Heroes of progress in America

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HEROES OF PROGRESS

IN AMERICA

BY

CHARLES MORRIS

AUTHOR OF "HISTORICAL TALES," "HALF-HOURS WITH
AMERICAN AUTHORS," ETC.

SECOND EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON

J. B- LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

912913

COPYRIGHT, 1906, BT J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPTRIGHT, 1919, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

PREFACE

¥ ¥ »

IN the history of every nation there is much more
going on than wars and revolutions. These are brief
in duration and rapid in effect, but in the long inter-
vals between the years of strife the work of peace
goes steadily forward, producing its changes more
deliberately but with equal utility. The pioneer and
the warrior are not the only figures that stand promi-
nent in national archives, not the only individuals
that rise to the surface of things. There are many
persons who attain heroic proportions not as results of
bold adventure or military skill and daring, but through
aid to the progress of mankind in less showy but
equally important ways. The careers of these workers
for good usually present little of the striking or
dramatic. Their histories are not of the coruscating
order and their lineaments and proportions not those
usually given to the heroic figure. Yet they are often
heroes in the noblest sense, and do more for the
advancement of mankind than he who draws the
sword in his country's defence or plunges into the
untrodden wilderness in efforts to extend the borders
of his nation's dominion.

Broad are the realms of peace and many paths
are open to those who traverse its confines. There
are the highroads of statesmanship, of invention, of
scientific research, of benevolent activity, of moral
earnestness, and many besides, and on all these at
times heroic figures appear to dwarf the forms of

iii

PREFACE

ordinary men, the heroes of thought and devotion to
a great purpose as opposed to the heroes of the
embattled field. Our own history brings up to our
mental vision many men and women of this kind,
heroic in act and effort though no banners waved
over them and no trumpets heralded them on their
quiet course. It is deemed appropriate here to put
on record the life stories of the more prominent
among these, to tell in which field of effort they
excelled, what new paths they opened, to what form
of supremacy they owed their fame. The tale of
these lives is often plain and simple, not marked by
the telling events and striking deeds that give spice and
variety to the biography of the soldier and the pioneer.
It is often what they were rather than what they did
that makes their characters great and notable. Their
lives were given to the advancement of their country
among the nations of the earth or to the benefit of
their fellow citizens, and this in every field of quiet and
persistent human effort. With a valor and self-
sacrifice equal or superior to those of the warrior they
led us up to nobler heights and planted the banner of
achievement on loftier altitudes than those usually
reached by the pathway of the swrord.

In the uplifting of the United States to its present
high level many men of many parts have borne a
share. First came the discoverer and the pioneer, the
daring traversers of unknown seas and savage wilds.
Then, as occasion arose, came the fighter by land and
sea, striking for liberty and union and sowing the land
with memories of valiant deeds. But during our whole
history heroes of daily life or national develop-
ment have arisen, cementing the edifice of our govern-
ment, issuing in thunder tones the call for right and

iv

PREFACE

justice, working in various ways for the happiness
and benefit of their fellows. There are many of these.
We have been obliged to confine our attention to those
of chief prominence and to deal with these but briefly.
But we trust that the records of noble life and useful
achievement here given may prove interesting and in-
spiring to readers, and serve to show that the heroes of
mankind are of many types, and that the conqueror is
not only he who leads victorious armies over prostrate
realms, but also he who faces hostile circumstances
or braves threatening situations, winning through
sheer force of energy and intellect where men of
^smaller mould would have shrunk back in dismay. Of
such stuff are made the heroes of peace and progress,
and we here present some of the chief among those
who have nobly helped to make the United States great
among the nations of the earth.

CONTENTS

PAGE

ROGER WILLIAMS, THE PIONEER OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 9

JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS 16

WILLIAM PENN, THE FRIEND OF THE RED MEN 21

JAMES OGLETHORPE AND THE DEBTORS' REFUGE 27

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE FATHER OF THE AMERICAN

UNION 33

PATRICK HENRY, THE ORATOR OF THE REVOLUTION 44

SAMUEL ADAMS, THE PIONEER OF AMERICAN. LIBERTY 51

THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCE _f6

ROBERT MORRIS, THE FINANCIER OF THE REVOLUTION 66

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE ARCHITECT OF AMERICAN

FINANCE 76

JOHN ADAMS, THE LEADER OF THE BOSTON PATRIOTS 85

WHITNEY, AMERICA'S FIRST GREAT INVENTOR 91.

ROBERT FULTON, THE INVENTOR OF THE STEAMBOAT 96

JOHN JACOB ASTOR, THE MONARCH OF THE FUR INDUSTRY 101

STEPHEN GIRARD, THE FRIEND OF THE ORPHAN 107

JOHN MARSHALL, THE EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION. . 115

HENRY CLAY, THE GREAT ADVOCATE OF COMPROMISE 120

DANIEL WEBSTER, THE GIANT OF THE AMERICAN SENATE 129
JOHN C. CALHOUN, THE CHAMPION OF SOUTHERN INSTI-
TUTIONS 138

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, THE DISCOVERER OF ELECTRIC TELEG-
RAPHY 145

CYRUS W. FIELD, THE DESIGNER OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. . 153

ELIAS HOWE, THE INVENTOR OF THE SEWING MACHINE. .. . 159
CYRUS H. McCoRMiCK, THE DEVELOPER OF THE REAPING

MACHINE 166

CHARLES GOODYEAR, THE PRINCE OF THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 171

CLINTON, THE FATHER OF THE ERIE CANAL 177

vii

CONTENTS— CONTINUED

PAGE

HORACE WELLS AND THE DISCOVERERS OF ANESTHESIA... 184

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR 192

V.'KNDELL PHILLIPS, THE SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR OF

REFORM J99

CHARLES SUMNER, THE CHAMPION OF POLITICAL HONOR. . 214
LUCRETIA MOTT, THE QUAKERESS ADVOCATE OF REFORM . . 2IQ
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS PIONEER 226
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, THE OLD GUARD OF WOMEN SUF-
FRAGE 232

DOROTHEA Dix, THE SAVIOUR OF THE INSANE 239

GEORGE PEABODY, THE BANKER PHILANTHROPIST 245

PETER COOPER, THE BENEFACTOR OF THE UNEDUCATED 253

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE EMANCIPATOR OF THE SLAVE 260

WILLIAM H. SEVVARD, THE WAR-TIME SECRETARY OF STATE 270
JAMES G. ELAINE, THE PLUMED KNIGHT OF REPUBLICAN-
ISM 278

HORACE GREELEY, THE PREMIER OF AMERICAN EDITORS. .. . 287

JOHN ERICSSON, THE INVENTOR OF THE MONITOR 296

THOMAS A. EDISON, THE WIZARD OF INVENTION 301

FRANCES E. WILLARD, THE WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE LEADER 309

CLARA BARTON, THE RED CROSS EVANGEL OF MERCY 317

ANDREW CARNEGIE, THE APOSTLE OF THE GOSPEL OF

WEALTH 325

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, THE PIONEER OF NEGRO PROGRESS 335
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS AMERICA'S ALL-AROUND MAN AND
CHAMPION 345

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MONTICELLO Frontispiece.

PAGE

TITLE-PAGE TO ELIOT'S ALGONQUIN BIBLE 16

WEST'S PICTURE OF PENN'S TREATY 22

HOUSE IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS BORN 34

HANOVER COURT HOUSE 48

ASTORIA 102

GIRARD COLLEGE 108

WEBSTER, CLAY, AND JACKSON 130

COMBINED HARVESTER AND THRASHER 168

" ROADSIDE," THE HOME OF LUCRETIA MOTT 220

LINCOLN'S BIRTH-PLACE 260

BATTLE OF THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 296

EDISON'S MAGNETIC ORE SEPARATOR 302

DINING-ROOM AND OFFICE IN CLARA BARTON'S HOME.... 318
THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN HIS LIBRARY AT OYSTER BAY. . . 346
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PANAMA CANAL LOCKS 362

HEROES OF PROGRESS

¥¥¥

ROGER WILLIAMS, THE PIONEER OF
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

THE Pilgrims and Puritans, who made their homes
at Plymouth and Boston and were the first settlers
of New England, were pious and God-fearing people,
but with all that they were hard folks to live with for
people who did not think just as they did. Though
they had left England in the cause of religious liberty
they were not ready to give religious liberty to any
one who came among them. j^The Quakers, who
were persecuted in England, were treated worse still
in Boston, and when a young Puritan minister named
Roger Williams came to Boston and began to preach
in favor of liberty of thought he soon found himself
in trouble.

The Puritans passed laws to punish every one who
did not go to church. Williams said this was not right.
He also said that the Indians were very badly treated,
and that the king of England had no right to give /
away their land without paying them for it. These j
and other things which he was bold enough to say
made the rulers very angry, and he was first obliged
to leave Boston and afterwards ordered to leave Salem,
where he had started a church.

The daring young preacher now declared that he

io HEROES OF PROGRESS

would start a colony of his own where every one might
believe what he thought right.) This and other things
said by him made the Puritan rulers so furious that
they determined to seize him and send him back to
England. They would not have any man in their
colony who chose to think for himself and would not
let them think for him.

Officers were sent to arrest him, but he was told of
their coming just in time to make his escape. It was
midwinter. The weather was very cold. Snow cov-
ered the ground. Wild beasts roamed the woods
in search of food. But Roger Williams was deter-v
mined to keep his freedom even at the risk of his
life, and he fled alone into the wilderness, leaving his
wife, children, and friends behind in Salem. '-. There
was danger from the elements, danger from the wolves ,
and bears, but he cared less for them than he did for '
the harsh and bitter Puritans of Boston.

He had no fear of the Indians. He had lived among
them, learned their speech and ways of living, listened
to the story of their wrongs and spoken boldly in their
favor. They looked upon him as their best friend,
and he set out to find Massasoit, one of their great
chiefs, whose love he had won by acts of kindness*
in former years.

The poor fugitive had a hard journey before him.
Massasoit lived about eighty miles to the south, and
a wide wilderness lay between, freezingly cold in that
winter season, and with few inhabitants.^ Now and
then he came to the hut of an Indian, who gave him
food and shelter, but at other times he had to take
refuge in hollow trees, or sleep on a bed of leaves
beside a woodland fire. It was a cold and miserable
journey, one which even the Indians did not care to
take at that season, and he was glad enough when,

HEROES OF PROGRESS n

<after long days of wandering, he reached the cabin of
the friend and kind-hearted chief.

Massasoit greeted him joyfully as the friend of the
red man, gave him shelter and a royal welcome till

ring, and then presented him a tract of land beside
the Seekonk River. When the spring opened five of
his friends from Salem joined him, and they began
to build a cabin on their land and plant a field with
corn. But the corn had not begun to sprout before
he learned that the ground he was on was within the
limits claimed by the Plymouth settlement^ Governor
Winthrop, who was secretly a friend of the fugitive,
sent him a letter advising him to cross to the other
side of the water, where he might have the whole
country to himself and do as he pleased.

When this word came Williams and his friends aban-
doned their partly-built cabin and planted field and
set off in a canoe in search of a place where they
could be safely out of the reach of the Puritans.

As they paddled along the Indians by the riverside
greeted the good pastor as their friend, hailed him
cheerily, and when he landed and talked with some
of them they told him to go a little farther down, say-
ing that he would find a good place to build and a
fine spring of water. •. The spot was soon found. It
was on the west side of the Rhode Island peninsula,
near the mouth of the Moshassuck River. Williams
named it Providence, saying that a good Providence
had helped him. On that spot stands to-day the fine
city of Providence./

^Roger Williams had now an opportunity to carry
out the liberal ideas which had given so much offense
to the Boston Puritans. In Providence, he said, relig-
ion should be free. It should be a place of refuge
for all who wished to worship God in their own way.

12 HEROES OF PROGRESS

All he would ask of the people would be to obey the
laws made for the good of the settlement. But this
was to be " only in civil things." In religion con-
science was to be the only law. No one had the right
to try and force any man to think in his way, or to
punish him for not doing so.

We of to-day, who are accustomed to full liberty in
religion, may not understand how great a thing this
was at that time. Then no such thing had been
thought of. Every country in Europe had its own
religion and bitterly persecuted all who set up other
creeds. And there was no liberty of thought in
America, among either the Spanish, French, or Eng-
lish. Even the Puritans, who had come to America
to escape persecution, began, as we have seen, by per-
secuting the first man who taught new doctrines.
Roger Williams was the pioneer in setting up a colony
that had no fixed form of religion. Afterwards Lord »
Baltimore and William Penn wisely did the sameA

No one can say that Roger Williams was not a good
Christian, a better one than those who drove him from
his home, for he soon risked his own life to save them
from danger. v The fierce and warlike Indians of the
Pequot tribe had made an attack on the settlers and
were trying to get the large and powerful tribe of the
Narragansetts to join them. They wished to kill
all the white people of the Plymouth colony and drive ;
the pale-faces from the country.

The people of Plymouth, and of Boston too, were in
a great fright when they heard of this. They knew
that Roger Williams was the only white man in
that region who had any influence with the Indians,
and they sent to him, begging him to go to the Nar-
ragansett camp and ask them not to join the Pequots.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 13

Many men would have refused to go into a horde
of raging savages for the safety of their enemies, but
Roger Williams was too noble to refuse, though he
knew that his life would be in the utmost danger, for
some of the bloodthirsty Pequots were then with the
Narragansetts. He promptly went to the Indian camp
and spent three days in the wigwams of the sachems,
though he expected every night to have the treacher-
ous Pequots " put their bloody knives to his throat."

But the Narragansetts were strong friends of the
honest pastor; they listened to his counsel, and in the
end they and another tribe, the Mohicans, joined the
English against the Pequots. Thus it was chiefly
due to Roger Williams that the colonists were saved
from the scalping-knives of the Indians.^ Yet when
Governor Winthrop asked that the fugitive should be
called back from banishment and rewarded in some
way for his services the rulers at Boston refused to do
so. A hard-hearted and stiff-necked people were those
old Puritans. They had made laws for heaven and
earth and would have no man among them who did not
yield to these laws.

When, later on, the other colonies of New England
joined in a league for defence, they would have nothing
to do with the little colony at Providence. This band
of rebels must take care of themselves. Their only
friends were the Indians, and they had hard work
to keep on good terms with these when the other
colonies were treating them with injustice. To many
of the savages all white men were alike.

In the end the people of the Providence settlement,
to which had come all those who did not like the
hard rule of the Puritans, sent Roger Williams to
England to get them a charter that would protect them

14 HEROES OF PROGRESS

from the despots of Boston, who were not willing to
let them alone. Williams set sail in 1643, and was soon
back with his charter. He had been kindly greeted in
the home country and brought back many good wishes
for his little colony of religious rebels.

But the charter did not say enough ; trouble with the
other colonies did not end. They treated the people of
Rhode Island with contempt and injustice. Three men
from Newport, who went to visit an old friend at
Lynn, were fined and imprisoned. So Williams was
begged to go to London again to get a better charter.

But the people were too poor to pay his way. He
went on their business, but they could not raise the
money for his expenses, and to get the necessary funds
he had to sell the trading house he had started. When
he got to England he found that country in such
disorder from its civil war that nothing could be done.
He was a good scholar and he taught languages to a
number of young men to pay the cost of his journey,
but after three years he had to go back without his
charter. But he had met and become the friend of
Cromwell, Milton, and other great men.

Trouble had broken out among the towns of Rhode
Island. Some wanted one thing and some another,
and they quarrelled and wrangled until it seemed as
if nothing could settle their dispute. It was this that
brought Williams home to his colony, but it took
even him a number of years to make peace among
them. At length he succeeded. The towns formed a
union, he was chosen for their president, and all went
well. But it was ten years after he left England before
the new charter was received.

After that for twelve years peace and prosperity
existed in Rhode Island. The colony grew. No man

HEROES OF PROGRESS 15

interfered with another man's religion. All those who
did not want to be forced to go to church or to accept
a special creed came to the colony of Roger Williams.
He was their principal pastor, and was so kind, gentle,
and good that everybody respected and loved him.
They were his children. He had brought them to-
gether and spent his time in working for their good,
and they looked on him as their best friend.

When Williams grew quite old he was still strong
and able, attending to his public duties and his private
business, writing religious tracts, and preaching to
the people and the Indians. But now a terrible Indian
war began. The natives of the country, furious
at the bad treatment they had received, rose in
arms and tried to kill all the whites or drive them
from the country. This was what is known as King
Philip's War. There were many terrible scenes while
it lasted. In this war the Narragansetts joined the
other Indians, and the savage warriors marched to-
wards Providence.

Williams, then over seventy years old, went out
once more to meet them, as boldly as he had done
years before. The old chiefs of the Narragansetts knew
him well and told him that they were still his friends,
but that the young warriors were so furious against
all the white men that it would not be safe for him
to go among them. They were determined and nothing
could be done to stop the war.

Roger Williams went sorrowfully home again
and told the people they would have to fight for their
lives. The war ended after a year, King Philip
and most of the Indians being destroyed. The good
old pastor lived seven years longer, and died in 1683,
loved by all who knew him.

JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE OF THE

INDIANS

THE white men who came to America had two ways
of dealing with the Indians. One way was with the
musket and the sword; the other was with the Bible
and the voice of justice and peace. Most men took the
first way ; a few only took the second. One of these was
Roger Williams, whose story we have told. Another
was John Eliot, whose story we have now to tell.

While Roger Williams was raising his voice for
justice to the Indians and going among them in the
interest of peace, John Eliot was carrying to them
the Word of God and devoting his life to bringing
them into the fold of Christ. He was one of those
noble-hearted heroes of good to whom life means only
work for the benefit of the poor and ignorant, and he
won fame by his earnestness in doing his duty.

John Eliot was born in England of a Puritan family.
He was educated at the University of Cambridge,
where he showed much quickness in the study of lan-
guages. It was this that helped him in later years, when
he began his famous work of translating the Bible into
the speech of the Indians.

He was one of the early settlers of Boston, where
he preached for a time, afterwards going to a church in
Roxbury. The people he preached to thought a great
deal of him, and he was very successful among them,
but all the time, in his home and in the pulpit, there
was another matter in his mind. He could not help
thinking of the poor pagan savages, the old owners of
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HEROES OF PROGRESS 17

the land. From the day he landed and saw for himself
the ways of life of the ignorant natives his soul was
filled with the desire to teach and uplift them. He
longed to convert them from superstition to Chris-
tianity and to bring them out of their wild and savage
ways.

This matter got into the good man's heart and
soul. It was with him day and night. Finally
he could bear it no longer, but made up his mind to
give up his church and to go out into the wilderness
among the Indians, to live with them, preach to them,
and teach them the truths of the Christian faith.

But before doing this he felt that he^mjist learn their
mode of speech, so that he could talk to them in their
own tongue and be sure that they understood him.
He wanted to speak like them and live like them, and
in this way to gain influence over them. He had, as
we have said, a talent for languages, and after a good
deal of hard study he got to know that of the neighbor-
ing Indians very well. It is doubtful if any other
white man ever knew it so well, as will be seen when
you have read all that he did with it.

When he was able to talk with the Indians easily he
left the settlements and went among them, to spend
his life in their wigwams, telling them what the Bible
contained and teaching them better ways of living.
They gathered around him in their villages and listened
eagerly to him, ready and glad to hear all he had to
say, for they saw that this white man was their friend.
On mossy banks and in quiet dales, on the verdant
shores of streams or among the dwellings of the
natives, he would talk to them of virtue and honor and
good living, and he soon had many ardent followers.

When we read of his work, in the quaint old record

i8 HEROES OF PROGRESS

he made of it, we are interested in the curious ques-
tions they asked him. One Indian did not think that
Jesus Christ could understand a prayer in the Indian
language. And when he told them the story of the
deluge, he was asked how the world became full of
people after they had all been drowned. These and
others of the kind were natural questions, but it is likely
he found easy ans\vers to them. Of course he had
to talk in a very simple way to make his uneducated
hearers understand him.

You may be sure that Eliot did not find his new life
an easy or comfortable one. All the red men were not
his friends. Some of them doubted and suspected
him, others were angry with him for asking them to
give up their old beliefs. He needed to be a brave and
daring man, for his life was often in danger. Some
of the chiefs did all they could to stop his work, tell-
ing their people that he wras seeking to bring them
under the rule of the white man, and trying to frighten
him by threats. And the medicine men, the priests
of the Indians, were bitter against him, for they feared
that they would lose their power if he went on with
his teachings.

But nothing could stop the ardent missionary in his
work. He went from village to village and from
tribe to tribe, dwelling in their wigwams, living on
their food, and adopting their ways. He made long
journeys on foot through the wilderness, enduring the
hardships of cold and hunger, passing through many
perils, but always cheerful, never repining. He was
held up by faith and confidence in his mission, and
said, " I am about the work of God ; I need not fear."

But we have not told the greatest work done by John
Eliot, one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken

HEROES OF PROGRESS 19

by any missionary to the Indians. Finding that he
needed written as well as spoken words to aid him in
his duties, he undertook the enormous labor of trans-
lating the whole Bible into the Indian language. This
wonderful performance was done not for his own
benefit, but to aid all Christian laborers among the
Indians. And to make this easy for others, he also
wrote an Indian grammar to assist them in learning the
speech of the natives.

This would seem enough for any one man, but it
was a small part of Eliot's work. What he most
wished to do was to collect the men and women he
converted to the Christian faith into separate towns,
that they might give up their savage life and take up
the habits of civilized people. But he did not want
these towns to be too near the English settlements.
He thought it best to have his converts live by them-
selves, and away from the influence of the white people.

So he settled his " praying Indians," as they were
called, on tracts of land far from the settlements,
taught them how to raise other crops than corn, and
gave them instruction in many of the industries of
the whites.

The first town founded by him was at Natick,
Massachusetts. This was in the year 1660. The meet-
ing-house there was the first ever built by Protestants
for Indian use, though the Jesuits of Canada had
several in their settlements along the Great Lakes and
the St. Lawrence River. Before Eliot's work ended
he had established thirteen or more little Indian settle-
ments, in which he aimed to make peace and industry
the rule and the Bible the law and guide of the people.

But the disturbances and the wars among the Indians
interfered greatly with the work of this noble and

20 HEROES OF PROGRESS

devoted pioneer of the Christian faith. The injustice
of the whites troubled him exceedingly, and the bloody
struggle known as King Philip's War went far to
destroy all the good he had done. At that time, it is
thought, America had about five thousand "praying
Indians."

After the war the whites were very bitter against
the Indians and treated them cruelly, many of them
being sold into slavery. Eliot did all he could for the
protection of his peaceful converts, but his life's work
was ruined by the war, and it was too late to begin
it again. He was now an old man, too feeble to preach,
yet he continued to do what he could, and to the end of
his life went on writing religious books, not willing
to cease while a hope of doing good was left.

The great work of his life, the Indian Bible, was
published in 1663. No man had ever accomplished
a greater or more unselfish task. Only two editions
of it were ever printed, for with the destruction which
fell upon the Indians of that region few were left
who could speak the Indian dialect in which it was
written. But it remains an imperishable honor to
the memory of the great John Eliot.

He lived to be eighty-six years of age, dying ripe
in years and honors on the twentieth of May, 1690, at
Roxbury, Massachusetts. In his death passed away
one of the noblest of men.

WILLIAM PENN, THE FRIEND OF THE

RED MEN

IT made no small stir in English society when
young William Penn, whose father was a famous
admiral and the friend of the King, joined the poor and
despised society known as the Quakers. They called
themselves Friends, and tried to be the friends of all
the world, but they did not find the world very friendly
in return, for they were very badly treated, many of
them being sent to jail for daring to have a religion
of their own.

It was while William Penn was at college that he took
up these new ideas, and he was turned out of college
for doing so. When his father heard of this he was fu-
rious. He beat the boy and turned him out of doors,
and the poor lad would have fared very badly but for
his mother, who sent him money. Finding that his
severity had no effect on the young rebel, his father
let him return home and soon after sent him to France,
hoping that in that gay country he would get rid of
his foolish notions.

When the young man came back he seemed to be
cured of Quakerism, but it was not long before he
took it up again, and his father once more turned
him into the street. William Penn now had to suffer
like the poorer Quakers. He was arrested for attend-
ing their meetings, and was kept for eight months in
prison for writing in their favor. But all this had no
effect on him, and he continued to write and preach.

Admiral Penn died at length, and his son became

21

22 HEROES OF PROGRESS

the head of the house. He now wished more than ever
to help his fellow sufferers. He became one of the
owners of New Jersey, in America, and aided some
of them to go there. And the idea soon came to him to
get a place of his own in the New World that might be
a haven of refuge for all men of his faith.

Charles II., the King, had owed Admiral Penn a
large sum of money. This was now due to William
Penn, but the king had other uses for his money than
to pay his debts, and the young man asked him to settle
the claim by granting him a tract of land in America.

King Charles was ready enough to do this. It was
very easy for him to give away land which did not
belong to him, and he made over to Penn a large tract
of territory north of Lord Baltimore's colony. All
the right the king kept for himself was a payment of
two beaver-skins a year and one-fifth of all the gold
and silver found. As there was no gold or silver there,
the king had to be content with his beaver-skins.

Charles was well satisfied with this easy way of
getting out of debt. He named the country Penn-
sylvania, or " Penn's Woods." Penn was equally well
satisfied. He had got a fine home for his fellow
Quakers, and he easily persuaded a number of them
to cross the ocean to America. The next year, 1682,
he sailed himself with a company of emigrants in a
ship well-named the "Welcome," and landed with
them on the green banks of the noble Delaware River.

He landed at a place called Upland by the Swedes
who lived there at that time, but which he named
Chester. Before leaving England he had formed
a system of laws for the new colony, and these he now
made known. Like Roger Williams, he declared that
every man was free to worship God in his own way

HEROES OF PROGRESS 23

and that no one should be made to suffer for his relig-
ion. The people were also free to make their own laws,
but they must obey them when once made. No one
should be put to death except for murder or treason,
and every prison was to be made a workshop and place
of reformation — a new idea in prison management.
Such were some of the principal features of Penn's
" Great Law."

Another very just thing William Penn did. Al-
though Charles II. had made him a grant of the land in
America, he knew very well that the king had no
right to give away what did not belong to him. The
Indians, the old owners of the soil, thought the same
thing. So he and those with him met a large party of
the Indians under a great elm tree on the banks of
the Delaware and offered to pay them for the land
which he wanted for his colony.

They were quite ready to sell it, and a treaty of
peace and friendship was made which was to last as
long " as the creeks and rivers run and while the sun,
moon, and stars endure." No oaths were taken to bind
this treaty ; it was simply signed by the Indian chiefs
and the Quaker leaders ; and some one has said of it
that it was " the only treaty in history that was never
sworn to and never broken."

From that time forward the Friends and the Indians
lived in peace. No Friend ever robbed or hurt an
Indian, and no Indian ever hurt a Friend. They
dwelt together for many years in harmony, the Indians
looking upon Penn and his people as friends and
brothers. Long afterwards they bore in memory the
great " Mignon," as they called Penn, and told their
children of his justice and goodness. They had trouble
with other people, but not with the peace-loving
Quakers.

24 HEROES OF PROGRESS

When William Penn died, years afterwards, the
Indians of Pennsylvania sent some beautiful furs to
his widow in memory of their great and good brother.
These, they said, were to make her a cloak, " to protect
her while she was passing without her guide through
the thorny wilderness of life."

The elm tree under which this treaty was made
stood on the river bank near where Penn founded his
city of Philadelphia, or " Brotherly Love." When
the British held Philadelphia during the Revolution
a sentinel was stationed by this tree to prevent the
soldiers from cutting it down for firewood. It blew
down in a storm in 1810, and the spot where it stood is
now marked by a monument and a small public park.

The land where Philadelphia stands was held by the
Swedes, who bought it from the Indians. Penn
bought it from them, and laid out there the site of a
handsome city, with broad and straight streets, cross-
ing each other at right angles, and many of them named
after the trees of the forest. In the centre and in each
of the four quarters spaces for public squares were
left. Along the river houses were rapidly built, and
soon a small city arose.

When everything was in order and all was moving
well, and when new settlers were coming rapidly to the
new city in the New World, William Penn bade his
people good-by and sailed back to England. He was
wanted there. The Quakers were being very badly
treated. He went to the king and asked him to have
these persecutions stopped, and Charles ordered that
this should be done.

But there were many people shut up in the prisons
on account of their religious belief, which differed from
that taught by the ministers of the Church of England.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 25

Twelve hundred of these were Quakers, and there were
many of other sects. When Charles II. died, which
he did soon after Penn's return, his brother James took
the throne. He and Penn had always been friends,
and when the latter asked the king to have these poor
sufferers set free, it was done. The prison doors were
opened and they were allowed to go out.

William Penn had done a splendid work for the good
of humanity, but he was made to suffer in many ways.
James II. proved a bad king and was driven from the
throne, and William of Orange took his place. As Penn
had been the friend of King James, he was accused of
treason and was put in prison. He was soon set free,
but then new charges were brought against him, and he
had to keep out of the way of his enemies. The govern-
ment of his province in America was also taken from
him, but King William gave it back when he found
that Penn had been falsely accused.

Penn went back to America in 1699. He found the
colony very prosperous. Philadelphia had got to be
quite a flourishing city, and people were settling
in many other places. But many of these were not
Quakers, and there was bad feeling between the dif-
ferent members of the colony. Other things had gone
wrong, and many asked for greater privileges than the
charter gave them. William Penn was willing to grant
them all the liberty he could, and a new and very liberal
constitution was made, which gave much of the power
in the government to the people. Another treaty was
made with the Indians, their condition and that of the
negro slaves in the colony was made better, and then,
in 1701, Penn returned to England. He was never to
see his colony again.

The good friend of the Indians and the oppressed

26 HEROES OF PROGRESS

was growing old now, and his troubles increased.
Many of the settlers did not pay their rents, and he
got so deeply in debt that he was obliged to mortgage
his province. There were new troubles in his colony,
there was more persecution of the Quakers at home,
his property was badly managed, and when the Penn-
sylvania Assembly was asked to loan him some money
to help him out of his difficulties it refused.

Finally the noble old man was put in prison for debt,
and was kept there till some of his friends raised
enough money to procure his release. One cannot
help thinking that William Penn was a very poor busi-
ness man, and that, while doing so much for others, he
neglected to look out for his own interests. This has
been the way with many of the best of men, and
it is greatly to their honor.

It was certainly a great sorrow to him that those for
whom he had given his work, his time, and his money
had proved so ungrateful. Now that he was old and
in distress none of those for whom he had done so
much came to his aid. Worn out with his troubles,
he was about to sell his province to the king when
he was stricken with paralysis. He died in 1718,
leaving the province to his sons.

We cannot say much in favor of Penn's sons.
Their policy was much less just and liberal than his,
and their actions caused much irritation and bad feel-
ing in the colony. Disputes continued until after the
war of the Revolution, when the State of Penn-
sylvania bought out the interest of the Penns for the
sum of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A
small price this, but all colonial rights were then at
an end and the State might have refused to pay any-
thing.

JAMES OGLETHORPE AND THE
DEBTORS' REFUGE

IN the days of our forefathers, two or three
hundred years ago, England was not a pleasant place
to live in. And not only England, but all Europe.
It is hard for us to appreciate in these days of merci-
ful laws and kindly customs how cruelly people were
treated only that short time ago. In former stories
we have told of the severe way they were dealt
with if they did not worship God in the manner the
government told them to do. And men then were
punished very severely for the smallest offences.
Great numbers were hung for crimes that would
be thought of little importance in our days.

As for the prisons, they were terrible places. The
prisons of to-day are palaces compared with them.
Close, dark, foul smelling, full of the germs of disease,
and crowded with poor wretches of all kinds and
classes, they were the most horrible places one could
think of. And into these dreadful homes of filth and
pestilence were thrust not only the law-breakers and
the religious dissenters, but also the debtors — poor
men who owed money they could not pay.

There were hundreds of miserable debtors in the
prisons, kept where they could not earn the money to
pay their debts. Many of them took sick and died, and
some were starved to death by cruel jailers, who
would not give them food if they had no money to
pay for it. The law said that creditors should find
food for those they put in jail for debt, but this

27

28 HEROES OF PROGRESS

was often not done, and the poor debtors suffered
dreadfully.

In the days when George II. was King of England
some of these debtors found a friend. He was a
brave English soldier named James Oglethorpe, a
general in the British army. He asked about a friend
of his who had been put in prison for debt, and was told
that he had died there. When he heard this he went to
the debtors' prison to see how they were treated, and
what he saw there made him sick at heart. Here
were numbers of honest men, willing to work if
they could, many of them kept in misery and want be-
cause their creditors were angry and revengeful.

When General Oglethorpe saw this he determined
to do what he could for these poor fellows. If they
were set at liberty many of them would find no work
to do, but a home might be made for them in America,
where they would have the chance to make a fresh
start in life.

So the good general went to King George and
asked him for a grant of land in America to which
he could take some of the most deserving of these
debtors, with their families. This was in 1732. Most
of the land in the British part of America had already
been settled. There only remained the region between
South Carolina and Florida, which was still left to
the Indians. The British and the Spanish both
claimed it, but neither had occupied it, and Oglethorpe
proposed to make his colony a military one, that would
keep the Spaniards and the Indians in order and
protect the English settlements.

George II. willingly granted him the land, and the
new province was called Georgia, after his name.
Oglethorpe paid the debts of some of the most worthy

HEROES OF PROGRESS 29

of the debtors, and in 1733 took out a ship-load of
settlers to America. They were not all debtors, for
he opened his place of refuge to all the poor and
unfortunate and to those who were ill-treated on
account of their religion.

In good time the vessel reached the coast of America
and sailed into the waters of a fine river to which
Oglethorpe gave the name of Savannah. He also
gave this name to a town which he laid out on its
banks. Thus it was that the colony of Georgia was
begun with some of the poorest and most unfortunate
people in England, brought there by one of the most
noble-hearted of its men.

The debtors soon showed that all they wanted was
a chance to work and earn their living. They had
been given new life by being taken from prison, and
were like new men. They set to at once to cut down
trees, build houses, and plant fields, and in a little
time the settlement began to look prosperous and
flourishing.

For a whole year General Oglethorpe lived in a
tent, set up under four pine trees. He was an upright
man, and, like William Penn, he knew that it was not
the king, but the natives, who owned the land, and that
he had no right to it unless he paid them for it.

So, like William Penn, he called the Indian chiefs
together and talked with them and made a treaty,
agreeing to buy from them at their own price the
land he wanted. As the Indians had much more land
than they needed, they were quite willing to sell.
They seem to have grown to love Oglethorpe as
the Indians of Pennsylvania loved William Penn.
Some of them gave him a buffalo skin on the inside
of which was a painting of the head and feathers of

30 HEROES OF PROGRESS

an eagle. They said to him, " The feathers of the
eagle are soft, which signifies love; the skin is warm,
and is the emblem of protection ; therefore love and
protect our little families." After that the people
of Georgia lived in harmony with the Indians of the
colony. All the trouble they had was with the Florida
Indians, whom the Spaniards stirred up to molest
them.

It was not long before new settlers came to the
debtors' colony. Some of these were German Mo-
ravians and Lutherans, who had been persecuted at
home. Others were Highlanders from Scotland, who
had also been ill-treated. Oglethorpe welcomed them
all and gave them lands where they could form new
settlements. He was proud of his colony of High-
landers, and whenever he visited them he wore the
Highland dress, which pleased them highly afid won
him a warm Scotch welcome.

Georgia soon began to thrive. The climate was
warm, so there was no suffering from bitter winter
weather, as in the north. Some of them planted
corn, others began to raise rice and indigo. Mulberry
trees grew wild in the forest, and silkworms were
brought from England to feed on their leaves. People
also came out who understood silk making. The silk
culture was kept up till the Revolution, but not
much money was made by it. A silk dress was made
for the Queen of England out of the first silk pro-
duced. In the end cotton took the place of silk and
proved far more profitable.

Among the people who came to the new colony
were John and Charles Wesley, who had founded the
new sect of the Methodists in England. Their purpose
was to try and make Christians of the Indians. After-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 31

wards there came to Georgia another noted Methodist,
named George Whitefield, a preacher of wonderful
eloquence, who made his way through the colonies,
preaching to great multitudes of people. With the
money they gave him he supported an orphan asylum
which he had established near Savannah.

There were some very curious and very unusual
things in the government of the Georgia colony.
Slaves were then in common use in all the colonies,
but Oglethorpe would not let any be brought into
his settlements. He looked on human slavery as a
great evil. And he also knew what a bad thing
liquor drinking was in England, and would not let any
one bring rum into Georgia. All religions were free
except the Roman Catholic, but he forbade any
Catholics to come into his colony.

Another law that was made was that no man
should own a farm beyond a fixed size. He did
not want either rich or poor men, but tried to keep
all on one level. A curious law was that no woman
should have land left her by will. Georgia was to be
a military colony, and every one who held land was
bound to serve as a soldier when called upon. This
was why women, wrho could not act as soldiers, were
forbidden to own land. That was not all. There
was no political freedom. All lawrs were to be made
by Oglethorpe and the company he had formed, and
the people were deprived of self-government.

