History of the United States, Volume 3

Chapter I. the Whig Party and Its Mission.

The Word "Whig." Republican Prestige. Schism. Adams's Election. Five Doctrines of Whiggism. I. Broad Construction of the Constitution. II. The Bank. Death of Old and Birth of New. Opposition by Jackson. III. The Tariff of 1816. Its Object. IV. Land. Whig versus Democratic Policy. V. Internal Improvements Rivers and Harbors. Need of Better Inland Communication. Contention between the Parties. Whig Characteristics. Adams. Webster. His Political Attitude. Clay. His Power, as an Orator. His Duel with Randolph. His Wit. His Influence.

Chapter Ii. Florida and the Monroe Doctrine.

Florida's Disputed Boundary. West Florida Occupied. Jackson Seizes East Florida. Puts to Death Ambrister and Arbuthnot. His Excuse. Defended by Adams. Sale of Florida. Revolt of Spanish America. Monroe's Declaration. Its Origin.

Chapter Iii. the Missouri Compromise.

Missouri Wishes Statehood. Early History of Slavery. Hostility to it. First Abolitionist Societies. Ordinance of 1787. Slavery in the North. In the South. Pleas for its Existence. Missouri Compromise. Pro-slavery Arguments. The Policy Men. Anti-slavery Opinions. Difficulties of the Case. The Anti-slavery Side Ignores these.

Chapter Iv. the Great Nullification.

Rise of Tariff Rates after 1816. Relations of Parties and Sections to the Tariff. Minimum Principle. Tariff of Abominations Adopted. Harmful to the South. Nullification Project. Calhoun's Life and Pet Political Theory. South Carolina Recedes. Compromise Tariff. State Rights and Central Government. Webster's Plea.

Chapter V. Minor Public Questions of Jackson's "reign."

Jackson's Life. Mistaken Ideas. Civil Service Reform. Perfecting of Party Organization in the Country. Jackson and the United States Bank. His Popularity. Revival of West Indian Trade. French Spoliation Claims. Paid. Our Gold and Silver Coinage. Gold Bill. Increased Circulation of Gold. Specie Circular.

Chapter Vi. the First Whig Triumph.

Election of Harrison in 1840. Causes. Jackson's Violence. Sub-treasury Policy. Panic of 1837. Decrease of Revenue. Whig Opposition to Slavery. Seminole War. Amistad Case. Texan Question. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."

Chapter Vii. Life and Manners in the Fourth Decade.

Population and Area. The West. The East. An American Literature. Newspaper Enterprise, Mails, Eleemosynary Institutions. American Character. Temperance Reform. The Land of the Free. Religion. Anti-masonic Movement. Banking Craze. Moon Hoax. Party Spirit. Jackson as a Knight Errant. His Self-will. Enmity between Adams and Jackson. Costumes.

Chapter Viii. Industrial Advance by 1840.

F. C. Lowell and his Waltham Power-loom. Growth of Factory System. New Corporation Laws. Gas, Coal, and Other Industries. The Same Continued. The National Road. Stages and Canals. Ocean Lines. Beginning of Railroads. Opposition. First Locomotive. Multiplication of Railroads.

PERIOD III

THE YEARS OF SLAVERY CONTROVERSY

1840-1860

Chapter I. Slavery After the Missouri Compromise.

Cotton and Slavery. Evils of Slavery: Social, Economic. Slave Insurrections. Turner's Rebellion. Abolition in Virginia. Black Laws. Lull in Anti-slavery Agitation. Colonization Society. Fugitive Slave Laws. Prigg's Case. Personal Liberty Laws in the North. Kidnapping Expeditions. Domestic Slave-trade. Non-emancipation Laws. Business Relations between North and South.

Chapter Ii. "immediate Abolition."

Renewed Hostility to Slavery. Lundy. Garrison. Affiliations of this Movement. The New England Anti-slave Society. Significance, Purpose, Work. Methods of Abolitionists. Southern Opposition. Northern. Anti-abolitionist Riots at the North. Murder of Lovejoy. Outrages against Northern Blacks. Colored Schools Closed. Schism among the Abolitionists. The Liberty Party. Ultra-abolitionists' Unreason. Why Abolitionism Spread. Ambiguity of the Constitution. Seizure of Black Seamen. Grievances on both Sides.

