James Truslow Adams - A History of the American People

Volume 1

A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Volume 1:
To the Civil War

JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS

First published in 1933

This edition first published in 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1932 James Truslow Adams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-367-54055-5 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-00-308870-7 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-54213-9 (Volume 1) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-308864-6 (Volume 1) (ebk)

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

TO THE CIVIL WAR

By

James Truslow Adams

Author of The Epic of America, etc.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

Copyright, 1932, by JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS
for the United States of America

Printed by The Scribner Press
New York, U. S. A.

T HE history of America as contrasted with that of Europe is as yet brief but by no means simple. Beginning with conditions in the Old World which resulted in the discovery and peopling of the New, we have to trace the rise of thirteen distinct commonwealths, the formation of a new nation welded out of them, the hostile alignment of great sections in that nation, one of the greatest military struggles of modern times, and the emergence of a united country with the development of one of the greatest of modern democratic and industrial civilizations.

Both in the earlier and latest periods of our history, we have been entangled in the politics and wars of Europe. We have never really been isolated, and not only streams of immigrants but streams of cultural influence have steadily come to us from across the sea. These, as well as the political and military entanglements, require frequent digressions from our own domestic story to enable us to understand it by reference to European currents. Moreover, the simplicity of the older writing of history, dealing almost wholly with wars and politics, has long since passed. The story of how thirteen small agricultural dependencies became the Federal nation of today, independent, highly industrialized, with a culture and an outlook becoming daily more and more American, is a story which must be woven of many strands, strands somewhat difficult to gather owing to the vastness of our territorial extent and the differences in our several sections.

In dealing with the United States in a single volume or two, one must to a great extent choose between a narrative of events and a philosophical interpretation. I have at various times and in different ways tried to do what I could to interpret both our past and present. But it is impossible either to interpret for ourselves or properly to appraise the interpretations of others, unless we have a clear understanding of the course of events in the past. Generalizing and philosophizing are delightful and fascinating tasks, but likely to be of little worth without a more prosaic basis of correct factual knowledge.

In the history now offered, to be completed to the present day in two volumes, I have therefore undertaken to lay such a foundation for the reader, and to tell as accurately and impartially as possible the story of the rise of our nation, touching on as many aspects in as much detail as space permits. The old type of history of a generation or two ago had its faults of omission. There is some danger, however, that in correcting these, we may have run somewhat into an other fault, that of stressing too much one or another of the factors, such as the economic one, which are rightly considered to be of great influence. History, like human nature, is vastly complex. There is no one key,economics, religion, politics or what-not,to an understanding of the whole. Here again I have tried to hold the balance even, and not to substitute for the old drum and trumpet merely the voices and motives of the market place, or a picturesque account of manners and arts and thought.

I realize fully the difficulties of such a task, and gladly acknowledge my obligation for many valuable suggestions and corrections made by Professor Allan Nevins and Doctor Will D. Howe.

JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS.

WASHINGTON, D. C.,

April 19, 1932.

HALF-TONES

TEXT CUTS AND MAPS

N OTHING is known with any certainty as to the origin of human life on the American continent. The history of the race which has been called Indian, owing to the mistake of Columbus which we shall note presently, is shrouded in the mist of inference. The earliest ancestors of the barbarians whom the white men found inhabiting the more temperate and tropical regions of the New World may have come from Asia by way of the islands in Behring Strait or even across a land bridge which may have existed in earlier geologic ages.

Nothing, however, can be determined with the evidence yet at hand, and in any case these primitive Americans have little to do with the America of today. Unlike the original Britons, whose blood became intermingled with that of the successive invading hordes of Saxons, Danes, and Normans, the Indians never mixed their blood with that of the English settlers who were to become dominant in North America. The history and present culture of Mexico cannot be understood without ample consideration of Indian influence, but those of the present United States need take little heed of the aborigines. They have, indeed, left their traces. A good many words of Indian origin are embedded in our vocabulary and we owe to the savages a large number of our most beautiful and interesting place-names. The earliest white settlers were greatly helped by the Indians knowledge of woodcraft, by the use of important foods, notably Indian corn or maize, known to the natives, and by other items in the Indian culture. But such influences were comparatively slight as compared with those of races elsewhere who have really fused their blood, language and culture with those of the conquering race.

The white man himself, for the most part, regarded the Indian merely as forming the same sort of obstacle to his own advance and success as was offered by the wild animals or the hindrances of climate and topography. Indeed, until very recently, we have treated them as we have treated all other forces opposing our steady advance across the continent and our subduing of it as quickly as possible to our own wants. The record of our dealings with the first owners of our soil is one in which, except for isolated instances, we can take no pride, and which has left a bloody stain on the pages recording almost every decade of our history.