Before saying what became of these laws and regu-
lations there is another matter to speak of. Though
Spain had not sent a settler into the region of Georgia,
she laid claim to it by the right of discovery, for Narvaez
and De Soto had journeyed over it two centuries be-
fore. The Spaniards of Florida were very angry

32 HEROES OF PROGRESS

when they found the English settling there, and when
a war broke out between England and Spain there was
some hard fighting in that region. Oglethorpe raised
an army of white men and Indians in 1740, and tried
to take the Spanish city of St. Augustine. He failed in
this, and two years afterwards a Spanish army of three
thousand men and a fleet of many vessels were sent
north to take Georgia from the English. This failed
also and the colony was saved.

Some time after this Oglethorpe went back to Eng-
land. He never returned to America again. In fact,
he had plenty of trouble at home. The people com-
plained so bitterly about the severe laws he had made
that in time they were all repealed, for they were in-
juring the progress of the colony. People were then
permitted to keep negro slaves, the laws about land-
holding were changed, and the settlers were allowed
to make laws for themselves. It would have been a
good thing if the law to keep out rum had been kept,
but strong drink gradually made its way in. In fact,
Oglethorpe grew so tired of the complaints that in
1752 he gave his province back to the king, and from
that time Georgia was a royal colony.

James Oglethorpe was a good and noble-hearted
man, but he did not know just how to govern col-
onists and was wise enough in the end to give up the
effort and leave them to govern themselves. He lived
to be a very old man, not dying till long after the Revo-
lution, when Georgia was a flourishing State of the
American Union, and the little town he had started on
the Savannah River was a fine city, its broad streets
planted with beautiful shade trees. No doubt he took
great pride in the handsome city and the large State
which owed their origin to him.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE FATHER OF
THE AMERICAN UNION

FAR back in colonial days there lived in Boston a
poor candle-maker named Josiah Franklin, who, like
many poor men, was rich in children. There were
seventeen of them in all, but only one of these, the
youngest son, was ever heard of afterwards. But this
one made up for all the rest, for he grew to be one of
the greatest men in the whole history of the American
colonies.

Little Benjamin showed himself a bright boy, but he
had not much chance for schooling. His father had so
many children that they had to help him make a living,
and Benjamin was put into his father's soap and
candle shop when he was ten years old, his school life
lasting only two years. He had learned little more
than how to read and write, but, like Abraham Lincoln,
many years afterwards, he made very good use of this
small learning.

He was very fond of books, but had to do all his
reading at night by the light of the kitchen fire, or per-
haps by a tallow candle of his own making. He was
an active and industrious lad, though as fond perhaps
of play as of work and, like a true boy, at times given
to mischief. He loved the water, and after a while
took a fancy to be a sailor, as he was getting very
tired of candle and soap making. His father was
afraid he might run away to sea, and therefore, as the
boy thought so much of books, he took him out of the
3 33

34 HEROES OF PROGRESS

shop and put him to learn the printing trade with his
brother, who had a printing office.

This suited Benjamin very well. He soon learned
to set type, but he liked most of all to go to the book-
store, where he got an opportunity to borrow books
for his evening reading. The quick-witted little fellow
in time fancied that he could write himself, and he be-
gan to compose verses, which his brother thought so
much of that he printed them and sent the young
poet out to sell his own verses. This made him very
proud of his talent, until his father laughed at him,
saying, "Verse makers are likely to be beggars."

It may be this that caused Benjamin to give up
poetry and take to prose. His brother printed a
small newspaper, one of the first in America, and the
boy began to write small things for it. These he slipped
under the office door at night, so that no one should
know who wrote them. He grew very proud again
when he saw them in print and heard a gentleman in
the office talk of them as very good.

Printing a newspaper was not always a pleasant
thing in those days. Something James Franklin put
in his paper made the governor so angry that he sent
him to prison for a month. While he was in jail
Benjamin got out the paper and printed some sharp
things which seem to have made the governor more
angry than ever, for when James Franklin was let out
of prison he was forbidden to publish a newspaper
any longer.

James got around this by publishing the paper in the
name of Benjamin Franklin. This was another thing
to make the boy, then only seventeen, proud. It may
also have made him a little saucy and rather too inde-
pendent for an apprentice, for after this there were

HOUSE IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS BORN

,

TZE KEW Y

PUBLIC LIB

HEROES OF PROGRESS 35

many quarrels between the two brothers, and finally
Benjamin left the office, saying he would not work
there any longer.

He tried to get work in other printing offices in
Boston, but none of them would have him, as they
knew that he was apprenticed to his brother. As
he could get no employment in Boston, he resolved to
leave there. He had to do it secretly, for by law his
brother could hold him, so he got some money by
selling part of his books, and took passage in a sloop
for New York. There was no work to be had in
that city, and he next set out for Philadelphia, then
the largest city in the colonies.

In his very entertaining autobiography Benjamin
Franklin has told us all about this part of his life. We
read there the story of how he crossed New Jersey,
walking much of the way and going down the Dela-
ware in a boat. When he reached Philadelphia he was
in his working clothes, with his very small baggage
stuffed into his pockets. He walked up the street,
munching at some rolls of bread he had bought at a
baker's shop and gazing about curiously at the Quaker
city. A girl named Deborah Read, standing at the
door of her father's shop, laughed to see this queer-
looking boy, with his hands full of bread and his
pockets full of clothing. She got to know him better
in later years, and in the end became his wife, and a
very good one she made.

All this is of interest, as dealing with the early life
of a very remarkable man. That he was not a com-
mon boy may be seen by what he did in his brother's
office before he was seventeen years of age. The
remainder of Franklin's autobiography is full of inter-
esting matter and shows us that from the start he

36 HEROES OF PROGRESS

was a leader of men and a starter of new things.
But we cannot go into the details of these, as his life
is full of more important matter, about which some-
thing must be said.

The runaway printer's apprentice was not long in
finding work to do in Philadelphia. He was an excel-
lent type -setter, and had read so much and had such a
fund of information that he was very useful in a print-
ing office.

He was only a year in Philadelphia when the gover-
nor of Pennsylvania, seeing how bright and able he
was, promised to help him set up a shop of his own, and
he took ship for England to buy type and other mate-
rials for this purpose. But the money promised him
did not come, and he had to go to work as a printer in
London, where he stayed for more than a year. The
governor had treated him very badly, but in 1729,
when he was twenty-three years old, some friends
helped him to start in business in Philadelphia and to
buy out a newspaper. The next year he married
Deborah Read.

Franklin's paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, was
soon popular and profitable, and his own writings in it
were much appreciated. In a few years he began to
publish an almanac, put out under the name of Richard
Saunders. It became known as " Poor Richard's Al-
manac," and was full of useful facts and clever hints
and bright sayings, telling people how to live frugally.
It was a sort of book of proverbs, and of shrewd
common sense, and had a multitude of readers for
many years.

Young as he was, Franklin was wide awake to all
that was going on, and was well up in literature. He
was a friend of the brightest people in the city, and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 37

formed a number of them into a social and literary
club called the Junto. Simplicity and common sense
marked all the doings of the club, for Franklin was
its leader and there was never a man of better judg-
ment. It kept together for forty years, and out of it
grew the American Philosophical Society, which still
stands high among scientific bodies. And the small col-
lection of books made by the members was the begin-
ning of the noble Philadelphia Library, the first sub-
scription library in America.

These were two of the things which Franklin started,
but they were not all. He had his eyes on everything,
and there was no public movement in which he did not
take part. He laid the foundation of the University of
Pennsylvania, he formed the first fire company in the
city, he was the first to propose street paving, and in
fact he was the busiest and most alert citizen of
America's greatest city. Any one who wanted any-
thing done went to Franklin first of all.

All this time he was pushing his business and making
money. He never put on airs or was too proud to do
honest labor, and might be seen in the street wearing
a leathern apron, and wheeling goods to his shop in a
wheelbarrow, not caring who saw him or what they
might think.

Benjamin Franklin soon got to be known as some-
thing more than a mere business man. He became an
able writer, what he wrote being so full of shrewd
sense and discretion that it was read all through the
colonies. In addition there was a quaint simplicity
about it and a vein of homely and pleasant humor that
made it very good reading. People read his writings
with satisfaction to-day, and that is more than can
be said of the other writers of colonial times.

38 HEROES OF PROGRESS

He was much more than a business man and a
writer ; he was a keen observer of the ways of nature,
and if he had not been so busy in other ways might
have made a great figure in science. As it was, he
made many discoveries of importance. Thus he pointed
out the course of storms over the American continent,
he studied the course and character of the Gulf Stream,
and he investigated the powers of the different colors
in absorbing the heat of the sun.

But his greatest service to science was in the field
of electricity. This was then a very young science,
and people knew hardly anything about it. No one,
for instance, knew that lightning had anything to
do with electricity, though some suspected it. Franklin,
in his practical way, set himself to find out, and he
did it in a very simple manner. He raised a kite
into the clouds during a thunder-storm, and when
a current of electricity came down the string and a
spark flew from a key at the end to his knuckles he
was a very happy man, for he knew that he had made a
great discovery.

His experiment was talked of and repeated all over
Europe and made him a famous man. One man tried
it in Russia and brought down so much of the lightning
that he was killed by the stroke. But Franklin was
quite satisfied with his first trial, and set himself at
work to make his discovery of use to mankind. He
proposed that buildings should be protected by light-
ning rods, to carry the electric charge to the earth, and
this is one of his practical ideas that are still in use.

One might think that Benjamin Franklin, with his
business, and his newspaper, and his looking after the
affairs of the city, and his studies in science, and
his literary labors and social duties, had quite enough

HEROES OF PROGRESS 39

to occupy his time, but he found leisure to do many
other things. He was interested in all the affairs of the
colonies, and became so active in them that he made
himself one of the greatest public men of the time.
The shrewd common sense and broad ideas which he
applied in his business were also applied in public
affairs and proved as useful in one as in the other.

In 1736 he was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania
Assembly, in 1737 was made postmaster of Penn-
sylvania, and some years later was appointed post-
master general of all the colonies. Soon after he was
made clerk he was elected a member of the Assembly,
which then met in Philadelphia, and later was one
of the commissioners sent to treat with the Penn-
sylvania Indians.

A very important event in his life took place in 1754'
when there was great danger of war with France. A
congress of deputies from the colonies was held at
Albany to treat with the chiefs of the Iroquois Indians
of New York. Pennsylvania sent Franklin as its most
important man. What he did was to propose a plan
for the union of all the colonies for mutual defence.
If they were united, he said, they could take care of
themselves and would not need troops from Europe.
It was the first step taken towards an American Union.

Franklin, in his quaint way, illustrated the position
of the colonies by the figure of a snake broken up
into thirteen sections. He wished to make them see
that a whole snake was much stronger than one cut
up into thirteen bits, each acting for itself, and that
a whole union would be the same. His plan was
rejected by the congress, whose members were jealous
for their several colonies. It was also rejected by the
British government, which did not want the colonies

40 HEROES OF PROGRESS

to become united and powerful. Franklin was much
disappointed, for he felt they were all making a mis-
take. Thus this first step towards a union in America
fell through.

Franklin was now recognized as the ablest statesman
in the colonies, and during the remainder of his life he
was kept busy in the public service. When General
Braddock wanted wagons for his army and could not
get them in Virginia, Franklin obtained them for him
from the Pennsylvania farmers, promising to pay for
them himself if they were lost. The farmers were
more ready to trust him than the English general.
In 1757 he was sent to England by Pennsylvania to
try to make the sons of William Penn pay their
share of the tax for the war with the French and In-
dians, then going on. This was a very different visit
from that of some thirty years before, when he went
to London as a boy to buy type. He was now in a
position to deal with the great men of England, and
succeeded in making the Penns do their duty. Seven
years later he was sent back to England, this time by
all the colonies, to protest against the taxes that
were being laid upon Americans. He stayed there
over ten years, doing all he could to have the unjust
taxes repealed, and before he came back the battle of
Lexington had been fought and the whole country
was in a wild fever of excitement.

A man of Franklin's ability was wanted now. While
brave men were needed in the army, wise men were
needed in the councils, and the day after he landed,
on May 6, 1775, he was chosen as a member of the
Continental Congress. Pennsylvania fully recognized
the excellent work he had done in Europe, and in this
way rewarded him for it.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 41

The next year he was one of the famous committee
of five to prepare the Declaration of Independence,
and soon after was one of the noble fifty-four who
risked their lives and all they owned by signing this
great paper. When one of the members said after the
Declaration had been signed, " Now we must all hang
together," Franklin replied, with his ready wit, " Yes,
or we will surely all hang separately."

Franklin made himself active and prominent in the
Congress, as he did in everything in which he was
concerned. His plan to unite the colonies in 1754 had
been defeated, but he helped to unite them now by
drafting the form of union that was called the Articles
of Confederation. He was made the first Postmaster
General of the Confederation ; he visited Washington's
camp and consulted with him upon ways and means;
he went to Canada to see if the people there would
join the colonies; he worked on important committees,
and his influence was felt in everything that was done.

But the great ability of Dr. Franklin, as he was
now called, was best recognized when, near the close
of 1776, he was sent to France with the hope of gain-
ing its support in the war with England. He was now
seventy years old, and was looked upon as one of the
foremost people in the world. He had won great fame
both as a scientist and as a statesman, and when he
appeared in Paris he was greeted with a delight and
enthusiasm enough to turn the head of many men.

His simple ways and quaint American manners
charmed the French. Though the great University of
Oxford had made him a Doctor of Laws, though he
was renowned for his learning, his inventions, his dis-
coveries in science, his homely proverbial wisdom, his
ability as a statesman, he was only a plain colonist in

42 HEROES OF PROGRESS

his dress and manners and won esteem wherever he
went. He completely won over the people to favor
the American cause, but the government held back
from openly aiding the colonists, though it secretly
helped them with money. It was not till 1778, after
the capture of Burgoyne's whole army, that a treaty
was signed and France sent soldiers and ships to the
aid of the Americans.

Franklin stayed in Paris, working in a dozen ways
for the good of his countrymen. Among other things,
he helped to fit out the fleet of vessels with which
Paul Jones won his great naval victory. In 1783 he
was one of the commissioners to make peace with
England, and signed the treaty which gave liberty to
the United States.

It was 1785 when Franklin returned from France.
He was then in the eightieth year of his age, and the
infirmities of old age were telling upon him. His
reception in America was enthusiastic. Even Wash-
ington was not regarded with more honor and esteem.
These two men, the one in war, the other in the council
chamber, had been the leaders in gaining liberty for
the colonies, and both were looked up to as America's
greatest men.

Franklin had barely landed when he was elected
President of Pennsylvania, and he filled this office for
three years. While he was president it became very
evident that the Articles of Confederation were too
weak to hold the States together, and a convention was
called to form a stronger union. Franklin, as may
well be imagined, was elected a member of this con-
vention, and he took a leading part in forming the
Constitution of the United States. Thus he aided in
completing the work which he had begun in Albany

HEROES OF PROGRESS 43

in 1754. The broken sections of the snake were
at length firmly united, and a sound union was formed.

This work done, Franklin retired from public life.
He had now passed the age for active service, and two
years later, on the I7th 'of April, 1790, the wise old
sage passed away, in the eighty-fifth year of his life.

It would be hard to find in history another man who
became as eminent in various ways. He was equally
great as a statesman, a scientist, and a practical man
of affairs, while as a philosopher of homely common
sense he has rarely had his equal. His writings
continue to this day to be republished in almost
every written tongue. They were nearly all produced
during his years of editorial work, and they con-
stitute the best and most original literature coming
to us from colonial times. Finally, he deserves very
great credit for his services in the cause of American
liberty, and his persistent efforts in bringing about
a union of the colonies and the states.

J

7W

4

PATRICK HENRY, THE ORATOR OF
THE REVOLUTION

IN 1765 UflR was an important meeting of the
of BtM^ses of Virginia, as the law-making
of that colony was called. They had come
together to debate upon a great question, that of the
Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament for the
taxat^b of the colonies. Most of the members were
opposed to it, but they were timid and doubtful, and
dreadfully afraid of saying or doing something that
might offend the king. They talked all round the sub-
ject, but were as afraid to come close to it as if
it had been a chained wolf.

They were almost ready to adjourn, with nothing
done, when a tall and slender young man, a new and
insignificant member whom few knew, rose in his
seat and began fc> speak upon the subject. Some
of the rich an<i aristocratic members looked upon
him with indignation. What did this nobody mean
in meddling with so weighty a subject as that before
them, and which they had already fully debated? But
their indignation did not trouble the young man.

He began by offering a series of resolutions, in
which he maintained that only the Burgesses and the
Governor had the right to tax the people, and that
the Stamp Act was contrary to the constitution of
the colony and therefore was void. This was a
bold resolution. No one else had dared to go so far.
It scared many of the members, and a great storm of
opposition arose, but the young man would not yield.
44

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rougm up 10 me
isjMtohe thundered
I'-jj^Hf his Bru^tt,
I (fefrge the Tlip

HEROES OF PROGRESS 45

He began to speak and soon there was flowing from
his lips a stream of eloquence that took every one by
surprise. Never had such glowing words been heard
in that old hall. His force and enthusiasm shook
the whole Assembly. Finally, wrought up to the
highest pitch of indignant patriotisjMie thundered
out the memorable words : " Caesai
Charles the First his Cromwell, and

' " Treason ! Treason ! " cried some of the excited
members, but the orator went on — " may profit by
their example. If this be treason make the mosj»f it."
His boldness carried the day ; his words were irresist-
ible ; the resolutions were adopted ; Virginia took a
decided stand; and Patrick Henry, the orator, from
that time took first rank among American speakers.
A zealous and daring patriot, he had made himself
a power among the people.

Who was this man that had dared hurl defiance at
the king? A few years before he had been looked
upon as one of the most insignificant^of men, a failure
in everything he undertook, an awftvard, ill-dressed,
slovenly, lazy fellow, who could not even speak the
king's English correctly. He was little better than
a tavern lounger, most of his time being spent in
hunting and fishing, in playing the flute and violin, and
in telling amusing stories. He was an adept in the
latter and made himself popular among the common
people.

He had tried farming and failed. He had made
a pretense of studying law, and gained admittance
to the bar, though his legal knowledge was very
slight. Having almost nothing to do in the law, he
spent most of his time helping about the tavern at
Hanover Court-House, kept by his- fat]^r-in-law, who

^^ *

46 HEROES OF PROGRESS

supported him and his family, for he had married early,
with little means of keeping his wife.

One day there came up a case in court which all
of the leading lawyers had refused. It was called
the " Parsons' Cause," and had to do with the claim
of the ministers of the Established Church to collect
dues from all the people, whatever their religious faith.
A refusal to pay these had brought on the suit. The
parsons had engaged one of the ablest lawyers of the
county town on their side, and none of the lawyers
seemed willing to take the opposite side.

What was the surprise of the people when the story
went around that Patrick Henry had offered him-
self on the defendants' side! His taking up the case
was a joke to most of them, and a general burst of
laughter followed the news. What did this fellow
know about the law? He was a good talker, no doubt,
in his low Virginia dialect, but what kind of a show
would he make in pleading a case before a learned
judge! The case of the people seemed desperate
indeed when intrusted to such hands as these.

When the young lawyer appeared in court smiles
went round among the lawyers and the audience.
The idea of this awkward, backward, slovenly, un-
trained man attempting to handle such an important
case ! It seemed utterly absurd, and the opposing
lawyers felt that they would make short work of
him. They had the law on their side, their plaintiffs'
case was a good one, their opponent was a mounte-
bank, the defendants would be made to pay.

It is likely enough that Patrick Henry felt much the
same way. His powers had never been tried except
before a bar-room audience, and he could not have had
much confidence in them. Doubtless he would have

HEROES OF PROGRESS 47

been glad enough, now it was too late, to get out
of the court and back in the friendly tavern of his
father-in-law.

When he rose to speak he faltered and hesitated.
It looked as if he would break down utterly. But he
had spoken before his friends ; he was not quite a
tyro in oratory; as he went on his timidity vanished
and his confidence returned. He warmed up to his
subject and a change seemed to come over him. His
form straightened, his face filled out, his eyes blazed,
the words poured from his mouth, clear, forcible
sentences, that carried everybody away with admira-
tion and astonishment, came from his lips. There was
not much statute law in what Patrick Henry said, but
there was much of the eternal principles of right and
justice. What right in equity had these plaintiffs to
make the people pay for what they did not want and
what they refused to accept? The argument was
masterly and irresistible. It was poured forth in a
flood of burning eloquence. The plaintiffs could not
bear the storm of his accusations. They left the
court in confusion. The specious plea of the oppos-
ing lawyers was quite overslaughed. The jury,
carried away by his argument, returned the plaintiffs
a verdict of one penny damages ; and the people,
filled with enthusiasm, lifted the young advocate on
their shoulders and carried him out of the court-house
in triumph.

Patrick Henry was a made man. He no longer had
to lounge in his office waiting for business. Plenty of
it came to him. He set himself for the first time to
an earnest study of the law, he improved his dialect
and his command of language, the dormant powers of
his mind rapidly unfolded, and two years after plead-

48 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ing his first case he was elected a member of the
House of Burgesses. We have seen how, in this
body, he " set the ball of the Revolution rolling.''

The idle tavern orator suddenly found himself
launched into greatness. With all his careless habits
and rural manners, he was a man of honor and integ-
rity. Those who knew him respected him. For me
first time he had learned what was in him, and he
worked hard to make the best of his powers. Not
many years passed after that great scene in the
country court before Patrick Henry was transformed
into a new man, one of culture and learning and of
extraordinary powers of oratory.

It was the time for such a man to make his force felt.
The country was in a critical state. The people were
on all sides demanding their rights, and would soon
be demanding their liberty. Excitement spread every-
where. Fearless leaders were needed, men full of the
spirit of patriotism. Patrick Henry had shown that he
was both. In his spirit-stirring oration before the
House of Burgesses he had put himself on record for
all time. His defiance of the king stamped him as a
warrior who had thrown his shield away and thence-
forward would fight only with the sword.

The patriot leaders welcomed him. He worked with
Thomas Jefferson and others upon the Committee of
Correspondence, which sought to spread the story
of political events through the colonies. The Virginia
Assemblies which were broken up by the governor and
called together again by the people welcomed him as a
member. He was sent to Philadelphia as a member of
the First Continental Congress, and his voice was
eloquently heard in that body. In fact, he became one
of the most active and ardent of the American patriots.

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 49

Of Patrick Henry's early speeches we know nothing
beyond that intense blaze of eloquence with which he .
electrified the House of Burgesses. The first speech of
his on record was that noble one given before the
convention held at Richmond in March, 1775. But this
was an effort almost without a parallel in the annals
of oratory. He had presented resolutions before the
convention in favor of an open appeal to arms. To
this the more timid spirits made strong opposition.
The fight at Lexington had not yet taken place, but
Henry's prophetic gaze saw it coming. In a burst of
flaming eloquence he laid bare the tyranny of Par-
liament and king, declared that there was nothing left
but to fight, and ended with an outburst thrilling in its
force and intensity :

' There is no retreat but in submission and slavery !
Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard
on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and
let it come ! I repeat, sir, let it come ! It is in vain
to extenuate the matter! Gentlemen may cry, Peace,
peace, — but there is no peace! The war is actually
begun ! The next gale that sweeps from the north
will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!
Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand
we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What
would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty or
give me death!"

Where was the idle fisher and fiddler, who had

amused himself in telling stories to tavern loungers?

Was this the man, this burning orator, whose voice

was capable of moving great audiences like a cyclone,

4

50 HEROES OF PROGRESS

and the echo of whose words still thrills our hearts?
Certainly in the career of Patrick Henry we have a
remarkable example of mental evolution. He was
asleep in the early days, an idling dreamer. When he
awoke he made the world rock with his voice.

As for Virginia, it listened to his fervid appeal, and
when the news of Lexington reached its soil its sons
were ready to spring to arms. Henry helped to gather
a force of ardent patriots and led them to prevent the
royal governor from carrying away the military stores
of the state. He was elected Governor of Virginia
in 1776, and held the office till 1779, actively aiding
the popular cause. He was Governor again in 1784
and 1785.

In 1788, when the Federal Constitution had been
formed and the States were called upon to adopt it,
Henry, as a member of the Virginia Convention, ap-
peared in a new role. He was bitterly opposed to the
Constitution, which he said had " an awful squinting
towards monarchy," and he opposed its adoption in a
number of speeches of extraordinary eloquence. For-
tunately he did not succeed, the demand for a stronger
Union being too great for even his powers of oratory.

He died June 6, 1799, with the reputation of being
the greatest of American orators. John Randolph
of Roanoke, himself one of Virginia's famous orators,
has said that Patrick Henry was Shakespeare and
Garrick in one, with their genius applied to the actual
business of life.

SAMUEL ADAMS, THE FATHER OF
AMERICAN LIBERTY

FROM 1760 to 1775 Boston was the hotbed of resist-
ance to British oppression. George III., furious at the
rebellious spirit of his unruly subjects beyond the seas,
laid his hand on that unquiet city with crushing weight,
while a stalwart group of patriots resisted and defied
the efforts of their oppressors. At the head of these
was a daring son of the soil named Samuel Adams,
the man who had more to do in inspiring the minds of
the people with the spirit of independence than any
other man in the colonies. It has been truly said that
if the title of Father of America belongs to any one
man Samuel Adams was the man.

It was he that led in all the movements against
" taxation," and he was ever earnest in efforts to keep
the spirit of resistance alive. Poor though he was,
he could not be bought. Efforts to bribe him to desert
the cause of liberty were made, but they only served
to make him more determined still.

Mather Byles, a Tory clergyman of Boston, one
day said to him with insidious pleasantry : " Come,
friend Samuel, let us relinquish republican phantoms
and attend to our fields."

" Very well," said stalwart Sam, to give him his
familiar title, " you attend to the planting of liberty and
I will grub up the taxes. Thus we shall both have
pleasant places."

Adams was an educated man. Born in 1722, he
graduated from Harvard College in 1740. After-
Si

52 HEROES OF PROGRESS

wards, when he took the degree of master of arts, his
thesis showed the prevailing trend of his thoughts.
He chose the question, " Whether it be lawful to resist
the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot
otherwise be preserved ?" We need not say which side
of the question he argued for.

Adams engaged in business, but did not succeed.
He was afterwards collector of taxes in Boston. He
was elected to the Assembly of Massachusetts in 1765
and remained there nine years, winning great influence
by his courage, talents, and energy. Before this he
had gained a reputation as a political writer. He was
not a great orator, but he was a bold and daring one,
and early became a leader of the people. At the very
first whisper of opposition to the designs of the king
Adams was in the field, ready and eager to act when-
ever occasion served, a fervid, active, independent
spirit, knowing what to do and how to do it, and
ready to give his services and his life in the cause of
his country.

Such a man was Sam Adams, Boston's popular
leader. John Adams, his cousin, referring to the
patriots, wrote of him as early as 1765: "Adams, I
believe, has the most thorough understanding of liberty
and her resources in the temper and character of the
people, though not in the law and constitution, as well
as the most habitual radical love of it, of any of them."

It was this radical love of liberty that made him a
thorn in the side of George III. and his myrmidons.
No sooner was a party formed opposed to the British
yoke than Adams came to the front as its leader. In
1764, ten years before the Revolution, we hear his
voice protesting in the name of Boston and all America
against the plan for taxing the colonies. In the words

HEROES OF PROGRESS 53

of John Adams, he was " always for softness, prudence,
and delicacy where they will do, but stanch and stiff
and strict and rigid and inflexible in the cause."
« It was Adams who in 1765 suggested the idea of a
Colonial Congress, and who afterwards became a
strong advocate of the Continental Congress. As
events became more critical, he became more resolute
and outspoken. At the time of the " Boston Massacre "
he was spokesman of the committee that demanded that
the troops should be removed from Boston, and it was
his boldness that forced them out.

The most dramatic event in his life occurred on that
memorable night of December 16, 1773, when the
ships lay in Boston harbor laden with the tea which
the king and his advisers were seeking to force on the
Americans. That night a great town-meeting was held
at Faneuil Hall, with Adams as one of its principal
speakers. The hour advanced, the efforts to induce
the authorities to remove the tea-ships peacefully had
failed, it was known that the tea would be forcibly
landed in the morning. Compromise, persuasion, had
failed. Action was demanded. Adams rose to his feet
and said, " This meeting can do nothing more to save
the country."

Were these words a prearranged signal ? It seemed
so. Scarcely were they spoken when a shrill war-
whoop was heard in the street, and a party of men
disguised as Indians and armed with hatchets rushed
impetuously past, seeking the wharves. Here they
boarded the ships, carried the tea-chests from the hold,
broke them open with their hatchets, and poured the
tea into the harbor. It was the famous " Boston tea-
party," which did more than any one thing besides to
speedily bring on the Revolution.

54 HEROES OF PROGRESS

This was only one of his acts. " Step by step, inch
by inch, he fought the enemies of liberty during the
dark hours before the Revolution." On that dark
night in April, 1775, when the British in Boston were
plotting to send out a force of soldiers to seize the
stores at Concord, they had another purpose in view.
Samuel Adams and John Hancock were then in the
village of Lexington, whither they had fled from
arrest, and General Gage was as eager to lay hands
on these patriot leaders as upon the Concord stores.
But before the soldiers reached Lexington the birds
had flown. Paul Revere had ridden through that fate-
ful night, roused them from sleep, and warned them
of the coming troops.

To this day the house in which they slept that night
is preserved as a memorial of American liberty, and
on the village green near by stands a statue which
marks the spot where the first British shots were fired
and the first patriots fell. The beginning of the
struggle for liberty dates from that night and the day
that followed.

Adams was elected to the First Continental Congress
in 1774, and was one of the two popular leaders ex-
cepted from the general pardon offered by the British
government in June, 1775. He was one of the two who
had sinned beyond forgiveness. Yet at first, in the
Continental Congress, he spoke in favor of a peaceful
settlement of the difficulty with England. This mood
of softness did not last. Later, when some members
of the Congress grew hopeless of success, Adams
ardently exclaimed : " I should advise persisting in our
struggle for liberty though it were revealed from
Heaven that ninety-nine would perish and only one
of a hundred were to survive and retain his liberty.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 55

One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy
more happiness than a hundred slaves, and his children
may have what he has so nobly preserved."

When the Declaration was prepared he was one of
the most ready to sign it, and his signing was the
occasion for the delivery of the only example of his
eloquence which we possess. He closed with the
words : " For my own part, I ask no greater blessing
than to share the common danger and the common
glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that
my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and
a Montgomery, it is that these American States may
never cease to be free and independent."

Adams continued in Congress until after the sur-
render of Yorktown, working so diligently and with
such judgment and order that some have called him
" the helmsman of the Revolution." He withdrew
after liberty had been gained, and afterwards helped to
form the constitution of Massachusetts, was a senator
of that State, its Lieutenant-Governor from 1789 to
1794, and Governor from 1795 to 1797. Always poor,
he died so in 1803. John Adams has said of him as a
speaker and writer, that in his works may be found
" specimens of a nervous simplicity of reasoning and
eloquence that have never been rivalled in America."

THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

THE name of Thomas Jefferson always calls up to
us a vision of the Declaration of Independence, that
famous state paper which has never been surpassed in
this or any country. Jefferson was its author, and
his name will ever remain associated with it. Elected
to the Continental Congress, he took his seat in that
body on the day when news reached Philadelphia of
the battle of Bunker Hill and of the splendid fighting
of the " rebel " troops. Washington was then on his
way to Boston to take command of the army, and the
hope of liberty burned high in the people's hearts.

Eight months later, when the British army sailed
away from Boston and left it to the Continentals, this
hope burned still stronger, and men began to feel that
it was time to cut loose for good and all from British
rule and sail onward in a ship of independence of their
own. So a resolution in favor of such a course was
offered in Congress, and five men, Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and
Robert R. Livingston, were chosen to draft a declara-
tion to be given to the world.

This declaration was to show why and on what
grounds the American colonies claimed freedom, and
Thomas Jefferson was chosen by his four fellow mem-
bers to write it. He was known by them to be an able
writer on such subjects, and two years before he
had published "A Summary View of the Rights of

56

HEROES OF PROGRESS 57

British America," which had attracted great attention
and was full of the sentiments they wished.

So Jefferson was selected to write the paper, and
did so. He did it so well that his fellow members felt
more like clapping him on the back than making
changes in it. Hardly a word was rewritten, either
by the committee or by Congress, and it was quickly
passed and signed, as America's declaration to the
world. It is to-day regarded as one of the ablest docu-
ments ever written, and as the most important state
paper in modern political history, and it will make the
name of Thomas Jefferson famous for many centuries
to come.

On a Virginia plantation near the present city of
Charlottesville. Thomas Jefferson was born in the year
1743. Not far away rose the Blue Ridge Mountains,
and broad forests spread for miles around, for the
country was then very thinly settled. Here the young
Virginian grew up, learning to ride, swim, and shoot,
and reading every book he could get. He was fond of
music, too, and spent many hours learning to play on
the violin. He was a tall, straight, slender boy, with
reddish hair ; no beauty, but a pleasant-looking lad.

At seventeen he entered William and Mary College,
studied like a young Trojan, graduated in two years,
and then began to study law as diligently. When ad-
mitted to the bar he quickly won a place among the
foremost lawyers of the time.

The young lawyer soon became active in politics.
These were the days of the Stamp Act and the Tea
Tax, and America held no more ardent patriot than
our bright youthful Virginian. A fine-looking fellow
he had then grown to be, over six feet tall, with square,
well-cut features, ruddy skin, and a face full of intel-

58 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ligence. He had a quick, positive way of speaking and
paid little heed to the over-formal politeness of the day,
characteristics that made him prominent. A rigid
republican, he did not even like the formality of " Mr."
Anything like a title displeased him.

He believed in the equality of all men, and was
bitterly opposed to slavery. He said, " I tremble for
my country when I remember that God is just, for
this is politically and morally wrong."

Jefferson was no orator. He never made a formal
speech in his life. But he was a deep and able thinker,
an adept with the pen, and he soon ranked with the
ablest political leaders of the age. He took an active
part in all the movements of that period of excitement,
was seen in all the conventions and congresses called,
was always active, zealous, and capable, and crowned
his \vork at length with the noble Declaration of Inde-
pendence, the writing of which formed the high-water
mark of his life.

Jefferson soon left Congress to enter the legislature
of his native State. Descended from the best stock of
Virginia, and as well born as its greatest aristocrat,
he was still a democrat to the core. He did not believe
in the privileges claimed by the proud old families.
Liberty and equality were his wratchwords. He had
put them in the Declaration, and he worked for them in
his State. He fought for religious freedom till he got
it, and he stopped the importation of slaves. He also
drew up an excellent plan for the education of all the
children of Virginia. If he could, he would have put
everybody on the same plane and have them all start
equal in life.

When Patrick Henry gave up the office of Governor
Jefferson succeeded him. But he was not a military

HEROES OF PROGRESS 59

man and was not suited to this office in time of war,
and at the end of his term he declined to serve again
and was succeeded by a soldier, General Nelson, of
Yorktown. But in 1783, when the treaty of peace
with Great Britain was made, he had the honor of
reporting it to Congress, and thus completed the work
he had begun with the Declaration of Independence
seven years before. It must have been a great joy to
him to proclaim that the world now acknowledged this
independence.

Let us here give some anecdotes which are told of
Jefferson. In 1770, when he was practicing law, his
old home at Shadwell took fire and burned down.
When word was brought him of it his first thought
was for his favorite books, and he eagerly asked if they
had been saved.

" No, massa," said the ebony servitor. " Dey is burned
up; but de fire didn't git yo' fiddle. We sabed dat."

To the simple-minded negro a fiddle was of more
account than a whole library of books.

The burning of the old Jefferson mansion was a
serious loss. A new one had to be built, and for it
he chose the top of a forest-covered hill near by,
five hundred and eighty feet high, on the side of
which was a favorite spot where he had loved to sit
and read and converse with his special college friend.
Here, under a great oak, this friend, Dabney Carr,
was afterwards buried, for the two had made a compact
that he who died first should have his grave under
their favorite oak. Many years later Jefferson was
buried on the same spot beside his old friend.

The hill was named Monticello, or " Little Moun-
tain." Jefferson had its broad, round top leveled
off, and he built there a handsome manor-house, of his

60 HEROES OF PROGRESS

own designing, which has since been known as Monti-
cello. It is to-day a place of pilgrimage for patriotic
Americans. A few miles away stands the University
of Virginia, of which he was the founder. Not far
away is the old Virginian town of Charlottesville.

An interesting story is told of how, in 1772, Jeffer-
son brought his young wife home to this newly finished
mansion. They had more than a hundred miles to
travel in midwinter, with no easier way of doing it
than in a two-horse carriage. At least, the only easier
way of traveling in those days would have been to
put more horses to their carriage.

Much of the way ran through the forest, the trees
often meeting over the road. As they went on it began
to snow, and long before their home was reached a
thick white carpet covered the ground. Night had
fallen and the hour was late when the high hill was
reached and they began to climb the steep roadway up
its side to the house on the summit. As they drew near
the darkness was deep and not a light to be seen. The
servants, not expecting their master and mistress at
that hour, were all asleep in their cabins, and there
was not a fire in the house.