Chapter Iii. the Mexican War.

Texas Declares her Independence. Battle of San Jacinto. The Democracy Favors Annexation. Calhoun's Purpose. Opposition of Clay and the Whigs. Texas Admitted to the Union. Causes of the War. The Nueces vs. the Rio Grande. Preliminary Operations. Battle of Palo Alto. Declaration of War. Monterey Captured. Santa Anna again President. Buena Vista. Taylor's Victory. Scott Appointed to Chief Command. Capture of Vera Cruz. Cerro Gordo. Jalapa. Re-enforced by Pierce. On to the City of Mexico. Contreras. Churubusco. Molino del Rey. Storming of Chapultepec. Capture of the Capital. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Its Conditions. The Oregon Question.

Chapter Iv. California and the Compromise of 1850.

Invasion of New Mexico. Exploration and Seizure of California. Discovery of Gold. Resulting Excitement. Increase of Population. Gold Yield. Early Law and Government. Slavery's Victory. The Wilmot Proviso. Taylor President. Application by California for Admission to the Union. Clay's Omnibus Bill. Webster Superseded by Sumner. Passage of the Omnibus Compromise. California a State. Enlargement of Texas. New Fugitive Slave Law. Revival of Abolitionism. Underground Railroad. Rendition of Anthony Burns. Other Cases.

Chapter V. the Fight for Kansas.

Plot against the Missouri Compromise. Pierce's Election. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. Squatter Sovereignty. Anti-slavery Emigration to Kansas. Political Jobbery by the Slavocracy. Topeka Convention. Kansas Riots. Lecompton Constitution. Opposed by Free-State Men. Kansas Admitted to the Union. Assault upon Sumner. Southern Repudiation of the Douglas Theory. Dred Scott Decision. Startling Assumption of the Supreme Court. Effect. Counter-theory.

Chapter Vi. Slavery and the Old Parties.

Democracy and Whiggism. Ambiguous Attitude of the Latter toward Slavery. The Creole Case. Giddings's Resolutions. Quincy Adams as an Abolitionist. The First Gag Law. Adams's Opposition. The Second and Third. Their Repeal. Pro-slavery Whigs. Submission to Slavocracy. Its Insolent Demands. Death of Whiggism. Americanism. The Know-Nothings. Revolt from the Democracy at the North.

Chapter Vii. the Crisis.

Consolidation of Anti-slavery Men. Worse Black Laws. Schemes for Foreign Conquest. Lopez's and Walker's Expedition. Ostend Manifesto. Supremacy of Slavery. Rise of Free-soilers. Incipient Republicanism. Republican Doctrine. John Brown's Raid. Schism between the Northern and the Southern Democrats. Nomination of Douglas. Breckenridge and Lane. Bell and Everett. Lincoln and Hamlin. Lincoln's Popularity. His Election to the Presidency.

Chapter Viii. Material Progress

Population and Economic Prosperity. Growth of the West. Indian Outbreaks. Improvements farther East. Canals and Railroads. The Steam Horse in the West. Morse's Telegraph. Ocean Cables. Minor Inventions. Petroleum. Financial Crisis of 1857.

PERIOD IV

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

1860-1868

Chapter I. Causes of the War.

An "Irrepressible Conflict." Growth of North. Influence of Missouri Compromise Repeal. Slavery as Viewed by the South. Stephens. Anti-Democratic Habits of Thought. Compact Theory of the Union. State Consciousness, South. Argument for the Calhoun Theory. Secession not Justifiable by this. Moderates and Fire-eaters. Northern Grievances. Do not Excuse Secession. Lincoln's Election. Patriotic and Philanthropic Considerations Ignored. Prudence also. Resources of South and of North.

