""No, David; no boy ever trod the quarter-deck with such principles as you have, and such habits as you exhibit. You will have to change your whole course of life if you ever become a man."
"My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by the rebuke, and overwhelmed with mortification. "A poor, miserable, drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in some fever hospital!" That"s my fate is it? I"ll change my life, and I will change it at once. I will never utter another oath, never drink another drop of intoxicating liquor, never gamble, and as G.o.d is my witness I have kept these three vows to this hour."
The Star Spangled Banner
The sun is slowly sinking in the west. The men of the army and navy are drawn up at attention. At every fort, army post, and navy yard, and on every American battle-ship at home or abroad, the flag of our country is flying at full mast. The sunset gun will soon be fired, and night will follow the day as darkness follows the light. All is ready, the signal is given, the men salute, and the flag to the band"s accompaniment of "The Star Spangled Banner" slowly descends for the night to be folded and kept for the morning"s hoisting.
"And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave While the land of the free is the home of the brave."
In the cemetery of Mt. Olivet, near Frederick, Md., there is a spot where the flag of our country is never lowered. It is keeping watch by night as by day over the grave of Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner." He was born in Frederick County, Md., August 1, 1779, and died in Baltimore, January 11, 1843.
The Congress of the United States has never formally adopted "The Star Spangled Banner" as a national anthem, but it has become such through the recognition {331} given to it by the army and navy. It is played on all state occasions at home or abroad and is the response of our bands at all international gatherings. In the theatre, at a public meeting, or at a banquet--whenever it is played, the people rise and remain standing to the end as a tribute to the flag of our country.
The poem itself is descriptive of what the author saw and felt on the night of September 13, 1814, as he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British during the War of 1812. The city of Washington had been sacked, bombarded, and burned by the British, and now in their march of destruction, they were bombarding the fort to gain entrance to Baltimore"s harbor, in which city they had purposed to spend the winter. We can well imagine the joy of Key"s heart, the son of a Revolutionary patriot, held in custody on a British battle-ship, to see in the morning "that our flag was still there," and to know, therefore, that there was still hope for our country.
"Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In G.o.d is our Trust"."
The Birth of New States
The history of the fifty-six years between 1789 and 1845 is marked by the development of new states formed out of the territorial settlement of the wilderness. The people of our country have always been pioneering, going ahead of civilization, so to speak, but always taking it with them. Scouts they have been in every sense of the word.
Following the rivers, clearing the forests, fording the streams, braving the dangers, living the wild life--brave men and women!
The first state to come into the Union of the thirteen original states was Vermont, the "Green Mountain" state (1791); next came Kentucky (1792), the "Blue Gra.s.s" state, the home of Daniel Boone, the great hunter and pioneer. Four years later, (1796) came Tennessee, the "Volunteer" state, receiving this name because of its large number of volunteer soldiers for the Seminole war and the War of 1812; next comes Ohio (1803), the "Buckeye," so called because of the large number of buckeye trees, the nut of which bears some resemblance to a buck"s eye. This is the first state to be formed out of the public domain, known at this time as the "Northwest Territory." The land ordinance bill of 1785 and the homestead act of 1862 {332} relate to the development and settlement of the public domain, the first being a plan of survey applied to all public lands owned by the United States government; the other being a law by which the possession of these lands was made possible to settlers.
Following Ohio into the Union came Louisiana (1812), the "Creole"
state whose people were descendants of the original French and Spanish settlers. This was the first state to be formed west of the Mississippi, and New Orleans, its chief city, known as the "Crescent City," is one of the oldest in our country and full of historic interest.
After the War of 1812 the new states began to come in rapidly. The admission of Indiana (1816), "The Hoosier"; Mississippi (1817), the "Bayou"; Illinois, the "Prairie" (1818); Alabama (1819), the "Cotton,"
show that the pioneer settlements of our people had been closing in along the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers.
We now go back to the far East, for the state of Maine, our "Pine Tree" state, has now been developed, and its admission (1820) completes the coast line of states as far south as Georgia. The next state admitted is Missouri (1821), the "Iron," followed by Arkansas, the "Bear" (1836), to be followed in turn by Michigan (1836), the "Lake" or "Wolverine" state, the thirteenth state to be admitted; and the stars in our flag are now doubled.
