History of the United States, Volume 3

At the beginning of the secession movement the North slumbered and slept. Even South Carolina's withdrawal from the Union caused little alarm. "She will be glad enough to come b...

Slavery would most likely never have imperilled the life of this nation had it not been for the colossal industrial revolution sketched above. Cotton had been grown here since,...

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was politically a remarkable epoch. It not only consolidated old anti-slavery men, but cooled, to say the least, many "silvergray," or cons...

It were a mistake to refer the great Rebellion, for ultimate source, to ambiguity in the Constitution or to the wickedness of politicians or of the people. It was simply the las...

Andrew Jackson was born March 15, 1767. His parents had come from Carrick-fergus, Ireland, two years before. He was without any education worthy the name. As a boy, he went into...

While slavery was thus strengthening itself upon its own soil and in some respects also at the North, its champions ever more alert and forward, its old foes asleep, these very...

Louisiana having become a State in 1812, that portion of the purchase north of the thirty-third degree took the name of the Missouri Territory. St. Louis was its centre of popul...

The Democratic Party was predominantly southern, the Whig northern. Both sought to be of national breadth, but the democratic with much the better success. Democracy would not g...

The measures of 1850 proved anything but the "finality" upon slavery discussion which both parties, the Whigs as loudly as the Democrats, promised and insisted that they should...

The term "whig" is of Scotch origin. During the bloody conflict of the Covenanters with Charles II. nearly all the country people of Scotland sided against the king. As these pe...

Partly Jackson's personal influence, partly his able aides, partly favoring circumstances had, during his administrations, brought the Democracy into excellent condition, patrio...

Attracted by fertility of soil and advantages for cattle-raising, large numbers of Americans had long been emigrating to Texas. By 1830 they probably comprised a majority of its...

It was a delicate question after the Louisiana purchase how much territory it embraced east of the Mississippi. Louisiana had under France, till 1762, reached the Perdido, Flori...

During the War of 1812 we had in England an industrial spy, whose campaign there has perhaps accomplished more for the country than all our armies did. It was Francis C. Lowell,...

One of the campaigns at the beginning of the Mexican War was that of General Stephen W. Kearney, from Fort Leavenworth, against New Mexico. It was opened in May, 1846. He invade...

Secession was no new thought at the South. It lurked darkly behind the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798-99. It was brought out into broad daylight by South Carolina in...

The population of the United States in 1860 was 31,443,321. In spite of the threatening political complications between 1840 and 1860, these years were characterized by astonish...

Both Sides Expect a Brief Struggle. South's Advantages. Call for Three Years' Men. Butler in Baltimore. Maryland Saved to the Union. Alexandria and Arlington Heights Occupied. E...

The tariff rates of 1816 on cottons and woollens were to be twenty-five per cent. for three years, after that twenty. Instead of this the cotton tariff was in 1824 replaced at t...

It was now apparent to both North and South that war was inevitable. Yet neither side believed the other in full earnest or dreamed of a long struggle. Sanguine northerners look...

By the census of 1830 the United States had a population of 12,866,020, the increase having been for the preceding ten years about sufficient to double the inhabitants in thirty...

Threats of Secession before 1860. By New England. By the South in 1856. Governor Wise. The 1860 Campaign. Attitude of South Carolina. Of the Gulf States. Georgia, North Carolina...

Texas Declares her Independence. Battle of San Jacinto. The Democracy Favors Annexation. Calhoun's Purpose. Opposition of Clay and the Whigs. Texas Admitted to the Union. Causes...

Apathy. Disbelief in South's Seriousness. Divided Opinion. Suggestions toward Compromise. Anti-coercion. Convention at Albany. Mayor Wood of New York. Buchanan's Vacillation. Tr...

The Word "Whig." Republican Prestige. Schism. Adams's Election. Five Doctrines of Whiggism. I. Broad Construction of the Constitution. II. The Bank. Death of Old and Birth of Ne...

Invasion of New Mexico. Exploration and Seizure of California. Discovery of Gold. Resulting Excitement. Increase of Population. Gold Yield. Early Law and Government. Slavery's V...

An "Irrepressible Conflict." Growth of North. Influence of Missouri Compromise Repeal. Slavery as Viewed by the South. Stephens. Anti-Democratic Habits of Thought. Compact Theor...

Renewed Hostility to Slavery. Lundy. Garrison. Affiliations of this Movement. The New England Anti-slave Society. Significance, Purpose, Work. Methods of Abolitionists. Southern...

Plot against the Missouri Compromise. Pierce's Election. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. Squatter Sovereignty. Anti-slavery Emigration to Kansas...

Consolidation of Anti-slavery Men. Worse Black Laws. Schemes for Foreign Conquest. Lopez's and Walker's Expedition. Ostend Manifesto. Supremacy of Slavery. Rise of Free-soilers....

Democracy and Whiggism. Ambiguous Attitude of the Latter toward Slavery. The Creole Case. Giddings's Resolutions. Quincy Adams as an Abolitionist. The First Gag Law. Adams's Opp...

F. C. Lowell and his Waltham Power-loom. Growth of Factory System. New Corporation Laws. Gas, Coal, and Other Industries. The Same Continued. The National Road. Stages and Canal...

Population and Area. The West. The East. An American Literature. Newspaper Enterprise, Mails, Eleemosynary Institutions. American Character. Temperance Reform. The Land of the F...

Cotton and Slavery. Evils of Slavery: Social, Economic. Slave Insurrections. Turner's Rebellion. Abolition in Virginia. Black Laws. Lull in Anti-slavery Agitation. Colonization...

Missouri Wishes Statehood. Early History of Slavery. Hostility to it. First Abolitionist Societies. Ordinance of 1787. Slavery in the North. In the South. Pleas for its Existenc...

Rise of Tariff Rates after 1816. Relations of Parties and Sections to the Tariff. Minimum Principle. Tariff of Abominations Adopted. Harmful to the South. Nullification Project....

Jackson's Life. Mistaken Ideas. Civil Service Reform. Perfecting of Party Organization in the Country. Jackson and the United States Bank. His Popularity. Revival of West Indian...

Population and Economic Prosperity. Growth of the West. Indian Outbreaks. Improvements farther East. Canals and Railroads. The Steam Horse in the West. Morse's Telegraph. Ocean...

Florida's Disputed Boundary. West Florida Occupied. Jackson Seizes East Florida. Puts to Death Ambrister and Arbuthnot. His Excuse. Defended by Adams. Sale of Florida. Revolt of...

Election of Harrison in 1840. Causes. Jackson's Violence. Sub-treasury Policy. Panic of 1837. Decrease of Revenue. Whig Opposition to Slavery. Seminole War. Amistad Case. Texan...