Chapter Ii. Secession

Threats of Secession before 1860. By New England. By the South in 1856. Governor Wise. The 1860 Campaign. Attitude of South Carolina. Of the Gulf States. Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana. Election of Lincoln. South Carolina will Secede. Judge Magrath. The Palmetto State Goes. Enthusiasm. The State Plays Nation. Effect upon Other States. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana. and Texas Follow. Strong Union Spirit Still. Vain. Georgia and Secession. The Question in Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina. Seizure of United States Property. Floyd's Theft. Fort Moultrie Evacuated for Sumter. Fort Pickens. New Orleans Mint. Twiggs's Surrender. Theory of Seceding States as to Property Seized. Southern Confederacy. Davis President. His History. Inaugural Address. Powers. Confederate Government and Constitution. Slavery. State Sovereignty. Tariff. Good Features. Bright Prospects of the New Power.

Chapter Iii. the North in the Winter of 1860-61.

Apathy. Disbelief in South's Seriousness. Divided Opinion. Suggestions toward Compromise. Anti-coercion. Convention at Albany. Mayor Wood of New York. Buchanan's Vacillation. Treason all about Him. Star of the West Fired on. Inaction of Congress. Crittenden's Compromise Lost. Washington Peace Congress. Vain. Earnestness of South. Lincoln Inaugurated. His Address. How Received. His Difficult Task. Plight of Army, Navy, Treasury. Sumter Fired on. Defended. Evacuated. Effect at North. War Spirit. 75,000 Volunteers. The Sixth Massachusetts in Baltimore. Washington in Danger. General Scott's Measures. March of the Massachusetts Eighth and the New York Seventh. Their Arrival in Washington.

Chapter Iv. War Begun

Both Sides Expect a Brief Struggle. South's Advantages. Call for Three Years' Men. Butler in Baltimore. Maryland Saved to the Union. Alexandria and Arlington Heights Occupied. Ellsworth's Death. Each Side Concentrates Armies in Virginia. Fight at Big Bethel. At Vienna. The Struggle in Missouri. Lyon and Price. Battle of Wilson's Creek. Lyon's Death. Fremont, Hunter, and Halleck in Missouri. The Contest in Kentucky. The State becomes Unionist. In West Virginia. Lee and McClellan. Brilliant Campaign of the Latter. West Virginia Made a State. Beauregard at Manassas. Patterson's Advance. Harper's Ferry Taken. "On to Richmond." Battle of Bull Run. Union Defeat and Retreat. Losses. Comments. Depression at the North, followed by New Resolution. McClellan. Army of Potomac Organized. The Capital Safe. Affair of Ball's Bluff. The South Hopeful. And with Reason.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE FIRST GUN FIRED FROM FORT SUMTER.

WEBSTER'S HOME AT MARSHFIELD, MASS.

DANIEL WEBSTER. (From a picture by Healy at the State Department, Washington).

THE HOUSE IN WHICH HENRY CLAY WAS BORN.

THE SCHOOL-HOUSE OF THE SLASHES.

HENRY CLAY. (From a photograph by Rockwood of an old daguerreotype).

JOHN RANDOLPH. (From a picture by Jarvis in 1811, at the New York Historical Society).

JAMES MONROE. (From a painting by Gilbert Stuart--now the property of T. Jefferson Coolidge).

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (From a picture by Gilbert Stuart).

JOHN C. CALHOUN. (From a picture by King at the Corcoran Art Gallery).

CALHOUN'S LIBRARY AND OFFICE.

ANDREW JACKSON (From a photograph by Brady).

ROGER B. TANEY.

MARTIN VAN BUREN. (From a photograph by Brady).

GENERAL WILLIAM J. WORTH.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. (From a copy at the Corcoran Art Gallery of a painting by Beard in 1840).

JOHN TYLER. (From a photograph by Brady).

A PONY EXPRESS.

THURLOW WEED. (From an unpublished photograph by Disderi, Paris, in 1861. In the possession of Thurlow Weed Barnes).

FROM AN OLD TIME-TABLE. (Furnished by the ABC Pathfinder Railway Guide).

TRIAL BETWEEN PETER COOPER'S LOCOMOTIVE "TOM THUMB" AND ONE OF STOCKTON'S AND STOKES' HORSE CARS. (From "History of the First Locomotives in America").

PETER COOPER'S LOCOMOTIVE.

OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF A TICKET USED IN 1838 ON THE NEW YORK & HARLEM RAILROAD.

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