The Land We Live In

The Land We Live In, by Henry
Mann

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Title: The Land We Live In The Story of Our Country
Author: Henry Mann

Release Date: December 13, 2006 [eBook #20105]
Language: English
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THE LAND WE LIVE IN
Or
The Story of Our Country
by
HENRY MANN
Author of "Handbook for American Citizens," etc.

Published by The Christian Herald, Louis Klopsch, Proprietor, Bible
House, New York. Copyright, 1896, by Louis Klopsch.

INTRODUCTION.
"The Story of Our Country" has been often told, but cannot be told too
often. I have spared no effort to make the following pages interesting as
well as truthful, and to present, in graphic language, a pen-picture of
our nation's origin and progress. It is a story of events, and not a dry
chronicle of official succession. It is an attempt to give some fresh
color to facts that are well known, while depicting also other facts of
public interest which have never appeared in any general history.
Wherever I have taken the work of another I give credit therefor;
otherwise this little book is the fruit of original research and thought.
The views expressed will doubtless not please everybody, and some
may think that I go too far in pleading the cause of the original natives
of the soil. Historic justice demands that some one should tell the truth
about the Indians, whose chief and almost only fault has been that they
occupied lands which the white man wanted. Even now covetous eyes
are cast upon the territory reserved for the use of the remaining tribes.
For such statements in regard to General Jackson at New Orleans as
differ from the ordinary narrative I am indebted to a work never

published, so far as I am aware, in this country or in the English
language--Vincent Nolte's "Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres," issued in
Hamburg in 1853. As Nolte owned the cotton which Jackson
appropriated, and also served as a volunteer in the battle of New
Orleans, he ought to be good authority.
In dealing with the late war I have sought to be just to both the Union
and the Confederacy. The lapse of over thirty years has given a more
accurate perspective to the events of that mighty struggle, in which, as
a soldier-boy of sixteen, I was an obscure participant, and all true
Americans, whether they wore the blue or gray, now look back with
pride to the splendid valor and heroic endurance displayed by the
combatants on both sides. Those who belittle the constancy and
courage of the South belittle the sacrifices and successes of the North.
The slavery conflict has long been over, and the scars it left are
disappearing. Other and momentous problems have arisen for
settlement, but there is every reason for confidence that they will be
settled at the ballot-box, and without appeal to rebellion, or thought or
threat of secession. In the present generation, more than in any
preceding, is the injunction of Washington exemplified, that the name
of American should always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than
any appellation derived from local discriminations. This supreme
National sentiment overpowering all considerations of local interest
and attachment, is the assurance that our country will live forever, that
all difficulties, however menacing, will yield to the challenge of
popular intelligence and patriotism, and that the glorious record of the
past is but the morning ray of our National greatness to come.
HENRY MANN.

CONTENTS.
FIRST PERIOD.
THE FOOTHOLD.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
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, 21
CHAPTER II.
Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh--English Expedition to North
Carolina--Failure of Attempts to Settle There--Virginia Dare--The Lost
Colony--The Foundation of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--His Life
Saved by Pocahontas--Rolfe Marries the Indian Princess--A Key to
Early Colonial History--Women Imported to Virginia, 32
CHAPTER III.
The French in Canada--Champlain Attacks the Iroquois--Quebec a
Military Post--Weak Efforts at Colonization--Fur-traders and
Missionaries--The Foundation of New France--The French King
Claims from the Upper Lakes to the Sea--Slow Growth of the French
Colonies--Mixing With the Savages--The "Coureurs de Bois," 41
CHAPTER IV.