"It were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the poor Indian conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending."-WILLIAM PENN.

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LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

PURPOSES OF HISTORICAL STUDY.

ALTHOUGH the American Union at this day appears as a specially brilliant constellation among the political systems which have been styled the Galaxy of Nations, yet not many generations have gone by since this hitherto hidden hemisphere first became an object of historical notice, and quickly attracted the gaze of all the civilized world. But while our republic has, indeed, thus attained to so noteworthy a position in so brief a time, as to occupy a front rank among the nations of the earth, yet we read of other nations still more powerful and glorious in their outward aspect, whose suns once rose with splendor in the East, but which now are either sadly degenerated and insignificant, or else have long ago sunk into oblivion.

In the pages of the inspired Scriptures we may find related. the reason why the glory of these people waned. It was because they were of the nations that knew not God, nor were concerned to observe his statutes. The seeds of gross evils were with them from the first, and, not being eradicated,

prevailed eventually to their destruction. So it was for the instruction and reproof of all following ages that we find detailed in Holy Writ the historical narratives of the Hebrews, their wars with the surrounding nations, together with the prophecies of the future wretched condition of them all, which we now witness to be so remarkably fulfilled. Hence, it is by the intelligent observation of such records, that the student of all history, "sacred and profane," will be benefited; the prime end of all historical inquiry being, to take note of those principles of social and political action which appear best calculated to insure the well-being and permanency of any people.

It will, therefore, be the purpose of the following pages, not so much to seek the entertainment of the student by minutelydetailed narratives of military campaigns, as, while treating those subjects at sufficient length, to endeavor to derive some positive benefit from the observation of their causes and effects, as also to bring into prominence other public matters which deeply concern the well-being of the people at large.

That historical treatise accomplishes little or no good for humanity which delights mainly in military manoeuvres, moving its kings and captains in the sight of the student like the unfeeling puppet figures of a chess-board, and, while vainly ministering amusement, suppresses the sad tale of utter devastation and woe that ever attend the track of the worldly conqueror.

Moreover, by means of intelligent comparison, we should strive to discern how our own nation's sun or starry cluster (so to speak) appears to be drifting: whether we, as a people, by any low estimate of honor, truth, or equality of rights, are in danger of becoming utterly corrupt, and thus-overwhelmed by divine justice-should become comparable to a faint nebula, scarcely discernible in the political firmament; or, on the other hand, whether it appears our concern to elevate religion, peacefulness, and every good work, that

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.

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thereby we may continue increasing in prosperity, and so exemplify to every nation that it is indeed "righteousness that exalteth a people."

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.

Before touching upon the particulars of our country's history, let us first obtain a broad geographical view of the land: simply its prominent physical characteristics of mountains and plains, of rivers and forest-areas. Looking at the centre section, lying between its right and left mountain-barriers, the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountain range, we see the Mississippi river, with its great tributaries, appearing like a mammoth tree, though overmuch developed on the left, where the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red rivers extend their branches. On the right, spread out the Illinois and the Ohio, with the Tennessee and the Cumberland.

Eastward of the Alleghanies, passing over a rather narrow, undulating country, is the nearly parallel range of the Blue Mountains; and beyond the latter, a broad margin to the Atlantic Ocean; while on the west, beyond the Rocky Mountain chain, we find a wide extent of mostly flat or desert country to the Sierra Nevada and Coast Mountains, and then a narrower margin between these latter and the Pacific Ocean.

Before European nations encroached upon the domain of the aborigines, the aspect of the country east of the Mississippi was vastly different from the appearance which it presents at this day. If, with our eye, we follow up the trunk of the great tree which we have imagined, to where the Ohio branches off on the right, thence along the latter to the neighborhood of Cincinnati, across to Lake Erie and down the St. Lawrence to the sea; then follow around the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the place of beginning at the Mississippi's mouth, we will have measured the bounds of what was in that

day a dense and almost uninterrupted forest. Between the Ohio river and the vast Lake-feeders of the St. Lawrence, there were, however, some intervals of land destitute of woods, and these open spots increased in number and size as one proceeded westwardly, until, in the country of the Illinois, the forest and the plain became nearly equal in area.

In

Beyond the Mississippi, the change which has ensued is by no means so notable. Here the prairies absorb more and more of the woodland, until there is reached that immense plain, which, bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, extends from the Arctic Sea down to the Mexican Gulf, with, in many places, only narrow belts of timber along the banks of the rivers and lesser water-courses. Here the buffalowhich also, in limited numbers, were found east of the Mississippi even to the Alleghanies-ranged in great herds, affording a ready subsistence to the tribes of native hunters. the secondary ridges and intervening valleys, the Parks of the Rocky Mountain region, forest land again appears, but beyond those mountains is a vast extent of prairies and desert. There were no buffalo here, and the population was sparse; the salmon of the rivers, and various species of native roots were the principal articles of food. But on the Pacific slope of the Sierra Nevada, the climate is mild and equable, the soil fertile, and, as a consequence, vegetation is luxuriant, and the timber is of exceptionally large growth and plentiful.

It is scarcely necessary to say to the teacher of history, or to any appreciative student, that the open atlas is an aid to the retention of many facts, such as ought not to be neglected.

ICELAND AND THE NORTHMEN. MADOC. The zeni.

Although it is customary to say that "America was discovered by Columbus," yet the claim to the accomplishment of that historical event belongs rightly to the NORTHMEN.