"My country, 'tis of thee!" / Or, the United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status, to be seen in the Columbian exhibition.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

States, and this was accomplished under the same talented commander who brought the first war to a successful close—the gallant Commodore Decatur.

The history of the second war with Great Britain begins, as we have seen, as far back as 1796. The aggressive acts of that power were of a nature that would not be tolerated for a single month did they occur in the present day. An official report made in 1812 by the Secretary of State declared that five hundred and twenty-eight American merchantmen had been taken by England prior to 1807, and three hundred and eighty-nine after that period. The value of those vessels and cargoes, estimated at the lowest figures, would amount to nearly thirty million dollars. An abundant warrant for war, surely; yet the declaration was carried in Congress by an astonishingly small majority. The Federal party, opposed to all the Jeffersonian measures, fought with especial bitterness—and with especial justification—the embargo which the executive had declared and which had really caused severe distress to the industrial classes. The depression continued throughout the war, and the suffering experienced gave strong support to the measures of the so-called “Peace Party,” who threw every obstruction in the way of its successful termination. Altogether it was a war for which no adequate provision was made. The navy of the United States was in no condition to cope with that of England; the regular army numbered less than seven thousand men, and the other requisites of war were as poorly provided for. The time, however, was most opportune. England was exhausted with her struggle with France, which even then was continuing, and required most of her attention. Yet so miserably was the war managed that the first year was a record of disaster to the United States. Our naval operations were successful from the start, and the striking series of victories at sea filled England with astonishment and dismay. These successes were followed by similar ones on the lakes, where two of the most notable battles of the war were won. In 1814 the British took possession of Washington, burned the Capitol, the President’s house, the public offices, the navy yard and arsenal, and the bridge over the Potomac. They were repulsed by the Americans a few days later and forced to leave the Chesapeake. The British fleet then sailed south, and in December appeared before New Orleans. The gallant defense made by Jackson lasted nearly a month and resulted in victory for the United States. Before the first gun was fired the treaty of peace had been signed, but word did not reach the combatants in the South until February.

The treaty settled certain questions of boundary, of fisheries, and provided the abolishment of naval forces on the lakes. On the subject of impressment it was silent, as it could very well have been, since America had amply proved her ability to defend her commerce and her citizens in any future difficulty.

The best result of the war was the rapid increase of American manufactories, caused by the impossibility, during the blockade, of obtaining goods from abroad. After the blockade was raised many of these manufactories were ruined, in consequence of the sudden influx of foreign goods, but the impetus given had been a healthy one, and home industries had received a start, at least. Agricultural products greatly increased in value, land and labor rose in proportion, and the shipping interests of the country grew more prosperous than ever. During this period there was evinced a growing tendency to the division of the country into a Northern and a Southern section. In the one, free labor and advancing commercial and manufacturing interests created one set of conditions, while in the South, slave labor and developing agricultural wealth induced quite another. With the invention of the cotton-gin, in 1791, cotton quickly rose to a prominent position among American industries. Slave labor, which had been growing undesirable, now became of high value, and the slaves in the country increased from 657,047 in 1790 to—in round numbers—1,600,000 in 1820. By this time slavery had almost vanished from the North, and the industrial interests of the country were becoming so widely different that the character of the people could not avoid suffering proportionate changes. In the North industry was commended above all things, and the worker was the peer of any man—theoretically speaking. In the South labor was looked down upon, and the planter gave himself up to social pleasures, even leaving the overseeing of his estate in the hands of an agent. While the tendency in the North was the breaking down of all class distinction, the South was becoming more and more of an aristocracy. This diversity of conditions was destined to increase with time, until its final outcome was most inevitably war for the preservation of those principles of freedom and democracy, on which the Union was founded, and on which its existence depends.

During this period, also, the West was filling up with remarkable rapidity. State after State was admitted, until, by 1820, the original thirteen were increased to twenty-four. All the States east of the Mississippi were admitted by this time, and west of the river were Missouri and Louisiana. It was a very rude population that filled the frontier. Refugees from all the Eastern States fled to escape justice, and finally formed the majority of the inhabitants. For many years villainy reigned supreme, but the invading march of civilization gradually introduced a better element, and the West offered a less attractive harbor to the unregenerate.

Allusion must be made to the invasion of Florida by General Jackson in 1818. From 1812 difficulties had existed with the Seminole Indians, while many fugitive slaves fled to the northern part of the State and amalgamated with the savages. These negroes settled on the Appalachicola River, and, furnished with arms by the British, defied the American authorities. Their stronghold was destroyed by General Clinch in 1816, but annoyance from the Seminoles continued. In 1818 General Jackson invaded Florida, destroyed the Indian towns, and took possession of the town of Pensacola and the Spanish fort of St. Mark’s. The controversy thus provoked with Spain resulted in the cession of the whole of Florida to the United States, February 22d, 1819.

The political state of the country from 1816 to 1820, during Monroe’s administration, was peculiar in that only one political party existed—a condition of affairs never witnessed before or since. This was known as “the era of good feeling.” Industrially, however, it was an era of great depression. The prosperity which followed the war of 1812 had vanished, and the natural revulsion from abnormally high prices had come. The banks suspended specie payments and gold and silver disappeared. The Bank of the United States was in a demoralized condition, and ruin and bankruptcy prevailed everywhere. From this distress it took several years for the United States to recover. A notable feature of the time was the consideration in Congress of the problem of internal improvements. Large appropriations were made for a canal route across Florida, for a national road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Ohio, etc. The greatest enterprise was the Erie Canal, built by the State of New York at a cost of ten millions of dollars. Among other events worthy of mention was the founding of the Anti-Slavery Association in 1815, the formation of the first savings bank in Philadelphia, the founding of colleges and universities in almost every State in the Union, and the crossing of the first ocean steamship.

The history of this period must not be closed without allusion to the famous “Monroe Doctrine.” America had long held itself aloof from interference in European affairs, but until now she had never asserted her determination not to be interfered with. In Monroe’s message of 1823, occurs the passage which, although it never received official sanction from Congress, immediately became a fixed and unalterable part of our national policy: that any attempt to extend foreign systems of government to any part of this hemisphere is declared dangerous to our peace and safety, and shall be taken as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.

In 1819 occurred the exciting controversy known as the “Missouri Compromise,” which settled one phase of the slavery question, and paved the way for its final solution. When Missouri applied for admission as a State, the House of Representatives voted to make that admission conditional on the prohibition of the further introduction of slaves, and the emancipation of all slave children born after the admission, as soon as they reached the age of twenty-five. The Senate, however, rejected this condition, and Congress adjourned without coming to any final decision. All during the next session the question was fought, until in the night between the 2d and 3d of March, 1820, the State was admitted on a compromise. Slavery was permitted in its territory, but forever interdicted in the territory, except Missouri, lying north of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes north latitude. If the latter had affected Missouri alone it would have been comparatively insignificant, but there were two great principles involved which bore upon the welfare of the entire nation. These were the questions of slavery and of State sovereignty as opposed to United States supremacy. The result of the Compromise was that the country was divided upon a fixed geographical basis into free and slave sections. Each of the two groups consolidated more and more, and the antagonism between the North and South inevitably increased.