A gloomy and chilly welcome was that which Monti-
cello gave to its young mistress. Fortunately, they
were at that age when ill hap does not weigh heavy
and discomfort can be easily borne. The shivering pair
had to go straight to bed to keep from freezing. The
next morning the fires were all blazing, the house was
bright and cheerful, they were able to laugh at their
predicament of the night before, and they began what
was to be a long and happy life in their mountain
home.

There is another story told of Monticello that might

HEROES OF PROGRESS 61

have led to a more tragic ending. Years later, when the
Revolutionary war was nearing its end and the British
troops had invaded Virginia, there came with them
Colonel Tarleton, the daring cavalry leader who had
been fighting with Morgan and Marion and other pa-
triot leaders in the South. Jefferson was then at Monti-
cello, and the Legislature of Virginia was in session at
Charlottesville, a few miles away. It seemed to Tarle-
ton a good chance to catch all the Virginia leaders in
one nest.

While the family at Monticello were at breakfast,
up the hillside came a frightened horseman at full
speed. When he reached the door he shouted : " The
British are coming ! Fly for your lives ! Tarleton will
soon be here with his dragoons !"

When the man was questioned he told Jefferson that
Tarleton, with two hundred and fifty men, had galloped
into Louisa, twenty miles away, at midnight. The
family was in a panic, but Jefferson coolly told them to
finish their breakfast, as there was time enough. He
then sent the family away to a place of safety, but
stayed behind to gather certain precious papers.

Soon came another messenger, shouting that the
British were coming up the mountain. Jefferson
listened. No sounds of hoofs could be heard. He rode
to a place where he could look down on Charlo^tes-
ville. All was quite and peaceful there. Deeming it
another false alarm, he turned back, intending to get
more of his papers.

As he did so he saw that his sword was missing,
having fallen from the scabbard. He turned to search
for it, and, looking down on Charlottesville again,
saw that a great change had taken place in that little
borough. Armed horsemen filled its streets. He could

62 HEROES OF PROGRESS

see some of them already on the road to Monticello,
galloping at full speed. Jefferson put spurs to his
horse and rode swiftly away. His fallen sword had
saved him from capture. A brief delay longer and
the author of the Declaration would have been a pris-
oner in British hands.

Another story is told of this raid which, if true, goes
to show how faithful to their masters were the old
Virginian slaves. Two of them, Martin and Caesar,
were trying to save the silver plate of the house by
hiding it in a secret place closed by a trap-door. Caesar
entered the hole, and Martin handed him down the
plate. They had not finished when they heard the
British bursting into the house. Martin quickly closed
the trap, and the faithful Caesar lay without a sound in
the dark hole until the British were gone. He was a
sorry figure when he was drawn out.

To go back now to history, we may say that Jeffer-
son went to Congress in 1783, and in 1784 was sent
abroad as Minister to France from the young republic.
He remained five years in France, so that he was not
home at the time of the making of the Constitution.
But those were exciting days in France. The great
French Revolution was at hand, and everybody was
talking of liberty and the rights of man. What he saw
and heard there made him a greater lover of human
rights than ever. He was active in other ways. A
practical farmer, he sent home seeds, plants, and every-
thing which he thought would be of use to grow in
American fields and gardens.

He came home in 1789 to find that Washington had
been made President and had chosen him for Secretary
of State. It was an honor he did not want, but the
President would not let him off, for he was anxious

HEROES OF PROGRESS 63

to have the ablest men in the country in his Cabinet.
Jefferson was Secretary of State for five years, and
then he resigned. There had been quarrels between him
and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
Hamilton was a strong aristocrat, Jefferson a strong
democrat, and the two men could not agree. At last,
in 1794, Jefferson, tired of the constant disputes, gave
it up and went home to Monticello.

Like Washington, he was fond of home life and
farming. He enjoyed landscape gardening and arch-
itecture, and was never more happy than when he
was adding new beauty to his place. He did not
lack company. Many visitors came to see the great
statesman, despite the fact that Monticello could be
reached only by a long and wearisome carriage journey.

He would have liked to spend his life at Monticello,
but when Washington gave up the presidency and John
Adams was elected in his place, Jefferson was chosen
for Vice-President. So he had to go back again to
Philadelphia, then the capital of the country, and
devote himself to public duties. He did not enjoy it
any more than before, for Adams was hard to get
along with, and the old bad feeling between him and
Hamilton was kept up.

Four years later, in 1800, Jefferson was chosen for
the highest honor the country had to bestow. He was
elected President. A new Democratic party had been
formed, of which he was the leader, and the old'
aristocratic Federal party, of which Hamilton was
the head, was losing its power.

Now was the time for the great believer in democ-
racy and the simple life to show his feeling. He
hated all pomp and display. Washington, when in-
augurated, had gone to the Capitol in a carriage

64 HEROES OF PROGRESS

drawn by six cream-colored horses. Adams had also
gone there with pomp and ceremony. Men now looked
for another grand parade, and great was their surprise
when they saw a plainly-dressed man, without servant
or guard, ride up to the Capitol grounds, spring from
his horse, fasten its bridle to the fence, and walk up
to the Capitol. This was Thomas Jefferson, the
great democrat, coming to be inaugurated as President
of the United States. He wanted the people to see
that he was a man like themselves, free from all
pride and ostentation.

Jefferson was President for eight years. They were
exciting years, for the great wars of Napoleon were
going on in Europe, and England and France gave so
much trouble to America, by interfering with its com-
merce, that it was hard to keep this country from going
to war with one or the other of them. The people were
very angry with England for taking sailors out of
American vessels to serve in their warships, and Jef-
ferson, who was a man of peace, found this very hard
to bear.

The troubles in Europe did one great good for this
country. France held the great region between the
Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, then
known as Louisiana. Napoleon had taken this region
from Spain, but he was now much afraid that Eng-
land, with her strong fleet, would take it from him,
so he offered to sell it at a small price to the United
States. Jefferson was glad to purchase it, for he was
wise enough to see how valuable it would become.

To-day this great domain is divided into a number
of states, with millions of people and many thriving
cities, and what is known as the Louisiana Purchase
has been celebrated by a splendid World's Fair, held at

HEROES OF PROGRESS 65

St. Louis, its principal city. Jefferson's name is as
fully associated with this great addition to our terri-
tory as it is with the Declaration of Independence.

A happy man was Thomas Jefferson in 1809, when,
his public life ended, he was free from the cares of
office, and could go home to his family, his books,
and his farm. The wife he had brought home that
stormy night had died many years before, but there
were children in the house, both his own and those
of his friend Dabney Carr, who had married his sister
Martha. She was left poor, and Jefferson took her
home with her six children, bringing them up as
tenderly as though they were his own.

He had abundance of company, too. He was so
hospitable that his house was always full of guests,
some of whom stayed for months at a time. He was
so free-handed in this and other ways that in his old
days he became poor and was forced to sell his precious
library to save his home. Fortunately, his friends came
to his aid and money was sent him to pay his debts.

The end came on the Fourth of July, 1826, exactly
fifty years from the day the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was adopted. At noon on that day the great
patriot breathed his last. It is singular that John
Adams, who was on the committee with him to prepare
the Declaration, died on the same day.

ROBERT MORRIS, THE FINANCIER OF
THE REVOLUTION

WAR is to us a picture, a brilliant show of material
splendor, a glorious display of daring deeds. We see
the flash of weapons and the waving of banners. We
hear the stirring sounds of music and the measured
beat of marching feet. We read of valiant deeds on
the fields of battle and of men giving their lives for
their country's cause, and hearing and seeing all this
we are too apt to forget what lies behind.

The bright picture of war has an opposite side, on
which are painted the dark forms of misery and suffer-
ing and death in all its terrors. But aside from this
there is something else that lies behind the show.
War is costly. We are told that " money is the sinews
of war." All the " show and circumstance of glorious
war " has to be paid for, and the country in which
we live might not have won its freedom had there not
been a noble man ready to pay the cost, a man whose
story every patriot should read. There were three
men to whom American liberty was chiefly due:
Washington, the general ; Franklin, the statesman ;
and Morris, the financier, and without the work of the
latter, freedom might not have been won.

Like many others who took part in the Revolution,
Robert Morris came from England, his native place be-
ing the city of Liverpool, where he was born in 1734.
But he was still a young boy when his father brought
him across the sea, and he grew up to be as true-hearted
a patriot as any son of the soil. No man did more than
66

HEROES OF PROGRESS 67

he to save the country from ruin and to aid the
patriot soldiers on the field of battle.

The city of Philadelphia was his home, and there,
as he grew up, he showed a marvellous talent for
business. He began at the age of fifteen in the count-
ing-house of a firm of Philadelphia merchants, and
worked with such diligence and ability that at the age
of twenty he was made a member of the firm. This
was an excellent beginning for an ambitious boy, and
we may be sure that he made the most of his oppor-
tunity. At any rate, the firm thrived after he became
a member, and he soon began to grow rich.

Time went on, and troubles came to the country.
War broke out with the French; then came the dis-
putes with England, the stamp tax, the tea tariff, the
insolent soldiers in Boston, the war spirit in the people.
All this time Robert Morris was attending to his busi-
ness with diligence and enterprise and making money
fast, while everybody praised him as a man of integ-
rity and uprightness. Willing & Morris was the name
of the firm. No other firm in Philadelphia, then the
largest city in the country, did a larger business, so that
by the time the war with England began Morris was a
very wealthy man. But it must be remembered that it
did not take as much money to make wealth in those
days as it does now. A million dollars counted for as
much then as a hundred millions do now.

In the midst of his business Robert Morris never
forgot the country that had given him a home. He
was an earnest patriot through all the troubles of the
time. His firm did a large business with England,
buying there to sell in America, but in 1765, when the
Stamp Act was passed, and the colonists vowed they
would buy no article made in England, Morris sup-

68 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ported them in this, though he knew it would be a
great loss to him.

When the Revolution began he was looked upon as
a stanch friend of the country. In 1775 he was elected
a member of the Continental Congress, and in 1776 he
was one of those bold patriots who signed the Declara-
tion of Independence. In his own mind he felt that
it was too soon for this, and that the members were '
too hasty and had better feel their way. But there it
was, the work was done, and as a true American
he put his name to it. In doing this he cut loose from
all allegiance to England and threw in his lot with the
land he had made his home.

Morris was one of the kind of men the young
country sadly needed. He had great business ability
and judgment, and as a member of the Committee of
Ways and Means his knowledge of money matters and
skill in affairs of finance made him of the greatest
service to the cause of liberty.

But this was only through good advice and care-
ful handling of the funds. The time came when more
were wanted. The country was poor ; Congress had no
means of raising money; yet the soldiers in the field
had to be fed and clothed, even if they were not paid ;
arms and ammunition had to be supplied, for they
could not fight without them, and the Treasury at
times was empty. Paper money was issued, printed
promises to pay, but there got to be so much of this
afloat that few were willing to take it. Its value in
time went down almost to nothing.

It was then that Robert Morris showed the kind
of patriot he was. He helped the Government with his
own money. He borrowed large sums from his friends.
When people of means were not willing to lend their

HEROES OF PROGRESS 69

money to Congress, Morris came to its support, and
he used the credit of his firm to borrow for its needs.
The word of Robert Morris was as good as gold, and
people who would not trust Congress were ready to
trust him.

On that brilliant Christmas Day of 1777, when
Washington turned the tide of the war by the splendid
victory of his ragged Continentals at Trenton, the army
chest was empty, there was not a penny to pay the
troops. The victor could not follow up his success
without some cash in hand, and he wrote a letter of
earnest appeal to Robert Morris, who responded nobly.
" Whatever I can do for the good of the service shall
be done," he replied, and on New Year's morning he
went from house to house among his friends in Phil-
adelphia, raising people from their beds to borrow
money for the troops in the field.

In this way $50.000 in hard money was obtained and
sent to Washington. It saved the army from falling to
pieces and was a wonderful aid to Washington in
following up his victory. Morris had a warm admira-
tion for the grand soldier whom he thus helped, and
said of him, " He is the greatest man on earth."

A strong, large, fine-looking man was Robert
Morris, active in business, but speculative in disposi-
tion. There are few anecdotes of his private life, but
here is one. In his earlier business days he went put
on several voyages as supercargo on ships of the firm,
and once, during the war with France, the ship he was
on was captured and he was taken prisoner. He had
no money with which to pay ransom. But he knew
how to do things and secured his release by repairing
a watch of one of the French officers.

He was made a member of the Council of Safety in

70 HEROES OF PROGRESS

1775, and during the Revolution did valuable service
on various committees of Congress. In 1778, when
Lord North offered terms of settlement with the col-
onies if they would yield to the king, he wrote these
strong words : " No offer ought to have a hearing for
one moment unless preceded by acknowledgment of
our independence. We can never be a happy people
under their domination."

During all this time he continued to supply the Gov-
ernment with money, either his own or that borrowed
on his credit. When the paper money issued by Con-
gress grew to be worth little more than rags, Morris
kept things going by the hard cash of himself and his
friends. He is said to have raised much more than
one million dollars in all, with no assurance that he
would ever get a penny of it back. But he was too
sincere a patriot to let any such thought as this trouble
him.

This was not all. He did his utmost to arrange
some system under which the necessary funds might be
raised and the nation gain credit instead of sinking
into bankruptcy. He wanted a strong central govern-
ment, with the right to collect the revenues, instead of
leaving this right to the States, and he got the brilliant
author Thomas Paine to write in support of this. He
wished to establish a solid continental sysHnj^lfiiiance
which would make Congress more than a mere rigure-
head to the thirteen independent States.

In 1781 Congress saw that the war could not go
on unless some very able man should be put over the
money matters of the country, and Robert Morris was
the only man anybody thought of for this work, so
he was appointed Superintendent of Finances. Con-
gress could not have pleased the people better. Every-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 71

body was satisfied with their choice. Many looked
upon Morris as a sort of magician, who knew how to
get something from nothing. As for him, he did not
see his way clear to do anything of the kind, and the
prospect ahead was not very pleasant.

It was his duty to look after the funds in the Treas-
ury and to do his best to add to them. It was a hard
task. There was very little to look after, and it was
almost impossible to add anything to it. He appealed
to the States for money, but grew sick of the delay
in getting it. Cash came in pennies instead of dollars,
and his demands and appeals were alike in vain.

One of the first things he did was to establish the
Bank of North America, the first bank in the country.
This was chartered by Congress on the last day of
the year 1781. Morris lost no time in getting it
under way, and spared no pains in inducing people of
wealth to buy its stock and put gold and silver money
into its vaults. Thomas Paine put $500 of his own
money in it and used his brilliant pen and his persuasive
powers to get others to do the same.

The credit of the bank was soon established, and be-
fore long Morris was able to help the suffering army.
During the first six months of the bank's existence he
loaned the Government $400,000 from it, and $80,000
more to the State of Pennsylvania. His brilliant plan
had proved a complete success.

For three of the most trying years the country ever
went through in money matters Morris was at the head
of its finances, working like a giant to help it through.
He had not only the needs of the army to look after,
but those of the navy as well, for money was needed
to fit out vessels and pay the sailors. Even after
peace came his duties went on. The country was very

72 HEROES OF PROGRESS

poor. Congress had no power to collect money from the
States or to lay taxes of any kind. He resigned at
length in 1783, worn out with his work and disgusted
with the doings of Congress and the States. He said :
" To increase our debts while the prospect of paying
them diminishes does not consist with my idea of
integrity."

Morris did not come out of the war a poor man. He
was still wealthy, as wealth was regarded in those days.
He lived in a handsome house, with doors and furniture
of finely-wrought mahogany, but he was not the man
to make a grand display. On the banks of the Schuyl-
kill he built a pleasantly situated country residence
which was not finished until after 1787. It stood upon
the bluff above Fairmount, and was called by him
" The Hills." It still stands and is now known as the
Lemon Hill mansion. Here thousands collect in the
summer season, for near by is a large music pavilion
where bands play several times weekly.

Robert Morris did not give up his interest in the
country in his later years. Twice he served as a mem-
ber of the Pennsylvania legislature, and he was one
of those who helped to make the Constitution of the
United States. When the new government was organ-
ized, with Washington for President, Morris was asked
to take the responsible position of Secretary of the
Treasury. He declined and named Alexander Hamil-
ton for the difficult post, saying that he was a better
man in finance than himself. He was elected, however,
to the United States Senate and served one term in
the first Senate of the country.

Morris had given much of his fortune to the country
and had neglected his business to devote himself to
poorly paid public duties. But his business capacity

HEROES OF PROGRESS 73

remained and after the war he went to work again,
now engaging in the East India trade. In the year he
resigned the office of financier he sent the " Empress of
China " from New York to Canton, this being the
first American vessel that ever entered that port. He
marked out a route to China by which the dangerous
winds that at certain seasons blow over the Pacific
might be avoided, and to prove that he was right he
sent a vessel over this route. The voyage proved suc-
cessful and profitable.

We have said that Morris was speculative in dis-
position. He proved this after 1790 by going very
largely into land speculations, buying a great deal of
wild land in the western part of New York. He
bought lands also in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but
his investments proved failures, his lands could not
be sold, and the once wealthy merchant lost all his
money and fell deeply into debt.

Before telling the story of his later life there is an
interesting episode that must be narrated. In 1795 he
bought the square of land in Philadelphia between
Chestnut and Walnut and Seventh and Eighth Streets,
paying for it $50,000. To-day it might take fifty mil-
lions to purchase it. Here he began to build a large
house, on such a scale that it came to be known as
''Morris's Folly." One envious man says of it: "A
person is just now building at an enormous expense a
palace in Philadelphia."

Was it a palace or a folly ? It was probably neither.
It was built of brick, with light stone trimmings to
doors and windows, its depth being between 80 and
100 feet and its width between 40 and 60. According
to Morris's account, the amount spent on it was only
$16,370. Begun in 1795, work went on in a slow

74 HEROES OF PROGRESS

way until 1800, when it was abandoned unfinished,
its doors and windows being boarded up. It was
never finished, and in time was torn down to make
way for other buildings.

The only folly in it was that Morris was hopelessly
in debt when he began to build it. He held many
square miles of wilderness, but could not pay his debts
with this. In those days people could be imprisoned
for debt, and this was poor Morris's fate. In 1798 he
was put in prison and remained there for three years
and a half. The debts proved against him are said to
have amounted to $3,000,000. Great as they were and
poor as was the country, it has ever since been looked
upon as a shameful disgrace to the United States that
its great benefactor should be allowed to suffer from
poverty and imprisonment in his old age. It is one
of the dark spots on our banner that can never be
wiped off.-

Debtors had to pay their own way in prison if
their creditors did not, and Morris was destitute.
He wrote at one time, " Starvation stares me in the
face." Rooms in the prison were high in price, and
he could not afford a room to himself. He could
not even buy paper to write on and had to borrow
it from his fellow prisoners. Washington visited
him in prison during a visit to Philadelphia in 1798,
but no one took any steps for his release. A pa-
thetic story is told about his prison life. He was
allowed to walk in the prison yard and walked around
it fifty times a day. To count the number, he carried
pebbles in his pocket and dropped one at each round.
It seems, however, that the poor prisoner did not be-
come careless and despairing, for one who visited him
said that he was always neat and careful in dress.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 75

Morris was adjudged a bankrupt in 1801 and was
released on August 26 of that year. He was now old
and poor, his life approaching its end. He died in
Philadelphia, May 8, 1806, a striking example of the
ingratitude of nations. The country for which he had
done so much suffered him to languish for years in
a prison cell, and only one monument of his work
remains, the Bank of North America, in its early days
the salvation of the Government, to-day a flourishing
banking institution of Philadelphia.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE ARCHI-
TECT OF AMERICAN FINANCE

IN those dark days before the American Revolution,
when the colonies were choosing delegates to a con-
gress to offer their protest to the king, an open-air
meeting— " the great meeting in the fields," it was af-
terwards called — was held in New York to select dele-
gates for that colony. Speech after speech was made,
but none of the speakers got to the pith of the. matter.
At length a new speaker appeared on the platform, who
seemed to be pushed forward by his friends. The
audience looked at him in surprise. A small, slight,
boyish fellow, with dark skin and deep-set eyes; what
could this boy have to say ?

He had much to say. Faltering and hesitating at
first, he was soon speaking freely and to the point. He
laid down clearly the principles involved, strongly
depicted the oppressions of England, and in a burst
of fervid eloquence went on to point out the duty of
the people, to resist to the last drop of their blood.

' The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rum-
maged for among old parchments and musty records,"
declared this wonderful boy ; " they are written as with
a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature, by
the hand of Divinity itself, and no mortal power can
erase or obscure them."

As he went on, ardent and glowing with youthful

fire, describing " the waves of rebellion, sparkling with

fire, and washing back on the shores of England the

wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glory," the

76

HEROES OF PROGRESS 77

whole audience took fire, and cheer after cheer re-
sponded to the orator's words. ' It is a collegian !"
they said, as they looked with wonder on the boyish
speaker.

A collegian he was, a student at King's College
(now Columbia University), Alexander Hamilton by
name. In the College halls he had soared over all his
fellows in acuteness of reasoning and fervor of elo-
quence, and it was to their admiration that he owed
this first public appearance. With it Hamilton began
his career in the world of affairs, in which he was to
occupy a marked position during the remaining thirty
years of his life.

Alexander Hamilton was a West Indian by birth,
born in the little island of Nevis, of a Scotch father and
a French Huguenot mother. This was in 1757. A
frightful hurricane desolated the Leeward Islands in
1772, and an account of it was published that attracted
wide attention by its force and vivid description. The
surprise was greater when it was found to be the work
of a boy of fifteen — the same one who at seventeen
electrified the great audience in New York.

He was then a counting-house clerk in the island of
St. Croix, but his relatives thought that so bright a
boy ought to have a chance for the best education, and
they raised money and sent him to Boston. From
there he made his way to New York, entered an excel-
lent school at Elizabethtown, N. J., and in 1773 was
admitted to King's College. Here he progressed with
remarkable rapidity in his classes. He had read and
written much while in the West Indies, and now de-
voured every scrap of learning that came to his hands,
wrote hymns and burlesques, defeated all his fellows
in the debating hall, was a pious youth who prayed as

78 HEROES OF PROGRESS

passionately as he spoke, but among his companions
was lively and gay, ready to take part in all that went
on.

The clear-minded young West Indian, though a
British subject by birth, quickly became infected with
the spirit of the colonists, cast his lot with them for
good or bad, and became as ardent a " rebel " as the
best of them. That speech in the fields was his " com-
ing out " event. He now took to the pen and answered
the arguments of the Tory supporters of Great Britain
so ably that many thought his writings came from some
of the eminent thinkers of the country. When they
found who was their author he became famous at once.

From that time forward Hamilton was active and
prominent in all the exciting doings of the times.
Even in college his patriotic fervor led him to organize
a military corps among his fellow students, who called
themselves " Hearts of Oak," and wore a green uni-
form and a leather cap, on which was the motto " Free-
dom or Death !" With all this he was a busy student,
an active writer, a frequent speaker, bold, zealous, yet
cool and self-repressed, often seeking to check the
patriotic party when it inclined to violence.

Young, ardent, and patriotic, Hamilton had a strong
taste for a military life, joined a company of volunteers,
and in March, 1776, was made the captain of an artil-
lery company. We are not here interested in his career
as a soldier, and will only say that he showed such cour-
age and skill that Washington appointed him his aide-
de-camp, and took so strong a fancy to him that he
made him his private secretary. During most of the re-
mainder of those terrible years of war Hamilton was
Washington's most intimate friend, adviser, and con-
fidant, the great general often conferring with and seek-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 79

ing the advice of his youthful secretary, whose opin-
ion on military matters he highly valued. In after
years he came to value Hamilton for like abilities in
matters of peace, and remained his warm friend till
his death. The voluminous correspondence of Wash-
ington during the war mainly fell upon Hamilton,
and Troup says of it : " The pen of our country
was held by Hamilton ; and for dignity of manner, pith
of matter, and elegance of style, General Washington's
letters are unrivalled in military annals."

Of Hamilton's military career we shall only say that
he took part ably in Washington's principal battles,
carried one of the British forts at Yorktown, and as a
reward for his bravery was selected to receive the sur-
render of one division of Cornwallis's army. The war
done, he spent some time in Congress, where, as one
of the members said, " his winning eloquence was the
wonder and delight of friend and foe." Resigning
within a year, he engaged in the practice of law in
New York. He had given little time to legal study,
but his quickness and ability were such that he rose at
once to the first rank in his profession, his forceful
oratory, his fine powers as a reasoner, his close atten-
tion to his cases, winning him success from the first.

Such were the chief features of Hamilton's early
life. Now we must pay attention to those qualities
and powers which were displayed in his later life and
on which his great fame rests. He was born with fine
political genius and developed an extraordinary ability
in finance. In college much of his time was given to a
deep study of political economy, financial systems, and
suoh like practical topics. He was diligently preparing
himself for a career of which he could not then have
dreamed.

80 HEROES OF PROGRESS

All readers of history are aware of the great dif-
ficulty the young government had to raise money to
support its army, of the vast sums of paper money
that were set afloat, and of the little value this came to
have. The money troubles set Hamilton to the study
of finance. He wrote on the subject to Robert Morris
and proposed a financial scheme for the country that
would combine public with private credit and bring all
the resources of the people to the aid of the nation.
His letters had much to do with the founding of the
Bank of North America, afterwards started by Morris.
As for the state of the country, he felt bitterly the
weakness of the Confederation then existing, and
wrote to James Duane a celebrated letter on the needs
of the nation, urging the necessity of a new con-
stitution, his opinion being that " Congress should
have complete sovereignty in all that relates to war,
peace, trade, finance, and to the management of foreign
affairs." This letter, written in 1780, was the first
step towards the great Constitutional Convention, held
in Philadelphia in 1787.

Nothing went on in public affairs in which Hamil-
ton did not take a hand. He opposed the persecution
of the Tories, and when a mob in New York sought to
capture a Tory, Hamilton kept them back by his elo-
quence until their intended victim escaped. He did
not believe in slavery and was a member of the Aboli-
tion Society, of which Benjamin Franklin was presi-
dent. He felt that they ought to live up to their prin-
ciples, and moved that every member of the society
should prove his sentiments by setting his own slaves
free.

When the Constitutional Convention, which he had
years before suggested, was called, New York sent

HEROES OF PROGRESS 81

Hamilton as one of its delegates. He was one of the
ablest men there ; no speaker was listened to with more
attention ; and yet with all he had gone through, with
all his service in war and peace, this remarkable man
was still only thirty years old. At that age most men
are just beginning to make their force felt, but Hamil-
ton had won his spurs as a thinker years before, and he
stood among that famous body of well seasoned states-
men the peer of them all. His chief speech before the
Convention was said by Gouverneur Morris to be " the
most able and impressive I ever heard."

He had his plan for a Constitution. It was one that
would have given the central government great power.
It was opposed by those who were jealous for the
dignity and power of the States. The plan finally
adopted was a compromise between the various views
offered. It differed from Hamilton's plan, but he
signed the new Constitution and went back to New
York to support it with all the power at his command.
It needed to be adopted by the States, and a party in
New York bitterly opposed it, being in favor of State
independence. Many opposed it in other States, Pat-
rick Henry among those in Virginia, and it was far
from sure that this great State paper would be accepted.

In this dilemma Hamilton came nobly to the front.
He and two other able men, James Madison and John
Jay, wrote and published the most brilliant series of
political essays ever written in the United States.
These were in support of the Constitution. There were
eighty-five in all, of which Hamilton wrote more than
fifty. They were afterwards published under the
title of the " Federalist," and of the three pens that
wrote this famous work, that of Hamilton was the
ablest and most convincing.
6

82 HEROES OF PROGRESS

He supported the Constitution with his voice as well
as with his pen. When the Convention for the adop-
tion of the Constitution met at Poughkeepsie, New
York, Hamilton was the chief speaker in its favor.
The opposition was bitter and obstinate. At first it
seemed to carry with it the whole body. But Hamil-
ton's luminous and brilliant speeches gradually broke
down its force, and when the vote was finally taken
nearly the whole body cast their ballots in its favor.
Alexander Hamilton had won in one of the greatest
contests of his life. Now came to him another oppor-
tunity. The new government was formed. George
Washington was unanimously elected the President.
He looked around him for a body of skilled advisers
to help him in his arduous work. One of the most
difficult subjects to be handled was that of finances.
The country was practically bankrupt. Only a man of
exceptional ability could lift it above its difficulties.

Washington consulted Robert Morris, who had been
superintendent of finance and had done much to save
the country from ruin. ' What is to be done with this
heavy debt?" he asked.

' There is but one man in the United States who can
tell you," said Morris, " and that man is Alexander
Hamilton."

Washington, who probably thought the same thing,
at once appointed Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury.

The new Secretary had a tremendous task before
him. The young nation had no money and no credit.
It was deeply in debt and was practically bankrupt.
How was it to be got out of this difficulty? It is
doubtful if there was another man then in the country
that could have solved this problem with half the
quickness and completeness of Alexander Hamilton.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 83

He began by a radical measure that startled Congress.
He proposed that the general government should
assume all the debts of the States. This seemed like
adding immensely to a burden that was already too
heavy, but Hamilton gave such convincing reasons
for it that Congress adopted it.

To pay this debt some plan of taxation had to be
devised. A direct tax is always unpopular, and Hamil-
ton proposed an indirect tax, by laying a moderate
tariff on imported goods. He also proposed a national
bank, like those of England and France. This, too,
was adopted, the capital of the bank being made ten
million dollars. A mint for the coinage of American
money was also established. The next step was the
funding of the public debt and the issuing of bonds,
a device providing for its gradual payment.

These wise plans had their intended effect. The
pressure upon the Government was quickly relieved.
Money came in, enabling the government to meet its
foreign debts as they became due and to pay its running
expenses. As for the internal debt, people were con-
tent to take the Government bonds. The credit of the
United States was completely restored. When Hamil-
ton withdrew from the Cabinet, five years later, no
country had a better fiscal system, and it was all due to
him. In the words of Daniel Webster: ;' He smote
the rock of the national resources and abundant streams
of revenue burst forth. He touched the dead corpse of
public credit and it sprang upon its feet."

When Hamilton left the Cabinet it was to resume
his law business, his salary as Secretary barely suf-
ficing to maintain his family. He soon again became
the leader of the New York bar. He bought himself
a small estate near New York City, which he named

84 HEROES OF PROGRESS

' The Grange." It was shaded with fine old trees,
the balcony commanded a beautiful prospect, and he
spent many of his leisure hours happily in his garden
or with his family and friends.

But he could not escape from politics. Washington
frequently consulted him. Party interests occupied
his attention. Two parties had grown up in the coun-
try, the Federal, of which he was the head, and the
Democratic, of which Jefferson was the leader. He
believed in a strong central government, and would
have liked Washington to have the standing and state
of a king. Jefferson was a strong advocate of State-
rights. This difference of opinion led to much bad
feeling between the two when they were together in the
Cabinet and after they had left it.

In New York the leader of the Democrats was
Aaron Burr, a brilliant and able man, but not a safe
and honest one. After serving as Vice-President
under Jefferson, Burr became a candidate for governor
of New York in 1704, but was defeated, partly through
Hamilton's opposition. A newspaper report said that
Hamilton had " expressed a despicable opinion " of
Burr and " looked upon him as a dangerous man."

Burr, disappointed and angry, demanded that Hamil-
ton should deny this. Hamilton declined. Then Burr
challenged him to fight a duel. In those days, when
duels were common, Hamilton would have been looked
upon with contempt if he had refused. The duel took
place in New Jersey, opposite the city of New York,
on July n, 1804. Hamilton fell before Burr's bullet
and died the following day.

Thus died, in sustaining what was falsely called the
" code of honor," the greatest statesman and financier
of his age.

JOHN ADAMS, THE LEADER OF THE
BOSTON PATRIOTS

WHILE Samuel Adams was the leading spirit among
the New England patriots in the times before the
Revolution, there were others little less prominent.
Chief among these was his cousin, John Adams; his
co-worker, John Hancock ; and the orator of patriotism,
James Otis, who, in the words of John Adams, was
" a flame of fire." John Hancock shared with Samuel
Adams the honor of being left out of the pardon
offered the rebels and of being one of the men whom
the British troops marched to Lexington to arrest. He
was afterwards President of the Continental Congress,
and his name stands at the head of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence in large, bold letters.
When he wrote it he said : " The British ministry can
read that name without their spectacles."

Most important among these men in his after career
was John Adams, the story of whose life we shall
here give. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in
1735, John Adams came to bear a great part in Amer-
ican public life. He succeeded Washington as Presi-
dent of the United States. Before he died his son,
John Quincy Adams, was elected President. His
grandson, Charles Francis Adams, was afterwards
nominated for Vice-President. This is certainly a fine
record for the Adams family.

The father of John Adams was a poor farmer, but he
wanted his son to be educated, and toiled the harder

85

86 HEROES OF PROGRESS

that he might send him to Harvard College. After
leaving college Adams studied the law, married a
bright and clever young woman, and settled down to
practice in his native town. In principles he was a
sturdy patriot, and when the British Parliament passed
the Stamp Act, and an uproar broke out in America,
Adams was one of its leaders. He was an able speaker,
with a fine-sounding voice and a clear way of thinking,
and he told the people in plain language what he
thought about Parliament and the tax. He wrote as
well as spoke, and made such a stir that the British
leaders tried to buy him over by offering him a good
paying position. They made a mistake. Adams was
poor, but he was not to be bought.

John Adams believed in justice, no matter on which
side it was. When the " Boston Massacre " took place,
the soldiers who fired on the people were arrested and
tried for murder. Adams did not think this just.
They had been attacked by a mob and fired in self-
defence. So he became their lawyer, saying that it was
the people and not the soldiers who were in fault. He
won his case. All the soldiers were set free, though
two whose shots had killed men were branded in the
hand. The people, when they quieted down, thought
all the better of John Adams for what he did.

In 1774 Adams became a member of the First
Continental Congress, and in 1776 was one of the
committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence.
He supported this by a great speech. Jefferson said of
him:

" John Adams was the ablest advocate and champion
of independence on the floor of the House. He was
the colossus of that Congress. Not graceful, not
eloquent, not always fluent in his public addresses,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 87

he yet came out with a power of thought and expres-
sion which moved his hearers from their seats."

In 1774 his friend Sewell had urged him not to
engage in the dangerous business of revolution.
Adams replied with the memorable words : " The die
is now cast. I have passed the Rubicon. Sink or
swim, live or die, survive or perish with my country,
is my unalterable determination."

On the 3d of July, 1776, he wrote a letter to his wife
which had in it this celebrated passage :

" Yesterday the greatest question was discussed
which was ever debated in America ; and a greater,
perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men.
The second day of July, 1776, will be the most mem-
orable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to
believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding gen-
erations as the great anniversary festival. It ought
to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by
solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to
be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows,
games, sports, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from
one end of the continent to another from this time for-
ward, forevermore."

His prediction has come true, but not for the 2d of
July, the day when the resolution before Congress was
adopted, but for the 4th, the day when the Declaration
which sprang from this resolution was adopted and
John Adams and most of the members signed it. For
more than a century and a quarter that day has been
celebrated in the way he suggested, and it will probably
be for many centuries to come.

There was no busier man in Congress than Adams.
He was chairman of twenty-five committees and was
at the head of the War Department. In 1777 he was

88 HEROES OF PROGRESS

sent to France to help make a treaty with that country.
On the way across, the " Boston," in which he sailed,
was chased by a British man-of-war, but was fast
enough to escape. It had also a fight with a British
privateer, and when the two vessels came close together
Adams seized a musket and began fighting like a com-
mon sailor. When the captain saw him he was angry
and roared out :

' Why are you here, sir? I am commanded to
carry you safely to Europe and I will do it." Adams
was a little man and the captain was a big one, and
the big man picked up the little man in his arms as
if he were a child and carried him below deck. Soon
after the privateer was captured, and the " Boston "
sailed onward for France.

It was March, 1778, when Adams got there. He
was too late, for Franklin had already made the treaty
with France. He went to Europe again in 1780, was
Minister to Holland in 1782 and got that country to
recognize the United States, and in 1783 was one of the
five men who negotiated the treaty of peace with
Great Britain. As he had been in at the beginning of
the struggle for independence, he was in at its close.

In 1784 Adams had the honor of being made the
first United States Minister to Great Britain. It was a
dramatic moment when he stood before King George
III., as the representative of that nation which had
just won its liberty from the king. George received
him politely and graciously, but he said something
which drew from Adams the proud remark : " I must
tell your Majesty that I love no country but my own."

"An honest man will never love any other," was the
polite reply of the king.

But there were men at the British court who were

HEROES OF PROGRESS 89

not as gentlemanly as their king and treated Adams
coldly. And the British queen was as cold in her
demeanor towards Mrs. Adams. So, when he got back
home again in 1788, he was glad enough to set foot on
American soil. He had seen all he cared to of Europe.

In 1789 a new and greater honor came to Adams.
When Washington was chosen for President, Adams
was made Vice-President of the new nation, and for
eight years he held this office, serving as the first
president of the United States Senate. When Wash-
ington declined to be President for a third term,
Adams was looked upon as the next most prominent
man in the country, and was elected to the highest office
in the gift of the American people, that of President.
Thomas Jefferson, his old associate in Congress, was
made Vice-President.

