History of the United States in Words of One Syllable

by Helen Wall Pierson

FIRST STEAM EN-GINE.

In the same year the land had to mourn the death of two great men. Strange to say, they went on the same day, and that was the Fourth of July. Both these men had put their names on the great Dec-la-ra-tion, and they had grown to be strong friends. Jef-fer-son heard the fire of a gun, just as he went. His last words were, "Is this the Fourth?"

Ad-ams, who lay near to death, saw the sun set and heard the shouts from those who kept the day in his town. He sent them word to hold fast the rights that day had brought them; and the old man could hear the cheer that they gave at his words.

At this time there was a great talk of a sort of tax to be put on all goods brought here from far lands. This we call a tar-iff, and we hear a great deal of it in this day. There are those who think a high tax should be put on all goods made out of our own land, so as to keep them out and give those made here a chance. There are some who think that all trade should be free; and that ships should sail here with what they choose and land it, with no one to see what it is, and put a tax on it.

Ad-ams, in his time, was for a high tax, and for this cause he did not have but one term as our chief. Those who did not want the tax had the most votes, and they chose An-drew Jack-son for the next man. He had been well known in the war, and had built up those breast works in New Or-leans of which we have told you, from which our men beat the Brit-ish.

While he was chief, there were some in the South who felt that the North had more than its share of the wealth of the land. You see there were more great mills and more goods made in the North, and the tax on strange goods was too much help to those at home. At least this was so thought by the South, and they had a plan to cut loose and set up a new band of States. They had drills of their young men, and got arms, and had made choice of a man to lead them. His name was John C. Cal-houn, and he was to be their first chief. But Jack-son said that "if a State could go out of the band of States when it chose, we would come to naught;" and he sent troops and ships of war to the South, and put a stop to all the stir in a short time.

Tribes of the red men had gone out to the far West, but there were those who would not move. There was a tribe in Flor-i-da who fought for a long time in the swamps of that land. Some slaves who had run away from their homes were with them. One of the chiefs of the red men had a slave for a wife, and when she went with him to one of our forts, she was held and kept as a slave, and the chief was put in chains. When he got free, he made a vow to pay up the white man for all he had borne, and for the loss of his wife. So he led the red men in this war. His name was Os-ce-o-la. He was caught at last, and kept in one of our forts till he died. But the war went on for years, at a great cost of life, till few of that tribe were left in the land. And this war cost three times as much as had been paid for the whole of the State of Flor-i-da.

This war had so much to do with slaves, that all the talk on the slave trade came up once more. There was a man of that class of which we have told you—one of the Friends, or Quak-ers, who put in print his views, that some plan should be made by which all slaves should be freed in time.

Then a young man, by name of Gar-ri-son, wrote that the best way was to set all free at once. This made a great stir, and some said he should be brought to court and made to take back his words. But he said, "I will speak out what I feel. I will not go back an inch, and I will be heard." And just at this time, to make things worse, and stir up great fear in the land, a slave in Vir-gin-ia, got a mob of black men, and they went from house to house and put all to death who came in their way.

Gar-ri-son did not like war, and he would not have blood shed; but there were those who laid all the fault of this at his door. They said he taught the slave he had a right to be free, and so this black man rose and took his rights. The slave who had done so much harm was at last caught, and put in jail and then hung.