The first census of the United States was taken in 1790, and the Const.i.tution provided that it must be taken every ten years thereafter. In that year, the order of states in rank of population was as follows: Virginia first, Pennsylvania second, North Carolina third, Ma.s.sachusetts fourth, and New York fifth.
The census of 1820 makes a decided change, we find, in the order of population, and New York comes first, Virginia second, Pennsylvania third, North Carolina fourth, Ohio fifth, Kentucky sixth, and Ma.s.sachusetts seventh.
The states of Florida and Texas came into the Union in the same year--the one March 3 and the other December 29, 1845; and thereby hangs a tale. It had been claimed by our government that Texas was included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803; but the Mexicans claimed it also, and, in 1819, in order to close the deal for the purchase of Florida, our government was obliged to relinquish its claim to Texas.
At this time the possession of Florida was more desirable and necessary to the peace of our country than the {333} possession of Texas; it was under Spanish rule, overrun with outlaws and a most undesirable neighbor, besides being very necessary to the rounding out of our coast territory.
The Mexican War
The annexation and admission of Texas into the Union in 1845 came about through the pioneering and settlement of our people in her territory; where at first welcomed and encouraged by the Mexicans, they were later deluged in blood. The spirit of Americanism grew rampant under the barbaric and military despotism of the Mexican government, and in 1835 there was an uprising of the settlers led by a pioneer, an ex-governor of Tennessee, Gen. Samuel Houston, the man for whom the city of Houston, Texas, was named. At this time there were about ten thousand Americans in Texas, and on March 2, 1836, through their representatives in convention a.s.sembled, these Americans in true Revolutionary spirit declared Texas an independent republic.
The Mexican government tried to put down this rebellion, but met with a crushing defeat, and Texas, the "Lone Star" state, remained an independent republic up to the time of her annexation and admission as a state of the Union.
The cause of the war with Mexico, then, was her resentment because Texas began to move for annexation to the United States. The fact that Texas had been for many years an independent republic and been so recognized by the United States, Great Britain, France, and some smaller countries, gave Texas the right on her part to ask for annexation, and the United States the right to annex her. But in order to bring Texas into the Union and save her people from the Mexicans, the United States was obliged to declare war against Mexico. This she did May 13, 1845, although Texas was not admitted as a state until December 29th of that year. The war lasted nearly three years, peace being declared February 2, 1848. As an outcome of the war the peaceful possession of Texas was secured, and also possession of the territory of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and a part of Colorado and New Mexico, for which territory, however, our government in final settlement paid Mexico, $15,000,000.
New States--1845-1861
During the Mexican War, Iowa (1846), the "Hawkeye" state, came into the Union, followed by the state of Wisconsin (1848), {334} the "Badger." Next comes the story of the "Forty-niners," and California (1850), the "Golden State," enters the Union; and then comes Minnesota (1858), the "North Star" State, and the Great Lakes are walled in, this state completing the circuit. Oregon, (1859), the "Beaver"
follows, then the "Garden of the West," Kansas (1861), and the Civil War is upon us. Of course, we do not mean to say that Kansas was the cause of the Civil War, although it had much to do with it.
The Civil War--1861-1865
The Civil War was a war between states, in the government of the United States between states that were slave and states that were free.
The rights of property ownership are involved in state rights, and slaves held as property in slave-holding states were not recognized as such in states that were free. Therefore, the principle of slavery became involved not alone in the individual ownership of slaves, but also in the rights of a state, and the relationship of states to each other in the government of the United States.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, one of the first things to be settled was the boundaries as between states of the land comprising the thirteen original states; and as an outcome of this settlement, there came into possession of the United States all of that territory ceded by Great Britain in 1783, which was not included in the boundaries of those states. This territory, in brief, may be described as the territory east of the Mississippi, and north and south of the Ohio River; and out of this territory and that west of the Mississippi added later (1803) through the Louisiana Purchase, most of the new states were formed that came into the Union before the Civil War. And this was the beginning of what is known as the "public domain"--that is, land owned by the Federal Government.
In 1785, Congress pa.s.sed a law which has become general in its application to all public lands of the United States. It is a law for the uniform survey of public lands into townships six miles square, subdivided into sections containing 640 acres, and quarter sections containing 160 acres. The purpose of the government in making this survey was to make public lands in the territories of the government easy of settlement, and as the townships became settled, to develop in them the local township form of government.