As President, Adams had many difficulties to con-
tend with. One of the worst of these was a trouble
which broke out with France. The leaders in that
country wanted to see Jefferson, the democrat, made
President, and were so angry at the election of Adams
that they would not receive the Minister he sent them.
They passed an insulting decree against American com-
merce, and hinted that the American envoys might get
what they wished if they paid well for it. But Charles
Pinckney, one of the envoys, indignantly exclaimed,
" Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute ! "

There arose a cry in the States for War. Adams was
in favor of it. He called out an army, and Washington
consented to lead it. The navy was ordered to fight,
and it captured two French frigates and many smaller
vessels. This was more than the French had bargained
for, and they were glad enough to withdraw their
demands and make a treaty of peace.

90 HEROES OF PROGRESS

The short naval war made Adams very popular, but
he did other things that made him unpopular, and in
1800, when the time for the next election came, he
was defeated and Jefferson was made President.
Adams was bitterly disappointed. He felt so badly that
he would not wait at Washington to welcome the new
President. That was a very discourteous thing to do,
and it made him many enemies.

After that Adams lived quietly at home, where he
spent a great deal of time in writing. Despite his
patriotism and ability, he was a vain man, one of the
kind that always thinks his side is the right one. And
he had no soft, smooth ways, but was always blunt and
plain-spoken. This helped to make him enemies. In
this he was very different from Franklin, who once
wrote about him from Europe : " Mr. Adams is always
an honest man, often a wise one ; but he is sometimes
completely out of his senses."

As he grew older he grew softer. The bad feeling
between him and Jefferson died out and they once more
became friends. He had the satisfaction in 1824 of
seeing his son elected President of the United States,
and died on July 4, 1826, his last words being,
' Thomas Jefferson still lives." He was mistaken.
His old associate in the Declaration had died earlier
that same day in his home at Monticello. It was cer-
tainly a remarkable coincidence that the two members
of the committee on the Declaration who afterwards
became President should have died on the fiftieth anni-
versary of its signing,

ELI WHITNEY, AMERICA'S FIRST GREAT

INVENTOR

AMERICANS are famous the world over for inven-
tions, for the marvellous products of their genius are
to be seen in all lands. The Revolution was barely
at an end before their inventive skill began to show it-
self, and as early as 1787 the first steamboat, that of
John Fitch, was seen on American waters, and the
pioneer of the locomotive was seen on American soil.
But the first successful and famous inventor of this
country was Eli Whitney, to whose hand the South
owes its agricultural prosperity.

In 1792 a young Yankee of this name was living in
Savannah, Georgia, in the home of Mrs. Greene, the
widow of the celebrated General Greene of the Revolu-
tionary War. He was teaching her children and study-
ing law. He had come south from New England, after
graduating at Yale College, to teach in a Georgia
family, but before he got there some one else had filled
the place, and the poor fellow was in some trouble
until Mrs. Greene took a fancy to him and invited
him to make her house his home.

Young Whitney was a born mechanic. While work-
ing on his father's farm he had mended all the broken
violins in the neighborhood, made canes, hatpins, and
nails, and learned all he could about machinery. In
Mrs. Greene's house he was as handy. He rigged up
an embroidery frame for her, made other things, and
mended everything that got out of order. She grew
to look upon him as a genius in mechanics.

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92 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Such a genius was then badly wanted in the South.
The farmers and planters of Georgia had tried several
plants in their fields and had settled on cotton as the
most profitable one for them to grow. But the cotton
plant was giving them serious trouble. When ripe,
as most people know, it has a white, fluffy head, made
up of the cotton fibres, which are fast to the seeds of
the plant. To use the cotton, these seeds had to be
got rid of, and this was slow work. They had to be
taken out by hand, and it was a day's work for a negro
to pull the seeds out of a pound of cotton. This made
the fibre very dear, and it was hard to sell it. In 1784
eight bags of cotton were sent to Liverpool, and the
custom-house people there seized it for duties. They
said it must have been smuggled from some other
country, for the United States could never have

J '

produced such a " prodigious quantity."

Mrs. Greene had often heard her planter friends
talking about this difficulty and wishing that some way
could be found to take out the cotton seeds by machin-
ery. She told them that there was a young Yankee
in her house who " could make anything," and showed
them some of the things he had done for her. They
were much interested and asked him if he could help
them. Whitney was quite as much interested, for he
loved machinery far more than he did his law books,
and he told them he would try.

He knew nothing about cotton. It is doubtful if he
had ever seen it growing. He got some of the ripe
cotton pods from the planters, and pulled them to
pieces to see how the seeds were fixed in them. Then
he went to a cotton house and watched the dusky
pickers at work taking out the seeds. It was not
long before the bright fellow saw just how the work

HEROES OF PROGRESS 93

could be done, and he set eagerly to work to make a
machine. He had to do everything himself, to make
his own tools, and even to draw his own wires, for
there was no one in that region who could help him.
But he did it all, and did it well.

The plan of the machine he made was very simple.
It consisted of a network of wires, at such a distance
apart that the cotton could go through them but the
seeds could not. A set of circular saws, with sharp
teeth, was arranged so that the teeth projected be-
tween the wires. When in operation the cotton was fed
in so that it ran down the wire grid or network,
and the circular saws were made to revolve. Their
teeth caught the cotton and pulled it between the wires,
tearing it loose from the seeds, which could not go
through but slid down out of the way. There was
also a revolving brush which swept the cotton from
the saw-teeth and kept them clean, so that they could
catch more.

Such is the principle of the famous cotton gin,
which has been worth so many millions of dollars to
the South. Since the days of Eli Whitney many
improvements have been made in it, so that it does its
work far better than at first, but otherwise it is the
same as it was when it was made by Eli Whitney
in 1793.

\When it became known that the young Yankee
inventor was at -work on this machine and felt sure
that he could make one that would do the work, there
was much excitement among the Southern planters.
It would be worth so much to them. The news of
it rapidly spread, and many wanted to see it, but he
would not let them. He was only working on a
model, he said, and did not want to show it before

94 HEROES OF PROGRESS

it was perfected. Besides, he wished to have his inven-
tion patented before it was made public.

Whitney was too honest himself to suspect others
of dishonesty. He trusted his precious model in a
simple frame workshop, with no guard but a locked
door. One night some thieves broke open this door
and carried away the model. When he arose the
next morning and went to his shop, what was his
dismay to find the door wide open and the precious
model gone !

It was a bad business for poor Whitney. The prin-
ciple of the machine was made known and anybody
could make one like it. Copies of it appeared on
all sides. As Horace Greeley says, " The South fairly
swarmed with pirates of the invention, of all kinds
and degrees." Before he could make a new model and
procure a patent the cotton-gin was widely in use.
He prosecuted those who were making his machine,
but the juries of Georgia decided that they had the
right to do so. The only justice he could ever obtain
was from South Carolina, which in later years voted
him fifty thousand dollars as a reward. ...

Whitney's patent was got out in 1794, and a Mr.
Miller, who afterwards married Mrs. Greene, went
into partnership with him in its manufacture. But
the demand for the machines was so great that he
could not begin to supply them, so there was a good
market for the pirated machines, though they were
much inferior to his. Then his shop burned down
with all its contents, and he was a bankrupt. In 1812
the patent ran out, and Congress refused to renew it,
so that the poor inventor made nothing from his
machine but the fifty thousand dollars which South
Carolina gave him.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 95

If of little value to the inventor, the cotton-gin
proved of the greatest value to the South. In the
year when it was made this country produced only
500,000 pounds of cotton. In 1801 it produced 20,-
000,000 pounds. To-day it produces much more than
10,000,000 bales, of nearly 500 pounds each.
£Eli Whitney was too ingenious a mechanic to be
content with one invention. After trying for five years
to obtain justice, he went north to New Haven, Con-
necticut, and began to make fire-arms for the govern-
ment. He so greatly improved the machinery and
methods used in this business that he fairly revolu-
tionized it. He was the first to divide factory labor
so that each part of a machine is made separately
and will fit in any machine. If one of his fire-arms was
broken, a new part, which would be sure to fit, could be
had from the factory, and this is the case with many
other things now.

If Whitney was unfortunate in his first invention,
his fire-arms proved very successful, and he made a
fortune out of them. Thus he did not die in poverty,
as many other inventors have done.x

Whitney was born at Westborough, Massachusetts,
December 8, 1765, and lived till his sixtieth year of
age, dying in New Haven in January, 1825.

ROBERT FULTON, THE INVENTOR OF
THE STEAMBOAT

ON Friday, the nth of August, 1807, there was an
exciting scene on the shores of the Hudson River, at
New York City. A crowd of people thronged the
water's edge, and in the stream outside lay a strange-
looking vessel, on which all eyes were fixed. Above
the deck rose a smoke-stack from which volumes of
black smoke poured, while queer-shaped paddle-
wheels stood out from its side. It was the famous
" Clermont," Fulton's side-wheel steamboat, the first
of its kind ever seen on American waters.

Years before paddle-wheel steamboats had been tried
in Europe, but without success. In America other
kinds of steamboats had been used. James Rumsey
in 1786 drove a boat in Virginia waters at the speed
of four miles an hour by pumping with steam power
a jet of water through the stern. John Fitch in 1787
was more successful. His boats were moved by pad-
dles like those used in Indian canoes, and made seven
miles an hour. They ran on the Delaware for a
number of years, but did not prove a permanent suc-
cess. Many other inventors were working on the
same subject, but the true era of steamboating began
with Fulton's " Clermont " on that morning in 1807.

As the crowd looked on, some in interest, some

ready to laugh at the queer craft, the wheels of the

vessel began slowly to turn. They were uncovered and

they sent the spray flying on all sides. Moving slowly

96

HEROES OF PROGRESS 97

at first, in a little while the " Clermont " was fairly
under way, gliding up the Hudson at the rate of five
miles an hour. This was no great speed, but to the
lookers on, who had never seen a vessel move without
sails, it seemed magical, and cheers went up from the
great crowd. Nobody felt inclined to laugh now.
There were many who had thought it ridiculous to try
to move a boat with a steam engine ; but — it moved,
and there was no more to be said.

Only twelve people took passage for that trip. Men
did not like to trust their lives to a new-fangled craft
with a steam-puffing demon in its inside. Along the
stream, above the city, everybody was out. At every
town the banks were crowded, hats and handkerchiefs
were waved, and cheers greeted the enterprise. They
were proud to see that an American had invented a
workable steamboat, and that the Hudson was the
scene of its triumph. Albany, nearly one hundred and
fifty miles distant, was reached in thirty-two hours,
and the return voyage to New York was made in
thirty hours, an average of about five miles an hour
for the trip.

There were other scenes on the Hudson during that
eventful journey. There were many sailing vessels
on the river, the crews of which did not know of the
great experiment, and as the strange water-monster,
pouring smoke and sparks into the air, churning the
water into foam, and moving against the tide without
sails, met their eyes, they were filled with surprise and
apprehension. Some flung themselves in a spasm of
terror on the decks of their vessels while the fire-
dragon passed, while others took to their boats and
rowed lustily for the shore. It was worse still at
night, when flames seemed to redden the smoke, and
7

98 HEROES OF PROGRESS

that pioneer voyage of the " Clermont " was a sensa-
tion not soon to be forgotten.

Who was Robert Fulton, do you ask? He was an
American, born in Pennsylvania in 1765, the same year
that Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts. He
made up his mind to be an artist, became a friend of
Franklin in Philadelphia as a boy, and at the age of
twenty-one went to London to study art under the
great Benjamin West. While there he met James
Watt, the greatest genius among the inventors of the
steam-engine, and new ideas came into his young
head. He felt that he had a genius for invention, too,
and abandoned art to become a civil engineer. He
made experiments and inventions, wrote a work on
" Canal Navigation," showed in Paris the first pano-
rama ever seen there, and did some drawing and paint-
ing besides. Much of the first money he made in his
younger days he used to buy a little farm for his
mother, then a widow and poor.

At that time many experiments were being made in
the effort to move boats by aid of the steam-engine.
Rumsey and Fitch had made some progress in America,
and several others were trying in Europe. With
what Fulton knew of the steam-engine, this seemed
to him a fair field for his inventive powers. He
began experimenting, Robert R. Livingston, our Minis-
ter to France, who believed in Fulton, furnishing
the money. Fulton was sure he knew why other
inventors had failed, and that he saw the way to
success. He built a trial boat on the Seine, furnished
it with a steam-engine and paddle-wheels, and early in
1803 was ready for its first trial.

He made one sad mistake : the engine was too heavy
for the boat. One morning he was roused from sleep

HEROES OF PROGRESS 99

by the distracting news that the boat had broken to
pieces and the engine gone to the bottom. He sprang
up and hurried to the river, to find that the news was
true. The boat had broken in half and was resting
with its engine on the bottom of the Seine.

Fulton succeeded in raising the engine, and found it
was not damaged. The boat was ruined, and he had to
build a new and stronger one. When it was finished,
in August, 1803, the new boat was tried with much
success, the members of the National Institute of
France and a great crowd of citizens looking on as it
made its way down the stream, with a great deal of
bluster, but not with any great speed.

Much yet was needed, and the next experiments
were made in New York, where they excited as much
ridicule as they did interest. The idea of moving a
vessel by steam power seemed to many of the good
citizens only fit to be laughed at, and their surprise was
not small on that day in 1807 when they saw the " Cler-
mont " start away against wind and tide and move up
stream.

The problem of steam navigation, which had
occupied the time and talent of so many inventors,
was solved. The sail and oar, for the first time in
history, were thrown out of duty. Regular trips be-
tween New York and Albany were made too or three
times a week, a larger boat, named the "Car of Nep-
tune," being built and put on the route, and in a few
years the steamboat was puffing its way along the
waters of many American rivers. It had this time
come to stay, and with successive improvements soon
became a swifter and more serviceable craft. Fulton
took out his first patent in 1809 and his second in 1811.
All they called for was the way he employed the crank

ioo HEROES OF PROGRESS

of the engine in the moving of paddle-wheels. For
years he had a monopoly of steam navigation on all
the waters of New York State.

During the remainder of Fulton's life he was kept
busy inventing and improving. He was employed by
the United States Government upon engineering work
connected with the navigation of rivers and canals.
While in Europe he had made torpedoes for blowing
up vessels under water, and these he now improved
and they were accepted for naval use by the United
States.

In 1814 Fulton was delighted with an order from the
government to build a steam frigate or ship of war.
This he had long worked to obtain, and Congress now
voted three hundred and twenty thousand dollars for
the work. The work was finished the next year, and
his steam-frigate, the " Fulton," the pride of his life,
was successfully launched.

Poor Fulton was not there to see it. He had
been exposed to severe weather some months before
and taken a violent cold. Before he recovered he
went out in inclement weather to give some orders
about the frigate, and his sickness came back more
severely than before. It grew rapidly worse, and on
the 24th of February, 1815, the great inventor died.

His life had been a marked success. Though his
steam frigate was never made use of in war, his com-
mercial steamers were to be seen on all the rivers of the
United States, and in time began to drive sailing
vessels from the seas. Other noted engineers arose to
perfect the invention, and to-day steam navigation
is one of the most important industries of the world.

JOHN JACOB ASTOR, THE MONARCH
OF THE FUR INDUSTRY

IN the year 1779 a sturdy German lad of sixteen
might have been seen trudging along a country road
near his native village of Waldorf, a small bundle of
clothes over his shoulder, and German coins worth
about two dollars in his pocket. With this slender
equipment he was going out to seek his fortune in
the great world. His father was a butcher, poor,
shiftless, and good for nothing, and the boy had set
out to do something for himself.

Though he had very little money, he had something
of more value. He was strong and hearty, had a good,
plain education, was not afraid of work, had a head
full of common sense, and was free from bad habits.
He tells us this : " Soon after I left the village I sat
down under a tree to rest, and there I made three
resolutions — to be honest, to be industrious, and not
to gamble." Three very good ones, most people will
say. Such was the equipment with which John Jacob
Astor left home to win his way in the world. To-day
his name and that of his native village are commemo-
rated in the Waldorf-Astoria, the greatest hotel in New
York.

With no thought of great hotels in his young brain,
the boy made his way along. He went down the Rhine
on a raft, and got ten dollars at the river's mouth for
his help. One of his brothers was in London, a maker
of musical instruments, and with him the young ad-
venturer stopped for some years, learning a good deal

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102 HEROES OF PROGRESS

about instrument making, and how to speak English.
At length, in 1783, with a good suit of clothes and
seventy-five dollars in money, he set out for America,
spending one-third of his money for a steerage pas-
sage and another third for seven German flutes from
his brother. With these flutes for a stock in trade and
twenty-five dollars in money, he landed at Baltimore
in March, 1784.

On the ship he met a German fur-trader, a man who
had made much money in the business and who advised
young Astor to go into the same line. The boy went to
New York, where he had another brother engaged in
butchering, and with his aid and that of his German
friend he got a position in a fur-store, where he set
himself to work to learn all about furs. He studied
their qualities and value and the methods of curing
and preserving them. The trappers who came to the
store were ready to tell him all about fur-bearing
animals, their modes of life and the best way of taking
them. He was constantly looking around and asking
questions.

A diligent and intelligent worker, his employer got
to trust him, rapidly advancing him in position, and
finally sending him to Montreal to buy furs. This was
an important errand. The German fur-trader had told
him what to do. He was to buy trinkets, go among
the Indians, bargain with them, and get his furs at
first hand. When he got back to New York he sur-
prised and pleased his employer by the great number
of fur-skins he had bought with the money given him.

Two years after coming to New York Astor felt
that he knew the business well enough to start for him-
self. He took a small store on Water Street, borrowed
some money from his brother to stock it with such

V)

H

O

TEE NEW
PUBLIC LIBRART

HEROES OF PROGRESS 103

things as the Indians liked, and began to buy. When
the peltries did not come in fast enough he set out
himself with a pack of trinkets and visited the Indians
and trappers of Central New York, with whom he
usually made a good trade. Several such journeys
were made each year, and on his return he would
cure the skins and prepare them for market himself.

After some years of dealing with New York traders,
he took ship to London, where furs sold for much more
than could be got for them in America. He made
arrangements with good houses there to ship furs to
them, thus greatly increasing his profits. He also
engaged to sell his brother's musical instruments in
America, and in time built up a profitable trade in these
goods. At home he lived over his store. He had
married a New York girl who was as wide awake as
himself, and wrho grew to know as much about furs as
he did and to be his match in a business deal.

This was the way that John Jacob Aster's great
fortune began. He was now making money rapidly.
Instead of going out himself, he employed agents to
buy furs and ship them to New York, and as soon as
possible he bought a ship, in which he sent his furs to
London. The little trudger on the German highway
was fast growing rich. The beaver skins that he
bought for a dollar apiece from the New York trap-
pers brought more than six dollars apiece in London,
and the money got for them was invested in British
goods on which he made another profit in New York.
From Europe his ships made their way as far as China,
where large prices were to be had for furs, and from
which they brought back teas and silks. A voyage to
China would net him a profit of thirty thousand dollars ;
sometimes much more.

104 HEROES OF PROGRESS

When he had been in business fifteen years he
moved his store to 233 Broadway — where the Astor
House now stands. He was now worth a quarter of
a million of dollars, but was the same cautious and
enterprising business man as when he began. When
the treaty of 1795 was made, which fixed the northern
frontier of the United States, Astor took quick ad-
vantage of it. It limited the field of the Hudson Bay
and other Canadian fur companies, and Astor soon
had his agents out buying furs all along the Great
Lakes, and far to the west of the lakes.

He planned a great scheme of setting up a line of
trading posts across the country, by way of the Mis-
souri and Columbia Rivers, as far as the Pacific, and in
1811 he founded the town of Astoria at the mouth of
the Columbia. It was his design to make this a start-
ing point for his vessels, supplying China with furs
directly from the Pacific coast, instead of following
the long, roundabout course from New York. He
proposed to make one of the Hawaiian Islands an
intermediate station.

This ambitious scheme fell through from the dis-
honesty of his agents, who played him false and
betrayed his plans to a British fur company, which got
possession of Astoria and the Oregon business for
a trifle. Astor's loss was more than a million dollars,
but he bore it calmly.

A shrewd, far-seeing, adventurous man was John
Jacob Astor. His business judgment amounted to
genius, and he rarely if ever made a mistake. He
gave incessant attention to his business, and not until
he was quite wealthy would he leave his store or ware-
house before the close of the day. Then he got to
leaving at two o'clock in the afternoon, and, after an

HEROES OF PROGRESS 105

early dinner, taking a horseback ride, of which he was
very fond. His other favorite recreation was the
theatre. He was plain and simple in all his habits, and
the strict economy with which he began clung to him
long after it had ceased to be necessary.

He grew to be very rich, not wholly in the fur trade,
though he made about two million dollars in this. But
a greater source of wealth was his shrewd purchases
of real estate in the upper part of New York. If he
bought a piece of land he built upon it and made it
pay by rents. These rents he used to buy new
property. He had an instinctive judgment of the
best localities for an increase in value by the growth
of population, and by holding on to his properties he
added many millions to his estate. The Astor estate
came in time to have as many as seven thousand houses
in New York City.

During the last twenty years of Astor's life he
lived in quiet retirement, employing business agents
to look after his property, which grew to be worth at
least twenty million dollars. Some of this money he
gave away. All his relatives were placed in comfort.
For the poor of Waldorf, his native place, he gave fifty
thousand dollars. The Astor Library, founded by him,
was endowed with four hundred thousand dollars in
land and funds. He made other public gifts, but the
great bulk of his immense estate was left to his eldest
son, William B. Astor. Since then it has been sedu-
lously kept together and increased, until its value has
become immense.

Mr. Astor's great success was largely due to his re-
markable business powers, his temperate habits, punct-
uality, perseverance, care that no money should be
wasted and no enterprise undertaken until thoroughly

,06 HEROES OF PROGRESS ,

understood. This done, he was daring and enterpris-
ing in his operations. He was prompt in all engage-
ments, and cool and cheerful even under severe losses.
Always an early riser, not until he was fifty-five years
of age did he ever fail to appear at his store before
seven o'clock in the morning.

Such is the record of the boy who made wise resolu-
tions as he sat resting by the wayside when he set out
to make his fortune. He kept those resolutions strictly,
and was always prudent, sagacious, tactful, quick in
grasping and courageous in carrying out an enterprise.
He was never liberal, being very careful and close in
money dealings, the gifts which he finally made being
given after his wealth was so great as to render them
matters of small moment to him. Death came to this
remarkable man on the 29th of March, 1848.

STEPHEN G1RARD, THE FRIEND OF
THE ORPHAN

A QUEER old fellow, one-eyed, and one-sided in his
nature, was Stephen Girard, the famous Philadelphia
merchant of a century ago. Rich, eccentric, miserly
in his habits, yet ready to spend his money and even
risk his life for the good of mankind, such was the
odd make-up of the old merchant.^ In our days a for-
tune of more than a hundred millions of dollars is
not thought remarkable, but in his days Girard, with a
few millions, was looked upon as a world's wonder,
stupendously rich, and he became famous as the
Croesus of his day. This much more we may say,
that no man, except Benjamin Franklin, ever did so
much to benefit the great city in which he made his
home. Miser as he lived, he left his great wealth with
wise discrimination for the benefit of his fellow citizens
after his death.

The life of Stephen Girard was in one way like that
of John Jacob Astor. Both poor boys, born a few
years apart in Europe, they both made their way to
America and there, by aid of a genius for business,
built up great fortunes. Girard was born in Bordeaux,
France, in 1750, and set out to win his fortune at the
age of thirteen, as a cabin boy on a ship bound for the
West Indies and New York. For thirteen years he
followed the sea, becoming a thorough sailor, and mak-
ing his way upward step by step, until he became
captain and owner of a vessel in the American coast-
ing trade.

107

io8 HEROES OF PROGRESS

In 1776 he left New Orleans on a voyage to Canada.
The colonies of America were then fighting for liberty,
and ships like his were in danger of being captured as
prizes by British ships of war, many of which were
prowling about. On reaching the waters off the mouth
of Delaware Bay the ship was becalmed, and Girard
feared some British cruiser might swoop down on him
like a sea-hawk. So with the first breath of air he
sailed into the bay and on up the Delaware River until
Philadelphia was reached.

Thus it was more accident than anything else that
made Girard a citizen of William Penn's city, then the
metropolis of America. Sea traffic was just then too
dangerous for a cautious man, so he sold his vessel
and cargo and went into business in a grocery and
liquor store.

From the very start his cautious, saving habits and
business judgment were shown. He saved his money
carefully, and as soon as the war was over and the seas
were safe, he invested his savings in the New Orleans
and San Domingo trade, which he knew to be profit-
able. At the same time he looked carefully around him
for chances. The \var had ruined business in Phila-
delphia, but he was shrewd enough to know that it
would soon revive, and he was ready to take advantage
of the change.

One sharp thing he did was to rent a block of build-
ings on Water Street at a very low rate, which, as soon
as business grew better, he leased to others for a much
larger rent. But his chief inclination was towards the
ocean trade, which he thoroughly understood, and he
joined his brother in trading ventures to West Indian
ports. Cautious, shrewd, far-seeing in business opera-
tions, he went on until he had accumulated thirty

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 109

thousand dollars, a small fortune in those days. He
then left his brother and began dealing for himself.

A remarkable accident about this time more than
doubled Girard's fortune at a single stroke, one of
those strange chances which come in the lives of some
men. In 1791 the negroes of the island of Hayti broke
out in insurrection against the French, and a war for
liberty began which lasted for years. Many of the
planters were killed, and all that could fled for their
lives to the vessels in the harbor.

It happened that two vessels belonging to Girard
lay there, and to these came several planters carrying
what they could bring of their wealth. Leaving this,
they returned for more, but never came back again.
They were probably met by armed negroes and killed.
When the vessels reached Philadelphia Girard's cap-
tains told him of what had happened and handed over
the treasure. He put it safely away, advertised it
long and widely, but no one ever came to claim it, and
the treasure became his. This strange stroke of for-
tune added some fifty thousand dollars to his growing
wealth. He had become heir of the unknown dead.

Girard by this time<was looked upon as one of the
merchant princes of the Quaker City and as one of its '
most enterprising citizens. His wealth was steadily
growing, his enterprises were so carefully managed
that they all proved successful, and he was fast grow-
ing rich. But he did not make friends. He was of a
sour, unhappy disposition, was looked upon as a miser,
avoided society, and lived in a sparse way over his
Water Street store, giving every hour of his time to
his business, harsh and penurious to those under him,
and exacting the best service at the smallest cost. He
was not a lovable man.

no HEROES OF PROGRESS

And yet below all this coldness and harshness, this
grasping for dollars and driving of hard bargains,
there was much that was good and noble in the man,
and the time was at hand when he was to show a
courage in danger and a love for his fellows which
put to shame many others of more specious show of
philanthropy.

In 1793 a terrible epidemic of yellow fever broke
out in Philadelphia. Thousands were down with the
dread disease, the hospitals were overcrowded with
sufferers, multitudes were fleeing in terror from the
city, great distress prevailed among the sick, and few
could be found willing to take care of them. An
appeal was made for nurses and money, and, to the
surprise of everybody, Stephen Girard was one of the
first to respond. He paid freely for help and supplies
of all kinds, and, more than this, he offered his own
services as a nurse.

Entering a hospital filled with victims of the terrible
pestilence, he took tender care of the sick, giving his
earnest and unwavering attention to his duty during
the whole continuance of the scourge. Daily his own
life was in danger, but he never swerved from his
work, fortunately escaping infection. When the epi-
demic ended one-sixth of the people of the city had
fallen victims to it, and many helpless orphans were
left. To these Girard became like a second father, two
hundred of them being provided for by him in an
orphans' home.

Four years later the disease returned. This time it
was not so bad, and the authorities knew better how
to manage it. But Girard came forward in the same
brave and devoted manner as before, aiding the sick
with money and personal service. After the disease

HEROES OF PROGRESS in

was finally overcome, it left behind it a new and better
opinion of Stephen Girard. Men no longer looked
upon him as a heartless and penurious money-maker,
and though still not liked, he had won admiration and
respect.

This yellow fever episode was the one illuminating
event in Stephen Girard's life. The crust was removed
and men saw the true nobility of his nature. The
remainder of his life was devoted to what he deemed
the one important business, that of money-making, in
which he grew more and more successful as time went
on. V

fte became a great sea merchant. Vessel after ves-
sel was added to his fleet, until he had ships in all seas.
There was hardly a port in the world where things
were to be bought and sold that his ships did not
reach. He was an adept in ocean trading, and knew
just how to make the most of his ventures. With
China and the East Indies he had a large trade, for
there goods of great value in the West were to be had.
Careful directions were given to his captains, which
they were to obey on pain of dismissal. Thus they
were told to buy fruits in the fertile islands of the
south and sell them in northern ports. Here other
goods were to be bought and carried again where
they would bring the best price. Thus in each voyage
two or three separate profits were made, and almost
every venture added a notable share to his wealth.

His captains must obey orders. He would take no
excuses, even if much money was made by their taking
a chance on their own account. This was one of
Girard's fads. Any captain who broke his orders
lost his place. He thought he knew best, and left no
discretion to his captains. " Once it might succeed,"

H2 HEROES OF PROGRESS

he said, " but if followed up it would likely lead to
losses, and at last ruin me." He was an old merchant
and deemed his own judgment better than that of men
who, however well they understood the sea, had had
no training in trade.

Girard went into a new business in 1812. He bought
the building and most of the stock of the old United
States Bank and became a banker, the new institution
becoming known as the Girard Bank. He made money
in it, as he did in everything, in time increasing the
capital to four millions and doing a large and profitable
business.

/This was the time of the second war with Great
Britain, and in the third year of this war Stephen
Girard came to the aid of the Government, as Robert
Morris had done in the Revolutionary War. Money
was badly needed and a loan of five millions was offered
the people. Liberal inducements were presented, but
only the paltry amount of twenty thousand dollars was
bid for.

In this dilemma Girard came forward and agreed
to take the whole loan, lending the Government the
total sum. \ This act made the loan popular, and the
far-seeing banker soon found a profitable market for
the bonds. As his biography says : ' ' He was the sheet
anchor of the government credit during that disastrous
war." Whether he had the aid of the Government in
view, or his shrewd business judgment saw in this
a way to add to his own wealth, this much is certain,
that the Government found him a helper in its
extremity.

As his wealth rose into the millions it was used
in new enterprises. He was active in obtaining a
charter for the second Bank of the United States, and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 113

served on its board of directors. Several handsome
blocks of buildings were built by him in the city, he
subscribed liberally to the fund for the improvement of
the Schuylkill, and invested largely in other directions.
His wealth, which in the end reached the then enor-
mous sum of about nine million dollars, needed a
profitable output in various directions, and he was
on the alert for good investments.

Many anecdotes might be told of Girard's eccentrici-
ties if we had space for them. He was a queer fellow
throughout, testy and often ill-natured, caring nothing
for society and paying no attention to religious services.
Money was his god, and to that he gave his life,
except in the one noble case of self-sacrifice cited.

He married, it is true, but his wife found him far
from being a cheerful companion, and his penuriousness
and testy ill nature made his household anything but
a scene of domestic comfort. The poor woman in
the end lost her mind and spent the last years of her
life in an insane asylum, while Girard shut himself up
more closely in his shell than ever.

When old age came upon him the question of what
he should do with his wealth occupied his mind. He
had no children, his wife was dead, and when his will
came to be read, after his death on the 26th of Decem-
ber, 1831, the people of Philadelphia were astonished
and delighted with its provisions. After leaving
legacies to his relatives, to such of his captains as
should bring their vessels safely home, to his appren-
tices and old servants, the great bulk of his estate was
left to found a college for orphans, to improve the
streets of Philadelphia and develop canal navigation,
to a fund for the distressed masters of ships, and to
various city and state schools and asylums. /His pub-
8 N

H4 HEROES OF PROGRESS

lie bequests amounted to nearly seven million dollars,
his private ones to several millions more.

The city of Philadelphia was his chief heir, and
Girard College his great bequest. Forty-five acres of
land and two millions of dollars were left for this
benevolent purpose, to be devoted to the care and
education of fatherless white boys, who were to be
carefully reared and apprenticed to some suitable occu-
pation.

Girard College, as the first of importance, is the most
famous institution due to benevolence in the United
States, and its great main building is the finest example
of Corinthian architecture now standing in the world.

It has started some thousands of boys upon the up-
ward track in life, and its mission for good grows with
the years, while the Girard Trust Fund, carefullv man-

^

aged and fostered, has proved of gr^at value to the city
of Philadelphia. - Girard showed excellent business
judgment in the disposition of his money, and the
results have all been for good. No man in America
has won greater fame as a benefactor of mankind than
the eccentric and money-grabbing merchant of Water
Street, Philadelphia, and Girard College stands as a
noble monument to his memory.

JOHN MARSHALL, THE EXPOUNDER
OF THE CONSTITUTION

JOHN MARSHALL, one of the greatest among the
great Virginians of the early days of this country, won
his fame in a field in which there is not much of inci-
dent to relate, that of the Supreme Court of the
United States, of which he was Chief Justice for the
last thirty-four years of his life. The greatest of all
our Chief Justices, he is known as the ablest expounder
of the Constitution, and this noble State paper owes its
acceptation very largely to the wise and luminous
decisions of John Marshall.

Born in Germantown (now Midland), Virginia,
on the 24th of September, 1755, Marshall spent a life
of considerable activity before he reached the bench of

j

the Supreme Court, and there are many things of
interest to be told of him during the first half of his
life.

In figure John Marshall was not striking or com-
manding. Tall and thin and usually erect, he often
took very awkward attitudes. His face, swarthy in
hue, with low forehead, black hair, and twinkling
eyes, was not handsome, though kindly in expression.
His voice was dry and hard in tone, and his manner of
speech plain and forcible, but devoid of the graces of
oratory. Often, indeed, he was embarrassed in speech.
Yet the sound sense, lucid reasoning, and fine powers
of argument of his speeches gave him command over
his audiences, and were especially telling in his court

"5

n6 HEROES OF PROGRESS

decisions, in which wisdom rather than oratory is
demanded.

This will serve to introduce the great figure of John
Marshall to our readers. In his younger days he was
one of the most spirited of patriots, and served as a
soldier throughout the Revolutionary War, winning
distinction by his courage and ability. In seeking for
the early life of the great Chief Justice, we should
scarcely look for him as a dashing lieutenant of volun-
teers, yet that is the way Marshall began at the age of
twenty-one.

He became Captain Marshall in 1777, and fought
boldly and gallantly in many campaigns. He was pres-
ent at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and
Monmouth, was at Valley Forge during the terrible
winter spent there, and by his patience and liveliness
helped to give spirit to his fellow officers amid its
hardships and sufferings. He took part with General
Wayne in the daring assault on Stony Point, and
served gallantly in various other actions.

Near the end of the war, while he was out of the
army for a time, Marshall attended a course of lectures
on law and philosophy at William and Mary College.
He had never been to college, having been taught
at home by his father, and this was his first introduc-
tion to the law. But his keen mind and quick judg-
ment enabled him readily to take it in. During the
war he had often aided as an arbitrator to settle dis-
putes among the men ; and he now took up seriously
the study of law. Before the war ended he was ad-
mitted to the bar.

Marshall quickly showed that he had now fallen into
his true vocation. In a brief time he gained the repu-
tation of being a promising young barrister, and a

HEROES OF PROGRESS 117

year of legal practice raised him to the position of
one of the leaders of the Virginia bar. His elevation
had been phenomenally rapid, but was a natural conse-
quence of the great ability he displayed.

He became a member of the Legislature of Virginia
in 1782, and there, too, quickly made his mark. It was
apparent to the members that they had a man of no
common powers among them. There was work
enough then for men of ability to do. The State
needed reorganizing, and Marshall took an active part
in the work. In doing so he came into close relations
with Patrick Henry and other leaders of the day, and
impressed them strongly with the commanding qual-
ities of his mind.

But his first great opportunity to make his force
felt came in 1788, when the Constitution was before
the Virginia Convention for adoption. In its support,
next to James Madison, he was the leading advocate.
Patrick Henry opposed it with all his wonderful elo-
quence, making pyrotechnic orations that his audiences
listened to with wonder and delight. Marshall, on
the contrary, had no eloquence to offer. He simply
talked, but reason and argument formed the basis of
his talk, and his words had a convincing influence upon
his hearers. The Constitution was adopted, and he
shared with Madison the chief honor in the result.

A still greater display of his power was made in
1794, when Jay's treaty with Great Britain was under
discussion, and was bitterly opposed in all parts of the
country. Marshall made so able a speech in its sup-
port that the influence of it was felt as far away as
Europe, and when, the next year, he was sent on a
special mission to France, he was received there as a
statesman of great distinction.

n8 HEROES OF PROGRESS

In 1799 he was elected to Congress, and there
strongly defended President Adams for giving up
Thomas Nash, whom Great Britain claimed as a
fugitive from justice. Marshall's speech on this sub-
ject was marvellously able in its exposition of inter-
national law, and settled decisively the status of such
questions.

