THE WAR FOR THE UNION.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY DIFFERENCES.

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN COLONIES.SLAVERY. THE CONFEDERATION OF THE COLONIES.-ONE NATION TO-DAY AND THIRTEEN TO-MORROW. THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION.-FEDERALISTS AND DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS.-ALEXANDER HAMILTON.-THOMAS JEFFERSON.-WASHINGTON A PEACEMAKER.— FRANCE OR ENGLAND.-A BITTER STRUGGLE.-SUCCESS OF THE FEDERALISTS.-MILLIONS FOR DEFENCE, NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE.-ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.-STATE RIGHTS.THE VIRGINIA AND THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS.-WAR WITH ENGLAND THE HARTFORD CONVENTION.-SLAVE STATES AND FREE STATES.-THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.-FREE TRADE OR PROTECTION.-JOHN C. CALHOUN.-NULLIFICATION.— WEBSTER AND HAYNE.-ANDREW JACKSON.-BY THE ETERNAL, THE UNION SHALL BE PRESERVED. THE COMPROMISE TARIFF.

THE Civil War of 1861-1865 in the United States, like all civil wars, was about questions of government; therefore, to understand well the causes which led to it, it is necessary to learn first something of the nature of the government and of the way in which it began. When the War of the Revolution broke out in 1775, the English settlements which afterward became the thirteen original States of the Union were thirteen colonies belonging to Great Britain. These were, beginning with the northernmost, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. All of these colonies were alike in many things. Though some of them had been settled by other nations than the English, most of the people were at that time Englishmen in feelings and in language, and all owned the rule of the sovereign of Great Britain. Their governments differed in some respects: some were ruled by governors and other officers sent from England; some had charter govern

ments that is, they had charters or written papers signed by the King of Great Britain giving them the right to choose their own rulers; and others had proprietary governments—that is, they were ruled by the proprietors or owners of the soil or by officers chosen by them, as in Pennsylvania, where the whole land occupied by the colony was owned by William Penn; but, notwithstanding these differences, the governments of the colonies were in general much like that of Great Britain.

There were, however, some other differences which in time caused a division among them and separated the colonies into two parts or groups, northern and southern, the Northern Colonies including all those north of Maryland, and the Southern Colonies all those south of and including it. These differences were due partly to the character of the people and partly to that of the climate and soil of the parts in which they lived. Though the settlers in both parts were from all classes of English society, they differed in one respect: those who settled in the South were chiefly made up of the followers of King Charles I. in the civil war in England, while those in the North were mostly the followers of the Parliament, who were opposed to the King. The two classes of settlers brought with them to the New World the political prejudices which had made them enemies in the Old World; they also brought some religious prejudices, which were another cause of separation. Both were Protestant Christians, but the larger part of those who went to the South belonged to the Church of England, which they made the established religion in their colonies as in England. Those who settled in the North, on the contrary, belonged mostly to sects opposed to the Church of England, which therefore never became established among them as a state religion. The people who settled in the North went there not so much to better their worldly condition as to secure for themselves freedom of thought and of action; those who settled in the South went there chiefly to make money by speculating in land and by farming.

The differences in the climate and soil of the two parts caused other differences in the people. In the South, the climate and soil being well adapted for raising tobacco, rice, and other large crops, the people settled on isolated tracts of land along the rivers, and built few towns. In the North, where the climate was less genial and the soil unfit for raising the great sta

1775.]

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.

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ples of the South, there were few large estates, and most of the inhabitants settled in towns or villages, which were within easy reach of each other. Thus while the Southern Colonies were made up for the most part of scattered plantations, the Northern Colonies were composed largely of townships closely connected. In the early days slaves were held in all the colonies, and some were kept even in New England until after the War of the Revolution; but it was only in the Southern Colonies that slave labor was found very profitable. Thus it happened that a great many slaves were kept in the Southern Colonies and very few in the Northern Colonies. When the troubles began with Great Britain, the New England Colonies had only one slave to every fifty white people, while Virginia had two to every three white persons, and in South Carolina the slaves and the free people were about equal in number. The slaves were treated alike in both parts of the country, and were looked upon as an inferior race by almost all the whites; but there were so many more of them in the Southern Colonies than in the Northern Colonies that they were the cause of a great difference in the life and character of the two peoples. In the Southern Colonies the planters lived on great plantations, surrounded by slaves, who did all the work. Labor came to be looked upon as a mark of inferiority, fit only for slaves; so there could be no middle class of respectable laborers, and the people were made up almost entirely of masters and of slaves. In the Northern Colonies were a few large land-holders, but most of the land was divided into small farms, worked by the owners themselves, or by laborers, who were paid for their work, and were free to go and come as they pleased. Labor therefore came to be looked upon as honorable, and the people were largely made up of respectable free laborers.

