Coke to be "superintendent." Coke and Francis Asbury were then (1784) elected by the Methodist ministers as the first bishops of their church. They organized a "national conference" which was a sort of federal government for their whole church.

(6) The Presbyterian Church in 1789 formed a "general assembly" which has since been held at intervals of about three years.

(7) Several new churches were founded. The Campbellites, often called Disciples, or Christians, came out from the Presbyterians and Baptists. The Universalist Church held its first general convention in 1785. Soon after 1800 the Unitarians split off from the Congrega-. tionalists in New England. One of the interesting churches of the time was that of the Shakers, or Shaking Quakers, so called because they made a solemn dance a part of their services. They lived in communities, the men and women in separate houses, for they never married; and they adopted and brought up homeless children. A few of their villages are still in existence. The Germans in Pennsylvania and the neighboring states (§ 55) were for the most part already gathered into Lutheran, Dunkard, or Mennonite bodies.

135. Schools. Soon after the Revolution several great changes took place in the schooling of the children: (1) The common schools in New England were opened to girls, and that practice spread slowly through the country. (2) The employment of young women as teachers of mixed classes of boys and girls began about this time. (3) As the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. came into the Union they set up public common schools on the model of those in the East.

An early New England academy, in Leicester, Massachusetts

New York hung back from this system of public schools until about 1812, Pennsylvania till 1834, and most of the southern states much longer. It took time to get accustomed to the idea that the education of children, both boys and girls, benefited the whole people; and that every taxpayer, whether he had children or not, ought to support the schools exactly as he supported the roadmakers and the militia. For many years tuition was charged by the public schools to those who could afford to pay.

A new type of school, called the "academy," sprang up just before the Revolution and spread rapidly through the country. This was a combination of what we call grammar grades and high school, using buildings put up by private gifts, and charging fees. The teachers of such schools often spent a lifetime in them and became a great power among the young people.

136. Literature. From the Revolution to 1815 was a dry time for American writing, except for endless discussions of forms of government. Among the so-called poets was Joel Barlow, who wrote a long rambling poem called Vision of Columbus, in which he makes the explorer prophesy that there will be a Panama Canal. Almost the only humorous writer was John Trumbull, who wrote a good-natured satire called M' Fingal in which he pokes fun at the New England town meetings. Americans read the great English writers, such as Milton,

Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith, and the novels of Fanny Burney, which came out about this time; but the English looked down upon American writers. One of them wrote, The mass of the North Americans are too proud to learn and too ignorant to teach, and having established themselves by acts of Congress as the most enlightened people of the world, they bid fair to retain their barbarism from mere regard to consistency." Not till about 1820 did James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, and William Cullen Bryant begin the glorious period of American literature.

137. Summary. This chapter covers the same kind of topics as Chapter V on Colonial Life. It is an account of the people, their character, life, labor, religion, and education during the thirty years after the adoption of the new Constitution.

Americans a hundred years ago were the same sort of people as Americans nowadays, except that they were more scattered, and most of them lived in the country or in little villages. Of the four million people in 1790, about one fifth were negroes. Of the whites about five sixths were of English descent, but there were many Germans and Scotch-Irish.

The Americans read English books and were much affected by English habits. They paid special deference to certain wealthy and distinguished families, but it was a magnificent country for the wide-awake and industrious plain people who could take care of themselves and who settled the frontier. The country gentleman lived handsomely, and the slaveholding planters had a stirring outdoor life. Most of the white people were farmers working their own land. The women did housework, but rarely worked in the fields. There were skilled laborers for building and for the hand trades, and boys were apprenticed to learn such trades. The negroes were mostly slaves, but it was supposed that they would soon be set free.

Each of the great churches, besides some small ones, tried to bring together all its members throughout the nation into one organization.

REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS

177

The public schools were opened to girls and spread into the West, and academies sprang up throughout the country. For literature, the main dependence was on English writings, but there were a few American poets and many political writers.

REFERENCES

Bogart, Econ. Hist.,

Dev. of Am..Nation., - Scudder, Men and

Histories. Bassett, Federalist System, chs. x-xiii. chs. x, xi. — Channing, Un. States, II. ch. xviii. — Fish, ch. i. · MacDonald, From Jefferson to Lincoln, ch. i. Manners in Am. Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, ch. xv. Sources. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 246-259. Contemporaries, III. §§ 10-30; Source Book, §§ 88, 89; Source Readers, III. passim. — James, Readings, §§ 39-44, 62, 63. - Old South Leaflets, nos. 65, 76, 126, 134, 136, 196, 198.

Hart,

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, Trinity Bells (N. Y.). — Clarke, In Old Quinnebasset. Fordham, Personal Narrative. Kellogg, Unseen Hand (Western Pa.). - Kennedy, Swallow Barn (Va.). — Stowe, Minister's Wooing (New Eng.).

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V-VII.
- Sparks, Expansion of Am. People.

109.

QUESTIONS

Mentor, serial nos. 77, 99, 106,
Wilson, Am. People, III.

(§ 130) 1. How many people lived in the United States in 1790? 2. What were the principal towns? 3. What races were represented? 4. How many negroes and slaves were there?

(131) 5. How far did Americans keep up connection with Great Britain after 1790? 6. What were the distinctions of classes? 7. Why was the United States a good place for plain people?

(§ 132) 8. How did people live on farms and plantations? 9 (For an essay). Account of a visit to Washington at Mount Vernon. 10 (For an essay). Account of life on a slaveholding plantation. II (For an essay). Account of life on a farm.

(§ 133) 12. What kind of skilled laborers could be found? 13. What was apprenticeship? 14. How were the negroes treated about 1790?

(§ 134) 15. What were the principal national churches about 1790? 16. How were the Episcopal and Catholic churches organized? 17. How were the Baptist and Congregational churches organized? 18. How were the Methodist and Presbyterian churches organized? 19. Mention other national churches. 20 (For an essay). The Shakers.

(§ 135) 21. What changes came about in schools after the Revolution? 22 (For an essay). Why is it right that a property owner who has no children should pay school taxes? 23. What was the academy?

(§ 136) 24. Who were the principal American writers after the Revolution? 25. What English writers were read by the colonists?

CHAPTER XIII

THE FEDERALISTS IN POWER (1789-1801)

138. The New Government Set on Foot (1789). When it was announced that eleven states had ratified the Constitution, the next step was to put the new government into operation. This was done early in 1789, by the election of a President, Senators, and members of the House of Representatives. As everybody expected, George Washington of Virginia received the vote of every elector for President. John Adams, a New England man, was elected Vice President. On April 6, 1789, enough members appeared in the city of New York to organize the House and Senate, and Frederick Muhlenberg from Pennsylvania was chosen to be the first Speaker of the House.

Washington, as he passed through the country on his way to the seat of government, was everywhere received with triumphal arches and acclaim. On April 30, 1789, he was inaugurated in the temporary capitol, Federal Hall on Wall Street. Wearing a sword and a brown suit with gold buttons bearing eagles, he made a brief speech. He believed in a strong government, and the people all believed in him. In the new Congress sat several men (including Madison) who had been members of the Congress of the Confederation, and several who had sat in the Constitutional Convention. They meant to make the new Constitution work; and the AntiFederalists (§ 128) had the good sense and patriotism to leave the government in the hands of those who believed in it.

139. The President's Cabinet (1789-1792). The new Congress and President now had to face the problem of carrying out the general rules and principles of the Constitution in detail; for when the old Confederation ceased, everything had to be made over.