In 1800 he became Secretary of State in President
Adams's Cabinet, and on the 3ist of January, 1801,
was appointed by the President to the office in which he
was to gain a fame unsurpassed in this country, that of
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States. This was a life position, in which he remained
for the remaining thirty-four years of his stay upon
earth. The profound knowledge, wisdom, and judg-
ment which Marshall displayed in this high office
gave him rank as the ablest of all who have filled it.
He interpreted the Constitution upon just and liberal
principles, his writings and arguments being of the
greatest value to the courts of the nation. Its legal
machinery was not yet running very smoothly, and the
true significance of the Constitution, as applied to
actual questions, was little understood.

Marshall interpreted it in many famous cases, one of
the most important being the trial of Aaron Burr, late
Vice-President of the United States, for high treason.
Here the Chief Justice presided, and in many points
stood against the opinions of the leading lawyers of the
day. Time has proved that he was right, and that his
decisions were " a sound, even-handed administration
of the law."

Judge Story, referring to some of his famous de-
cisions, praises him in the highest terms as a just and
luminous expounder of the Constitution, and says:

HEROES OF PROGRESS 119

" If all others of the Chief Justice's judicial arguments
had perished, his luminous judgments on these occa-
sions would have given an enviable immortality to
his name."

Aside from his legal standing, he was distinguished
for his benevolence, modesty, urbanity, and simplicity.
His one contribution to literature is a " Life of George
Washington," in five volumes, which is highly
esteemed. His home was in Richmond, Virginia, but
he died in Philadelphia, having gone there for medical
advice, on the 6th of July, 1835.

HENRY CLAY, THE GREAT ADVOCATE
OF COMPROMISE

IN those historic days when Washington was settling
himself in his seat as first President of the United
States, and this great country was slowly getting used
to its new government harness, there entered the office
of the Court of Chancery at Richmond, Virginia, a
boy clerk whose ungainly appearance created a smile
among the older lads in the office. He was fifteen
years old, very tall for his age, very slender, very
awkward, yet with a prepossessing face. And he was
dressed in country fasion, wearing a pepper-and-salt
suit, with stiffly starched shirt and collar and an equally
stiff coat-tail. No wonder looks and winks of amuse-
ment went round among the clerks.

Such was Henry Clay at fifteen. Before he was
twenty all his awkwardness had vanished and he had
learned to dress and carry himself as well as the most
fashionable of his fellows. He was never a handsome
man, but he had an expanded forehead and a counte-
nance beaming with intelligence, while his every move-
ment had gained a winning grace. The ungainly boy
had developed into the well-poised man. And his
voice, always musical, now seemed to hold the rich
tones of an organ. It had a depth, a volume, a
harmony, a compass, rarely heard, and was destined to
fill large audiences with delight in future years.

Henry Clay's early life had been one of penury and
privation. He was born in 1777, during the war of
1 20

HEROES OF PROGRESS 121

the Revolution, in a low, swampy district of Virginia
called the " Slashes," not far away from Richmond,
the capital city. The boy had a hard life of it. He was
one of seven children, his father, a poor Bapti3t
preacher, dying when he was four years old, leaving
his wife to a desperate struggle for life with her
young family.

Henry had plenty of time for work, but very little
time for study. We see him first sitting, one of a score
of barefooted urchins, in a little log school-house,
with a teacher who was good-natured enough when
he was sober, but cross and irritable when he was
drunk. Here the boy learned to read, write, and cipher,
going into the arithmetic only as far as the rules of
"Practice."

That was the whole of his schooling. His mother
had to take him from school at an early age and put
him to work on her little farm. At thirteen we see him
again, still barefoot, clad in a homespun butternut suit
of his mother's making, riding to mill on the family
pony, and carrying before him a bag of the corn he
had helped to raise in the fields. From this he after-
wards got the title of the " Mill-Boy of the Slashes."

He was put into a Richmond drug-store as errand
boy at fourteen, and a position was obtained for him
in the Court of Chancery at fifteen. Here, despite the
ridicule of the clerks, he made his way so well by study
and industry that he was chosen by the Chancellor for
his private secretary. The Chancellor liked the boy,
taught him many things, and gave him a chance to
study law. This he did so earnestly that he was
practicing as a lawyer before he was twenty-one.

Long before this the boys in the office had ceased
to smile at Henry Clay. He had made friends among

122 HEROES OF PROGRESS

some of the best families of Richmond, was grave and
studious in disposition, and had already shown himself
a ready and able debater. Tradition tells us that he
was the peerless star of the Richmond Debating Society
in 1795, when eighteen years of age.

Kentucky was then a rapidly growing state. Settled
by Daniel Boone and his followers in Revolutionary
days, it was now fast filling up. Clay's mother, who
had married again, had moved to that fertile land in
1792; and Clay himself, finding business anything but
brisk in Richmond, followed her in 1798, when twenty-
one years of age. Like many others, he thought it
would pay to " grow up with the country."

The young lawyer hung out his sign over an office
in Lexington, Kentucky, and waited for business. He
had plenty of ambition, but his pocket was empty. He
had not money enough to pay his board, and his first
fifteen-shilling fee filled him with delight. But he was
versed in the law, was a good pleader, and so success-
ful in his cases that business came to him fast. In less
than two years he married a woman of excellent stand-
ing and character, and soon after had money enough to
buy an estate of six hundred acres near Lexington,
named Ashland. It afterwards became famous as the
home of Henry Clay.

Thus was the future great orator launched in life.
He soon became active in politics, advocating the policy
of President Jefferson, whom he esteemed as one of the
best and ablest of men. His native powers as a speaker
had now greatly developed, his rich, resonant voice was
heard widely on stump and rostrum, and his powers of
rhetoric and oratory unfolded so rapidly that he soon
became highly popular as a public speaker. The people
of Lexington thought that a man of his powers

HEROES OF PROGRESS 123

ought to represent them in the legislature, and he was
elected by a large majority in 1803.

As a law-maker Clay's ability was so marked that
three years later, when one of the Kentucky Senators
resigned, he was chosen to fill the balance of his term
in the Senate of the United States. He was re-elected
to this body again in 1809, another Senator having
resigned.

Up to this time Henry Clay had not especially made
his mark, though he was becoming widely known as
an orator of unusual powers and a statesman of fine
ability. His great career began in 1811, when he was
elected to Congress as a member of the House.

It was a time of great political activity. Troubles
were growing between England and the United States.
War was in the air, and Clay became such an ardent
and powerful advocate of appeal to the sword that the
war-party in the House immediately elected him
Speaker. He attained to his important office at thirty-
four years of age.

From that time on Clay's voice fiercely denounced
Great Britain for its injuries and insults to this coun-
try, and he had more to do with bringing on the war
of 1812 than any other individual. He often left his
seat as Speaker to arouse the House by his clarion
voice. He put new spirit into President Madison.
When the war began and the soldiers set out for the
field, Clay warmed their hearts with inspiring words,
and they read his speeches with delight by their camp-
fires. At a later date, when all seemed going wrong
in the army, the President wished to appoint him
commander-in-chief, but Gallatin objected, saying,
" What shall we do without him in the House of
Representatives ?"

124 HEROES OF PROGRESS

In 1814 Russia, as a friend of both countries, tried
to bring about a peace, much as the United States did
for Russia and Japan in the war of 1905. Both parties
were tired of the war, and " Harry of the West," as
Clay was then called, was chosen as one of the com-
missioners to the peace conference at Ghent. The
treaty was agreed to on the day before Christmas,
1814. In settling its terms Clay gained many advan-
tages for the United States.

On his return, in 1815, he was at once sent back to
Congress, where he was re-elected Speaker, and for
the years that followed he was the leader of the
House, leaving it in 1825 to become Secretary of State.
Never has the House known his superior as a presid-
ing officer. There was a charm of manner, a dignity,
and a reserved power in the way in which he held
together the excitable members, and during his whole
career not one of his decisions was reversed. Party
feeling was intense during his early years as Speaker,
and all his strength and resolution were often needed
to keep order, but he never failed.

The great event of this period in Henry Clay's career
was the famous Missouri Compromise of 1821. It
was a result of the first great struggle over the sub-
ject of Slavery. New territories were opening in
the West, and the planters of the South claimed the
right to take their slaves into this region. Missouri
applied for admission as a State in 1820, and at once
there arose a bitter contest as to whether it should
be admitted as a slave or a free State. The dispute
grew so hot and violent that there was almost a war on
the floor of Congress.

Finally a compromise was suggested under which
Missouri was to be a slave State, but no other slave

HEROES OF PROGRESS 125

States were to be made in the Western country north
of the parallel of 36° 30', the southern boundary of
Missouri. Clay, a peace-maker in spirit, despite his
advocacy of war ten years before, became the great
advocate of this compromise. He did not confine
himself to speeches, but went in person from member
to member, talking with them, reasoning, beseeching,
and persuading, in his most winning way. He suc-
ceeded, the Compromise Bill was passed, and the
difficulty was settled for the next thirty years. Clay
was praised as the " great pacificator."

In the year 1824 Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and
Clay were candidates for the Presidency. Jackson
got the largest number of votes, but none of the can-
didates had a majority, and the choice of a President
was left to the House of Representatives. The choice
was to be made from the three highest candidates,
of which Clay was not one. He was still Speaker, his
influence in the House was very great, and as Jackson
had long been his bitter enemy he naturally used his
influence in favor of Adams, who was declared elected.

Adams, on forming his Cabinet, selected Clay for
the highest place in it, appointing him Secretary of
State. In consequence of this the charge was made
that Clay had sold his influence to get this high post,
and that there had been a bargain between him and
Adams before the election. The charge was false and
malicious, as has since been shown, but it was widely
believed at the time, and it hurt Clay for all the rest of
his career. For years the cry of " bargain and sale "
was not allowed to drop.

The next great question that came before the coun-
try was that of a protective tariff. Henry Clay was
one of its ablest supporters. In a few years a new

126 HEROES OF PROGRESS

tariff party was formed, called the Whig party, which
looked upon Clay as its leader. The tariff question be-
came urgent after 1829, when Jackson was made Pres-
ident, and so much hostile feeling was stirred up that
South Carolina attempted to secede from the Union.
This was checked by the vigorous action of "Old Hick-
ory," who took hold of the affair with a warlike grip.

But the tariff contest remained before the country,
and something needed to be done with it. Clay ceased
to be Secretary of State when Jackson became Presi-
dent, but two years afterwards he was elected to the
Senr.te. The agitation was great, and Clay did his best
to allay it, offering his second great compromise meas-
ure. This was the compromise tariff of 1833, under
which the duties were gradually reduced till they
reached the level of twenty per cent.

Clay ran for President against Jackson in 1832,
though he had no chance of election against a soldier
of such popularity. He ran again in 1844, and this
time seemed sure of an election, for his popularity was
immense. But the question of the annexation of
Texas came up, and by trying to satisfy both parties
Clay lost votes in both, and, to the utter surprise of the
whole country, was defeated.

Never was there another Presidential defeat that
excited such intense feeling. The Whigs were utterly
overwhelmed. " It was," says Nathan Sargent, " as if
the first-born of every family had been stricken down."
Henry Clay was not only admired, he was loved, wor-
shipped almost, and his defeat gave rise to an extra-
ordinary grief. Men and women alike wept bitterly
when they heard the news. The busiest places in the
cities were almost deserted for a day or two, people
gathering to discuss in low tones the result. The

HEROES OF PROGRESS 127

victorious party made no show of triumph, the feeling
being that a great wrong had been done.

Clay was bitterly disappointed, and just then other
cares arose to add to his depression of feeling. He
had fallen deeply into debt, and it seemed as if he might
have to sell his beloved home at Ashland to satisfy his
creditors. The old man of sixty-seven, whose life
had been given to the service of his country, was in
no condition to start life afresh.

But if his friends could not make him President,
they could save him from poverty. To his utter sur-
prise, he suddenly found that money had come to the
bank at Lexington to pay all his debts. Where it came
from the banker did not know, and Clay therefore
could not return the gift, as it was his first impulse to
do. He was forced to accept it, and Ashland was saved.

Then followed the last great event in Henry Clay's
life. From 1842 to 1849 he was out of Congress,
but in the latter year he was again elected to the Senate.
He came there in time to face a momentous question.
The dangerous slavery contest was thrown open again.
Texas had been annexed, and new territory gained
from Mexico. There arose a hot dispute as to whether
or not slavery should be admitted into this territory.
There was talk of disunion. No one knew but there
might be war. The old warrior had to fling himself
into the breach again. Once more he offered a com-
promise measure with the hope of again removing the
slavery question from politics.

A sick and feeble old man, often needing a friend's
arm to help him up the steps of the Capitol, he was
never absent from the Senate on the days when the
compromise question was up for debate. During that
session of 1849-50 he spoke seventy times. On the

128 HEROES OF PROGRESS

morning of his greatest speech on the question he was
so weak that he could hardly climb the steps. When
he arose to speak his feebleness was evident. But as
he went on his cough left him, his frame became erect,
and his voice rolled through the Senate chamber with
its old musical resonance. Never had he spoken with
such pathos and grandeur. That great speech lasted two
days. It won the contest and put off the Civil War for
ten years, but it wrecked the "great compromiser."
He never recovered from the effects of the effort,
though he lived two years more, dying June 29, 1852.

As an orator Henry Clay's great power lay in his
remarkable voice and his eloquent delivery. His
speeches do not read well, but as spoken their force
was irresistible. The following estimate is from Par-
ton, the biographer:

"Take him for all in all, we must regard him as the
first of American orators ; but posterity will not as-
sign him that rank, because posterity will not hear
that matchless voice, will not see those large gestures,
those striking attitudes, that grand manner, which
gave to second-rate composition first-rate effect. His
speeches will long be interesting as the relics of a
magnificent and dazzling personality, and for the light
they cast upon the history of parties ; but they add
scarcely anything to the intellectual property of the
nation."

DANIEL WEBSTER, THE GIANT OF
THE AMERICAN SENATE

ON the 26th of January, 1830, was heard in the hall
of the United States Senate the greatest oration ever
delivered on the American rostrum. It was Daniel
Webster's famous " Reply to Hayne," the noblest
effort in the career of our noblest orator, and as great
in its way as the world-famed oration of Demosthenes,
" On the Crown."

Forty years before this Webster was a poor boy,
the son of a New Hampshire farmer, who seems
to have had plenty to do, but was so fond of books
that he snatched every spare minute of time to read.
His father had a saw mill, and Daniel had to set the
logs, but while the saw was cutting through them he
kept his eyes on the pages of a book. It was the same
with his odd minutes on the farm or when on an
errand, and at night he read diligently by the light
of a log fire. In this way the boy ran through the
circulating library of the village. He read the Bible
so ardently that he had much of it by heart.

It is said that the first twenty-five cents he ever
earned he gave to a peddler for a handkerchief on
which was printed the Constitution of the United
States. This he read again and again, till every word
of it was impressed on his memory. He little dreamed
in those days how useful this intimate knowledge of
the Constitution was to become to him in his later
days. As for his memory, it was extraordinary. By
9 129

130 HEROES OF PROGRESS

the time he grew up his mind was like a great
store-house of useful information.

Daniel Webster was born at Salisbury, New
Hampshire, January 18, 1782. The Revolution was
just ending, and five years more were to elapse before
the making of the Constitution, that great state paper
which he was so nobly to defend in the years to come.

There were ten children in the family, he being the
youngest. He was a feeble little fellow, so weak
that the people around said he could not live. In
his young days he was not fit to work, so he grew
fond of wandering through the fields and woods, his
chief comrade being an old British sailor who was
as fond of the woods as he. The two would lie on the
river banks for hours at a time while the old man
told the child long yarns of his life on the sea.

His outdoor life made him strong and fit for work,
and he grew up a large, finely formed man. But
all his life he kept his fondness for the woods and
for the hunting and fishing which he had shared
with his childhood friend.

One day while Daniel was in the hayfield with his
father a man who was riding by stopped to speak for
a few minutes with Squire Webster, as the father
was called. When the man had gone his father said:

' Dan, that man beat me by a few votes when I ran
against him for Congress, and all because he had a
better education. For that reason I intend you shall
have a good education, and hope to see you work your
way up to Congress."

The squire had a high opinion of his son's ability,
from his studious habits, and felt that a boy like him
should have every chance. Daniel was delighted with
the prospect, but he felt that his elder brother, Ezekiel,

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 131

a bright boy, ought to have the first chance. In the
end Squire Webster mortgaged his farm and sent both
boys to the Phillips Exeter Academy.

There they studied heartily, Daniel teaching school
for a time and copying law papers to help pay his way
and that of his brother. In this way he fitted him-
self for college, entered Dartmouth College in 1797,
and after graduation engaged in the study of law.

The story is told that Squire Webster, who had
now advanced to the dignity of judge, got for Daniel,
at the end of his college course, the position of clerk
of the courts, with a fifteen hundred dollar salary.
This was a great temptation for the boy, whose life
had been one of poverty, but he refused it, saying, " I
intend to be a lawyer myself and not to spend my life
jotting down other men's doings."

The judge argued against this, deeming that a bird
in the hand was worth two in the bush. There were
already more lawyers than there was any need of, and
not half work enough for them, he said. Daniel
sturdily replied, " There is always room at the top."

This resolution he kept, against the advice of his
father and friends, beginning his law studies at Salis-
bury and ending them at Boston, when he was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1805. Ezekiel, with whom Daniel
had taught school to help in his college studies, was
already gaining a reputation as a brilliant lawyer. He
was a fine-looking fellow, and some say that he was
the handsomest man in the United States.

Daniel himself grew to be a man of impressive
appearance. As many readers may wish to know what
this great man looked like, we quote Senator Lodge's
description of him in later years:

" In face, form, and voice, nature did her utmost

132 HEROES OF PROGRESS

for Daniel Webster. He seemed to every one to be
a giant; that, at least, is the word we most commonly
find applied to him; and there is no better proof of
his wonderful impressiveness than this fact, for he
was not a man of extraordinary stature. He was five
feet ten inches in height, and in health weighed a little
less than two hundred pounds. These are the pro-
portions of a large man, but there is nothing remark-
able about them. We must look elsewhere than to
mere size to discover why men spoke of Webster as
a giant. He had a swarthy complexion and straight
black hair. His head was very large ; at the same time
it was of noble shape, with a broad and lofty brow,
and his features were finely cut and full of massive
strength. His eyes were extraordinary. They were
large and deep-set and, when he began to rouse him-
self to action, shone with the deep light of a forge-
fire, getting ever more glowing as excitement rose.
His voice was in harmony with his appearance. It was
low and musical in conversation ; in debate it was high
but full, ringing out in moments of excitement like a
clarion, and then sinking to deep notes with the
solemn richness of organ-tones, while the words were
accompanied by a manner in which grace and dignity
mingled in complete accord."

Such was Daniel Webster in the years of his fame.
He began to win a reputation as an orator even in
college, where he was looked upon as the best writer
and speaker of his class. While at the bar he added to
his reputation by several Fourth-of-July orations. In
the law he soon became highly regarded, and in a few
years was looked upon as a fit antagonist of Jeremiah
Mason, a man many years older and the greatest
lawyer in the State.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 133

In 1812 the ambition of Squire Webster was real-
ized, his son Daniel being elected to Congress. He
had run as a member of the Federalist party, then in
strong opposition to the Democratic war party, led
by John C. Calhoun, and supported by Henry Clay,
the Speaker of the House. Webster strongly opposed
the war. At the same time he advocated an increase
in the navy. The force and intellectual power of his
speeches on this subject placed him in the first rank
as a debater, and he quickly became looked upon as
the Federal leader of New England.

After serving through two terms of Congress he
withdrew from politics and settled at law practice in
Boston, where his former reputation increased so
rapidly that he came to be looked upon as the leading
lawyer of New England. His first great case was in
defence of the charter rights of his old college, Dart-
mouth. This he argued before the Supreme Court
of the United States with a skill, strength of argument,
and knowledge of the law which spread his fame
over the whole country. He became regarded as a
leader among constitutional lawyers, and his services
were called for in nearly all important cases before the
Supreme Court.

The effect of his arguments was enhanced by the
magnificent manner with which they were delivered,
his deep-toned and powerful voice, and his great per-
sonal magnetism. " His influence over juries was due
chiefly to the combination of a power of lucid state-
ment with his extraordinary oratorical force." In
criminal law his success was great, alike in pleading,
in examining witnesses, and in his skill in baffling
deep-laid schemes of perjury and fraud.

During this period of his life Mr. Webster greatly

134 HEROES OF PROGRESS

increased his reputation by a series of splendid ora-
tions upon great national events. One of the chief
of these was delivered at Plymouth in 1820, on the
two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pil-
grims. Another great one was in 1825, when the
corner-stone of the Bunker-Hill Monument was laid.
Most brilliant of all was that given in Faneuil Hall in
1826, when he eulogized the two great patriots,
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died on the
Fourth of July of that year.

Webster returned to the hall of Congress in 1823,
quickly resuming there his former standing, and became
active in the very important work of revising the
United States Criminal Law. He was transferred to
the Senate in 1828, then first entering that arena in
which his greatest triumphs were to be gained.

The old Federal party had long since vanished, and
new parties were arising, with new aims. Webster
took his stand by voting for Clay's tariff bill of 1828,
and when the Whig party was organized he and Clay
became its foremost men.

He reached the acme of his career as an orator in
1830, when the doctrine of the right of a State to
" nullify " the acts of Congress was being maintained
by Robert Y. Hayne, an able Senator from South
Carolina. The excitement in Washington was great.
Party spirit ran high. If the doctrine of nullification
was sustained the permanence of the American Union
would be in serious danger. Hayne, as the champion
of the Southern side, made a speech of marked force
and eloquence, in which he bitterly assailed New Eng-
land and made a sharp personal attack on Webster.

Edward Everett tells us of what followed. After
the adjournment he hastened to Webster's house,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 135

expecting to find him in a state of great excitement,
and was surprised at his entire calmness. He spoke of
the Hayne speech, asked Webster if he proposed to
reply, and finished by asking him if he had taken notes
of his speech.

" Mr. Webster took from his vest pocket a piece of
paper about as big as the palm of his hand, and replied,
' I have it all ; that is his speech.' '

That was enough for Everett. He immediately
left, confident that Webster would fully hold his own.

On the morning of the following day the Senate
chamber and galleries were packed by an eager crowd.
It was felt that a great day in the annals of the Senate
had dawned. When Webster rose, calm and grand,
there was a dead hush of expectation. He began in a
low, even tone :

" Mr. President : when the mariner has been tossed
for many days in thick weather and on an unknown
sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the
storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude
and ascertain how far the elements have driven him
from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence,
and before we float farther on the waves of this debate,
refer to the point from which we departed, that we
may, at least, be able to conjecture where we are now.
I ask for the reading of the resolution before the
Senate."

Such was the skilful and artistic beginning of the
greatest speech the Senate ever heard. When the
reading of the resolution was finished Webster re-
sumed. Never had such a flood of masterly eloquence
and argument been poured forth. The audience lis-
tened with breathless attention, lest a word should be
lost. The strong, resonant sentences, the pathos, the

136 HEROES OF PROGRESS

sarcasm, the reasoning, the fervent appeals to love
of country, flowed in an unbroken stream. On, on,
it went, in crushing and overwhelming weight, clos-
ing with the most magnificent burst of eloquence that
ever fell from human lips:

' When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the
last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him
shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a
once glorious Union ; on States dissevered, discord-
ant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or
drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let this
last feeble and lingering glance behold rather the
glorious ensign of the republic, now known and
honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced,
its arms and trophies streaming in their original
lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star
obscured ; bearing for its motto no such miserable
interrogatory as, 'What is all this worth?' or those
other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first and
Union afterwards ;' but everywhere, spread all over
in characters of living light, blazing in all its ample
folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, that
other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, —
LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND
INSEPARABLE !"

The audience left the hall silent and awe-stricken,
feeling that it had been given to them to listen to one
of the greatest efforts of the human intellect.

During the years that followed Webster's voice was
often heard on momentous subjects before the Senate,
and always with power and effect. He was one of
the most popular leaders of the Whigs, and the great
opponent of Calhoun in all tariff debates. In 1833
he vigorously opposed Clay's compromise tariff bill

HEROES OF PROGRESS 137

and supported the " Force Bill " of the Jackson
administration.

He promoted the election of President Harrison in
1840 by a series of speeches, and in 1841 was appointed
Secretary of State, resigning in 1843. He returned
to the Senate in 1845, and in 1850 supported Clay's
compromise measure in one of his ablest speeches.

The great orator was fast nearing the end of his
career. In 1852 his name was presented in the Na-
tional Whig Convention for the Presidential nomina-
tion, but he received only thirty-two votes. His
support of Clay's compromise had lost him many
friends. In May of that year he was thrown from
his carriage and seriously injured, and on the 24th
of October, 1852, he died.

Thus passed away our greatest orator. " He was,"
said Prater's Magazine in 1890, " the greatest orator
that ever lived in the Western hemisphere. Less
vehement than Calhoun, less persuasive than Clay,
he was yet more grand and powerful than either."
Another able English writer says : " Our impression is
that, excepting for Mirabeau, Chatham, Fox, and
Brougham, no speaker entirely the match of Daniel
Webster has trod the world-stage for full two
centuries."

There are Americans who would not admit these
exceptions, Webster surpassing all the orators named
in depth and profundity of knowledge and solidity of
argument, his speeches being storehouses of thought
and learning, lofty sentiment, solid judgment, brilliant
rhetoric, and broad and generous views of the history
and destiny of his native land.

JOHN C. CALHOUN, THE CHAMPION
OF SOUTHERN INSTITUTIONS

IN 1832 the great American Union was in danger.
The State of South Carolina had declared that it would
not obey the tariff laws, would not permit any one to
collect revenue in its ports, and would secede from
the Union if an attempt was made to force it to obey
the law.

Four years before John C. Calhoun, a powerful
orator from that State, had declared of the tariff,
" We look upon it as a dead law, null and void, and
will not obey it." From this expression his party were
called " nullifiers " and his doctrine " nullification."
Two years before Webster had made his remarkable
speech on this subject, powerfully defending the Con-
stitution and the Union. Now there were open threats
of war, and in parts of the State troops were drilling
and putting their muskets in order. The fire had been
kindled; no one knew how far it might spread.

Fortunately President Jackson, " Old Hickory," the
hero of New Orleans, was then at the head of the
government. More of a soldier than a statesman, he
was a man of the kind that strikes first and talks
afterwards. When the Carolinians began to threaten
war he began to send troops to their State. A South-
erner himself, he was an American first of all, and
thundered out : " The Union must and shall be pre-
served." He threatened to arrest Calhoun, the great
advocate of nullification, for treason the moment he

138

HEROES OF PROGRESS 139

heard of resistance to the Government in South
Carolina.

This settled the matter. Nullification sank out of
sight. But the Free Traders in Congress were strong,
and Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill, for a
gradual reduction of the tariff, was passed. Thus
ended a critical situation which Calhoun was the main
agent in bringing about. He was active in bringing
on the Civil War, for he was one of the chief
champions of slavery.

John C. Calhoun was born in Abbeyville, South
Carolina, in 1782, the same year that Daniel Webster
was born in New Hampshire. These two men were to
become powerful orators and bitter opponents on the
floor of Congress : Calhoun as a statesman of the
South, Webster of the North.

Calhoun went north to college, working his way
through Yale, where he showed such fine mental
powers that Dr. Dwight, the president of the college,
said he had talent enough to be a President of the
United States. Certainly he had much more talent
than some who became President, but like the other
great orators of Congress he failed to attain this
honor, though he was twice Vice-President.

He began his public career in the legislature of
South Carolina in 1807, and was elected to Congress
in 1810, remaining there till 1817. When he entered
the House the great subject of debate was the insults
and injuries of England to this country. There was
a strong war party and Calhoun soon put himself
at its head. His first speech in the House was on this
subject and was so powerful that he sprang at once
into fame and was quickly ranked among the leading
statesmen of his day. With him in the fight for war

140 HEROES OF PROGRESS

was Henry Clay, and these two strong speakers swayed
the House till war was declared, and did not desist
till it was over and peace declared.

Calhoun began with war, and he was always at
war. He kept himself at the head in party wars,
now fighting for free trade, now for slavery, always
in contest, always a leader in some hostile debate.

Eloquent and vigorous as a speaker, he did not,
like many others, make his points by personal attacks
on his opponents. He was a gentleman in the warmest
of his contests, and though he cut his way sharply and
fiercely through the arguments of his opponents, deal-
ing them stunning blows, he did not attack the men
themselves. A trenchant reasoner, it was always what
his opponent said that he assailed, not what he was.
He could see no merit or force in angry and rude
personal abuse.

It is singular that, in this early period, Calhoun
made a long and strong speech in favor of a protective
tariff, the policy which he afterwards so bitterly
assailed. But at that time the South was not opposed
to a tariff. It strongly favored it. The opposition
came later.

In 1817 Calhoun was made Secretary of War in the
Cabinet of President Monroe. When he took charge
of the War Department all was in disorder and con-
fusion, but it did not take him long to set it right. He
established a new system, a very simple and very
suitable one, and one that has been followed ever since.
One thing he did not believe in was the saving of
money by paying the men poorly and feeding them on
mean food. He held that good pay and good food
would bring better service, and this is still held in the
army. No soldier in the world is taken better care

HEROES OF PROGRESS 141

of and treated more like a man than the American
soldier, and he owes this largely to Calhoun, who
first recognised the rights of the soldier.

By 1824 Calhoun had become so prominent that he
was elected Vice-President, with John Quincy Adams
as President. He was elected again with General
Jackson in 1828. During this time his opinions on the
tariff changed, and he came to believe that free trade
was better than protection for the interests of the South.
Very many in the South were of the same opinion,
and the agitation began which led to the " nullifica-
tion " excitement.

Calhoun was now the great leader of the South.
He brought out the doctrine of the Sovereignty of the
States, holding that they had the right to leave the
Union if they had just cause. He was so bitterly op-
posed to the course of the administration that he re-
signed from the Vice-Presidency in 1832, was elected
to the Senate, and kept up a vigorous agitation which
only ended when President Jackson threatened him
with arrest for treason.

When the tariff question was set aside, that of slavery
loomed up, and Calhoun became its most powerful
supporter. He believed in it firmly. He thought that
the slave system was morally and politically right. He
thought it good for white and black alike, and that
the best good of the country depended upon it. In this
he was honest and sincere. No man was more up-
right ; he fought for what he believed in, and his in-
fluence became immense. For a quarter of a century
he advocated the doctrine of the rightfulness and the
extension of slavery, and there is no doubt that his
arguments had much to do with bringing on the crisis
that ended in the Civil War.

142 HEROES OF PROGRESS

" I mean to force the issue on the North," he said,
and he did force it. Garrison and Phillips and the
other anti-slavery leaders might have found their
labors in vain but for Calhoun, who gave them much
to talk upon. The denial of the right of petition in
the House, the annexation of Texas as a new slave
territory, the forcing of slavery into the Territories,
these were the things he worked for and aided in
gaining. To the end of his life he protested that
slavery is a divine institution, and that it must rule
this country or ruin it.

A few words will suffice to tell the remainder of
his personal history. He was not satisfied with be-
ing Vice-President, he was eager to be President, but,
like his fellow orators, Clay and Webster, he failed
in this. In 1836 he was a popular favorite in his
party, but President Jackson was his enemy and de-
feated his efforts, to his bitter disappointment. The
remainder of his life was spent in the Senate, except
for a short time when he served as Secretary of State
in President Tyler's Cabinet. During this time he was
active in securing the annexation of Texas, a move-
ment then very popular in the south.

From 1835 to l&5° the agitation on the slavery
question was chiefly kept up by Calhoun, Webster
and Clay were earnest in trying to put off the day of
strife, but he was as earnest in trying to bring it on.
In his view slavery was a righteous and beneficial
institution, and any aid given to runaway slaves or
legal efforts to restrict the slave system was an inter-
ference with the rights of the slave States which would
justify their secession from the Union. Ten years after
his death, which took place March 31, 1850, the doc-
trine he so long sustained began to bear fruit, and .the

HEROES OF PROGRESS 143

country was on the verge of the great war which put
a final end to the system of which he had been the
strongest advocate.

We know little about the private life of Mr. Calhoun,
though it is said that he was just and kind to his
slaves, and an honorable and pure-minded man. As
a statesman he had keen judgment, great foresight,
and much discretion, and his bitterest enemies gave
him credit for splendid talent and ability. Harriet
Martineau, in her " Retrospect of Western Travel,"
has given a fine picture of him and his great opponents
which is well worth quoting. She thus photographs
the three great statesmen :

" Mr. Clay, sitting upright on the sofa, with his
snuff-box ever in his hand, would discourse for many
an hour in his even, soft, deliberate tone on any one
of the great subjects of American policy which we
might happen to start, always amazing us with the
moderation of estimate and speech which so impet-
uous a nature had been able to attain. Mr. Webster,
leaning back at his ease, telling stories, cracking jokes,
shaking the sofa with burst after burst of laughter, or
smoothly discoursing to the perfect felicity of the
logical part of one's constitution, would illuminate an
evening now and then.

" Mr. Calhoun, the cast-iron man, who looks as if
he had never been born and could never be extin-
guished, would come in sometimes to keep our under-
standing on a painful stretch for a short while, and
leave us to take to pieces his close, rapid, theoretical,
illustrated talk, and see what we could make of it.
We found it usually more worth retaining as a curi-
osity than as either very just or useful. I know of no
man who lives in such utter intellectual solitude. He

144 HEROES OF PROGRESS

meets men and harangues by the fireside as in the
Senate; he is wrought like a piece of machinery, set
going vehemently by a weight, and stops while you
answer ; he either passes by what you say, or twists
it into a suitability with what is in his head, and begins
to lecture again."

She paints his portrait in a few telling words : " Mr.
Calhoun's countenance first fixed mv attention ; the

j

splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a
wad of stiff, upright, dark hair, the stern brow, the
inflexible mouth — it is one of the most remarkable
heads in the country."

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, THE DISCOVERER
OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHY

IN 1844 a Whig National Convention for the nom-
ination of a President was in session at Baltimore.
Henry Clay, the people's favorite, was the most promi-
nent candidate, and a good deal of interest was felt by
those waiting for the news. In Washington, forty
miles away, the interest was great, and many waited
eagerly for the coming of the first railroad train with
tidings of the result.

Suddenly the word went from mouth to mouth that
Clay had been nominated. People heard the news
with surprise and incredulity. How could any one
know? No train had arrived, no mail or messenger
reached the capital. When it was told that the news
had come by lightning message, flashed over a wire
which led from Baltimore to a room in the Capitol
building, many laughed in scorn. They would wait
for the train, they said. It was impossible for news to
come in a minute from Baltimore to Washington.

But when the train came in, confirming the report,
there was a sudden change of feeling. An awe spread
over the people. What did this mean? Were space
and time to be annihilated? Had man made a dis-
covery which would carry thought in a moment from
end to end of the land? Men walked home sobered
and wondering. All interest in the nomination was
lost before the interest in this new and magical dis-
covery. The name of Professor Morse, the discoverer,
suddenly rose from obscurity to fame.

10 145

146 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Twelve years before this Samuel Finley Breese
Morse, an American painter of much talent, was on
his way home from Europe in the ship " Sully " to
accept the professorship of Literature of the Fine
Arts at the University of the City of New York. He
was then forty-one years old, having been born in
Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April,
1791. Until now all his time and attention had been
given to the art of painting, and no dream had come
to him of the strange history of his later life.

Inspiration came to him in a talk of some passengers
on the " Sully," one of whom had seen in Paris some
experiments with the electro-magnet. These proved
that the electric spark could be obtained by means of
the magnet, and that the current of electricity which
gave this spark could be carried very rapidly to a dis-
tance along an iron wire.

The story immediately interested Mr. Morse. If
sparks could thus be obtained at the end of a long
wire, could not some system of signals be devised?
Morse talked it over with the gentleman, considering
how this could be done, and trying to devise a work-
ing plan. He thought deeply on the subject himself,
walking the deck alone under the stars and debating
inwardly on the possibilities of the current and the
magnet.

Mr. Morse was not a tyro on the subject of elec-
tricity. He knew what had been done in it, and what
had been discovered of its ways of action, and his
thought bore remarkable fruit. Before the " Sully "
reached New York he had worked out in his mind a
complete plan, devising " not only the idea of an
electric telegraph, but of an electro-magnetic and
recording telegraph substantially and essentially as it

HEROES OF PROGRESS 147

now exists." He is said to have even invented an
alphabet of signs, closely the same as that which is now
in use, but it is probable that this was a later device.

Mr. Morse had no time to give to a Fine Arts pro-
fessorship when he landed in New York. A new idea
had taken possession of his mind, and during the rest
of his life most of his time and thought was given
to telegraphy. He had a desperate struggle before
him. It is one thing to lay out a plan in one's mind
and another thing to make it work in matter. Many
difficulties are sure to arise to trouble the inventor and
sadden his soul.

