THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
IN MEMORY OF
PROFESSOR
EUGENE I. McCORMAC
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
(The statue at Lincoln, Nebraska, unveiled September 2, 1912. Repro
duced with the courteous permission of the sculptor, Daniel C. French.)
. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that government of the peo
ple, ~by the people, and for the people, shall not
perish from, the earth. GETTYSBURG ADDBESS.
HISTORY
OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
BY
WILLIS MASON WEST
SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
ALLYN AND BACON
Boston Nefo gorfe Chicago
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS
COPYRIGHT, 1918,
BY WILLIS MASON WEST.
PAN
NorfoootJ tyre&s
3. S. Gushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
FOREWORD
THIS book is for high-school use. It is based in a measure
upon my American History and Government, but it is a new
work, not a revision. The story is simpler, and, I hope, more
graphic. Much less space is given to political features, and
much more to the industrial and social life of the people.
And the Great War compels a new perspective for all recent
history.
Four features are emphasized more than is common in books
of this class : (1) the historical grounds for friendship between
America and England, in spite of old sins and misunderstand
ings ; (2) the meaning of the West in American history ;
(3) the heroic labor movement of 1825-1840, usually ignored ;
and (4) the long conflict between intrenched " privilege " and
the " progressive " forces in State and Nation.
I have tried also to correct the common delusion which
looks back for a golden age to Jefferson or John Winthrop
and to show instead that the democracy of to-day, imperfect
as it is, is more complete than that of our earlier periods.
Throughout I have not hesitated to portray the weaknesses,
blunders, and sins of democracy. My own faith is strong that
the cure for those ills is to be found in more democracy.
I should care little to write upon American history did I not
believe that a fair presentation must strengthen that faith in
generous-minded youth.
The volume closes with a war chapter, which necessarily is
exceedingly imperfect. Mighty changes impend, and war
clouds obscure them. But among those facts that stay our
hope for America there towers one shining truth. The call to
arms of last April met its most prompt and splendid response
vi FOREWORD
from the students and recent graduates of our high schools.
These schools have been much criticized, perhaps with some
reason, for failing to fit for business or for industrial life ; but
they have now justified themselves gloriously. Even more
than any admirer had claimed, they have proved that they
have given to American youth a true sense of world values, a
fine, robust idealism, and a nobly quiet readiness to live or die
for those ideals, to do their bit for world-righteousness. To
the youth so trained in those schools, and now embattled in
the mighty conflict " to save democracy," I humbly dedicate
3 this book.
WILLIS MASON WEST.
WINDAGO FARM,
January, 1918.
The present reprint of this book contains changes and
additions bringing it down to date.
w. M. w.
June, 1920.
CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS . .... , . . xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . ... . . . * . . . xiii
PART I. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA, TO 1660
CHAPTER
I. WHAT THE ENGLISH FOUND . . ..... . 1
II. ENGLAND'S RIVALS . . . . . . 7
III. MOTIVES OF EARLY ENGLISH COLONIZATION . .15
IV. EARLY VIRGINIA, TO 1624 . !/ V . '/ : . ' . 23
V. VIRGINIA SAVES HER ASSEMBLY . ' .* . . . 38
VI. MARYLAND: A PROPRIETARY PROVINCE .-*-.,. 44
VII. THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND . * * ' . 50
VIII. THE PLYMOUTH PILGRIMS . * . . . . . 53
IX. THE FOUNDING OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY . 66
X. MASSACHUSETTS BAY : ARISTOCRACY vs. DEMOCRACY 78
XI. DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL MACHINERY ... 87
XII. LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NEW ENGLAND . . . 93
XIII. THE MASSACHUSETTS IDEAL : ARISTOCRATIC THEOCRACY 96
XIV. OTHER NEW ENGLAND COLONIES . . . . . 103
XV. THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION . . . . Ill
PART II. COLONIAL AMERICANS, 1660-1763
XVI. THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE SELF-GOVERNMENT, 1660-1690 114
XVII. "COLONIAL AMERICANS," 1690-1763 . . . .142
XVIII. COLONIAL LIFE .... r V :' ;7 ..' sl * f . 156
PART III. SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND
XIX. How THE FRENCH WARS PREPARED FOR THE REVO
LUTION 178
XX. UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION . . . 185
vii
Vlll
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
XXI. TEN YEARS OF AGITATION .
XXII. FROM COLONIES TO COMMONWEALTHS
XXIII. THE NEW STATE CONSTITUTIONS .
(The trend toward Democracy)
