Part 3

The leading events of the Revolution were the battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775; capture of Ticonderoga, May 10; Bunker Hill, June 17; unsuccessful attack on Canada, 1775-1776; surrender of Boston, March 17, 1776; battle of Long Island, August 27; White Plains, October 28; retreat through New Jersey, at the end of 1776; battle of Trenton, December 26; battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777; Bennington, August 16; Brandywine, September 11; Germantown, October 4; Saratoga, October 7; Burgoyne's surrender, October 17; battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778; storming of Stony Point, July 15, 1779; battle of Camden, August 16, 1780; battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781; surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781.

The surrender of Cornwallis terminated the struggle. The peace treaty was signed in 1783. The financial situation was very deplorable. One of the greatest difficulties that confronted the colonists, was the limited power of Congress. The states could regulate commerce and exercise nearly all authority. But disputes regarding their boundaries prevented their development as a united nation.

Congress issued an ordinance in 1784 under which territories might organise governments, send delegates to Congress, and obtain admission as states. This was made use of in 1787 by the Northwest Territory, the region lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The states made a compact in which it was agreed that there should be no slavery in this territory.

The critical period lasted until 1789. In the absence of strong authority, economic and political troubles arose. Finally, a commission appointed by Maryland and Virginia to settle questions relating to navigation on the Potomac resulted in a convention to adjust the navigation and commerce of the whole of the United States, called the Annapolis Convention from the place where it met, May 1, 1787. Rhode Island was the only state that failed to send delegates. Instead of taking up the interstate commerce questions the convention formulated the present Constitution. A President, with power to carry out the will of the people, was provided, and also, a Supreme Court.

Washington was elected first President, his term beginning March 4, 1789. A census was taken in 1790. The largest city was Philadelphia, with a population of 42,000--the others were New York, 33,000, and Boston, 18,000. The total population of the United States was 4,000,000. The slaves numbered 700,000; free negroes, 60,000, and the Indians, 80,000.

The Federalists, who believed in centralised government, were the most influential men in Congress. Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Knox Secretary of War, Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, Osgood Postmaster General, and Jay Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The first tariff act was passed with a view of providing revenue and protection, in 1789. The national debt amounted to $52,000,000.00--a quarter of which was due abroad. The states had incurred an expense of $25,000,000.00 more, in supporting the Revolution. The country suffered from inflated currency. The genius of Hamilton saved the situation. He persuaded Congress to assume the whole obligation of the national government and of the states. Washington selected the site of the capitol on the banks of the Potomac. But the government convened at Philadelphia for ten years. Vermont and Kentucky were admitted as states by the first Congress.

In Washington's administration, a number of American ships were captured by British war vessels. England was at war with France and claimed the right of stopping American vessels to look for possible deserters. War was avoided by the Jay Treaty, November 19, 1794.

Washington retired, in 1796, at the end of two terms. John Adams, who had been Ambassador to France, Holland and England, became second President. The Democratic-Republican party, originated at this time, stood for a strict construction of the constitution and favoured France rather than England. Its leader was Thomas Jefferson. Adams proved but a poor party leader, and the power of the Federalists failed after eight years. He had gained some popularity in the early part of his first term when France began to retaliate for the Jay Treaty by seizing American ships, and would not receive the American minister. He appointed Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, with John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, as a commission to treat with the French. The French commissioners who met them demanded $24,000,000.00 as a bribe to draw up a treaty. The names of the French commissioners were referred to in American newspapers as X, Y and Z. Taking advantage of the popular favour gained in the conduct of this affair, the Federalists succeeded in passing the Alien and Sedition Laws.

Napoleon seized the power in France and made peace with the United States. In the face of impending war between France and England, Napoleon gave up his plans of an empire in America and sold Louisiana to the United States for $15,000,000.00. The territory included 1,500,000 square miles. The Lewis and Clarke Expedition, sent out by Jefferson, started from St. Louis May 14, 1804, crossed the Rocky Mountains and discovered the Oregon country.

Aaron Burr was defeated for Governor of New York, and in his Presidential ambitions, and in revenge killed Hamilton in a duel. He fled the Ohio River country and made active preparations to carry out some kind of a scheme. He probably intended to proceed against the Spanish possessions in the Southwest and Mexico, and set himself up as a ruler. He was betrayed by his confidante, Wilkinson, and was tried for treason and acquitted in Richmond, Va., in 1807.

The momentous question of slavery in the territories came up in Jefferson's administration. The institution was permitted in Mississippi, but the ordinance of 1787 was maintained in Indiana. The importation of slaves was prohibited after January 1, 1808.

James Madison, a Republican, became President, in 1809. The Indians, under Tecumseh, attacked the Western settlers, but were defeated at Tippecanoe by William Henry Harrison in 1811. In the same year, Congress determined to break with England. Clay and Calhoun led the agitation. Madison acceded, and war was declared June 18, 1812. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. British commerce had been devastated. A voyage even from England to Ireland was made unsafe.