Morse had been something of an inventor already,
and had made experiments in electricity and galvanism.
This had been for mere pastime ; now it was to be
serious work. He went into his new labor with vim
and energy, but the path before him was long and
hard. Wires were stretched, experiments made, but
again and again they failed to work. His money went,
he had three children to support, starvation threatened
him, but he kept on, doing enough painting to bring
him some slight support. He had faith in himself, he
had sympathy and aid from his brother and friends,
but there were days when he had to go hungry for
want of food. When his instruments refused to do
what he expected, he studied them till he found out
what was wrong, and made it right.

At length he had ready a working model, but this
was not until 1835, after three years of continued ex-
periment and endless discouragement. He had a wire
circling round his room half a mile in length and was
able to send signals to its end, but he could not yet
bring them back again. A duplicate instrument was
needed at the other end of the wire, and he was so poor

148 HEROES OF PROGRESS

that two years more passed before he was able to have
one made.

Now all was right. His telegraph worked splen-
didly. He could send signals both ways over his wire
and read them easily. In September, 1837, he set it up
in the University of New York and exhibited it to
large audiences, who saw it with wonder and delight.

But this was only a lecture room experiment. To
make it a practical working affair was another matter.
Money, far more money than he could hope to com-
mand, was needed to bring it into general use. He
applied to Congress, but in vain. Some interest was
awakened, but no grant of money was made. Most
men were disposed to ridicule the whole affair. Then
he went to England, but with the same result. " Even
if it does work," said one wise man, " what good will
it be? Men get news now as fast as any one is likely
to want them. Your idea is good, Mr. Morse, but it
won't pay."

Back to Washington again, and a new bill in Con-
gress. It was the early spring of 1843. At midnight of
March 3 the Congress then in session would end.
Morse's bill had passed the House on February 23, but
it hung in the Senate, quite crowded out of sight by
the rush of bills deemed of more importance. Morse
waited about the Senate chamber until nearly mid-
night, and then, seeing the confusion growing every
minute greater, and his case apparently hopeless, he
gave it up in despair and walked sadly home.

When he came down to breakfast the next morning
his face was a picture of gloom. He was fairly ready
to give up the fight and go back to the painter's brush.
A young lady met him at the door with a smiling face.

" I have come to congratulate you, Mr. Morse."

HEROES OF PROGRESS 149

" For what, my dear friend ?"

" For the passage of your bill."

" What !" He stood aghast. " The passage of my
bill !" he faltered.

"Yes. Do you not know of it?"

" Nothing at all."

" Then you came home too soon last night. Con-
gress has granted your claim. I am happy in being
the first to bring you the good news."

" You have given me new life, Miss Ellsworth," he
exclaimed. " As a reward for your good tidings, I
promise you that when my telegraph line is completed
you shall have the honor of selecting the first message
to be sent over it."

Eleven and a half years had passed since the con-
versation on the ship " Sully," years of incessant work
and bitter discouragement. Now success seemed to
shine on the horizon. The grant was for thirty thou-
sand dollars only, but he hoped that would be enough.
The plan he had worked out on the " Sully " was the
following: There was to be an alphabet of some kind
of marks, a revolving ribbon of paper to receive these,
and a method of carrying the wires underground in
tubes. He had thought also of supporting them in the
air, but the other plan seemed to him the best.

What he now wanted was a contrivance to make a
ditch to lay the wires in. A man named Ezra Cornell
v/as applied to. No one knew of him then, but he is
now known as the founder of Cornell University, for he
afterwards became famous and rich. He had an in-
ventive mind, knew much about ploughs, and in a
short time devised a machine that would cut a trench
in the ground, lay the pipe at its bottom, and cover in
the earth behind it.

150 HEROES OF PROGRESS

In ten days the machine was ready. A yoke of oxen
was attached to it, one man managed it, and in five
minutes it had laid one hundred feet of pipe and
covered it with earth. It was a decided success. The
pipe, with the wire within it, was laid so rapidly that in
a few days ten miles were down.

Here it stopped. Something had gone wrong. No
trace of a current could be got through. The insula-
tion of the wire was imperfect. Another kind of pipe
was tried. Still the current would not go through.
Many experiments were made, a year passed by, only
seven thousand dollars of the money remained, the in-
ventor was in despair.

' I fear it will never work." said Cornell. " The pipe
plan is a failure."

' Then let us try the air plan. If electricity won't go
underground, we must try and get it to go through the

air."

The new plan was to string the wire on poles, with
an insulator to keep the current from the wood. Pro-
fessor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, a man
who was an expert in electricity, suggested a suitable
insulator, and the work went rapidly on. To raise
poles, put a glass bulb at their top, and string wires
over them, was an easy and rapid process. And the
signals passed perfectly. All the old trouble was at
an end.

On the day of the nomination by the Baltimore con-
vention the wire was only partly laid. It began at
Washington, but was still miles from Baltimore. But
the train from Baltimore that carried the news of the
nomination to Washington carried also one of the
telegraph experts. He left the train at the end of
the wire, telegraphed the news to Washington, and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 151

when the train reached that city its passengers were
utterly astounded to find that they brought stale news,
that the story of the nomination was already spread
through the capital. It was an overwhelming proof
of the power of the electric telegraph, and Professor
Morse sprang into fame. The wire was completed to
Baltimore by May 24, 1844, and, as Morse had prom-
ised, Miss Ellsworth was given the honor of choos-
ing the first message to be sent over it. She selected
an appropriate passage of Scripture : " What hath
God wrought ? " With these significant words began
the reign of that marvellous invention which has since
then tied the ends of the world together and fairly
annihilated space. So strange was its principle to most
people that, as we are told, even so high a dignitary
as John C. Spencer, Secretary of the Treasury, asked
one of Morse's assistants how large a bundle could be
sent over the wires, and if the postal mails could not
be sent in that way.

While Morse was working on his telegraph system,
others were working in Europe. While he was fight-
ing Congress, inventors in England were experiment-
ing with short lines, with the wire carried in buried
pipes. But the system adopted there was one of sig-
nals by vibrating needles, and was so inferior to the
Morse system that the latter is now used almost
throughout the world.

Professor Morse no longer suffered from poverty.
Telegraph companies were soon organized all over the
country, his invention was adopted in Europe, and
in a few years he was the happy possessor of a large
fortune. Honors also were showered upon him. Yale
College complimented him with the degree of LL.D.,
and tokens of recognition came to him from many

152 HEROES OF PROGRESS

other quarters, many of them from Europe, gold
medals and insignia being presented him by several
monarchs.

The telegraph was not the last of the Morse in-
ventions, several others being made by him. He also
took the first daguerreotypes in America, made a
pump-machine for fire-engines, and laid the first
telegraph under water. This was a short line, but he
afterwards took great interest in the efforts of Cyrus
W. Field to lay a submarine cable, and gave him im-
portant aid and advice in the project. He died in New
York, April 2, 1872, having lived to see the telegraph
working across the Atlantic.

CYRUS W. FIELD, THE DESIGNER OF
THE ATLANTIC CABLE

THE work done by Morse in inventing the electric
telegraph and stretching it over the land was but half
the battle to be fought. He had made the continents
a pathway for thought, but the ocean remained to be
conquered also, a channel needed to be made through
the depths of the seas for the passage of human
thought, and the invader of this watery realm came
in the person of Cyrus West Field.

This man of enterprise, who was born at Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, November 30, 1819, was a retired
merchant of thirty-five years of age when the move-
ment of events first brought him into the field of tel-
egraph invention. He was one of four brothers who
became notable in various ways. One of these, David
Dudley Field, became prominent in the law, and was
president of a commission to digest the political, penal,
and civil codes of law in New York. A second, Ste-
phen J. Field, became Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of California, and afterwards an Associate Jus-
tice in the Supreme Court of the United States. A
third, Henry M. Field, was prominent as a clergyman
and author, and editor of The New York Evangelist.
The fourth, by far the most famous of them all, is the
one with whom we are specially concerned. He entered
into business, made a fortune, and retired to enjoy it
while still young.

This was at the time that the newest great dis-
covery, the electric telegraph, was becoming widely

154 HEROES OF PROGRESS

known, being laid rapidly in all directions, and men
had not yet ceased to wonder at its marvellous powers.
In 1854 a number of enterprising persons became
associated in an ambitious scheme. They undertook
to build a telegraph line across the island of New-
foundland, and connect it with a line of fast steamers
from the eastern side of that island, arguing that these
could reach Ireland in five days, and the news of
Europe be brought to America within a week.

These men had ideas, but they lacked cash. They
wanted a man with money to help them. After trying
to build the line and failing for want of funds, they
looked around for a suitable man of wealth. Some of
them knew of Mr. Field as a man who had built up a
big business from a small beginning, was able, rich,
and enterprising, and was out of business and with
leisure to look into their scheme.

The plan was strongly laid before the retired mer-
chant. He was assured it would be of great benefit
to the country and be certain to pay. He promised
to think of it, and as he sat in his library, slowly
turning a globe and looking for the situation of New-
foundland and its distance from Ireland, the thought
came to him : ' Why not carry the line across the
ocean ? "

It was one of those illuminating thoughts which lie
at the basis of most great enterprises. Field turned it
over in his head, studied what had been done with the
telegraph, and became daily more assured that it could
be accomplished. It had some warrant in preceding
efforts. Morse had suggested an Atlantic telegraph in
1842, before his first land line was laid, and in 1852 a
submarine cable had been laid from Dover to Ostend,
thus connecting England with the continent of Europe.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 155

The idea conceived, Field lost no time in putting it
in practice. In 1855 he obtained from the legislature
of Newfoundland the sole right for fifty years to land
telegraph cables, from either Europe or America, on
that island. He was the man for the work, full of
energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm. He formed a stock
company at once, and followed this by organizing in
London the "Atlantic Telegraph Company." His faith
in the project was shown by his furnishing one-fourth
of the capital himself. So devoted was he to the work
that he crossed the ocean nearly thirty times before it
was finally carried out.

The project called for great care in the preparation
of the cable. It needed to be made strong and flexible
and to be thoroughly insulated. A mere pin-hole in its
entire length might let the electric current escape. The
centre steel wire was wound round with small copper
wires, and these were covered with several coatings of
gutta-percha and Manila hemp. Gutta-percha is a non-
conductor of electricity, and was intended to prevent
the current from leaving the interior wires. Outside of
all these, eighteen strands of iron wires were laid.

The submarine lines already laid served as examples.
In addition to that between England and France, one
was now working from Newfoundland to the main-
land of America. These short ones were successful ;
why should not a longer one be? Field's enthusiasm
induced some wealthy men to put money into the
enterprise, and in 1857 a wire was ready and an ex-
pedition set out to lay it on the ocean bottom, ships
being provided by the American and English govern-
ments. This first attempt proved a failure, as did a
second one in the spring of the following year. But in
August of that year a third trial was made and this

156 HEROES OF PROGRESS

time with success. For the first time in history the
thoughts of man were sent in an instant of time under
and across the ocean.

Those who lived in those days will remember the
vast interest, the great excitement, it produced. There
were celebrations on both sides of the water. Mes-
sages passed between President Buchanan and Queen
Victoria, words of greeting and congratulation. They
passed very slowly, but they passed. It took sixty-
seven minutes to send the queen's message of ninety
words. The current was distressingly feeble. It grad-
ually failed and ceased to work. The sending of
messages across the ocean was at an end.

Field now found himself in a quandary. These
experiments had been very costly, and the capitalists
began to think that there was enough of their money
lying on the bottom of the ocean. They tied their
purse strings, and the enterprising projector found
money for a new cable very hard to get. " It worked
once. It will work again," he argued. " It failed
once, it may fail again," they answered. They had
the best of the argument, for they had the money and
the answer both.

Then came on the American Civil War, which put
an end to the enterprise for four long years. But
Cyrus Field did not despair. All through the war
he kept at it, arguing, persuading, beseeching, and in
time the money for a new and stronger cable came
in. In August, 1865, the new cable was ready. It
was much superior to that of seven years earlier. Two
ships had been used in 1858, and the wires spliced in
mid-ocean. Now only one, the huge " Great Eastern,"
was employed. On her decks the whole length of
cable, 2300 miles, weighing 4000 tons, was laid, and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 157

she steamed away from Valentia, Ireland, on her
difficult task. All went well until she was 1067 miles
out, when by accident too much strain was put on the
cable, it broke and sank, and failure had come again.

But the end was near at hand. With great difficulty
Field raised more funds, had another cable made,
lighter and stronger than the last one, and this time the
" Great Eastern " made her journey without an
accident, the shore end was safely landed at Trinity
Bay, Newfoundland, messages passed freely from
end to end, and one of the most wonderful of modern
enterprises was safely accomplished. Then the ship
went back to mid-ocean, grappled in the water's depths,
two miles down, for the lost cable of the year before,
caught it and brought it up, spliced it to the unlaid part,
and set out again for Newfoundland. This, too, was
landed, and two electric cables crossed the seas. Cyrus
Field had not only achieved his great work, but had
duplicated it.

The wires worked splendidly. Men began to talk
across the ocean as they had formerly talked across
the street. It was expensive at first, one hundred
dollars being charged for twenty words of five letters
each. But the rates soon went down, and now, instead
of paying five dollars for a word, messages can be sent
for twenty-five cents a word.

Mr. Field's success brought him the highest honor.
Men no longer laughed at his enterprise as, years
before, they had laughed at that of Morse, and, years
earlier still, at that of Fulton. Congress voted him the
thanks of the nation, and presented him a gold medal
and other testimonials of honor and respect. The
French Exposition, which was held soon afterwards,
gave him its grand medal, and honors were showered

158 HEROES OF PROGRESS

upon him from other quarters. Success in his great
enterprise had made him one of the conquering heroes
of the world.

Mr. Field did not rest in his later years, but spent
an active and useful life, taking part in various im-
portant business enterprises. In 1871 he went into a
company which proposed to lay a cable across the
Pacific by way of Hawaii and Japan to China. This
was not done, but since then electric cables have been
laid across that great ocean. He also took part .in
laying the street railways of New York, and engaged
very actively in the building of the elevated railways of
that city. He died in New York, July 12, 1892.

ELIAS HOWE, THE INVENTOR OF
THE SEWING MACHINE

FOR centuries and tens of centuries the needle has
been in use as woman's especial tool. From the re-
mote stone age down to the present day the song of
" Stitch ! Stitch ! Stitch !" has been sung, and only
about sixty years ago did the whirr of the sewing-
machine begin to serve as the chorus to this wearisome
song. Then a poor inventor of Yankeeland set his
wits to work, and when he ended the machine was
devised whose merry music may be heard to-day in
hundreds of thousands of homes.

Poor Elias Howe ! The story of his life reads like a
romance ; but, like that of many inventors, it was a
romance of poverty, misfortune, endless discourage-
ments, stern perseverance, a clinging to one idea
through the darkest of days, and, in the end, success.
He would have been a far happier man if the fever
of invention had not seized upon him, but millions of
households would have been less happy if he, or
some one like him, had not brought ease and rest to
the fingers of the sewing-woman.

Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts,
July 19, 1819. He was born to poverty and hard
work. Until he was sixteen years old he dug and
delved on his father's farm and wrought in his mill.
Then he went to Lowell and learned the machinist's
trade, and from there to Cambridge — a frail, sickly
fellow, barely able to earn a living on account of per-
sistent ill health. Yet he married, and by the time

160 HEROES OF PROGRESS

he was twenty-three had a wife and three children
to support. Then, one day, he happened to hear
some men in the shop talking of what a useful thing a
sewing-machine would be, and the true work of Elias
Howe's life began. From that day on, the idea of in-
venting such a machine stirred in his mind and would
not let him rest.

The idea was new only to him. Many had tried it
before, but with no great success. The first invention
dates back to 1755, when Charles F. Weisenthal, of
England, patented a needle with an eye in the centre
and pointed at both ends. Several other inventions
were made, intended for embroidering, and some also
for sewing shoes and gloves, but none of them mak-
ing a firm, secure, and satisfactory stitch. The task of
accomplishing this was left for Elias Howe.

From the time he heard the men talking in the
shop Howe was haunted with the idea. In the evening,
after his day's work was done, he would sit for hours
in his humble home, watching his wife's busy fingers
as her needle went in and out through the cloth, and
thinking deeply as he sat. Up to this time, through
all the ages, the hand of woman had been the one
sewing machine, and his first idea was to make a
machine that would work like the fingers of a seam-
stress. For a year he watched and worked, trying
various devices, but in the end he gave this project
up. He saw that a stitch of a different kind was needed.

His constant thought at length bore fruit. A single
thread evidently would not do. It would not hold.
If broken it would ravel out. All previous machines
had used one thread, but to do work that would hold
two threads were needed. He was now on the right
track, that of the lock stitch. The idea came to him

HEROES OF PROGRESS 161

of using a needle with an eye near the point, passing
through the cloth and making a loop in the thread,
and a shuttle carrying another thread and darting back-
ward and forward, carrying its thread through the
loop and locking the stitch by the joint movements
of needle and shuttle.

It was a happy idea. It contained the principle
on which the sewing-machine of to-day is based. It
it true that there are single thread sewing-machines
now in use which make a stitch that is all right if
the thread does not break ; but it is all wrong if it does.
The shuttle was Howe's great invention, and it is the
life of the sewing machine.

But it is one thing to have an idea in the mind, and
another thing to make it work in wood and metal.
Feeble in health, empty in pocket, the young inventor
had a difficult task before him. His father could
not help him, for he was as poor as himself. Finally
he found a friend who believed in his idea, and who
had money. This was George Fisher, a Cambridge
wood and coal dealer, who agreed to give Mr. Howe
and his family a home and food and to furnish him
with five hundred dollars for his experiments. For
this he was to have a half interest in the invention,
if one should be made.

At last poor Howe had the opportunity to work out
his ideas. The garret of Fisher's house was his
workshop, and there he toiled diligently day after day,
his day often running far into the night. For a great
part of the year he kept at it, planning and devis-
ing, trying various ways of making his needle and
shuttle work, experimenting in a dozen directions.
Finally, in April, 1845, ne had ^ so ^ar perfected that
it would sew a seam, and in July he proved what it
ii

1 62 HEROES OF PROGRESS

could do by making with his machine a suit of woolen
clothes for himself and another for Mr. Fisher. Suc-
cess was at length attained. Crude as the machine
was, it contained the essential features of the splendid
machines made to-day.

Howe's needle was a great invention, without which
no sewing-machine would be available. So was his
shuttle. The two together made the firmest of stitches.
His needle at first worked horizontally, and the cloth
was passed vertically through the machine. But it was
not long before the needle was set to work vertically,
and the cloth was laid upon the table of the machine,
with devices to move it at proper speed under the
needle. This done, victory was gained.

So far the difficulties had been workshop labor.
Now the inventor had a fight with the world before
him, and he found it a terrible one. The machine was
completed, it was patented, it was offered to the tailor-
ing trade, but nobody would buy it. Tailors looked
at it, saw it work, said that it was no doubt very
ingenious and might be useful — but they would not
buy it. It was costly, and might soon get out of order.
And if successful, think of the thousands of men and
women it would throw out of work ! In the end Mr.
Fisher got tired of keeping Howe and his family for
his interest in a machine that would not sell, and the
older Mr. Howe was obliged to take them in. He was
too poor to support them, and Elias got a place as rail-
road engineer, and the precious machine was banished
to a corner. As for Fisher, in the end he grew to look
so contemptuously on the invention that he was ready
to sell his half interest in it for a small sum, and Howe
succeeded in regaining possession of the whole.

As soon as he had saved a little money, Elias sent his

HEROES OF PROGRESS 163

brother Amasa to England with the model of his
machine, to see if it could be introduced there. Amasa
made some sort of arrangement with a corset-maker,
and Elias, with new hope, set off with his wife and
children for London, trusting to find a market for his
wares. But it was the same story over again.
Everywhere he met with discouragement and disap-
pointment. The corset-maker did not treat him fairly,
his money ran very low, and he was forced to send his
wife and children back again to his father, staying
himself in London in hope of better luck.

No luck came, his last dollar was spent, and in the
end he had to pawn his model and patent papers for
money enough to bring him home again. He landed in
New York, and there received the distressing news that
his wife was dying of consumption in Cambridge.

The poor fellow had not money enough to pay rail-
road fare, he was too weak to walk, and he had to
stay where he was until some one sent him money
enough to bring him home to his dying wife. He
reached Cambridge barely in time to see her alive.
Soon the spirit of the faithful wife and mother, whose
busy needle had formed the inspiration for his machine,
passed away and left him almost heart-broken.

It may well be that poor Howe wished he could
follow her himself and give up the fight. It was now
1849. Several years had been spent in America
and England in destitution and constant disappoint-
ment; his labor, his time, his talent, had gone for
nothing ; ill health had been his companion, death had
removed his wife, he and his children were a charge
upon his father, many of his friends thought that he
had wasted his life in useless fancies ; the outlook was
enough to make him despair.

1 64 HEROES OF PROGRESS

But there came a change in the tide of events. The
inventor found friends ready to advance him money
for a purpose next to be mentioned, and for the first
time fortune began to smile on him. No doubt it
was a bitter thought to him that the good wife who had
shared his days of misery was not with him now that
hope was rising in his sky.

The fact was that while he was in England his
invention had been pirated in America, machines had
been made on the principle discovered by him, and
their makers, more fortunate than he, had found
buyers for them. He came home to learn that his name
was growing famous and his invention was fast com-
ing into use. There were various inventors who
had made improvements upon it, but all of them used
his ideas in some form or other and were infringing
upon his patent. He thereupon, aided by his friends,
began a series of lawsuits against those who were
using the ideas to which he had given years of his
life, and especially against a Mr. Singer who was
making money by selling an improvement upon his
machine.

The battle in the courts was long and hard. The
pirates fought fiercely. Among other things they
unearthed a machine which had been worked upon by
a Walter Hunt of New York about 1832, in which
the lock-stitch was to be employed. But it was
proved that this had been a dead failure, and in 1854
the courts decided in Howe's favor, ordering all the
pirates to pay him a royalty on every machine they
had made or should make. Thus, after ten years of
desperate work, the inventor attained success.

He had opened a small factory in New York, but
his royalties now began to pour money upon him

HEROES OF PROGRESS 165

much faster than his sales, and his total income from
them amounted in time to over $2,000,000. He lived
to see the machine to which he had given the best
years of his life accepted as one of the world's great-
est inventions, while honors were showered upon him.
Among these were the Cross of the Legion of Honor,
which came to him from France, and a gold medal from
the French Exposition.

In 1861 he raised and equipped at his own expense
a regiment for the Civil War, in which he served as
a private until ill health compelled him to resign. His
labors, his long anxiety and privation, his naturally frail
constitution, were now telling upon him, and two years
after the war, on the 3d of October, 1867, the famous
inventor died.

CYRUS H. McCORMICK, THE BENE-
FACTOR OF THE FARMER

AT Walnut Grove, Virginia, on February 15, 1809,
was born a boy who lived to become one of the great-
est benefactors of the farmer ever born in any land.
This was Cyrus Hall McCormick, the inventor of the
reaping machine. Such a machine had long been
needed. Reaping by hand was slow and back-breaking
work, and something was wanted that would cut and
gather grain swiftly and economically. While young
McCormick was a schoolboy, his father was trying to
invent such a machine, but was making a very poor
job of it. The boy spent much of his time on the
plantation, helping in the fields or occupying himself
in the saw and grist mills, the carpenter and black-
smith shops, which were on the plantation. All this
interested him, for the spirit of invention was in his
blood.

He showed this when only fifteen years old by mak-
ing a light, easily-handled grain cradle, much better
fitted to his weight than the heavy cradles then in use.
Two years after this he produced a hill-side plough
with the special feature that it was self-sharpening, a
new feature in a plough. The boy's inventive powers
were developing. He watched his father working upon
the reaper, and when the latter gave it up in disgust, he
asked permission to try his hand on it. " You would
only waste your time," said the father. ' The thing-
has been tried a hundred times, and no one has brought
166

HEROES OF PROGRESS 167

out anything worth talking about. A reaper is an im-
possibility."

Young McCormick did not think so. He was almost
a man then, and his ideas were ripening. " All right,"
said his father at length. " There is my old failure.
Take hold of it and see what you can do with it. Let
us see if you are smarter than your father."

The boy took hold of the machine, studied it, in-
vestigated it, considered its difficulties, and found
that, as his father had said, that particular reaper was
impossible. But a different one might be made. Grad-
ually he worked out in his active brain a new plan.
There were several things to be done. The standing
grain was to be held in a body and cut, and there
must be a platform upon which it could fall and be
taken care of.

He decided that the cutting must be done with a
sort of shears, arranged in a series and acting right and
left with what is called a reciprocating motion as the
machine moved forward. There must be a reel to
gather and hold the grain, the sharp-edged blades to
cut it, and a platform upon which it could fall and be
gathered into bundles or sheaves. These were the
ideas ; how they were to be applied was the problem.

The inventor went to work, experimenting, devising,
thinking out point after point. Every part of the
machine was made by his own hands, the cranks, the
gears, the cutting blades, the gathering reels, the
various other devices ; he fitting them, putting them
together, and finally sending his machine into the
field to see what it could do. It did not work badly for
a beginning. A man rode on the horse that drew the
machine through the grain. Another man walked be-
side it to draw the swaths from the platform. No

1 68 HEROES OF PROGRESS

doubt the elder McCormick looked on with curious
interest, but we do not know what he said.

In 1831 — the inventor was then twenty-two years
old — the first public trial of the machine was made. A
number of experienced farmers looked on while it cut
its way with considerable speed through several acres
of oats. The next year it was tried in a wheat field, and
harvested seventy-five acres. So far it was a success,
but the farmers did not approve of it sufficiently to
buy it, and McCormick set it aside for the time being,
going into the iron-smelting business, in which he saw
better promise of quick returns.

The panic of 1837 and the hard times that followed
wrecked this enterprise, and the best he could do was
to get out of the affair without money but free from
debt. Then he turned back to the reaper, saw at once
where it could be improved, tinkered with it for a
time, then moved west with it, first to Cincinnati and
afterwards to Chicago. Here he set up factories for
the manufacture of the machine.

It was about 1840 that he got the reaper in what
he thought satisfactory working order, and began to
push it on the market. Buyers were found, the farmers
saw the advantage of the new machine, and after he
had gained a good business in this country he went
abroad with the purpose of introducing his reapers into
the fields of Europe. In 1851 he showed it at the
World's Fair at London, where it was looked upon as
the queer production of a Yankee crank. The news-
papers and visitors made no end of fun of the odd-
looking machine, which the London Times said seemed
like a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow,
and a flying machine.

A few weeks later the laugh was on the other side.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 169

The reaper was tested in a number of English grain
fields, in competition with some other machines, and
left them all so far in the rear that there was an
utter change of front, the McCormick reaper being
voted the most important thing in the whole fair. The
Times made atonement for its former ridicule by say-
ing that the reaper was equal in value to the whole
exhibition. Among all the agricultural implements
shown, this alone received the great medal, and the
lately ridiculed man was rewarded with the highest
honors, as having done more for agriculture than any
other man of the century. France matched England
by honoring him with the Cross of the Legion of
Honor. Some years later it bestowed the greater
honor of making him an officer of the Legion of
Honor and a member of the French Academy of
Science.

McCormick was more than an inventor. He was a
business man, which many inventors are not. While
manufacturing and selling his reaper he kept on im-
proving it till it become the wonderful machine of
to-day, cutting grass and grain alike, gathering the
grain into sheaves, binding them with twine, and lay-
ing them on the ground. And all this it does itself,
without stopping, and with only one man to manage it,
the man who drives the horses.

Before McCormick went to Europe he had gained a
large business in America. In 1848 he took the great
risk, for a man of moderate capital, of building
seven hundred machines for the coming harvest. But
they were all sold, and he could well smile at the com-
ments of the London press in 1851. In 1880, after the
business had been in operation more than thirty years,
it was made into a joint-stock company, with Mr.

170 HEROES OF PROGRESS

McCormick as president, and his brother, who had long
been his partner, as vice-president.

Four years later, on May 13, 1884, Mr. McCormick
died. At that time the company had a capital of three
million dollars, and was turning out nearly fifty-five
thousand machines a year, these being sold in all parts
of the world. It is largely due to this great machine
that the United States outstrips the world as a grain
producer, and that the hay-harvest has grown to be
one of the most valuable of our farm crops. Cyrus
McCormick ranks among the greatest benefactors of
mankind.

CHARLES GOODYEAR, THE PRINCE OF
THE RUBBER INDUSTRY

THE stories of Morse of the telegraph and Howe
of the sewing-machine are remarkable examples of per-
severance under difficulties that would crush a common
man. The story of Charles Goodyear, which we have
next to tell, is one of the same kind. No man ever
kept up his spirit longer under trials and troubles than
this great discoverer, winning success where thousands
would have failed. The story of his life is that of the
India-rubber industry. His labors in this took more
than ten years of the prime of his life. For it he
suffered poverty, imprisonment, and ridicule, arid,
though he produced one of the great modern indus-
tries, he failed to gain an adequate return in money for
his great sacrifice. Fortune did not come to him as
it did to Morse and Howe, and he had largely to be
content with the satisfaction of helping mankind.

The sap of the India-rubber tree long held out a
promising lure to inventors. It formed a waterproof
material which could readily be moulded into almost
any shape, and in the first half of the last century many
companies were organized for the manufacture of
shoes and other rubber goods. But there was one
great difficulty, the rubber was fit for use in winter,
but it would not bear the summer's heat, softening and
becoming useless.

In the opinion of certain manufacturers of India-
rubber life-preservers in 1834, the business was al-
most hopeless. They would make a large quantity of

171

172 HEROES OF PROGRESS

goods during the winter and sell them for good
prices, but in the summer many of these melted down
and were returned as ruined. The rubber would grow
sticky in the sun and stiff in the cold. Many efforts
had been made to overcome this by mixing other
materials with it, but all in vain, and ruin seemed to
stare all rubber manufacturers in the face. The man
who saved them from this fate was Charles Good-
year, a merchant of Philadelphia, but a native of
New Haven, Connecticut, in which city he was born
on the 29th of December, 1800.

At the time mentioned he was engaged in the hard-
ware business of A. Goodyear & Sons in the Quaker
City. At this period a very large business had sprung
up in the rubber trade, in spite of its disadvantages,
and he grew interested in it as a possible source of
profit. When in New York one day he bought one
of the India-rubber life-preservers made by the Rox-
bury Rubber Co., the manufacturers above spoken
of. Having the taste for invention of a true son of
Connecticut, he took this home, examined it carefully,
and fancied that he could improve upon it. He soon
devised a plan, which he took to the Roxbury Company
and asked them to adopt. They declined to do so,
telling him the story of their difficulties in some such
words as those above given.

" Your plan is a good one," he was told, " but busi-
ness conditions will not let us take on new expenses.
If you can only find some way to make India-rubber
stand the heat of summer and the cold of winter, both
our fortunes will be made. Anything less than that
will be of no use to us."

Here was an idea, thrown out as a mere suggestion,
but it was one that sank deep into Charles Goodyear's

HEROES OF PROGRESS 173

mind. But he was very poorly fitted to work it out.
A chemical process was needed, and he knew almost
nothing of chemistry. In fact, he had little education
of any kind. Money was wanted, and he was scantily
provided with that. The failure of some business
houses about this time made his father's firm bank-
rupt, and he, as a member of the firm, was arrested and
imprisoned for debt.

Those were the years in which a debtor could be
put in prison, and during the several years following
Goodyear spent much of his time in jail. He had a
family, he was in poor health, he needed to do some-
thing that would make him a living, but he had grown
so infatuated with the idea of discovering the secret
of a marketable India-rubber that he could think of
nothing else.

Rubber was abundant enough in those days, and he
was able easily to get it even when in prison. He was
constantly engaged in experiments with it, whether in
prison or out. His friends, who aided him at first,
soon grew tired of encouraging him in what they
deemed his infatuation. His ignorance of chemistry
was much against him, and though he explained his
difficulty to the chemists of his city, none of them were
able to help him.

If Charles Goodyear lacked money, there was one
thing he had in abundance — perseverance. He never
gave up. Persuasion, argument, ridicule, had no effect
upon him. He tried endless experiments, made India-
rubber fabrics of various kinds, and, with a native taste
for art, ornamented some of them. It was this that
led to his first step towards success.

He had bronzed the surface of some rubber drapery,
and, finding his bronze too heavy, poured aquafortis

174 HEROES OF PROGRESS

on it to eat some of it away. The acid did its work
too well, removing all the bronze and discoloring
the fabric, so that he threw it away as spoiled. Think-
ing over it some days later, he picked up the discarded
piece and examined it again, and was delighted to
find it much improved in quality, it bearing heat far
better than any he had tried before. Here was some-
thing learned. He hastened to patent his new process,
and, gaining some money, he engaged in the manu-
facture of rubber treated with aquafortis.

But his troubles were not yet at an end. People had
grown sick of India-rubber, which had ruined many
firms that had engaged in it, and no capitalists cared
to touch it. As for Goodyear himself, many began
to think that he had become so possessed with his
idea that he was little better than a crazy man. His
enthusiasm for his rubber was such that he wore whole
suits made of it, coat, cap, shoes, and all, and made
himself a walking advertisement. He talked of it so
incessantly that people felt like running away from
him. It was " rubber, rubber, rubber," all day long,
till many voted him a nuisance.

All this time he was suffering from poverty, and the
pawnbroker and he grew much too well acquainted.
His family suffered as well, and want ruled in the
Goodyear household. After a time he persuaded some
of the members of the old Roxbury Company to invest
in his new discovery, and a new factory was started,
which for a time did a large business. Then it was
found that the aquafortis hardened the surface only,
and that the rest of the rubber would not bear the
heat. At once the business fell off, the Roxbury men
withdrew their funds, and the inventor sank into des-
titution again.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 175

His friends now did their utmost to persuade him to
give up his fruitless work. His wife and children did
the same. But they advised and persuaded in vain.
He would not yield. Through all he was working
blindly, handicapped by his small knowledge of chem-
istry, and simply making chance experiments, but for
all this he kept on. Luck came through an assistant of
his who had tried the effect of mixing the gum with
sulphur. This was a new process, not tried before by
Goodyear, and he studied it thoroughly, working at
it for months, but with very unsatisfactory results.
Yet the end was near at hand. Chance helped him
where science had failed. One day in 1839 a mass of
gum and sulphur he had mixed happened to touch a
red-hot stove. To his surprise and delight, its char-
acter was changed by the heat and it would not melt.
He tried and tested it in every way he could think of,
and always with the same result. He had penetrated
the mystery. The great secret was his ! All that was
needed was to mix the gum with sulphur and expose
it to great heat. It would afterwards stand both heat
and cold.

For five years the indefatigable investigator had been
steadily at work, in prison and out, in poverty and
want, under every discouragement, enduring the rid-
icule of the public, the reproaches of friends and family,
the inswlts of those who touched their heads signifi-
cantly when they looked at him. He had at last won
out, as the saying is ; the great discovery of vulcanized
rubber was his, and fortune at length seemed to lie in
his path.

Yet it did not come quickly. Six years more of
severe labor and hard trials were before him. He
did not propose to act hastily again, as he had with his

176 HEROES OF PROGRESS

former discovery. He spent these years in new experi-
ments, working out one thing after another, perfecting
this point and that, and taking out a patent on every-
thing achieved, until he had sixty patents in all, cover-
ing every step he had made.

Unfortunately, his patents were confined to America.
Other parties secured in England and France the rights
which should have been his, litigation was needed at
home to protect his rights, and his profits from his
valuable discovery were far smaller than they should
have been. But honors came to him from many
sources. From the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851
he received the Grand Council medal, and at the Paris
Exposition of 1855 the emperor gave him the Grand
Medal of Honor and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
But disease had attacked the discoverer. Returning
to America in 1858, he went to work energetically to
perfect his processes, but his ills had become chronic,
and death came two years later, on July i, 1860.

" He lived," says Parton, " to see his material applied
to nearly five hundred uses, and to give employment,
in England, Germany, France, and the United States,

to sixty thousand persons Art, science and

humanity are indebted to him for a material which
serves the purposes of them all, and serves them as no
other known material could."

DE WITT CLINTON, THE FATHER OF
THE ERIE CANAL

IN October, 1825, the close of the first quarter of the
nineteenth century was made notable by a spectacular
event. At Buffalo, on the western border of the State
of New York, the sluice-way was opened that closed
the mouth of the Erie Canal, and the waters of Lake
Erie rushed into this vast excavation, much the great-
est example of engineering work the country had then
seen. This was before the days of the electric telegraph,
and a novel system of telegraphing was adopted to
convey the news to the eagerly awaiting people of
New York City. A row of cannon, about five miles
apart, was arranged along the canal, and these were
fired in succession as fast as the sound traveled from
one to the next in line, so that in a very short time
the news was sent across the State and made its way
from Buffalo to New York.

Then a triumphal barge was launched on the canal,
carrying Governor Clinton, the great patron of the
work, over the three hundred and sixty-three miles
from Buffalo to Albany and thence down the Hudson
River to New York, the people of the State gathering
in multitudes to cheer him as he passed. He brought
with him a keg of water from Lake Erie, which was
poured with pomp and ceremony into the waters of
New York Bay, thus accomplishing the marriage of
the lake with the ocean. It was the final test of a
great success, that which linked the Great Lakes with
the Atlantic at the Hudson's mouth.