XXIV. CONGRESS AND THE WAR
PAGE
196
211
223
PART IV. THE MAKING OF THE SECOND WEST
XXV. BIRTH IN THE REVOLUTION 244
XXVI. THE SOUTHWEST: SELF-DEVELOPED . . . . 246
XXVII. THE NORTHWEST : A NATIONAL DOMAIN 257
PART V. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION
XXVIII. THE " LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP " . . . 7 . . 271
XXIX. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION . . * . .* ' . 283
XXX. THE CONSTITUTION v M . .' . . : . 293
XXXI. RATIFICATION , 306
PART VI. FEDERALIST ORGANIZATION, 1789-1801
XXXII. GROWTH OF THE CONSTITUTION . f ( . t , , ( . . 313
XXXIII. HAMILTON'S FINANCE . . . . . . s , ( . 322
XXXIV. NORTH AND SOUTH . . . .,,.,. 327
XXXV. RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES. . . /; . . 330
XXXVI. FOREIGN RELATIONS . . . . ... 335
XXXVII. DOMESTIC TROUBLES, 1797-1800 . o ..;; - 343
XXXVIII. EXPIRING FEDERALISM . . 348
PART VII. JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANISM, 1800-1830
XXXIX. AMERICA IN 1800 . . . . . . , . 354
XL. THE "REVOLUTION" OF 1800 . V ' .; f ;. . 369
XLI. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION 385
XLII. WAR OF 1812 . . , . . . ^,,. M . .. . 395
XLIII. NEW ENGLAND AND THE UNION . . 402
CONTENTS ix
PART VIII. A NEW AMERICANISM, 1815-1830
CHAPTER PAGB
XLIV. A THIRD WEST 409
XLV. FOREIGN RELATIONS : MONROE DOCTRINE . . . 423
XLVI. NATIONALISM AND REACTION 429
PART IX. A NEW DEMOCRACY, 1830-1850
XLVII. THE AMERICA OF 1830-1850 442
XL VIII. THE AWAKENING OF LABOR 447
XLIX. INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS .... 466
L. THE "REVOLUTION" OF 1828 476
LI. THE JACKSON PERIOD, 1829-1841 . . . .485
PART X. SLAVERY
LH. SLAVERY TO 1844 504
LIIL SLAVERY AND EXPANSION: WAR WITH MEXICO. . 515
LIV. STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE NEW TERRITORY . . 520
LV. BREAKDOWN OF COMPROMISE 527
LVI. ON THE EVE OF THE FINAL STRUGGLE . . . 541
PART XI. NATIONALISM VICTORIOUS, 1860-1876
LVII. THE CALL TO ARMS 551
LVIII. THE CIVIL WAR 558
LIX. RECONSTRUCTION 581
LX. THE CLOSE OF AN ERA 593
PART XII. A BUSINESS AGE, 1876-1918
LXI. NATIONAL GROWTH 603
LXII. CIVIL SERVICE AND THE TARIFF ..... 612
LXIII. GREENBACKS AND FREE SILVER 624
LXIV. AMERICA A WORLD POWER : WAR WITH SPAIN . . 631
LXV. THE PEOPLE vs. PRIVILEGE 646
LXVI. FORWARD MOVEMENTS 667
LXVII. THE WAR FOR DEMOCRACY . , 703
X CONTENTS
APPENDIX
PAGE
I. THE CONSTITUTION, WITH NOTES . '; -. . . 1
II. A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS. ... 18
INDEX. 23
MAPS AND PLANS
-
NUMBER PAGB
1 . Lines of equal temperature for the Northern Hemisphere . . 2
2. Indian portages and French posts in the seventeenth century.
Full page. Colored facing 10
3. Sixteenth-century English map of the New World ... 18
4. Virginia in 1606-1608 ......... 24
5. The possible Virginias of 1609 29
6. Settlement in Virginia in 1624 31
7. Virginia and New England in 1620 51
8. New England in 1640 107
9. English America, 1660-1690. Full page. Colored . facing 115
10. The watercourse " fall line " . . . . 4" '. ~ . . 143
11. European possessions in America at different dates. Full page.
Colored. . . . . , : . . . . . facing 147
12. Colonial governments charter, proprietary, and royal at
two periods. Full page. Colored . . . facing 150
13. Boundaries for the United States proposed by France in 1782.
Full page. Colored . ;. -J facing 241
14. The United States in 1783, nominal and actual. Full page.
Colored. * . ... .-...-;.. facing 242
15. Western settlement, 1769-1784 .'-. . . ' . . . 246
16. The United States in 1783 : state cessions. Full page. Col
ored . . . . . . . . . facing 259
17. Proposed States in the Ordinance of 1784 . . . . . 261
18. United States Survey base lines and meridians . . 265
19. Township and section subdivided . . ./ .. . . 266
20. Frontier lines of 1774, 1790, and 1820. Full page. Colored.
facing 269
21. Physical outline of the United States 357
22. Movement of centers of population and of manufacturing . . 358
23. The United States in 1800. Full page. Colored . facing 359
24. North America in 1800. Full page. Colored . . facing 385
25. " West Florida ": three maps 390
26. Explorations of Lewis and Clark. Full page. Colored facing 390
27. Indian cessions, 18.16-1830 412
xi
Xll
MAPS AND PLANS
NUMBER
28. The National Eoad '. . .
29. Distribution of population in 1820
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
49.
50.
51.
52.
PAGE
414
418
House vote on the tariff of 1816 432
Colored
Colored
facing
Colored facing
House vote on the tariff of 1828 . .' . . . -
Presidential election of 1824 : electoral vote ....
Presidential election of 1825 in the House of Representatives
Distribution of industrial plants in 1833 .....
Presidential election of 1828 .;.- J -^- !
Territorial growth, 1800-1853. Full page.
Vote on the Kansas-Nebraska bill . &&
Presidential election of 1856 ...'.
Railway extension, 1830-1860. Full page.