While the colonies were under the rule of Great Britain these differences were not of much consequence. All their inhabitants felt that their interests were the same, and when the mother country began her oppressions all joined to oppose them and to aid each other. When Massachusetts proposed that a general congress of all the colonies should meet in New York to consult what was best to be done in the crisis, and other colonies were afraid to take openly so important a step, South Carolina was the first to declare for union, and to stretch

out her hand to aid her Northern brethren; and in that Congress it was a South Carolinian (Christopher Gadsden) who said: "There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us Americans."

Thus all the colonies, both Northern and Southern, were united in a common bond of sympathy, and they all joined as against a common enemy when Great Britain tried to govern them without their consent. But when, after the Declaration of Independence, it was attempted to form a union of all the colonies under one government, many difficulties arose. there were no railroads, steamboats, nor telegraphs in those days, the people of the different colonies did not see or hear from each other very often, and the inhabitants of each colony had come to look upon the others as foreigners, or in much the same light as we regard the Canadians. When a union was talked about they grew jealous of each other and afraid of losing some of their rights; the smaller colonies in particular being fearful of being swallowed up by the larger ones. But as it was found that the struggle against Great Britain could not be carried on unless there was some controlling power which had legal authority over all, articles of confederation or alliance were agreed upon (1778), and a government called the United States of America was formed. In this confederation the States were equal in power, each having only one vote. There was no President, the duties of that officer being performed by committees of Congress; and Congress had no power except what was granted it by the States in the articles of confederation. In all other things the States claimed to be independent of each other. The Federal government-that is, the government of the whole body together-was thus very weak, and even during the War of the Revolution the tie which bound the States seemed almost ready to break asunder. After the war it was still worse. The United States had no credit at home or abroad, and foreign nations refused to make treaties with them for fear they would fall to pieces into several states, and be unable to pay the debts or do other things they might agree to do as one people. Washington saw how feeble the new government was, and said: "We are one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow. Who will treat with us on these terms?" And this soon became so evident to all that it was decided that some change must be made. Finally

THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION.

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1787.] (1787) a convention was called to meet in Philadelphia to make needed changes in the government, so as to make the States keep together and thus form a strong nation. The difficulties with which the convention had to deal were very great. The different States had different interests, as has been shown before: some depended on trade, some on agriculture, some on slave and some on free labor; and some were large, while others were small. The laws and the ways of voting differed, too, in almost all the States. The principal men of the different States had different opinions in regard to the kind of government needed for the good of all. Some wished to make the Federal government so strong as to do away entirely with the sovereign power-that is, the power to rule of the State governments, while others were unwilling to give any power to the Federal government which would tend to weaken the State governments. There were also some important sectional or local questions— that is, questions affecting some parts of the country and not others which had to be settled. The principal of these were the question of slavery and the making of rules for commerce. The extreme Southern States were in favor of having commerce free, but wanted slavery, while the Eastern States, which owned many ships, wanted such navigation laws passed as would keep out foreign ships, and thus enable them to carry on all the commerce. The Middle States favored neither slavery nor navigation laws. The Eastern States were also largely interested in the slave-trade, and when the Southern States asked to have the slave-trade continued, they agreed to vote that it should not be prohibited until 1808 on condition that the Southern States should vote navigation laws for their benefit. Thus New England, for the sake of gain, joined with the extreme Southern States in defence of slavery, while Virginia and Delaware voted with the Middle States against it.

At last the difficulties were settled, and in September, 1787, was completed the Constitution, which, excepting a few changes since made, is the one we now live under. Neither the Northern nor the Southern States were wholly pleased with it, for the views of neither had prevailed; each had had to yield in some things, so that the Constitution was founded on a compromise. It was accepted only because it was believed to be the best that could be made under the circumstances.