

3. The boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions
was drawn, and Florida was acquired.

4. The Monroe doctrine was announced.

* * * * *

SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR.

_Death of the Federalist party_ ...

End of the European war.
Disappearance of old party issues.
Monroe elected President.
The "era of good feeling."

_Seminole War_ ...

Creek Indians join the English.
Driven out of Alabama by Jackson.
Take refuge with Florida Seminoles.
After the war rise against the settlers in Georgia.
Destroyed by Jackson.

_The boundaries_ ...

1818. Northern boundary of Louisiana
settled to the Rocky Mountains.
1819. Treaty with Spain settled the south
boundary of Louisiana.
1818. Joint occupation of Oregon.
1824. North boundary of Oregon established at 54 deg. 40'.

_The Monroe Doctrine._

The Holy Allies.
The South American republics.
Proposal of the Holy Allies to reduce the
South American republics.
The Monroe Doctrine announced (1823).

CHAPTER XXI

THE RISING WEST

%301. Rush into the West.%--The settlement of our boundary disputes,
especially with Spain, was most timely, for even then people were
hurrying across the mountains by tens of thousands, and building up new
states in the Mississippi valley. The great demand for ships and
provisions, which from 1793 to 1807 had made business so brisk, had kept
people on the seaboard and given them plenty of employment. But after
1812, and particularly after 1815, trade, commerce, and business on the
seaboard declined, work became scarce, and men began to emigrate to the
West, where they could buy land from the government on the installment
plan, and where the states could not tax their farms until five years
after the government had given them a title deed. Old settlers in
central New York declared they had never seen so many teams and sleighs,
loaded with women, children, and household goods, traveling westward,
bound for Ohio, which was then but another name for the West.

As the year wore away, the belief was expressed that when autumn came it
would be found that the worst was over, and that the good times expected
to follow peace would keep people on the seaboard. But the good times
did not return. The condition of trade and commerce, of agriculture and
manufactures, grew worse instead of better, and the western movement of
population became greater than ever.

%302. Rapid Growth of Towns.%--Fed by this never-ending stream of
newcomers, the West was almost transformed. Towns grew and villages
sprang up with a rapidity which even in these days of rapid and easy
communication would be thought amazing. Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson
County, Ohio, was in 1810 a little hamlet of seven families living in
cabins. In 1815 it contained ninety families, numbering 500 souls. The
town of Vevay, Ind., was laid out in 1813, and was not much better than
a collection of huts in 1814. But in 1816 the traveler down the Ohio who
stopped at Vevay found himself at a flourishing county seat, with
seventy-five dwellings, occupied by a happy population who boasted of
having among them thirty-one mechanics of various trades; of receiving
three mails each week, and supporting a weekly newspaper called the
_Indiana Register_. Forty-two thousand settlers are said to have come
into Indiana in 1816, and to have raised the population to 112,000.

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