Wheat areas in 1860 .....
Distribution of population in 1860 .' .' * ;
Presidential election of 1860. Double page.
Union and Confederacy in 1862 . . .
Scene of the Civil War . . .' r v
Union and Confederacy after Gettysburg .
Emancipation . . , . . "s. : '. .'
47. Railway land grants, 1850-1871
48. Presidential election of 1876. Double page.
Increase in population from 1900 to 1910 . .
The United States of 1918. Double page. Colored
Railway extension, 1870-1880. Full page. Colored
Presidential election of 1916
after
Colored after
after
facing
433
438
439
451
486
519
531
534
540
543
545
550
558
559
564
573
595
596
603
604
607
719
ILLUSTRATIONS
NUMBER
1. Lincoln (from the statue by Daniel C. French at Lincoln,
Nebraska) . ... . ... . Frontispiece
PACK
2. An Algonkin village. From Beverly's History of Virginia . 4
3. Columbus at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella ... 7
4. De Soto discovering the Mississippi ...... 8
5. La Salle taking possession of the Mississippi valley for France 9
6. Champlain's fight with the Iroquois 11
7. Sir Walter Raleigh at thirty-four . V >-'"V- ' . . . 15
8. Title page of Hakluyt's Voyages . - . . % " ; i . 19
9. Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake . - . * 'I; . ^ i? . 21
10. Jamestown in 1622 . . : . ^ ;.- . ! V-v' 1 . 26
11. Captain John Smith . .;i :-<>...: . . *' . 28
12. Proclamation of the "Virginia Lottery " of 1615 . -""V '\ . 30
13. Sir Edwin Sandys . .' . . 31
14. Facsimile of first page of King James' Counterblaste to
Tobacco ...... *'-/ < ; 'V ' ' V'">- ;: .' : ! '". 35
15. Charles I ..'..- . . \^,^ ^ ^^^.^ ^^^'^ ^ ^^ . 40
16. George Calvert ..... . . i* : - ; ' -v '< . 44
17. Facsimile of Baltimore's " Instructions " regarding Protestants 48
18. Plymouth Pilgrims going to meeting . . . . . . 53
19. The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor 57
20. The Mayflower Compact : a facsimile from Bradford's
Plimouth Plantation . . . , V.- rr ;' '-w ; ^. 58
21. Edward Winslow at the age of six . . ' 60
22. Edward Winslow at fifty-seven 64
23. John Winthrop 70
24. A kettle said to be the first iron casting made in America . 75
25. Facsimile of the grant of part of New England to Robert Gorges 76
26. The Cradock House (1636) at Medford . . . 78
27. John Cotton 80
28. Standish House at Duxbury 85
29. Facsimile from the " Body of Liberties " 90
30. ** Marks " of Indian chieftains on a " covenant" with Massa
chusetts 91
xiii
XIV ILLUSTRATIONS
NUMBER PAGB
31. Statue of Koger Williams at Providence 99
32. Sir Harry Vane . . . J' : v 101
33. An old grist mill (1645) in Connecticut 106
34. Signatures of the Commissioners of the New England Confed
eration in 1653 . . . .*'".'. . . . 112
35. An English schooner of colonial times . .. . . .117
36. A Pine-tree shilling . . . . '. .., . . . .120
37. Boston's summons to Andros . . ...... 125
38. Sir William Berkeley ..... . . . . 128
39. Ruins of the Jamestown church .; . . . . . 130
40. The Half Moon of Henry Hudson . . . . . . 135
41. William Penn at twenty-two . ,;-. . .. '. . .136
42. Penn's Treaty with the Indians .. . . ..,.-. .138
43. Colonial fireplace and utensils . ; ' .... . . . . . 148
. 44. Facsimile of a petition of Simon Bradstreet's heirs for "back
pay" . ... . ,-,- ,.!;-> * - ... i. . 152
45. The " Witch House " in Salem . . . . .... 161
46. Franklin's printing press . . . .... . 164
47. Facsimile from the New England Primer . -.'., . .. . 165
48. Facsimile of "Now I lay me down to sleep" from the New
England Primer . '.-..' . ..='.. . 166
49. Advertisement for a runaway White servant in 1755 . . 169
50. A colonial footstove ........ . . . 172
51. Massachusetts paper money of 1690 . . . - . . 173
52. Mount Vernon . '. . . . . . . . .174
53. The " Old-Ship " Meeting House at Hingham . . . . 175
54. Fort Steuben . . .,,;; ! .'. . ... . 176
55. A colonial cartoon : reception of a bishop in New England . 186
56. Handbill of the New York Sons of Liberty " We Dare " .198
57. Facsimile of the Pennsylvania Journal announcing its discon
tinuance on account of the Stamp Act .... 199
58. Paul Revere 's engraving of the landing of British troops . . 203
59. Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia .209
60. The Concord Minute Man . . . . * *> . 212
61. The Washington Elm at Cambridge . i . , . . . .213
62. The Concord Fight .;.^^.^. v- 216
63. Facsimile of the opening of Jefferson's draft of the Declaration
of Independence . . . : .. ^ -* '. v > . . 220
64. The " Bunker Hill " Flag . '. >- . . ' ;; <- '.-'- . 225
65. The first " Flag of the United Colonies " . ,-: ; . . . 226
66. The Old North Church at Boston , 227
ILLUSTRATIONS XV
67. Continental currency 233
68. Old schoolhouse at Valley Forge 234
69. Colonel Tarleton -. 238
70. Surrender of Cornwallis . 239
71. Crossed swords : England and America ..... 242
72. Boonesboro in winter 248
73. A"BooneTree" . . .. . 249