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The territory north of the Ohio River was designated the "Northwest Territory." As soon as the public lands in this territory were thrown open to settlers, they began to pour in. Indeed, in many instances, they went ahead of the survey.
The next step taken by Congress was to pa.s.s a law, in 1787, for the government and protection of those settlers in this Northwest Territory, and in this law Congress made provision that slavery should be prohibited. Therefore, states formed in this territory had to come into the Union as free states. This was a restriction of slavery, however, which did not apply to the territory south of the Ohio, nor west of the Mississippi; so that when a new state came into the Union, formed out of either one of these territories, it became a great political factor in our government either for or against slavery.
In the pa.s.sing of the years, many changes were taking place in our government, but there came a time when the people began to realize that slavery was spreading and that our government was politically divided between states that were slave and states that were free--or, in other words, that in the principle of slavery the peace and preservation of the Union were involved.
And thus it happened that the slave-holding states, not being able to live at peace in the Union, decided to go out of it, and live by themselves. The right of a state to leave the Union was called "the right of secession"--a right which the North held did not exist under the Const.i.tution.
Nevertheless, one by one, under the leadership of South Carolina, December 20, 1860, the slave-holding states announced their secession, either by act of state legislature or in convention a.s.sembled; and on February 4, 1861, there had been formed in our government a Southern confederacy. At this time the whole number of states in the Union was thirty-two, and of this number eleven entered the Southern confederacy.
The first shot was fired by the Southern confederacy on April 12, 1861, against Fort Sumter, a fortification of the Federal Government over which floated the stars and stripes. The war lasted four years, ending on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the army of the Southern confederacy, surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, commander-in-chief of the Federal army.
Abraham Lincoln
The central figure in the Civil War is Abraham Lincoln--in heart, brain, and character, not only one of our greatest Americans, but one of the world"s greatest men.
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Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents had come to this then pioneer state from Virginia, and his grandfather, whose Christian name he bore, moved there as early as 1781, where, a few years later, he was killed by the Indians while trying to make a home in the forest. When Lincoln was eight years old, his people moved to the new state of Indiana about the time it came into the Union, and there he lived until he was twenty-one, when he went to Illinois, from which state, eventually, he was elected President.
In 1859, when he was beginning to gain some recognition as a national figure, he was asked to write a little sketch of his life, and in the letter enclosing it he said: "There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, there is not much of me." In this sketch, which is indeed brief, he tells us he was raised to farm work until he was twenty-two; that up to that time he had had little education; and when he became of age he did not know much beyond reading, writing, and ciphering to the "rule of three." He clerked for one year in a store and was elected and served as captain of the volunteers in the Black Hawk War; later on he ran for the state legislature (1832) and was defeated, though successful in the three succeeding elections. While in the state legislature, he studied law and later went to Springfield to practise it. The only other public office he makes note of is his election to the lower house of Congress for one term (1846). He returned to Springfield and took up more earnestly the study and practice of law; he entered with spirit into the political campaigns, and constantly was growing in public esteem. His public debates with Douglas (1858) made him a familiar figure throughout the state of Illinois, and his profound knowledge and masterful handling of questions debated, his convincing and unanswerable arguments, his clear grasp of the political situation, began to gain the attention of Eastern politicians, convincing them and the country at large that they had a mighty force to reckon with in the prairie state of Illinois.
Although he lost the election to the United States Senate, and Douglas won, the campaign had pushed him to the front as a national figure, and paved the way for his presidential nomination.
In 1860, at the Republican convention a.s.sembled in Chicago, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President. In November he was elected and March 4, 1861, he was inaugurated. His address at this time was an earnest plea for peace and friendship {337} between the North and the South: "We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pa.s.sion may have strained, it must not break our bond of affection."
But the war tide was rising and could not be stemmed; four years of bitter conflict ensued. Lincoln"s emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves was made only after he had convinced himself it could not be longer deferred and preserve the Union. "My paramount duty," he said, "is to save the Union, and not either to destroy or save slavery. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would save the Union." His Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation, officially freeing the slaves, was finally issued in September, 1862, to take effect Jan, 1st of the following year.
Lincoln was elected to the Presidency for the second term and inaugurated March 4, 1865, while the war was still on. His second inaugural address closes with these words with which every boy should be familiar, voicing as they do the exalted spirit of a great and good man: