History of the United States by Charles A. Beard and Mary Ritter Beard

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Title: History of the United States

Author: Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard

Release Date: October 28, 2005 [EBook #16960]

Language: English

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HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES


BY


CHARLES A. BEARD

AND

MARY R. BEARD



New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1921

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1921,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.


Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1921.




Norwood Press

J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.

NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.




PREFACE


As things now stand, the course of instruction in American history in
our public schools embraces three distinct treatments of the subject.
Three separate books are used. First, there is the primary book, which
is usually a very condensed narrative with emphasis on biographies and
anecdotes. Second, there is the advanced text for the seventh or eighth
grade, generally speaking, an expansion of the elementary book by the
addition of forty or fifty thousand words. Finally, there is the high
school manual. This, too, ordinarily follows the beaten path, giving
fuller accounts of the same events and characters. To put it bluntly, we
do not assume that our children obtain permanent possessions from their
study of history in the lower grades. If mathematicians followed the
same method, high school texts on algebra and geometry would include the
multiplication table and fractions.

There is, of course, a ready answer to the criticism advanced above. It
is that teachers have learned from bitter experience how little history
their pupils retain as they pass along the regular route. No teacher of
history will deny this. Still it is a standing challenge to existing
methods of historical instruction. If the study of history cannot be
made truly progressive like the study of mathematics, science, and
languages, then the historians assume a grave responsibility in adding
their subject to the already overloaded curriculum. If the successive
historical texts are only enlarged editions of the first text--more
facts, more dates, more words--then history deserves most of the sharp
criticism which it is receiving from teachers of science, civics, and
economics.

In this condition of affairs we find our justification for offering a
new high school text in American history. Our first contribution is one
of omission. The time-honored stories of exploration and the
biographies of heroes are left out. We frankly hold that, if pupils know
little or nothing about Columbus, Cortes, Magellan, or Captain John
Smith by the time they reach the high school, it is useless to tell the
same stories for perhaps the fourth time. It is worse than useless. It
is an offense against the teachers of those subjects that are
demonstrated to be progressive in character.

In the next place we have omitted all descriptions of battles. Our
reasons for this are simple. The strategy of a campaign or of a single
battle is a highly technical, and usually a highly controversial, matter
about which experts differ widely. In the field of military and naval
operations most writers and teachers of history are mere novices. To
dispose of Gettysburg or the Wilderness in ten lines or ten pages is
equally absurd to the serious student of military affairs. Any one who
compares the ordinary textbook account of a single Civil War campaign
with the account given by Ropes, for instance, will ask for no further
comment. No youth called upon to serve our country in arms would think
of turning to a high school manual for information about the art of
warfare. The dramatic scene or episode, so useful in arousing the
interest of the immature pupil, seems out of place in a book that
deliberately appeals to boys and girls on the very threshold of life's
serious responsibilities.

It is not upon negative features, however, that we rest our case. It is
rather upon constructive features.

_First._ We have written a topical, not a narrative, history. We have
tried to set forth the important aspects, problems, and movements of
each period, bringing in the narrative rather by way of illustration.

_Second._ We have emphasized those historical topics which help to
explain how our nation has come to be what it is to-day.

_Third._ We have dwelt fully upon the social and economic aspects of our
history, especially in relation to the politics of each period.

_Fourth._ We have treated the causes and results of wars, the problems
of financing and sustaining armed forces, rather than military strategy.
These are the subjects which belong to a history for civilians. These
are matters which civilians can understand--matters which they must
understand, if they are to play well their part in war and peace.

_Fifth._ By omitting the period of exploration, we have been able to
enlarge the treatment of our own time. We have given special attention
to the history of those current questions which must form the subject
matter of sound instruction in citizenship.

_Sixth._ We have borne in mind that America, with all her unique
characteristics, is a part of a general civilization. Accordingly we
have given diplomacy, foreign affairs, world relations, and the
reciprocal influences of nations their appropriate place.

_Seventh._ We have deliberately aimed at standards of maturity. The
study of a mere narrative calls mainly for the use of the memory. We
have aimed to stimulate habits of analysis, comparison, association,
reflection, and generalization--habits calculated to enlarge as well as
inform the mind. We have been at great pains to make our text clear,
simple, and direct; but we have earnestly sought to stretch the
intellects of our readers--to put them upon their mettle. Most of them
will receive the last of their formal instruction in the high school.
The world will soon expect maturity from them. Their achievements will
depend upon the possession of other powers than memory alone. The
effectiveness of their citizenship in our republic will be measured by
the excellence of their judgment as well as the fullness of their
information.

C.A.B.
M.R.B.

NEW YORK CITY,
February 8, 1921.




=A SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICAN HISTORY=


_=SINGLE VOLUMES:=_

BASSETT, J.S. _A Short History of the United States_
ELSON, H.W. _History of the United States of America_


_=SERIES:=_

"EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY," EDITED BY A.B. HART

HART, A.B. _Formation of the Union_
THWAITES, R.G. _The Colonies_
WILSON, WOODROW. _Division and Reunion_

"RIVERSIDE SERIES," EDITED BY W.E. DODD

BECKER, C.L. _Beginnings of the American People_
DODD, W.E. _Expansion and Conflict_
JOHNSON, A. _Union and Democracy_
PAXSON, F.L. _The New Nation_




CONTENTS


PART I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA 1
The Agencies of American Colonization 2
The Colonial Peoples 6
The Process of Colonization 12

II. COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE 20
The Land and the Westward Movement 20
Industrial and Commercial Development 28

III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS 38
The Leadership of the Churches 39
Schools and Colleges 43
The Colonial Press 46
The Evolution in Political Institutions 48

IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL NATIONALISM 56
Relations with the Indians and the French 57
The Effects of Warfare on the Colonies 61
Colonial Relations with the British Government 64
Summary of Colonial Period 73


PART II. CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE

V. THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY 77
George III and His System 77
George III's Ministers and Their Colonial Policies 79
Colonial Resistance Forces Repeal 83
Resumption of British Revenue and Commercial Policies 87
Renewed Resistance in America 90
Retaliation by the British Government 93
From Reform to Revolution in America 95

VI. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 99
Resistance and Retaliation 99
American Independence 101
The Establishment of Government and the New Allegiance 108
Military Affairs 116
The Finances of the Revolution 125
The Diplomacy of the Revolution 127
Peace at Last 132
Summary of the Revolutionary Period 135


PART III. FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL POLITICS

VII. THE FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 139
The Promise and the Difficulties of America 139
The Calling of a Constitutional Convention 143
The Framing of the Constitution 146
The Struggle over Ratification 157

VIII. THE CLASH OF POLITICAL PARTIES 162
The Men and Measures of the New Government 162
The Rise of Political Parties 168
Foreign Influences and Domestic Politics 171

IX. THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN POWER 186
Republican Principles and Policies 186
The Republicans and the Great West 188
The Republican War for Commercial Independence 193
The Republicans Nationalized 201
The National Decisions of Chief Justice Marshall 208
Summary of Union and National Politics 212


PART IV. THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

X. THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS 217
Preparation for Western Settlement 217
The Western Migration and New States 221
The Spirit of the Frontier 228
The West and the East Meet 230

XI. JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 238
The Democratic Movement in the East 238
The New Democracy Enters the Arena 244
The New Democracy at Washington 250
The Rise of the Whigs 260
The Interaction of American and European Opinion 265

XII. THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT WEST 271
The Advance of the Middle Border 271
On to the Pacific--Texas and the Mexican War 276
The Pacific Coast and Utah 284
Summary of Western Development and National Politics 292


PART V. SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION

XIII. THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM 295
The Industrial Revolution 296
The Industrial Revolution and National Politics 307

XIV. THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL POLITICS 316
Slavery--North and South 316
Slavery in National Politics 324
The Drift of Events toward the Irrepressible Conflict 332

XV. THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION 344
The Southern Confederacy 344
The War Measures of the Federal Government 350
The Results of the Civil War 365
Reconstruction in the South 370
Summary of the Sectional Conflict 375


PART VI. NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS

XVI. THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 379
The South at the Close of the War 379
The Restoration of White Supremacy 382
The Economic Advance of the South 389

XVII. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 401
Railways and Industry 401
The Supremacy of the Republican Party (1861-1885) 412
The Growth of Opposition to Republican Rule 417

XVIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT WEST 425
The Railways as Trail Blazers 425
The Evolution of Grazing and Agriculture 431
Mining and Manufacturing in the West 436
The Admission of New States 440
The Influence of the Far West on National Life 443

XIX. DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY (1865-1897) 451
The Currency Question 452
The Protective Tariff and Taxation 459
The Railways and Trusts 460
The Minor Parties and Unrest 462
The Sound Money Battle of 1896 466
Republican Measures and Results 472

XX. AMERICA A WORLD POWER (1865-1900) 477
American Foreign Relations (1865-1898) 478
Cuba and the Spanish War 485
American Policies in the Philippines and the Orient 497
Summary of National Growth and World Politics 504


PART VII. PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR

XXI. THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES (1901-1913) 507
Foreign Affairs 508
Colonial Administration 515
The Roosevelt Domestic Policies 519
Legislative and Executive Activities 523
The Administration of President Taft 527
Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912 530

XXII. THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN AMERICA 536
An Age of Criticism 536
Political Reforms 538
Measures of Economic Reform 546

XXIII. THE NEW POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 554
The Rise of the Woman Movement 555
The National Struggle for Woman Suffrage 562

XXIV. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 570
Coöperation between Employers and Employees 571
The Rise and Growth of Organized Labor 575
The Wider Relations of Organized Labor 577
Immigration and Americanization 582

XXV. PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD WAR 588
Domestic Legislation 588
Colonial and Foreign Policies 592
The United States and the European War 596
The United States at War 604
The Settlement at Paris 612
Summary of Democracy and the World War 620

APPENDIX 627

A TOPICAL SYLLABUS 645

INDEX 655