74. Daniel Boone . . -. -' . . . . . . 252
75. A Mississippi flatboat ; 255
76. An Ohio mill of 1790 ..'. ; 256
77. Manasseh Cutler . . 262
78. Benjamin Franklin . . . .... . . . 289
79. George Mason .. -|.| ."< .*'.- 298
80. "Eighth Federal Pillar raised" : the ratification of the Con
stitution . . ." . . . -*; i< . . . 309
81. George Washington , *.vt ^\< . 314
82. John Adams . .... .. . ;>; y' ''' ' ' '' - '-' : - ' ' 341
83. Alexander Hamilton . . . .:>*' \; ^- w* . 353
84. An early cotton gin . ... V'/^ .' : ^i 360
85. Farm tools in 1800 . .." V ' - *. .-> - -v '. ;''* ' i -.,'.- . 361
86. Harvard College about 1770 . . t ,'?;,- : w. ..:- . 365
87. A colonial spinning wheel from Daniel Webster's home . . 367
88. A Conestoga wagon . 382
89. Cincinnati in 1810 . . ... . - . . '<H\,' .383
90. Fulton's Clermont .-,#<, v~\ ; . . . . '' 'U- . 384
91. Meriwether Lewis . . . i . . . . ' i" . 393
92. An American merchant ship of 1800 . . .? '< . 396
93. Photographic reproduction ^of part of the Boston Centinel for
November 9, 1814 : secession tendencies . . v ; ,- . 407
94. Monticello . , . . . . , . . . . 411
95. Fulton's The Union . ... V . . . .413
96. John C. Calhoun . . . . - ... . . 416
97. Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln . .- . . . 419
98. Thomas Jefferson . . . * . . . . . 426
99. Chicago in 1831 . . . . ^ . . . . .444
100. Time card of a Providence machine shop in 1848 . . 463
101. Harvesting in 1831 . . . . . ... . . 472
102. Harvesting to-day ., ' . 473
103. The " De Witt Clinton " locomotive 474
104. A Jackson cartoon : " Clar de kitchen " 479
105. The original " Gerrymander " . . . . . . . 484
xvi ILLUSTRATIONS
NUMBER PAGE
106. A Jackson print, " Presenting the Eagle " .; . - ..' . 493
107. The United States Treasury . . . . . V ; <- . 496
108. Statue of Wendell Phillips in Boston . ... . :' . 510
109. An Anti-Fugitive-Slave-Law handbill of 1851 . '-. . .528
110. President Lincoln and General McClellan at Antictam . . 560
111. The Confederate blockade-runner Teazer . = * ... 561
112. Monitor and Merrimac . . . . . . . . 562
113. General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865 . . . ; . - . . 563
114. Winter quarters of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862 . 578
115. Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac at Brandy Station 579
116. The Capitol at Washington . . . .;*: . . . 600
117. Ellis Island ... ... . . .- .'.<; . 604
118. " Future Americans " . ... .- . . '-> f v "r" . . 605
119. Cotton levee at New Orleans . . . l . : . . 606
120. The United States Customs House at New York . . . . 612
121. A modern steel plant at Pittsburgh . . . * 623
122. William Jennings Bryan . . . . . ; . . . 629
123. A " sixteen-inch " gun for the Panama Canal . . ' ; /. . 643
124. Forging a railway-car axle . . . . . . . . 648
125. The biggest electric locomotive . . . > : . . . . 654
126. Shearing off steel slabs . . V . . . . . 659
127. Woodrow Wilson when Governor of New Jersey . ' . . 660
128. Wilson and Gompers at the American Federation of Labor in
1916 ........ ' . . . . 676
129. Woodrow Wilson addressing Congress on the eight-hour law . 677
130. The Minnesota State Capitol . . . .- . * . 683
131. The Arrow Rock Dam in Idaho . . * . ' . ;-' . 692
132. Building the " Pacific Highway " through Oregon . . . 701
133. The Capitol illuminated 721
HISTORY
OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
PART I
THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA
CHAPTER I
WHAT THE ENGLISH FOUND
1. OUR early history has to do with the Appalachian coast
only. That fringe of the continent was more like the Euro
pean homes of the early colonists than is any other large dis
trict in America. The lives of the English settlers were far
less changed than if they had colonized the Mississippi valley
or the Pacific coast.
2. The Appalachian coast, however, does differ from the European
coast of the Atlantic in two vital matters : (1) Tlie summers
are hotter and the winters colder than in Europe. Unexpected
fevers in one season, and unforeseen freezing in the other,
ruined more than one attempt at settlement. Captain Wey-
mouth explored the region near the mouth of the Kennebec,
in the spring of 1605, and brought back to England glowing
reports of a balmy climate " like that of southern France " ;
but the colonists who tried to settle there two years later
( 26) suffered cruelly from a winter like that of Norway.
(2) As one goes from north to south, the climate changes more
siciftly in America than in Europe. In their settlements, be
tween Maine and Florida, English colonists encountered cli
mates as different as they would have found in the Old World
1
WHAT THE ENGLISH FOUND
[3
if they had spread out from Norway to the Sahara. This
sharp difference between north and south was one reason why
Virginian Englishman and New England Englishman grew
apart in life and character.
3. The soil, too, and the natural products, varied from north to
south. The rich lands of the south were suited to the culti
vation of tobacco or rice or cotton, in large tracts, by slaves
or bond servants. The middle district could raise foodstuffs
LINES OF EQUAL TEMPERATURE. 1
on a large scale. The north was less fertile : farming was not
profitable there except in small holdings, with trustworthy
" help " ; but the pine and oak forests of that region, its
harbors, and the fish in its seas, invited to lumbering, fishing,
ship-building, and commerce. Each section had its distinct
set of industries, and so came to have its peculiar habits of
living.
1 This map illustrates some of the points of 2. The line marked 20
February is supposed to run through places that have an average tempera
ture of 20 Fahrenheit for the month of February. The two dotted lines
bound a zone of climate that is sometimes called " the true temperate zone."
The heavy February lines bound a zone of climate that includes all the Ap
palachian district. Plainly, zones of climate are narrower in America than
in Europe.
5] NATURAL ADVANTAGES 3
4. Communication from north to south was difficult. Colony
was often divided from colony, or groups of colonies were
divided from one another, by arms of the sea. Even when two
colonies lay side by side without intervening bays, there were
still no roads from north to south. The chief highways were
the rivers, running from the mountains to the sea. As a rule,
a colony found it about as convenient to hold communication
with England as with its neighbor on either side. This lack
of intercourse hindered the different sections from growing
together in feeling and character.
5. The features of geography noticed so far all tended to
"sectionalism." But this evil was more than offset by two
advantages that geography gave the English over their European
rivals in America. The territory colonized by England was
more accessible and more compact than that held by France or
Spain. It was easier for the English to get into America than
for the others; and it was not so easy after they got there
for them to weaken themselves at once by scattering widely.
(Accessibility.) The small sailing vessels of that day found easy
access to the Atlantic coast, with its countless little harbors. That re
gion invited European settlement much more than did the vast inland
valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, where the French cast
their fortunes. Sometimes we speak of these great river systems as
" gateways to the continent " ; and so they are to the interior. But, in the
early days, men did not care to go far into the interior. They liked better
the fringe of the continent, where they could keep closer touch with the
Old World. Moreover, in the districts near the mouths of the great rivers,
neither climate nor soil was suitable for European settlers ; and, in the
days before steamships, vessels could hardly ascend the Mississippi, above
New Orleans, because of the swift current and the countless obstructions.
(Compactness.) The Appalachians kept the colonists from spreading
too rapidly as they grew strong. These mountains are not lofty; but
they are rugged and they were then covered with forests tangled with
underbrush and vines, so as to be singularly impassable. Four rivers
broke the niountain wall the Potomac, Delaware, Susquehanna, and
Hudson-Mohawk : but, without more engineering skill than belonged to
that day, only the Mohawk could be used as a road to the inner country ;
and that route was closed by the Iroquois Indians.
WHAT THE ENGLISH FOUND
[6
6. Three groups of Indian peoples held the country between
the Mississippi and the Atlantic, the Gulf tribes, the Algon-
kins, and the Iroquois.
The Gulf tribes (Choctaws, Seminoles, Creeks) had made the
most progress toward civilization ; but they were too far south
and west to affect White settlement much until the beginnings
of Georgia and Tennessee, almost at the end of the colonial
period.
The roaming Algonkins were the largest of the three groups,
but also the weakest and least civilized. Numbering from
AN ALGONKIN VILLAGE. From Beverly's History of Virginia (1701) ; based
on a picture by John White (one of Raleigh's colonists) in 1585, now in
the British Museum. The palisades must have been twelve feet high.
Probably a spring of water was found inside. The fields of corn and
tobacco in the rear were common property. Ceremonial dances were held
within the circle of posts about the " lodge " in the foreground.
75,000 to 100,000 souls, thinly scattered in a multitude
of petty, mutually hostile tribes, they " haunted, rather
than inhabited, a vast hunting preserve " stretching from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to the fai
north. To this group belonged the Powhatans, Delawares,
Narragansetts, Pequods, Mohegans, and, indeed, nearly all
the tribes with which the early English settlers came in
hostile contact.
8] THE NATIVES 5
Tlie Iroquois Confederacy was the strongest native power