12

177

1 78 HEROES OF PROGRESS

The canal was a work of the noblest economic im-
portance. Before its opening it cost ten dollars and
took three weeks to transport a barrel of flour over-
land from Buffalo to Albany. By way of the canal it
could be sent through in a week, at a cost of thirty
cents. To-day grain boats follow each other in one
continuous line, day and night, along the canal, while
a like procession of boats laden with merchandise
traverses its waters in the opposite direction.

De Witt Clinton, to whose energy and enterprise our
country owes this great achievement, was born at Little
Britain, New York, March 2, 1769. He came from a
distinguished colonial family, his grandfather being
Colonel Charles Clinton and his father General James
Clinton, a prominent officer in the French and Indian
and the Revolutionary Wars. His uncle, George Clin-
ton, was a member of the Continental Congress ; voted
for the Declaration of Independence, though military
duties prevented him from being present to sign it ; was
the first governor of New York, and held that office for
eighteen years ; and was elected Vice-President of the
United States under Jefferson in 1804, and again under
Madison in 1808.

As may be seen from his ancestry, De Witt Clinton
was born to a prominent position in New York, if he
should prove capable of filling it. As it was, he showed
himself an able statesman, and his whole life was spent
in the public service. A boy patriot in the Revolution,
he graduated at Columbia College in 1786, and studied
law, though he afterwards had very little opportunity
to practice it.

His public career began in or about 1790, as private
secretary for his uncle. Governor George Clinton.
Though then only twenty-one years of age, he quickly

HEROES OF PROGRESS 179

became active in public affairs. We are told that " the
life of Clinton was from this moment one of political
strife, into which he threw all the force of his ardent
temperament and brilliant talents." In the course of
some years he rose from one political position to
another, entering the legislature in 1797, the State
Senate in 1798, and being elected a Senator of the
United States in 1801 or 1802. Politically, he was a
member of the Anti-Federalist party, and shortly rose
to be the leader of the Democratic party in New York.

As a member of the Senate Clinton showed himself
an orator of commanding eloquence, his most notable
speech being one on the navigation of the Mississippi
River, the leading question of that day. In this he
opposed a war with Spain, which country had closed
that river against American shipping. Soon after-
wards this question was settled amicably, President
Jefferson purchasing the Mississippi and all the terri-
tory through which it ran, and making the whole of it
a part of the United States.

In 1803 Mr. Clinton was elected Mayor of the city of
New York, then a post of high importance, for the
Mayor was President of the Council and Chief Judge
of the Common Pleas and Criminal Courts. In the
words of Professor Renfrew, " He was on all sides
looked up to as the most rising man in the Union." He
served as Mayor at successive intervals until 1814, the
city growing prosperous under his administrations.
Among the institutions fostered by him were the His-
torical Society, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the first
orphan asylum of the city. He favored other institu-
tions, and devoted much time and thought to the found-
ing of free schools, public libraries, and other aids to
the education of the people.

i8o HEROES OF PROGRESS

In the early years of the century he found his chief
political rival in Aaron Burr, then one of the ablest and
most unscrupulous politicians of the country. After the
discredit of Burr, Daniel D. Tompkins, a man who
excelled in gaining the favor of the people, became his
competitor for control of the Democratic party. Clin-
ton was deficient in the art of currying favor. A man
of stately and often haughty bearing, with a hasty
temper which at times got him into needless difficulties,
he had only his fine powers as an orator and his many
acts of kindness to depend upon. But these won him
many friends, and in spite of all the harm his political
enemies — the Tammany Party — could do him, there
was not a poor man in New York but looked upon him
as a friend, and he held the people's love till his death.

Clinton had the laudable ambition which has affected
many worthy statesmen since his time, that of becoming
President of the United States, and he had made him-
self so prominent that in 1812 he was a candidate
against President Madison for the Presidency, gaining
the electoral vote of nearly all the New England and
Middle States. He was defeated by a vote of one
hundred and twenty-eight to eighty-nine. He lost
favor in a measure by his disagreement with the Presi-
dent about the War of 1812, though his opposition to
it was solely on the basis that the country was ill pre-
pared for such a war. The event proved that he was
right in this.

For two of the years in which Clinton was Mayor,
1811-13, he was also Lieutenant-Governor of the State,
and in 1817 he was elected Governor by an almost un-
animous vote. The great question of the campaign was
that of the projected Erie Canal, the need of which the
State of New York was feeling more and more strongly

HEROES OF PROGRESS 181

as the years passed on and population increased. This
was before the era of the railroads. Had they existed
at that time, the canal would never have been made.
But the growth of the lake trade, and the difficulty of
carrying grain and merchandise in wagons over the
whole length of the State, called for some cheaper and
easier method, and the question of a canal grew prom-
inent in the popular thought and talk.

The idea of excavating a canal from the lakes to the
Hudson was not a new one. It had been germinating
since early in the century. Seven commissioners had
been appointed in 1809 to examine and survey a route
for such a canal, and Mayor Clinton was one of these.
The need of it grew more urgent as time went on, but
the magnitude and great cost of the work stood in its
way. In 1817 the canal was the great State question
of the day, and Clinton stood as its candidate. In
the spring of that year, largely through his influ-
ence, the legislature passed a bill authorizing the
canal, and on the 4th of July, 1817, the great work
which was to become his chief title to fame was begun.

It called for heavy taxation, many did not believe
it possible, and a powerful party, called " Bucktails,"
arose, who denounced the project as visionary and
ridiculous. " Clinton's big ditch " it was called in
derision, and this title became a standing joke in the
opposing newspapers. It was utterly absurd, they
said, to think of digging a canal across three hundred
and sixty miles of territory, through unbroken forests,
over hills, against difficulties innumerable. It was in-
credible that boats could make their way from the lakes
to the sea across such a country. But in spite of all
this Clinton went on with the work.

In 1820 Clinton's old rival, Daniel D. Tompkins, was

182 HEROES OF PROGRESS

on the opposition ticket, and though he was re-elected,
his opponents gained majorities in both branches of
legislature. The canal policy had been the great issue
of the campaign, and the work became blocked by a
refusal to vote money for its prosecution. In 1822 he
declined to run for the office, and in 1824 his adver-
saries, who had come into power, removed him from
the office of Canal Commissioner. This excited the
indignation of the people, who regarded Clinton as the
father of the canal, and in the election of that year he
was made Governor again by a majority of 16,000, the
largest that any candidate had ever received in the
State.

Meanwhile the canal went on, slowly but surely,
now halting, now hasting, in its career, its construction
sustained throughout by the perseverance and energy of
Governor Clinton. The task was an immense one,
well calculated to frighten a sparse and poor popula-
tion. For eight years it employed an army of laborers,
who cut down forests, blasted a channel through rock,
carried the bed up seemingly impassable hills by the
aid of locks, conveyed it over rivers in aqueducts,
keeping on indefatigably until 1825, when the last
spadeful of earth was lifted, the sluices were opened,
water was let into the " ditch," and Governor Clinton
made his triumphal tour by water across the length of
the State.

He could well be proud of it, for it was his. With-
out his far-seeing enterprise it might never have been
possible to carry it to completion. Clinton was
the hero of the day. Men who had called him a
visionary idiot were now loud in his praises. Bon-
fires, fireworks, processions, and speeches were the
order of the day, and when the victor appeared in

HEROES OF PROGRESS 183

New York with his keg of Lake Erie water, the whole
city rose to do him honor and went wild with enthu-
siasm. In 1825 he was offered by President Adams
the honorable post of Minister to England. This
he declined, and the next year was re-elected Governor
by a rousing majority. He was now the most popular
man in the State. He lived to see the canal a great
success, dying suddenly at Albany, in the Governor's
chair, February n, 1828.

Even to-day, with all the great engineering works
of the age, the Erie Canal does not appear a small
affair. It seemed stupendous in those days, when the
country was young and poor, and when much of the
state was an unbroken and largely unknown wilder-
ness. It was a great credit to the foresight and indefat-
igable energy of De Witt Clinton, and has since been
of immeasurable benefit to the State of New York.
as it stands to-day, its length is given as 365% miles ;
its width from 53 to 79 feet at the bottom and 70 to 98
at the top; its depth from 7^ to gl/2 feet. Its total
rise above sea-level is 656^2 feet, this height being
overcome by the use of numerous locks. Despite the
rivalry of the railroad, no thought has arisen of aban-
doning " Clinton's big ditch." On the contrary, it is
proposed to increase it in size so that it may carry
ships instead of barges, and the people of the coming
future may see grain-bearing vessels or steamers mak-
ing their way along a deep and wide artificial river
from end to end of the State of New York.

HORACE WELLS AND THE DISCOV-
ERERS OF ANAESTHESIA

ON the nth of December, 1844, one of the most
important experiments in the history of the world was
performed in the office of Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist
of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Wells, as a patient,
was trying a discovery of his own upon himself. His
friend, Dr. Riggs, was the experimenter. Dr. Wells
inhaled a quantity of nitrous oxide gas, went to sleep
under its effect, and had a large, sound tooth drawn
out without pain.

It was a wonderful, phenomenal operation. Never
before in the history of the world had a surgical opera-
tion been performed without pain. Untold thousands
of times in previous years legs and arms had been
cut off, cancers cut out, and terrible operations of other
kinds taken place, and in all cases the patient had to
lie wide awake, often suffering frightful agony. Var-
ious things had been tried to reduce sensation, but as
a rule they had done more harm than good, and
surgeons were afraid to use them. To perform such an
operation now without making the patient unconscious
would be thought shameful and barbarous, and it
seems strange to us that the first time it was success-
fully done was only sixty years ago. About the same
time two other American scientists produced anaes-
thesia by other means, so that the great discovery
seemed to come at once in several fields. We shall tell
the story of these other two when we have told that
of Dr. Wells.
184

HEROES OF PROGRESS 185

Horace Wells was born in Hartford, Vermont, Jan-
uary 21, 1815. His parents were well-to-do farmers.
He was a handsome, active, intelligent boy, and he was
given a good education. His father dying before his
school life ended, he completed his education by aid
of money earned by teaching in district and writing
schools. As he grew up towards manhood he had
serious thoughts of studying for the ministry, but
chose the profession of dentistry instead, and at the
age of nineteen went to Boston to study for it.

Not much can be said for the dentistry of that
period. It was a relic of barbarism, with very little
of art or skill in its practice. A movement to improve
it had but recently begun. The first College of Dental
Surgery in this country was founded in Baltimore in
1840, and young Wells did not find any very skillful
professors in Boston in 1834. But he was quick
and intelligent, made rapid progress in his profession,
invented many instruments for himself, and was not
long in practice before he was looked upon as one of
the most expert of the dentists of Boston.

Among his inventions was a solder to fasten artifi-
cial teeth upon the plate, and to manufacture and use
this he went into partnership with Dr. William Morton.
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a noted chemist of Boston,
gave them a certificate of the purity and value of the
solder, which was much superior to the imperfect sub-
stance then in use. Drs. Morton and Jackson were
the other two discoverers of anaesthesia mentioned, and
it is worthy of mention that these three benefactors of
mankind came thus at one time into close association.

The firm of Wells & Morton did not succeed very
well, and they soon separated, Morton staying in Bos-
ton, and Wells opening an office in Hartford, Con-

1 86 HEROES OF PROGRESS

necticut. While here he gave much time to the thought
that there might be some means of taking out teeth
without pain. He was a student of chemistry, and
from his knowledge of nitrous oxide gas thus learned
he decided to try this substance. He studied its effect
upon animals, and when satisfied that it would put them
to sleep without danger, he decided to make an experi-
ment upon a man — choosing himself as the man. It
was this that led to the notable experiment we have
described, in which his friend, Dr. Riggs, drew out
one of his teeth with scarcely a trace of pain.

The most beneficial of discoveries had been made.
He had given to mankind one of the greatest of bless-
ings. As the poet and physician, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, stated it, " The deepest furrow in the knotted
brow of agony has been smoothed forever." But, like
nearly all new discoveries, the world was slow to accept
it. The innovation was too great and sudden. Some
chemists and doctors wrote and spoke against it,
and there were ministers who went so far as to
denounce it on the ground that it was an impious
meddling with the ways of the Creator, who had sent
pain to the earth as a discipline and benefit to mankind.
But it was soon in use by the dentists of Hartford,
and in no great time made its way to all civilized
lands.

Dr. Wells was a handsome and attractive man,
thoughtful in face, cheerful and cordial in manner,
his face lighting up in conversation in a bright, pleas-
ant fashion. He was by nature sensitive, and did not
make many new acquaintances, confining himself
chiefly to the society of his special friends. Shortly
after his discovery failing health obliged him to go
to Europe for rest and recreation. Here he kept up

HEROES OF PROGRESS 187

his studies in colleges and hospitals. To pay his ex-
penses abroad he imported and sold pictures, and also
lectured on birds, whose habits he had studied lovingly
in his early years.

After returning from Europe, he went to New York
for the purpose of introducing anaesthetics in the hos-
pitals there. Morton and Jackson had made known
their discoveries by that time, and he tried them all,
finally becoming convinced that chloroform, Dr. Jack-
son's discovery, was a better anaesthetic than his own.
He began experimenting with it upon himself, not
knowing its dangerous character, and continued these
experiments till his mind was ruined by the perilous
drug. He had not been a month in New York before,
in an attack of insanity due to his unwise use of chloro-
form, he took his own life. He was just past his thirty-
third year, dying January 24, 1848, a little more than
three years after the date of his famous discovery.

On September 30, 1846, Dr. William T. G. Morton,
of Boston, performed an experiment similar to that
of Dr. Wells nearly two years before. The substance
used by him was sulphuric ether. He had convinced
himself of its safety by trying its effect upon himself,
and now administered it to a patient, from whose jaws
he drew a large, double-pronged tooth. To his delight,
the patient felt no pain, remaining unconscious during
the operation. Soon after he used it upon a patient at
the Massachusetts Hospital. A tumor was removed
from the jaw, a very painful operation in a state of
consciousness, but the patient felt no pain. A second
anaesthetic of unmeasured value had been given to
mankind.

Dr. Morton was born in Charlton, Massachusetts,
August 9, 1819. He entered the new dental college in

1 88 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Baltimore in 1840, studied there and in Boston, and
after graduating was for a time in partnership with
his friend, Dr. Wells. The two men were alike in one
thing: they were both active in improving the instru-
ments of their profession, and both eager to discover
some means of removing teeth without pain. It may
well be that they had talked of the matter together
when in partnership, and even begun their studies and
experiments then. At any rate, we find Dr. Morton
soon afterwards busy in seeking to discover some pain-
killing substance. He tried stimulants, giving the
patient liquor till he was intoxicated. He tried opium.
He experimented with magnetism. All were of no
avail.

One cause of his difficulty was that he knew very
little about medicines or chemistry, and to overcome
this he began to attend lectures in the Medical College
at Boston. It was here he learned that small quan-
tities of sulphuric ether could be breathed in without
injury, and that it tended to produce unconsciousness.
This led him to the successful experiment we have
mentioned. Sulphuric ether was added to the list of
pain-dispelling substances.

Dr. Morton's discovery was no sooner made known
than it began to be used widely in private institutions
and by the Government, without regard to his rights.
He had patented it in the United States and England
under the name of " Etheon," giving free right to its
use in charitable institutions, but it was pirated on all
sides without regard to his patent, and he found it
impossible to obtain redress. There was a bitter dis-
pute between him and Dr. Jackson, who claimed to have
discovered before him that ether was an anaesthetic.
When the French Academy of Sciences appointed

HEROES OF PROGRESS 189

a committee to investigate the merits of the two claim-
ants, and adjudged a prize of twenty-five hundred francs
to each, to Dr. Jackson as " the discoverer of etheriza-
tion," and to Dr. Morton " for the application of this
discovery to scientific operations," Morton refused to
receive his award. Some years later, in 1852, the
Monyton gold medal prize in medicine and surgery
was awarded to him.

He continued to maintain his claim for years, appeal-
ing to Congress for his rights under his patent,
though the struggle became so ruinous to his business
that even his home was attached by the sheriff. A
committee of physicians appointed by Congress re-
ported that the merit of the discovery was his, and
Congress subsequently made a like acknowledgment,
but the appropriation voted upon for him was lost. In
1858 he won a lawsuit before the United States Court
for an infringement upon his patent. But all this
brought him in no money, the royalties were never
paid, and the contest ruined him. He finally became a
farmer, engaged in importing and raising fine cattle,
and died July 15, 1868.

Coming now to the third discoverer of anaesthesia,
Dr. Charles Thomas Jackson, we may say that he
was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, June 21, 1805,
and became a noted chemist and geologist. He
studied medicine at Harvard, graduating at twenty-
four, but did not gain any special distinction as a
doctor, his time and attention being given to miner-
alogy* ge°l°gy, and chemistry, in which he became
famous. He was geologist in succession for Maine,
Rho'le Island, and New Hampshire, taking an active
part in studying the geological and mineral condi-
tions of those States, as also of the wilderness of

190 HEROES OF PROGRESS

northwest New York. He had, shortly after grad-
uating, spent several years studying in Paris, and in-
vestigating the geological conditions of several parts
of Europe. His return was made on the ship " Sully,"
and among his fellow passengers was Professor S. F.
B. Morse. It was Dr. Jackson who told him of the
electrical experiments he had seen in Paris, and thus
put in Morse's mind the idea which afterwards led to
the invention of the electric telegraph.

It was not until after Drs. Wells and Morton had
made public their discoveries that Jackson claimed to
have made the discovery of anaesthetics many years
before. He said that in the year 1834 he had found
that chloroform dissolved in alcohol and put into an
aching tooth would deaden the pain. He also studied
other substances, especially sulphuric ether. Once in
his experiments he breathed by accident chlorine gas
into his lungs. This gave him so much pain that he
inhaled the vapor of ether, hoping for relief. The
relief was so quick and great that he made up his mind
that a surgical operation might be performed without
pain under the influence of ether. This was about the
year 1846, the year of Morton's discovery. Dr. Jack-
son did not try ether on others, and he did not make his
discovery about chloroform known till this time. But
his scientific standing was so high that many took his
word for it. Most of the physicians of Boston believed
in his claim, and great honor was given him abroad,
orders and decorations coming to him from the govern-
ments of France, Sweden, Prussia, Turkey, and Sar-
dinia. The Academy of Sciences of France, as above
stated, awarded him a prize of twenty-five hundred
francs for his discovery.

Dr. Jackson had won a wide reputation as a geologist

HEROES OF PROGRESS 191

and mineralogist, and had become very prominent as
a chemist, making important practical studies upon the
cotton and tobacco plants and other American products.
His bitter contest with Dr. Morton, however, over what
he looked upon as the most important of his discoveries,
was a severe strain upon him, and this, combined with
his devotion to difficult studies and experiments, may
have been the cause of the mental failure which came
upon him in his later years. The last seven years of
his life were passed in an asylum for the insane. He
died August 29, 1880.

The controversy which arose between the three dis-
coverers of anaesthesia made life unhappy for all of
them. It was mainly due to the combative disposition
of Dr. Morton, and his determination to assert his
rights. Of them all, so far as public announcement
of their discoveries was made, Dr. Wells stood first,
and to him belongs the honor of first making known
to the world a means of deadening pain in surgical
operations. But this is a matter of minor importance,
and the echoes of the hot controversy over their respec-
tive claims has long since died away.

The discoveries came so close together in time that
they may be looked upon as a threefold one, Dr. Wells
being given the credit of discovering the pain-deaden-
ing powers of nitrous oxide, Dr. Jackson of those of
chloroform, and Drs. Morton and Jackson simulta-
neously of those of sulphuric ether. This, however, we
may say, that all these discoverers were Americans,
natives of New England, and that to our country is
due, among its many valuable discoveries, the supreme
one of saving man from the agonies of mortal pain.

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, THE
GREAT EMANCIPATOR

ON the loth of December, 1805, at Newburyport,
Massachusetts, was born one of the great leaders in the
train of events that brought on the Civil War. As
great a leader on the opposite side was John C. Cal-
houn, the story of whose life we have given. An
impressive scene, well worth painting, was that in
which, after the capture of Charleston by the Union
army, William Lloyd Garrison, the bitter foe of slavery,
stood beside the grave of Calhoun, its persistent advo-
cate. These two men, one for, the other against, the
institution of slavery, had done their utmost in bringing
about the war which led to its fall, and strange and
deep must have been the thoughts of Garrison as he
gazed upon the grave of his former opponent.

William Lloyd Garrison, as a boy, had to make his
own way in the world. His father was dead, his
mother poor. At the age of nine he began to work in a
shoemaker's shop ; but he gave this up when the oppor-
tunity came for an education, which he paid for by
sawing wood and doing odd jobs when out of school.
Before he was fifteen his school life ended and he
settled down to work.

After trying several things, he became an apprentice
to the printer's trade. At this he not only became a
good workman, but, like Franklin before him, began
to write articles, which were printed without his name
and attracted flattering attention. He was only twenty-
one when he started a paper of his own, and after this

192

HEROES OF PROGRESS 193

failed he was made editor of The National Philan-
thropist, a Boston paper devoted to reform, and one
of the first to take up the temperance cause.

Reform was in Garrison's blood. The whole current
of his thoughts ran that way. A year later we find him
at Bennington, Vermont, editing a little paper that
advocated peace, temperance, and anti-slavery. All
this was pioneer work ; he was educating himself in the
school of reform. His real work began in 1829, when
he went to Baltimore and became editor of an insignifi-
cant newspaper called The Genius of Universal
Emancipation.

This was published by a mild little Quaker named
Benjamin Lundy. It advocated the gradual eman-
cipation of slaves, but had so little sting in it that few
paid any attention to its diatribes. Lundy did not like
this. He wanted more vitality in his paper. He had
read some of Garrison's articles, and judged they were
the stuff he needed. So he trudged on foot from Balti-
more to Bennington, — there were no railroads then, —
called on Garrison, and asked him to go to Baltimore
and edit his paper.

The new editor's touch gave it life. The wasp had
found a sting. No one now thought the paper harmless.
Instead of gradual emancipation, it demanded immedi-
ate and unconditional emancipation ; it denounced slave-
holders and slave-dealers, and this in a city in which
slaves were held. Every week it had a column on the
horrors of the slave system, describing many things
the editor had seen or heard of in Baltimore itself.
One slave called on him and showed his back bleeding
from twenty-seven lash cuts. He had been thus dealt
with for loading a wagon in a way that did not please
his overseer.
13

194 HEROES OF PROGRESS

As may be imagined, The Genius now created a sen-
sation. Garrison's fiery editorials were like so many
bomb-shells thrown among the Baltimore slave-hold-
ers. He was sued for libel, found guilty, and fined fifty
dollars and costs. As he was not able to pay the fine
he was sent to jail. His imprisonment was not severe.
Friends were allowed to visit him, among them John
G. Whittier, the anti-slavery poet. After about a month
and a half Arthur Tappan, a New York merchant with
views like his own, paid the fine, and he was set free.

Garrison's imprisonment made a great stir. It was a
flagrant interference with the liberty of the press.
Even some Southerners, Henry Clay among them,
strongly objected to it. But Garrison saw that Balti-
more was not the city for his work, and he went north
again, delivering there a course of lectures against
slavery.

His lectures were not well received. The anti-
slavery cause was then exceedingly weak, even in New
England, the mass of people being opposed to any inter-
ference with the institution. At Newburyport, his
native town, and at Boston, the churches were closed
against him. His lecture in Boston was delivered in
the hall of a society of infidels. They cared nothing
for emancipation, but they cared a great deal for free-
dom of speech.

Garrison, finding his voice muzzled, turned again to
his pen. He started a small paper called The Liberator,
the first number of which appeared on January I, 1831.
That was an eventful day in the history of slavery,
for with that first number of The Liberator began a
fierce campaign which was not to end while a slave
remained in the land.

It was an enterprise which needed courage and in-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 195

trepidity. Garrison had not a dollar in the world. His
friend, Isaac Knapp, who became his partner, had little
more. They worked as type-setters on The Christian
Examiner, and took their pay in the use of the type
and presses of The Examiner. All the work on The
Liberator was done after the regular day's work was
finished, by Garrison and Knapp. In the first num-
ber they said they would publish the paper as long as
they had bread and water to live on, and for a time
they did live on little more than bread and milk.

The Liberator soon made itself felt. In its opening
address Garrison said : " I will be as harsh as truth
and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject
I do not wish to think or speak or write with modera-
tion. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will
not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I
will be heard !" And he was heard. Some abolitionists
soon supplied a little money, a small office was taken,
he and his partner worked, ate, and slept there, and
The Liberator was launched on its stormy sea.

The new paper speedily made a sensation. Never
had the slave system been so vigorously assailed.
Emancipation of the slaves, without delay, without con-
ditions, without compensation, was its doctrine.
Slavery was an utter wrong and sin, and it was the
dvity of every Christian and every man to fight it with
all his might. Such sentiments, strongly expressed
week after week, were not long in raising a breeze.
The Liberator soon found readers, alike among friends
and foes. It met with much opposition in the North,
where the great bulk of the people were at that time
in sympathy with the slave-holders. In the South it
aroused a torrent of rage.

It had at this time only a small circulation, and

196 HEROES OF PROGRESS

even if the slaves had happened to see it, they could
not have read it. But there was a pictorial heading
with its story for all, the picture of an auction where
" slaves, horses, and other cattle " were offered for
sale, and a whipping post, where a slave was being
flogged. Back of them was the Capitol at Washington,
on its dome a flag with the word " Liberty " upon it.

Editorials in the Southern papers hotly denounced
Garrison. Threats of lynching were made. The lav*
was appealed to to prevent The Liberator from circu-
lating in the South. The grand jury of North Carolina
indicted Garrison for publishing " a paper of seditious
tendency," and the Assembly of Georgia offered a
reward of five thousand dollars to any one who would
bring him to Georgia, prosecute and convict him.

Garrison's response to this was to found an anti-
slavery society in New England. In 1833 this society
sent him to England, where he spoke so vigorously
about American institutions that on his return he was
accused of libeling this country. A mob threatened the
Liberator office. The Mayor of Boston was called
upon to suppress it, as an agent of mischief. A meet-
ing which Garrison attended in New York to found an
anti-slavery society was driven from the hall by a mob.
Going from there to Philadelphia, he founded in that
city the American Anti-Slavery Society.

The most perilous moment in Garrison's life came in
1835, in consequence of the arrival in Boston of
George Thompson, a noted English lecturer against
slavery. His arrival and his attempt to speak led to a
riot, not of the rabble, but largely made up of " men of
property and standing," who were determined " to put
a stop to the impudent, bullying conduct of the foreign
vagrant, Thompson, and his associates in mischief."

/

HEROES OF PROGRESS 197

A meeting of the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, at
which Thompson was expected to speak, was raided
by this mob of the genteel of Boston. Luckily for
Thompson, he was not there. But Garrison was, and
the rioters laid violent hands on him, pulled him from
the hall, tore the clothes from his back and dragged
him through the streets with a rope around his body.
Their rage would probably have ended in a lynching
if Mayor Lyman had not rescued their victim and sent
him to prison as the safest place he could think of.

This was not the only time in which Garrison was
threatened and molested in Boston, but nothing
stopped him in his work. The Liberator continued to
appear, and not for a moment did it change its tone.
Its effect was great. The anti-slavery cause grew. The
societies he had formed began to flourish. In all they
did he was the leader, his name was on all lips, the
growing army of emancipation hailed him as its gen-
eral, almost as its martyr.

In 1840 he went to England again, to attend there
the World's Anti-Slavery Convention. Others from
America came, among them Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, and other women delegates. But Eng-
land was innately conservative, and all women were
refused admission to the hall. As a consequence Garri-
son, the most distinguished abolitionist in the conven-
tion, refused to enter. Some years after this he was
made president of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
and held that position for twenty-two years, giving
it up only when slavery had ceased to exist.

The Liberator hammered away persistently at the
fetters of the slave, and they began to yield before
its blows. It even opposed the Union of the States,
with slavery as one of its institutions, saying that

198 HEROES OF PROGRESS

such a Union was " a covenant with death and an
agreement with hell." He came at length to the
conviction that slavery could be abolished only by
a dissolution of the Union. He did not then see
clearly what was coming, that an attempt to dissolve
the Union would be made and would fail, but that
slavery would perish in its failure.

The Civil War came. The Liberator was still pub-
lished. Its former tone of denunciation now became a
tone of appeal to the President, a demand for freedom.
When emancipation was decreed it became a hearty
supporter of President Lincoln. In April, 1865,
Garrison was one of the party that went to Charleston
to raise the Union flag over the ruins of Fort Sumter,
from which it had been pulled down four years before.
It was on this occasion that he stood in brooding
silence over Calhoun's grave. Both these men had
fought strongly for what they thought the right. The
one whose cause had fallen did not live to see the end ;
the other survived to behold the triumph of his cause.

Soon after this the last number of The Liberator
appeared. It had finished its work, and its mission was
at an end. About the same time a welcome tribute
was made to the editor, in a purse of thirty thousand
dollars, to which many distinguished men had con-
tributed as a mark of their deep appreciation of his
services in the cause of human freedom.

The remainder of Garrison's life was passed peace-
fully. Part of it was spent in Europe, where he was
received with high respect; In America he was paid
the highest attention. He was a frequent writer for
periodicals on political and other subjects, and was
especially interested in all matters affecting the black
race. He died in New York City on May 24, 1879.

WENDELL PHILLIPS, SILVER-TONGUED
ORATOR AND REFORMER

NEXT to William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips
was the most forceful opponent of the system of
human slavery in the United States. He was not a
born reformer, like Garrison. He did not leap into
the saddle from the start. The feeling of hatred to
slavery grew in him stage by stage, though when it
was fully developed he was the mate of Garrison in
his detestation of the system. These two men did not
stand alone — there were many who thought as they
did ; but for years they bore the brunt of the fray,
keeping the fight alive till the mass of the people of the
North joined their ranks.

Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, November
29, 1811. He was not born to poverty, like Garrison,
his father being a man of wealth and distinction, of
sense and judgment. His wise motto in training his
children was, "Ask no man to do anything that you
are not able to do for yourself." Inspired by the spirit
of this saying, his son Wendell sought to train his
hands in work, and it is said that by the time he grew
up there was hardly any trade in New England that he
did not know something about.

He began his education in Boston's famous old
Latin School, and from there went to Harvard Col-
lege, where he graduated in 1831. John Lothrop
Motley, the historian, graduated in the same class,
and they had the reputation of being two of the hand-
somest and most elegant young men in Boston, with

199

200 HEROES OF PROGRESS

a place ready for them in the best society. Each had
been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, to apply
the old saying, but each found something better to do
in life than chew upon that spoon. There was work
to do in the world, and they were the kind of men to
take their full share of it.

After his graduation Phillips entered upon a course
of legal study in the Cambridge Law School, and at
the age of twenty-three was admitted to practice in
the Boston courts. This took place in the period when
the country first began to be stirred up upon the ques-
tion of the abolition of slavery. For several vears

•/ j

William Lloyd Garrison had been thundering away
against slavery in the columns of The Liberator, and a
band of devoted men and women were gathering
round him, ardent pioneers in the cause of the liberty
of the slave ; but the great mass of the people held
themselves aloof.

At first Phillips took little interest in this subject.
He had early shown himself an orator of unusual
powers, but he was concerned as yet with his pro-
fession, which probably occupied most of his time and
thoughts. He had his social duties also, as a young
man occupying a position in Boston's best society.
While the demands of the former occupied his busi-
ness, those of the latter occupied his leisure, hours,
and the handsome and attractive young lawyer and
orator had very likely little time for thoughts of
reform. But he was soon to be awakened.

What first set him to thinking strongly upon the
socially tabooed subject of anti-slavery was the attack
upon Garrison in October, 1835, by the mob of " gen-
tlemen of property and standing." He doubtless
looked upon this act as a shameful outrage, and was

HEROES OF PROGRESS 201

brought by it into sympathy with the reformers, for
in the next year, 1834, he became a member of the
American Anti-Slavery Society. He went farther than
this in his newly-developed opposition to slavery : he
relinquished the practice of the law, being unwilling
to act under an oath to support the Constitution of
the United States while it recognized the institution
of slavery.

Though he took this decided step, he did not be-
come active in the advocacy of the new cause until
an event occurred that stirred him to the depths of
his soul. The anti-slavery sentiment was grow-
ing all through the North, but the great mass
of the people were on the side of the slave-hold-
ers, the abolitionists were few, and their leaders
were widely insulted and threatened. The hostile feel-
ing grew to tragic heights in 1837, when Elijah P.
Lovejoy, publisher of an abolition paper at Alton,
Illinois, was attacked in his office by a pro-slavery
mob and murdered while defending his press.

This murder sent a wave of horror throughout the
land. It made abolitionists of hundreds who had been
lukewarm before. In Boston Dr. Channing called a
meeting of indignation at Faneuil Hall, which was
attended by many who had been indifferent or even
opposed to the reform movement, but were not ready
to countenance murder. Speeches were made de-
nouncing the murderers, and all seemed of one mind
about the crime, until Mr. Austin, Attorney-General
of the State, rose and made a vigorous speech on the
other side, saying in the course of his remarks that
Lovejoy had died as the fool dieth, and comparing the
mob at Alton with the men who threw the tea into
Boston harbor.

202 HEROES OF PROGRESS

There were many in the audience ready to applaud
these sentiments, and when Wendell Phillips, known
to be an abolitionist, arose to reply, hisses came from
the more violent. He was not the man to be cowed by
a hiss. He began with these stinging words :

' When I heard the gentleman lay down principles
that placed the murderers of Alton side by side with
Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought
these pictured lips " — pointing to their portraits, which
hung upon the walls — " would have broken into voice
to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the
dead ! "

There were no more hisses. Those words, vibrant
with the feeling that moved the speaker's heart, took
the throng captive. They remembered what brought
them there, indignation against trie ruffianly band that
had murdered an American citizen while defending
one of America's cherished institutions, the freedom
of the press. All listened with bated breath as
Phillips, in a burst of indignant and powerful elo-
quence, rebuked the sordid spirit of those who dared
to defend a crime against the liberty of speech and the
rights of humanity. Rarely had so eloquent a speech
been heard within those walls, and no doubt it had a
strong effect upon his hearers. Dr. Channing often
afterwards spoke of it as " morally sublime."

From that time on there were no half-way measures
with Wendell Phillips, no dallying with his subject.
He gave his whole heart and soul, his wealth, his pro-
fession, his place in society, for the cause he had made
his own. The moneyed aristocracy of Boston closed its
doors against him, but he never faltered. He made
himself poor by his generous aid to the cause, and de-
voted to it the greater part of the money he made by

HEROES OF PROGRESS 203

lecturing. He even refused to vote or to call himself a
citizen of the United States so long as its Constitution
recognized the slave system. His powers of oratory were
so marked that he drew large audiences wherever he
appeared, and to hear Wendell Phillips became an
event in any one's life. The money his lectures
brought him he scarcely regarded as his own so long
as the anti-slavery cause stood in need.

Garrison was an older man than Phillips. He was
the great anti-slavery pioneer, and the younger man
looked up to him as his chief. The one with pen, the
other with voice, ardently advocated the cause of the
slave, and they exerted a powerful influence in con-
/ verting the host of the northern people into oppo-
nents of human slavery. Like Garrison, Phillips
believed that a dissolution of the Union would
be the most effectual means of gaining freedom for the
slaves, and what he thought he did not hesitate to
say. He gave his life and strength to the great work
he had made his own, and kept at it with the energy
of a giant until the war came and the cause was won.

During the war Phillips condemned the administra-
tion as dilatory in the cause of emancipation, and he
opposed Lincoln's re-election. After the war was
closed Garrison wished to disband the American Anti-
Slavery Society, of which he had been president for
more than thirty years ; but Phillips would not listen
to this. It must keep together until the negro was
given the right of suffrage, he said. He succeeded
Garrison as its president, and kept this position till
1870, when, its work fully done, the society disbanded.

Emancipation of the slave was Phillips's one great
thought, but it was not his only thought. There was
scarcely any reform he did not work for. The cause of

204 HEROES OF PROGRESS

women's rights enlisted his heartiest sympathy. He
was an earnest advocate of the rights of the Indians,
who had been robbed and oppressed. The frequent
sufferings of the working class stirred his noble soul.
He became an ardent supporter of temperance, and
even of State prohibition of strong drink, and was
nominated for Governor of Massachusetts on the Pro-
hibition ticket in 1870. He also was strongly enlisted
in the Greenback movement — the issue of an irredeem-
able paper money by the Government.

On all these subjects his voice was heard, and for
many years he lectured also to admiring audiences
on topics of history and literature. He could always
command a large audience, whatever his subject, for
the fame of the " Silver-Tongued Orator " was almost
world-wide.

A gentleman always, was Wendell Phillips, manly,
dignified, courteous, winning the respect of all with
whom he came in contact, while his unyielding devo-
tion to the cause he had made his own in time elicited
the admiration even of his opponents. Never had
there been a sturdier reformer or a nobler character.
The power of steady, persistent agitation which he
displayed he acknowledged he had learned from the
example of Daniel O'Connell. He had learned it well.

