The Land We Live In | Page 4

CONFLICT.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Aggressiveness of Slavery--The Cotton States and Border States--The Fugitive Slave Law--Nullified in the North--Negroes Imported from Africa--The Struggle in Kansas--John Brown--Abraham Lincoln Pleads for Human Rights--Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet--Citizens Stop Guns at Pittsburg--Conditions at the Beginning of the Struggle--Southern Advantages--The Soldiers of Both Armies Compared--Conscription in the Confederacy--Southern Resources Limited--The North at a Disadvantage at First, but Its Resources Inexhaustible--Conscription in the North-- Popular Support of the War--Unfriendliness of Great Britain and France--Why They Did Not Interfere, 277
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Confederate Government Organized--Fort Sumter--President Lincoln Calls for 75,000 Men--Command of the Union Forces Offered to Robert E. Lee--Lee Joins the Confederacy--Missouri Saved to the Union--Battle of Bull Run--Union Successes in the West--General Grant Captures Fort Donelson--"I Have No Terms But Unconditional Surrender"--The Monitor and Merrimac Fight--Its World-wide Effect--Grant Victorious at Shiloh --Union Naval Victory Near Memphis--That City Captured--General McClellan's Tactics--He Retreats from Victory at Malvern Hill--Second Bull Run Defeat--Great Battle of Antietam--Lee Repulsed, but Not Pursued--McClellan Superseded by Burnside--Union Defeat at Fredericksburg --Union Victories in the West--Bragg Defeated by Rosecrans at Stone River--The Emancipation Proclamation, 287
CHAPTER XXXV.
General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville-- Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army of the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The First Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle --The Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga"--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant Defeats Bragg at Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West, 295
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General--Takes Command in Virginia--Battles of the Wilderness--The Two Armies--Battle of Cedar Creek--Sheridan's Ride--He Turns Defeat Into Victory--Confederate Disasters on Land and Sea--Farragut at Mobile--Last Naval Battle of the War--Sherman Enters Atlanta--Lincoln's Re-election--Sherman's March to the Sea--Sherman Captures Savannah--Thomas Defeats Hood at Nashville--Fort Fisher Taken--Lee Appointed General-in-Chief--Confederate Defeat at Five Forks--Lee's Surrender--Johnston's Surrender--End of the War--The South Prostrate--A Resistance Unparalleled in History--The Blots on the Confederacy--Cruel Treatment of Union Men and Prisoners--Murder of Abraham Lincoln--The South Since the War, 301
THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Reconstruction in the South--The Congress and the President--Liberal Republican Movement--Nomination, Defeat and Death of Greeley--Troops Withdrawn by President Hayes--Foreign Policy of the Past Thirty Years--French Ordered from Mexico--Last Days of Maximilian--Russian America Bought--The Geneva Arbitration--Alabama Claims Paid--The Northwest Boundary--The Fisheries--Spain and The Virginius--The Custer Massacre--United States of Brazil Established--President Harrison and Chile--Venezuela--American Prestige in South America--Hawaii--Behring Sea--Garfield, the Martyr of Civil Service Reform--Labor Troubles-- Railway Riots of 1877 and 1894--Great Calamities--The Chicago Fire, Boston Fire, Charleston Earthquake, Johnstown Flood, 308
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The American Republic the Most Powerful of Nations--Military and Naval Strength--Railways and Waterways--Industry and Art--Manufactures--The New South--Foreign and Domestic Commerce--An Age of Invention--Americans a Nation of Readers--The Clergy--Pulpit and Press--Religion and Higher Education--The Currency Question--Leading Candidates for the Presidency --A Sectional Contest Deplorable--What Shall the Harvest Be? 322
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
No Classes Here--All Are Workers--Enormous Growth of Cities--Immigration --Civic Misgovernment--The Farming Population--Individuality and Self-reliance--Isolation Even in the Grave--The West--The South--The Negro--Little Reason to Fear for Our Country--American Reverence for Established Institutions, 327

The Land We Live In.
FIRST PERIOD.
The Foothold.
CHAPTER I.
A Land Without a History--Origin of the American Indians--Their Semi-civilization--The Spanish Colonial System--The King Was Absolute Master--The Council of the Indies--The Hierarchy--Servitude of the Natives--Gold and Silver Mines--Spanish Wealth and Degeneracy-- Commercial Monopoly--Pernicious Effects of Spain's Colonial Policy-- Spaniards Destroy a Huguenot Colony.
America presented itself as a virgin land to the original settlers from Europe. It had no history, no memories, no civilization that appealed to European traditions or associations. Its inhabitants belonged evidently to the human brotherhood, and their appearance and language, as well as some of their customs, indicated Mongolian kinship and Asiatic origin, but in the eyes of their conquerors they were as strange as if they had sprung from another planet, and the invaders were equally strange and marvelous to the natives. To the Spanish adventurer the wondrous temples of the Aztecs and the Peruvians bore no significance, except as they indicated wealth to be won, and rich empires waiting to be prey to the superior prowess and arms of the Christian aggressor; while the Englishman, the Frenchman, Hollander and Swede, who planted their colors on more northern soil, saw only a region of primeval forests inhabited by tribes almost as savage as the wild beasts upon whom they existed. It is needless, therefore, in this pen picture of our country, to go into any extended notice of its ancient inhabitants, although the writer has devoted not a little independent study to their origin and history. That study has confirmed him in the opinion that the American Indians came from Asia, with such slight admixture as the winds and waves may have brought from Europe, Africa and Polynesia. The resemblance of the American Indians to the Tartar tribes in language is striking, and in physical appearance still more so, while the difference in manners and customs is no greater than