History of the United States

PART VII.

Chapter 6821 wordsPublic domain

THE NATION REUNITED.

L.--Johnson's Administration 323

LI.--Grant's Administration 328

LII.--Hayes's Administration 337

LIII.--Administrations of Garfield and Arthur 344

LIV.--Cleveland's Administration 350

LV.--Harrison's Administration 361

Appendix.--Constitution of the United States 371

Index 387

MAPS AND PORTRAITS.

COLORED MAPS.

PAGE

The New World, with Routes of Discoveries 24

The Colonies at the time of the French and Indian War 144

The Colonies at the time of the Revolution 192

The States in America during the Civil War 304

OUTLINE MAPS.

PAGE

The First English Settlements 48

Early Settlements in East Mass. 78

Middle Colonies 116

Washington's Route to Fort Le Bœuf 139

Lake Champlain 142

Quebec in 1759 145

Vicinity of Boston 160

New York and Vicinity 168

Central New Jersey 170

Hudson River 174

Philadelphia and Vicinity 176

The Carolinas 186

Western Battlefields of the War of 1812 223

Operations about Niagara 235

Vicinity of Manassas Junction 288

Vicinity of Richmond, 1862 298

Vicksburg and Vicinity, 1863 303

Sherman's Atlanta Campaign 312

Operations in Virginia, 1864 and 1865 318

PORTRAITS.

PAGE

George Washington 10

Christopher Columbus 25

Pedro Menendez 33

Samuel Champlain 39

Sebastian Cabot 42

Sir Walter Raleigh 44

Captain John Smith 60

Peter Stuyvesant 96

William Penn 119

Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore 123

James Oglethorpe 131

Patrick Henry 152

Marquis de La Fayette 173

Benjamin Franklin 179

Paul Jones 186

General Greene 193

John Adams 211

Thomas Jefferson 214

James Madison 221

James Monroe 244

Henry Clay 247

John Quincy Adams 248

Andrew Jackson 250

Daniel Webster 251

Martin Van Buren 254

William Henry Harrison 257

John Tyler 257

James K. Polk 261

John Charles Fremont 263

Zachary Taylor 269

Millard Fillmore 270

Franklin Pierce 273

James Buchanan 275

Abraham Lincoln 281

George B. McClellan 291

Robert E. Lee 299

Stonewall Jackson 307

William T. Sherman 311

Joseph E. Johnston 313

Philip H. Sheridan 317

Andrew Johnson 323

Ulysses S. Grant 328

Horace Greeley 331

Rutherford B. Hayes 337

Oliver P. Morton 342

James A. Garfield 344

Chester A. Arthur 346

Grover Cleveland 350

Thomas A. Hendricks 356

Benjamin Harrison 361

INTRODUCTION.

There are several Periods in the history of the United States. It is important for the student to understand these at the beginning. Without such an understanding his notion of our country's history will be confused and his study rendered difficult.

2. First of all, there was a time when the Western continent was under the dominion of the Red men. The savage races possessed the soil, hunted in the forests, roamed over the prairies. This is the Primitive Period in American history.

3. After the discovery of America, the people of Europe were for a long time engaged in exploring the New World and in becoming familiar with its shape and character. For more than a hundred years, curiosity was the leading passion with the adventurers who came to our shores. Their disposition was to go everywhere and settle nowhere. These early times may be called the Period of Voyage and Discovery.

4. Next came the time of planting colonies. The adventurers, tired of wandering about, became anxious to found new States in the wilderness. Kings and queens turned their attention to the work of colonizing the New World. Thus arose a third period--the Period of Colonial History.

5. The colonies grew strong and multiplied. There were thirteen little seashore republics. The rulers of the mother-country began a system of oppression and tyranny. The colonies revolted, fought side by side, and won their freedom. Not satisfied with mere independence, they formed a Union destined to become strong and great. This is the Period of Revolution and Confederation.

6. Then the United States of America entered upon its career as a nation. Emigrants flocked to the Land of the Free. New States were formed and added to the Union in rapid succession. To protect itself from jealous neighbors, the nation pushed her boundaries across the continent. This Period may be called the Growth of the Union.

7. But the nation was not truly free. Human slavery existed in the South. This institution engendered sectional hatred and desires for disunion which finally developed into the dark and bloody Period of the Civil War.

8. Then the reunited nation laid aside its arms and entered upon a period of prosperity and material development which has not yet reached its culmination and with which History affords no parallel.

9. We thus find seven periods in the history of our country:

I. PRIMITIVE AMERICA; prior to the coming of white men.

II. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY; A. D. 986-1607.

III. THE COLONIES; A. D. 1607-1775.

IV. REVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION; A. D. 1775-1789.

V. THE GROWTH OF THE UNION; A. D. 1789-1861.

VI. THE CIVIL WAR; A. D. 1861-1865.

VII. THE REUNITED NATION; A. D. 1865-1891.

In this order the History of the United States will be presented in the following pages.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.