The leading events of the War of 1812 were the unsuccessful invasion of Canada and surrender at Detroit, August 12, 1812; sea fight in which the "Constitution" took the "Guerriere," August 19th; sea fight in which the "United States" took the "Macedonian," October 25, 1813; defeat at Frenchtown, January 22nd; victory on Lake Erie, September 10th; loss of the "Chesapeake" to the "Shannon," June 1st; victory at Chippewa, July 5, 1814; victory at Lundy's Lane, July 15th; Lake Champlain, September 11th; British burned public buildings in Washington, August 25th; American defeated British at Baltimore, September 13th; American under Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans, December 23rd and 28th.

Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, were admitted as states, in 1792, 1796, and 1803, respectively. In 1806, the federal government began a wagon road, from the Potomac River to the West through the Cumberland Gap. New York State finished the Erie Canal, in 1825. The population increased so rapidly, that six new states, west and south of the Allegheny Mountains, were admitted between 1812 and 1821. A serious conflict arose in 1820 over the admission of Missouri. The Missouri Compromise resulted in the prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36° and 30' north latitude. Missouri was admitted in 1831, and Maine, as a free state, in 1820.

With the passing of protective tariff measures in 1816 a readjustment of party lines took place. Protection brought over New England from Federalism to Republicanism. Henry Clay of Kentucky was the leading advocate of protection. Everybody was agreed upon this point in believing that tariff was to benefit all classes. This time was known as "The Era of Good Feeling."

Spain ceded Florida to the United States for $5,000,000.00, throwing in claims in the Northwest, and the United States gave up her claim to Texas. The treaty was signed in 1819.

The Monroe Doctrine was contained in the message that President Monroe sent to Congress December 2, 1823. The colonies of South America had revolted from Spain and had set up republics. The United States recognised them in 1821. Spain called on Europe for assistance. In his message to Congress, Monroe declared, "We could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power, in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly feeling toward the United States....The American Continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonisation by any European power." Great Britain had previously suggested to Monroe that she would not support the designs of Spain.

Protective measures were passed in 1824 and 1828. Around Adams and Clay were formed the National-Republican Party, which was joined by the Anti-Masons and other elements to form the Whig Party. Andrew Jackson was the centre of the other faction, which came to be known as the Democratic Party and has had a continuous existence ever since. South Carolina checked the rising tariff for a while by declaring the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void.

The region which now forms the state of Texas had been gradually filling up with settlers. Many had brought slaves with them, although Mexico abolished slavery in 1829. The United States tried to purchase the country. Mexican forces under Santa Anna tried to enforce their jurisdiction in 1836. Texas declared her independence and drew up a constitution, establishing slavery. Opposition in the United States to the increase of slave territory defeated a plan for the annexation of this territory.

The New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed 1832, and the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia in 1833. William Lloyd Garrison was the leader of abolition as a great moral agitation.

John C. Calhoun, Tyler's Secretary of State, proposed the annexation of Texas in 1844, but the scheme was rejected by the Senate. The election of Polk changed the complexion of affairs and Congress admitted Texas, which became a state in December, 1845.

The boundaries had never been settled and war with Mexico followed. Taylor defeated the Mexican forces at Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, at Resaca de la Palma, May 9th, and later at Monterey and Buena Vista. Scott was sent to Vera Cruz with an expedition, which fought its way to the City of Mexico by September 14, 1846. The United States troops also seized New Mexico. California revolted and joined the United States. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 secured a further small strip of territory from Mexico.

The Boundary Treaty with Great Britain, in June, 1846, established the northern limits of Oregon at 49th parallel north latitude.

The plans for converting California into a slave state were frustrated by the discovery of gold. Fifty thousand emigrants poured in. The men worked with their own hands, and would not permit slaves to be brought in by their owners. Five bills, known as the Compromise of 1850, provided that New Mexico should be organised as a territory out of Texas; admitted California as a free state; established Utah as a territory; provided a more rigid fugitive slave law; and abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.

Cuba was regarded as a promising field for the extension of the slave territory when the Democratic Party returned to power in 1853 with the administration of Franklin Pierce. The ministers to Spain, France and Great Britain met in Belgium, at the President's direction, and issued the Ostend Manifesto, which declared that the United States would be justified in annexing Cuba, if Spain refused to sell the island. This Manifesto followed the popular agitation over the Virginius affair. The Spaniards had seized a ship of that name, which was smuggling arms to the Cubans, and put to death some Americans. War was averted, and Cuba remained in the control of the Spaniards.

The Supreme Court in 1857, in the Dred Scott decision, held that a slave was not a citizen and had no standing in the law, that Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories, and that the constitution guaranteed slave property.

The Presidential campaign in 1858, which was signalised by the debates between Douglass and Lincoln, resulted in raising the Republican power in the House of Representatives, to equal that of the Democrats.