In 1881 Harvard College, which had always held
aloof from her noble son in consequence of his un-
stinted denunciation of what he held to be public
evils, so far relaxed as to invite him to make the
address on the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society. It was a distinct and valued triumph
to the veteran agitator. His voice was last heard in
public on December 28, 1883, and on the 2d of the
following February he died.

CHARLES SUMNER, THE CHAMPION
OF POLITICAL HONOR

IN Boston, on the 6th of January, iSn, was born
Charles Sumner, one who in his later years was to
play a very prominent part in that era of agitation
when the Union itself was in danger of overthrow.
As he grew up he began early to show an ambitious
desire for learning. Alert in mind, studious by nature,
he wanted to know all there was to know. His father
was a lawyer, learned in his profession, but with little
power of making money, and he wished to confine his
son to practical studies, those that would help him
to earn a living and do his share towards supporting
the family. So he was put to study the common school
branches.

This did not satisfy little Charles. He had heard
that an educated man must know Latin and Greek, so,
saving his pennies, he bought a second-hand Latin
grammar and a Latin reader. These he studied in
spare moments when out of school, and his father was
utterly surprised one day to hear his son quote Latin.
Finding what the boy was at, he thought it a shame to
check such an ambition, and he let him enter the Latin
and Greek classes in the school. When he was eleven
his father sent him to the Boston Latin School, where
his quickness and anxiety to learn greatly pleased his
teachers. As for his schoolmates, while somewhat
too much of a bookworm for them, he made friends of
them by his kindly disposition.

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206 HEROES OF PROGRESS

No one could say that young Sumner was the
brightest boy in the school. He was never a wonder
in that way. Many of the boys left him behind in the
classes. But he lived among school-books; he was
always at them ; he loved reading as much as the other
boys loved playing, and when it came to general
knowledge he was ahead of them all. Bright and
quick and with a good memory, he stored his mind
with facts. He loved history above all, reading it
slowly and carefully, with maps spread before him,
so that he impressed it on his mind in a way that made
it stay. Many years after, when he was one of the
leading legislators of the land, the knowledge of his-
tory gained in these early days was always ready for
his use. He not only read many books, but he talked
much with older people, if he found they could tell
him anything new. Of course a boy like this had not
much time for the play-field, and the only sport he
cared for was swimming.

He remained in the Latin School for five years,
expecting then to leave it and go to work instead of to
college. But luckily his father at this time was made a
county sheriff, in which position he earned more money,
so at sixteen the studious boy was sent to Harvard
College.

Here was the chance he had longed for. He studied
hard and was a model college boy, except in the field
of sport, for which he seemed to have no time
or inclination. Every pleasure he took he tried to
make in some way profitable. Thus he won high
rank in his classes, especially in history and the
languages. As for mathematics, he had no taste nor
talent for them, so he paid little attention to this
class of studies.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 207

He graduated in 1830, and then entered the Law
School, where he made the same satisfactory record as
a student, and also as a refined and courteous class-
mate. His studies in the law went beyond the de-
mands of his teachers, and he needed only a little
practice in a Boston law office to gain admission to
the bar. He was then twenty-three years of age.

It cannot be said that Charles Sumner made a good
lawyer. His tastes did not run that way. He was
engaged in some important cases, but he was not suc-
cessful as a legal orator, and did not get a paying prac-
tice. He liked better to lecture on the law and to write
for law journals. He edited The American Jurist,
wrote three volumes of law books, called " Sumner's
Reports;" and occasionally lectured to the Harvard
students in place of the regular professors.

After three years of this, Mr. Sumner went to
Europe, where he spent three more years in study.
Thus he added much to his knowledge, and he also
became acquainted with many prominent men, about
whom he had much to say in his letters. These were
published after his death, and contain many graphic
sketches and lively anecdotes, showing that he was
a quick observer.

But Sumner was never a favorite in society. He
was greatly esteemed for his learning, sincerity, and
earnestness, his stainless character and cheerful and
kindly disposition, but he lacked the elements of wit,
humor, and playful fancy, and was quite unfitted for
the social small talk on which the wheels of society
run. No doubt the Boston circles of that day voted
him erudite but heavy, courteous but not stimulating.

The year of 1840 found the roving lawyer back
again in Boston, where he took up his practice once

208 HEROES OF PROGRESS

more, though he liked its drudgery even less than
before. He was much fonder of discussion and lectur-
ing, and he became one of the regular teachers in the
Law School.

Up to this time Sumner had taken little part in
politics, but now was a time when it was next to im-
possible for thoughtful men to keep out of the polit-
ical field. The slavery agitation was becoming bitter,
and the country gradually dividing into two hostile
camps. Boston had for years been the centre of the
anti-slavery agitation, and Sumner's father had been
a bold speaker against the slave system at an early
date. Now the agitation had spread throughout the
North, and numbers of ardent speakers were keeping
it alive. It was impossible for a man of active public
spirit to keep out of the fray, and Sumner threw his
strength in favor of the cause which his father had
sustained.

Up to 1845 the name of Charles Sumner was little
known beyond the precincts of Boston, and there he
was simply regarded as a law lecturer of wide infor-
mation. But on the 4th of July of that year he made
a public oration on " The True Grandeur of Nations "
which was intently listened to by a large audience, and
when published was read far and wide, even attracting
a great deal of attention in Europe. It was simply an
ardent denunciation of war. as the deadly foe of true
greatness in nations, but its able arguments for the
cause of peace, and its forcible and polished language,
gave it a compelling power. From that time people
began to speak of Charles Sumner as one of the
coming men.

Sumner had hitherto voted with the Whigs, the
party of Henry Clay and Webster, but in 1848, when

HEROES OF PROGRESS

those who opposed the extension of slavery into the
territories organized the Free-Soil party, he joined
their ranks. He did not believe, like Wendell Phil-
lips, that the Constitution supported slavery, but he
looked upon it as a sectional institution that could be
dealt with politically and restricted by law until it
would gradually dwindle and die away.

The efforts to widen its territory, therefore, called
him into the political field, and he strongly combated
them, making speeches against the annexation of
Texas and on similar subjects. He had now become so
well known as an able public speaker that the Free-
Soil party made him one of its first candidates for
Congress. He was easily defeated by his Whig
opponent, but in 1851, when Webster left the Senate
to become Secretary of State, Sumner was elected
to succeed him in this elevated post of duty, being
supported by the combined Free-Soil and Democratic
members of the legislature of Massachusetts. He had
now found the true field for his energies, and he was
kept in the Senate during the remainder of his life.

When he entered the Senate Sumner stood alone in
his attitude as an uncompromising opponent of
slavery. The speeches he made, elaborately prepared
and bristling with facts and arguments, were notable
for the boldness of their denunciation of the slave
system, and excited universal attention, winning him
support and admiration on the one side, and bitter
hostility on the other.

During the first year of his term he took his stand
as a firm opponent of the Fugitive Slave Bill, an
act which made it lawful for United States officers to
arrest runaway slaves wherever found in the Northern
States. The passage of this bill, and the attempts to

210 HEROES OF PROGRESS

enforce it, greatly increased the anti-slavery sentiment
in the North, and was one of the leading steps towards
the Civil War.

But the event that brought Sumner into startling
prominence and had a far deeper effect upon the North
than any speech could have had was an act of violence
which took place in 1856. It was an outcome of the
Kansas-Nebraska discussion, in which Sumner was
one of the leading speakers. On the iQth and 2oth
of May, 1856, he made an exhaustive and splendid
oration in favor of admitting Kansas into the Union,
and in denunciation of the growing power and arro-
gance of slavery. It led to what was almost a tragedy.

The boldness and vigor of Sumner's language ex-
cited many of the Southern members of Congress to a
high pitch of rage, and one of the representatives from
South Carolina, Preston S. Brooks by name, entered
the Senate chamber after the close of the session of
May 22, intent on violence. He found Sumner sitting
alone at his desk, busily engaged. Treacherously
approaching from behind, Brooks struck him fiercely
on the head with a heavy cane, the force of the blow
being such as to knock him over, stunned. The cow-
ardly assailant continued his attack, striking blow
after blow, until he was stopped by two men who ran
in from an ante-room.

They were barely in time to save the Senator's life,
for he .was so nearly slain that for several days he was
in imminent peril of death. Even after he began to
grow better, his injuries were so severe that he was
obliged to go abroad for treatment, and it was nearly
four years before he was able to return to his place
in the Senate. He never fully recovered from the
effects of the dastardly assault.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 211

During these years his vacant chair spoke for him
more eloquently than any words of his own could have
done. It was a constant reminder to the advocates of
freedom of the violence of the animosity with which
they had to contend. The conduct of South Carolina
added to this feeling, for, on the resignation of Brooks
in consequence of the censure of the House, he was
re-elected and sent back. He died in Washington eight
months after the date of his assault.

It was near the close of Buchanan's term that
Sumner appeared in his old place in the Senate and
resumed his former position as leader of the anti-
slavery forces in that body. In June, 1860, he made a
speech on the question of the admission of Kansas, in
which he spoke with his old strength against the slave
customs of the South. It was published under the
title of " The Barbarism of Slavery," and had a tell-
ing effect.

While not agreeing with Lincoln in his views on
the slavery question, he was his warm friend and sup-
ported him firmly in the coming election. Lincoln
afterwards so frequently took counsel with Sumner,
and so respected his wisdom and judgment, that he
was looked upon in the light of a Minister of State
outside the Cabinet. He was urgent for the emancipa-
tion of the slaves, and after the war equally urgent in
seeking to gain for them full civil and political equality
with the whites. He also secured the organization of
the Freedmen's Bureau, to look after the needs of the
hosts of poor and ignorant blacks who had been set
free by the war. At the same time he was influential
in having the seceded States readmitted to the Union
upon fair and just principles.

During Grant's term as President, he and Sumner

212 HEROES OF PROGRESS

more than once came into conflict. When Grant sought
to make the republic of San Domingo a part of the
United States in 1871 Sumner fought bitterly against it,
on the ground that the consent of the people of San
Domingo had not been obtained. He carried the public
strongly with him in his opposition, and the bill was
killed. His continued censure on the policy of Grant's
administration, and the strong feeling that ensued, led
him in 1872 to oppose Grant's re-election and to sup-
port Horace Greeley as a candidate. On the other
hand, Grant removed Motley the historian, Sumner's
warm friend, from the post of Minister to Great
Britain, and at last forced Sumner out of the chair-
manship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which
he had held for years.

Sumner's breach with the administration did not
lose him the esteem with which he was very widely
regarded, and the breach was slowly closing when
death came to put an end to all animosities. He died
on the nth of March, 1874, his old hurt in the Senate
chamber having a share in bringing on the illness that
carried him off.

Sumner was a man of great force and strength of
will. When sure of the justice of his position nothing
could change him. He was never a party man, but
from first to last independent in his views. He was
never the man to submit to any one's dictation, and he
lacked the powers of persuasion and the dexterity
in management that raise men to leadership. No
one dared accuse him of dishonesty or trickery of
any sort, his nature being too open to admit of mis-
construction, and Longfellow, his intimate friend, spoke
of him as the whitest soul he had ever known.

During his more than twenty years in the Senate

HEROES OF PROGRESS 213

his influence over the people of his way of thinking
was immense. No hope of favor or popularity could
make him swerve from any course which he deemed
right, and even if he took the unpopular side of a ques-
tion, his rectitude and the strength of his arguments
often brought the people to look upon it with favor.
No man that ever sat in the Congress of the United
States left it with a cleaner record for courage, con-
sistency, and integrity than Charles Sumner.

HORACE MANN, THE PROMOTER OF
PUBLIC EDUCATION

THERE have been noble men who have aided the
cause of American progress in many fields, and not the
least among these are the men who have promoted the
cause of education. Many such might be named, but
chief among these stands the noble figure of Horace
Mann, who in a large measure was the father of the im-
proved public school system, as it exists to-day. There
were schools for the everyday people before Horace
Mann, such as they were, but the education to be had in
them was of the most meagre sort. A very bright stu-
dent might make some progress, but those of duller
minds learned very little. The school books were few
and were bad at that, while as for the teachers Horace
Mann says of his own that " they were very good
people, but very poor teachers."

As for Mann himself, who first set public education
in America upon its feet, he had the greatest difficulty
in getting any education at all. Born in Franklin,
Massachusetts, May 4, 1796, he was the son of a poor
farmer. Poverty surrounded him during childhood and
boyhood, and his days were taken up with hard work.
We are told that " it was the misfortune of his family
that it belonged to the smallest district, had the poorest
schoolhouse, and employed the cheapest teachers, in a
town which was itself small and poor." What little
chance for schooling there was did him no great good,
for up to the age of fifteen he was only able to attend
school eight or ten weeks in a year.

214

HEROES OF PROGRESS 215

His health as a boy was injured by hard work. He
had no time for recreation, and, his father dying when
he was thirteen, he had to work harder than ever for
the support of his mother and the family. From child-
hood he was eager for books, but there were few of
them to be had. When he was still little he got some
books by braiding straw, and he managed to read some
of the books in a very small library in the town of
Franklin, but as he grew older he had to work such
long hours that he could find time for study only by
losing sleep.

Thus it went with the boy until he was twenty
years of age, and it looked as if he might have to go
through life with what little knowledge he could pick
up by desultory reading. But his desire for learning
was too great for that, and in 1816 he succeeded in
entering Brown University, having learned a little
about Latin and Greek and some of the principles of
English and grammar from a wandering schoolmaster.
Poverty still troubled him, symptoms of consumption
had developed, he had to cook and support himself
while at college, his studies were interfered with in
various ways, but he studied with the energy of des-
peration, and graduated with high honors in 1819.
Choosing the law as a profession, he began its study in
1821 and in 1823 was admitted to the Massachusetts bar.

Thus the poor farmer's son had made his way with
the greatest difficulty upward through poverty to a
profession in which ability would bring him support.
This ability he had. He developed a power of strong
and forcible eloquence, which gave him much influence
over juries and brought him continued success. But
there was more than this, his integrity and high-mind-
edness contributing greatly to his success. When he

216 HEROES OF PROGRESS

began to practise he firmly resolved never to take the
unjust side of any cause, and his sincerity and honesty
of purpose made themselves felt by all before whom
be pleaded. It is said that of all the contested cases
in which he took part he won four out of every five.

An able lawyer, an eloquent orator, a highly re-
spected citizen, a man of noble character and elevated
motives, Mr. Mann was soon called upon for public
duties. He was elected to the legislature of Massa-
chusetts in 1827, and there soon became noted as an
ardent advocate of temperance and education. Six
years later he was elected to the State Senate. Year
by year his influence grew until he became one of the
most notable figures in the legislative halls, many of
the steps of progress made by Massachusetts during
this time being instigated and carried through by him.
One of these was the asylum at Worcester for the
care of the insane poor wholly or partly by the State.
It was one of the first of the kind in this country, such
patients formerly being sent to the almshouse.

His great service, however, was in the cause of
education, during the eleven years in which he held the
position of Secretary of the State Board of Education.
This body was organized in 1837, its purpose being to
revise and reorganize the common school system of the
State. To this duty Mann gave all his time and ener-
gies, resigning for it his law practice and his Senator-
ial duties. He worked at it almost day and night,
devoting fifteen hours daily to its demands, holding
teachers' conventions, delivering lectures, and keeping
up an enormous correspondence. He had the whole
country, not Massachusetts alone, in his mind. The
school system sadly needed reform, and Horace Mann
came as its reformer. He labored diligently to im-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 217

prove the schools, wrote abundantly on the subject,
told how poorly conducted were the educational sys-
tems of this country, and aroused a new interest in
education on every side. The school-system needed
an evangel, and he was the one demanded. By his
efforts the State gained better schoolhouses, better
books, and better teachers, and trustees and parents
were aroused to do more for the cause of education
than they had ever thought of doing.

The school laws, under his influence, were revised
and made better, and the whole system by which
children were taught was changed. In 1843 he made.
a visit to Europe to inspect the schools there and
see if they presented any advantages that could be
adopted at home. In furtherance of his purpose he
published a periodical, The Common School Journal,
in which his views on education were set forth, and
also published a series of "Annual Reports " of such
value that they have been called " a classic on the
subject." His seventh report told of what he saw in
Europe, and of how superior the schools of Prussia
were to those of Massachusetts.

Having completed his work in his native State, and
given the cause of public education throughout the
country a boom such as it never had before, Mr. Mann
gave up his secretaryship in 1848, to enter Congress
as the successor of John Quincy Adams, who had
just died. There he took the role which Adams had
long sustained, that of opposition to the extension
of slavery. His first speech had to do with the duty
of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories.
In one of his speeches he expressed his opinion in these
decided and, in a measure, prophetic words :

" Interference with slavery will excite civil com-

218 HEROES OF PROGRESS

motion in the South. Still, it is best to interfere.
Now is the time to see if the Union is a rope of
sand or a band of steel. Dark clouds overhang the
future; and that is not all, they are full of lightning.
I really think if we insist on passing the Wilmot
Proviso [a measure to limit the extension of slavery]
that the South would rebel. But I would pass it,
rebellion or not. I consider no evil so great as
that of the extension of slavery."

Mr. Mann did not forget his favorite subject while
in Congress. He tried to induce the Government to
establish a Bureau of Education in Washington. It
was years later before this was done. In 1853, after
he had served two terms in the House, a double honor
was offered him: he was nominated for Governor
of Massachusetts, and was also asked to become the
first president of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs,
Ohio. He failed to be elected Governor, and accepted
the college presidency. It was in the line of his life-
work, and he threw himself into its duties with all
his old ardor. The school was a new one, intended
for the combined education of men and women — a
novel conception at that time. It was in need of a
hard-working president, careful management, and
good support, and these he brought it. His earnest-
ness was deep, his work engrossing, and after seven
years of faithful attention to duty his health com-
pletely broke down. The college year had not long
closed after his last term before death came to him, on
August 2, 1859. Mann's important \vork in life was
the great reform in the school system of Massachusetts,
and the influence this produced upon the system of pub-
lic education throughout the country, and he is still
looked upon as the great school reformer of America.

LUCRETIA MOTT, THE QUAKERESS
ADVOCATE OF REFORM

OF late years hosts of women have come forward
in favor of reforms of many kinds, but a century ago
such a thing was almost unthought of in America.
Women's sphere was held to be the parlor or the
kitchen, and the pioneers in the struggle for women's
rights were met with ridicule or with sharp censure.
It needed great strength of character in those days
for a woman to come out as a supporter of any cause
not directly connected with household affairs, and
it is interesting that one of the first to do so in this
country was a small, slight, sweet-faced Friend, mild
and gentle in nature, who seemed unfitted to indulge
in anything needing courage and energy.

The woman in question was Lucretia Mott, one of
the ablest members of the Anti-Slavery Society in Phil-
adelphia, and among the first in this country to take an
open stand against the system of slave-holding.

We are apt to look upon William Lloyd Garrison as
the pioneer of the active advocates of freedom for the
slaves, but long before his name had been heard Miss
Lucretia Coffin, a young lady from New England at a
Friends' School in New York State, was speaking
warmly against slavery in her narrow circle of influ-
ence. Her feeling against the slave system early dis-
played itself, and so strongly that she felt it her duty
not to use anything made by slave labor, and while
still a schoolgirl she did not hesitate to speak her mind
openly and freely on this tabooed subject.

219

220 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Miss Coffin was born on the island of Nantucket,
January 3, 1793. When nineteen years of age, after
some experience as a teacher, she married William
Mott of New York. Her parents were at that time
living in Philadelphia, and there she and her husband
went to reside, and there they spent the remainder
of their lives. This was in 1812, the year the sec-
ond war with Great Britain began. The horrors of
this war were a source of deep sorrow to the peace-
loving mind of the young Quakeress, and probably
had their share in strengthening her sense of indigna-
tion against wrong or injustice of any kind.

Shortly after the war ended, Mrs. Mott began to
speak in public, her voice being first mildly raised in
the meeting-house which she and her people attended.
Among the Friends it was quite common for women
to speak in meeting, and she soon became one of their
favorite speakers. Her slender, small figure, her
delicate and charming face, at once tender and strong ;
her soft grey eyes, that glowed as if they were black
when she was much moved; the sweetness of her
voice, the convincing earnestness of her manner, all
tended to give her power over her audiences, while
her fine po\vers of intellect and cultivated mind added
weight and force to all she said.

Earnestness made her eloquent, her hearers were
charmed, and her influence became so marked that
she began to travel around the country, speaking of
the Quaker meeting-houses, dwelling upon the peace-
loving principles of the Friends, and pointing out
the evils of slavery, intemperance, and strife or injust-
ice in any form.

A schism took place in the Society of Friends in
1827, as a result of the preaching of Elias Hicks, a

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 221

speaker of great power and influence, who advocated
Unitarian doctrines in the meetings of the society.
The result was its division into Orthodox and Uni-
tarian branches, Mr. and Mrs. Mott joining the Hicks-
ites, as those who accepted the doctrines of Elias
Hicks were called.' Accepting the Unitarian view
strongly, she felt it her duty to work for it, and dur-
ing the remainder of her life was one of the ablest
and most influential speakers of this branch of the
Society of Friends.

Soon after this the feeling of opposition to the
slave system, which she had long taught in the meet-
ings of her people, began to win public advocates,
the Garrison campaign was opened, and on every
side the friends of freedom for the slave were coming
out openly. New England formed its anti-slavery so-
ciety, and in 1833 a national society was formed in
Philadelphia. In organizing this Lucretia Mott took
one of the most active parts and she became president
of the Female Anti-Slavery Society, founded the
same year. It was a work with which she had been
warmly in sympathy since girlhood, and she entered
upon the duties involved with the earnestness of
conviction, working in her quiet and modest but con-
vincing way.

Six years later, when a World's Anti-Slavery Con-
vention was held in London, Mr. and Mrs. Mott were
among the American delegates, in company with other
men and women who had made themselves leaders
in the cause. They went to London full of enthusiasm,
but on arriving there found themselves in face of
a deep-seated prejudice which was many centuries old.

For women to take any part in public affairs, or in
any way to place themselves on an equal footing with

222 HEROES OF PROGRESS

men in questions of importance, was looked upon as
out of all sense and reason. It was improper ; women
should keep within their sphere; they should stay at
home and make themselves pretty and entertaining ; to
mingle in public matters robbed woman of her sweet-
est charm — such was the type of the arguments that
were used, and when these women delegates from
America came to attend the meetings of the society
they found the doors shut against them.

They were indignant at this treatment, and so were
some of the men who had come out with them. Wil-
liam Lloyd Garrison was among these, and he was so
vexed with this example of British conservatism that
he refused to attend any meetings to which his fair
friends were not admitted. Thus the convention shut
out not only the women, but the most famous aboli-
tionist among the men of the world. Among the
English women excluded were such well known per-
sons as Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie, and Mary Howitt.

To soften the indignity of this refusal, a social
entertainment, called a breakfast, was got up for the
delegates, and to this the women were invited. The
company that came to the breakfast was a distin-
guished one, many of the guests being men of high
rank and prominence. Among them were a number of
those who had voted against admitting women to the
convention, and their surprise was almost consterna-
tion when a small, sweet-faced, soft-spoken woman
rose and began to address them with a gentle dignity
that carried much force with it. It was Mrs. Mott.who
chose this way of saying what she had proposed to
say before the convention.

To many of the Englishmen present this seemed
unwomanlv boldness, but her manner was so soft and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 223

sweet, her face and expression so attractive, her words
so earnest and eloquent, her advocacy of freedom for
all, black and white alike, so warm and logical, that
their displeasure soon vanished and they found them-
selves listening with pleasure and admiration. If
the vote had been taken after that address there would
have been little question as to the admission of the
women delegates, but as it was, Mrs. Mott succeeded
in expressing her views before the members of the
society and doing her duty as a member of the con-
vention to which she had been sent.

At home, during the long agitation on the subject
of slavery, Mrs. Mott continued to support the cause
of human freedom with all her earnest enthusiasm.
It was a work that exposed its advocates to obloquy
and even to peril. Those opposed to it were often
violent. Attacks were made on the abolitionists, their
meetings were broken up, their members threatened
and abused, and one of their meeting halls in Phila-
delphia was set on fire and burned. The fervent
believers walked in an atmosphere of danger, but
quiet Mrs. Mott had the courage of her convictions and
let no fear of violence deter her in her work for the
enslaved. When brickbats were flying or rioters
swarming around the hall, she retained her calm de-
meanor and sought to dispel the apprehensions of
those present.

It is said that on one occasion, when a violent mob
threatened c. meeting to which she was going, this
delicate little lady, with the courage of wisdom, asked
in her soft voice for the protection of the burly leader
of the mob. Astonished by the request and disarmed
by her appeal to his chivalry, the loud-voiced bully took
her under his care, escorted her to the hall, and saw

224 HEROES OF PROGRESS

that she had safe entrance within. The story does
not say that he was greeted with the cheers of his
fellows, but no one ventured to interfere with the lady
under his charge, if any had thoughts of so doing.

Mrs. Mott did not confine herself to the anti-slavery
cause. She was as firm an advocate of the right of
women to be put on an equality with men in the eyes
of the law, and to have an equal voice with men in
choosing the representatives of the people. In 1848
there was held at Genesee Falls, New York, the first
convention ever called together in which the rights
of woman to the ballot and the equality with man
under the law were the subjects discussed.

The convention and all who took part in it were
ridiculed from end to end of the country, and almost
the entire press broke out in a chorus of sharp criti-
cism and satirical comment on the coming together of
the strong-minded. Yet all that was said did not
prevent a body of earnest women, and some men who
believed in their cause, from meeting and debating the
subject. William Mott, who was as earnest for reform
as his wife, presided, and Mrs. Mott was one of the
ablest and most earnest of the speakers. Despite the
roar of laughter and the torrent of ridicule and abuse
with which the movement was hailed, the little band
of reformers kept on fighting their battle in their own
way, growing and spreading, winning tolerance first
and afterwards slowly gaining the rights for which
they so earnestly labored.

Mrs. Mott was long one of the earnest workers in
this new cause, as also in the temperance crusade and
the question of women's wages. Her voice was raised
wherever needed, and she lived to see much of what
she had worked for achieved. The war came and the

HEROES OF PROGRESS 225

slaves were set free. Her work in this field was at an
end. And the cause of Women's Rights had outlived
the era of ridicule and won toleration and respect from
many who had once derided it. The ideas of its
champions became endorsed by a large body in the
community, and by the time Mrs. Mott had become an
old lady she had seen some of them accepted and
others with fair promise of final success. Her last
public appearance was at the suffrage convention in
New York in her eighty-sixth year.

The noble character and constancy of purpose of
Lucretia Mott added greatly to the effect of her elo-
quence and ability. As a speaker, a simple, earnest,
unaffected manner and clearness and propriety of ex-
pression gave force to her words. Her high moral
qualities, her developed intelligence, the beauty and
consistency of her character, won her respect and
admiration even from the opponents of her views.
And none could say that she kept herself in public to the
neglect of her home duties, for she was a model house-
keeper, keeping her home in order and comfort, and
holding throughout the love and admiration of her
husband, who was mutually in close sympathy with her.

Mrs. Mott was a guardian angel to the poor of her
vicinity. She attended them in sickness, sympathized
with them in their troubles, gave them aid where
needed, and did it all in a way to win their deepest
gratitude. They lost a good and charitable friend
when she died, November n, 1880.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, THE
WOMEN'S RIGHTS PIONEER

THE first meeting devoted to the rights of women
that history records was held in the village of Seneca
Falls, New York, in 1848, and chief among those to
whom this meeting was due must be named that ardent
advocate of the rights of her sex, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton. This meeting was a notable event in the
history of one half the human race, the weaker half
in physical strength. It issued the earliest Declara-
tion of Independence in the battle for the freedom of
women. With it began a fight which has never since
ceased. In this conflict many victories have been won,
and there can be little doubt that the women reformers
will win in the end all they have asked for.

It was not social rights that these women demanded.
Those they had. Society was their acknowledged field.
What they asked for were legal and political rights.
They wished to become the equals of man in all prop-
erty and personal laws, and they wished to have the
right to vote, to be made man's equal in choosing those
who were to govern and make laws for the nation.
This is what an ardent host of women had been seeking
for more than half a century and Mrs. Stanton was a
leader among those who first set the ball rolling. This
being the case, a sketch of the life of this able woman
belongs to our work.

Elizabeth Cady was born at Johnstown, New York,
November 12, 1815. Her father, Judge Daniel Cady,
was a well known and much respected man in that
226

HEROES OF PROGRESS 227

town, long an able lawyer and afterwards a judge in
Fulton County, in which Johnstown is situated. The
little girl, as she grew up, delighted to be in her father's
office, to listen to what was said there, and to chatter
away in her own style when she had a chance. She
was bright and quick, and would sit silent in her
corner listening to those who came to see her father on
business, and taking in with much intelligence what
they said. When women came in and began to talk
about how unjust the laws were towards them, the
little girl listened more eagerly still. If they spoke
angrily she grew angry for them, and if they com-
plained sadly her sympathetic soul grew sad also.

Outside the office she had often been hurt to see
how much attention was given to boys and how little
to girls, and to find that girls did not " count for
much " when their brothers were about. All this was
a source of much mortification to the child, who could
not see what made a boy better than a girl, and why
he should have a better education and a superior
chance in life. She resolved that she would show
that she was the equal of any boy and had as much
courage and ability as they had.

Little Elizabeth had four sisters and one brother, and
her father seemed to regard the latter more highly than
all five of his girls. When his son died he could not be
consoled, though he had all these girls left. " I wish
you were a boy," he said with a sigh to Elizabeth.
" Then I will be a boy and will do all my brother did,"
she replied. She looked on courage and learning as the
points of boyish superiority, and she resolved to show
she had these by learning to manage a horse and by
studying Greek.

Determined that none of the boys should be ahead of

228 HEROES OF PROGRESS

her, she studied mathematics, Latin, and Greek, branches
then usually thought beyond the scope of girls, and
showed her ability by winning a Greek Testament as a
prize for scholarship. No doubt her young heart
swelled with joy at this triumph over the boys of her
class. She afterwards graduated at the head of her
class in the academy of Johnstown.

So far she had kept her word, but here her course
was stayed. There was not a college in the country
at that time that would take girl students, and her
indignation and vexation were great to find that boys
who had been much below her in the academy could
go to college, while she, because she happened to be
a girl, was kept out.

This seemed to her very unfair. And when she
remembered what she had heard in her father's office
about the injustice of the laws towards women she
grew to feel very bitter about the one-sided way in
which the world was managed. No doubt she made
up her mind even in those early days to fight against
this injustice, for the fight which she afterwards began
she never gave up while she lived. As for education,
she managed to get a fair share of it outside of college
halls, partly in a young lady's seminary, but more by
a course of home study after her school life was ended.

She early began to take an interest in the affairs of
the country, and became very earnest in the cause of
reform, no matter what its field. In 1839 she married
Henry B. Stanton, at that time an eloquent and popular
lecturer on the subject of anti-slavery, one of the re-
forms of which she had become an earnest advocate.

Mr. Stanton was sent to London in 1840, as a dele-
gate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, and his
wife went with him, not as a delegate, but as a com-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 229

panion and warm sympathizer. She was not one of
those women who were excluded from the meetings
of the convention by the votes of its members, but she
was in close touch with those who were, and very likely
her indignation was again aroused by this treatment
of women as if they were inferior to men.

One pleasant thing came to Mrs. Stanton through
this visit to London : she made the acquaintance of the
sweet and charming Lucretia Mott, this growing into
an intimate friendship which lasted through Mrs.
Mott's life. They were doubtless in warm sympathy
in many of their views, and especially in that to which
Mrs. Stanton's thoughts were most strongly turned,
the unjust laws and customs regarding women.

When she returned to America she had evidently
made up her mind to devote her life to the cause of
women, and resist, in all the forms it had taken, the
ancient and obstinate tyranny against her sex. She
was by no means alone in this. There were many of
the same way of thinking. We may name Lucretia
Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone as well-
known examples. But Mrs. Stanton was the most
active and energetic in the work of calling together
and organizing the advocates of Women's Rights, and
it was very largely due to her that in July, 1848, the
first Women's Rights convention in the world's history
was called together at Seneca Falls.

What the members of this convention had in mind
was to begin a contest to make women the equals of
men before the law. Mrs. Stanton went farther than
them all, demanding that they should include the
suffrage for women among the rights they demanded.

This radical suggestion met with vigorous opposi-
tion. At first Mrs. Stanton stood almost alone in it,

230 HEROES OF PROGRESS

being supported only by one other delegate, Frederick
Douglass. Her husband strongly objected to it as
unwise and injudicious. Lucretia Mott did the same.
Susan B. Anthony, whose activity in the cause began
later, at first looked upon the demand for the ballot
as ridiculous. Mrs Stanton and Douglass, her one sup-
porter, were in face of a hard fight.

But she was in dead earnest, and she did what she
had never done before : she stated her views in public,
and with a power of oratory she did not know she
possessed. Douglass, an able and eloquent speaker,
strongly supported her, and between them they won
vote after vote, until Mrs. Stanton had carried all her
resolutions, including that in favor of woman suffrage.

The report of what was done in this convention
excited great attention throughout the country. To
demand the suffrage for women ! It was preposterous !
Anything so utterly absvird had never been heard of
before. Such was the tone of most of the papers that
deigned to consider it seriously, but the bulk of the
newspapers looked upon it as only a matter for laughter
and editorial humor.

This reception had a discouraging effect upon many,
but not upon Mrs. Stanton. She set to work vigor-
ously using her new-found powers of oratory and lec-
uring in all directions. Two years later Susan B.
Anthony, who had ridiculed the demand for the ballot
on first hearing of it, changed her views, joined Mrs.
Stanton as a friend and fellow-worker, and the two
devoted their lives to the advocacy of the cause.

In 1866 Mrs. Stanton, then residing in New York
City, offered herself as a candidate for Congress to the
8th district voters. Out of 23,000 votes cast she got
just 24. In 1868 she, with Miss Anthony and others,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 231

started The Revolution, the pioneer Women's Rights
journal. She was one of its editors for the few years
before failure met it. It was finally merged in The
Liberal Christian, a Unitarian paper. She afterwards
lectured for many years in her chosen field. A ready
and happy speaker, her labors went far to advance the
interests of the cause she had at heart. In addition,
she, with others, compiled a voluminous " History of
Woman Suffrage" (three volumes of 1000 pages
each), made up of documentary evidence and bio-
graphical sketches. In 1883, being on a visit to
Europe, she held conferences with John Bright and
others upon her favorite topic.

The social and political reforms advocated by Mrs.
Stanton made remarkable progress during the more
than fifty years which she devoted to them. The prop-
erty rights of women have been placed on a level
with those of men in some States, and have everywhere
advanced in the direction of equal treatment of the
sexes. As regards the demand for the ballot, the work
in which she was the pioneer, its success has been very
encouraging. To-day women have the full right of
voting in four of the States, and in many others can
vote in school-board elections and other local matters.
And it has spread to other lands, especially to Austra-
lia, in which women vote on equal terms with men.

Mrs. Stanton had the unique distinction of being able
to look back to the day in which she stood alone among
her sex as an advocate of woman suffrage, her only
supporter being a man of negro race, Frederick Doug-
lass, and living to see it adopted in four of the Amer-
ican States and in island realms afar. She was a
conqueror in her life's fight when death came to her,
October 26, 1902.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, THE OLD GUARD
OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE

THE cause of the political rights of women has had
no more strenuous and unyielding advocate than Susan
Brownell Anthony, a woman who for more than fifty
years rarely let a day go by without doing something to
advance her favorite reforms. Among these woman
suffrage stood first, but there was no modern move-
ment for the good of woman or of humanity in general
to which this veteran agitator did not lend her aid.
And when Miss Anthony came to the aid of any cause
it was with heart and soul.

Born in South Adams, Massachusetts, February 15,
1820, of Quaker ancestry, Miss Anthony received an
excellent education from her father, who was a cotton
manufacturer. She was yet in early childhood when
her father removed to Washington County, New York,
where her early studies were in a small school held in
his house.

Her education was completed in a Philadelphia
school, and at the age of seventeen, her father having
failed in business, she entered upon her life duties as a
teacher, glad to be able to earn her own living and
relieve her father.

There was one thing, however, that the youthful
teacher protested against from the start : the low wages
paid, and the discrimination in favor of men. She had
certainly some reason to complain of under-pay, in
view of the fact that she received but a dollar and a half

232

HEROES OF PROGRESS 233

per week, in addition to the not very enticing privilege
of " boarding around." The frequent change of diet
and domicile arising from this custom of the times
must have been anything but agreeable to a high
spirited woman.

What principally roused Miss Anthony's indignation
at this time was to see men whom she felt to be much
inferior to her in education and ability as teachers
receiving three times her salary. It was this injustice,
as she deemed it, that led her first to lift her voice in
public. This was at a meeting of the New York State
Teachers' Association, where some of the men were
deploring the fact that their profession was not held to
be as honorable and influential as those of the lawyer,
the doctor, and the minister.

During a pause in the debate Miss Anthony rose and,
to the horror of many of them, began to speak. In
those days for a woman to venture to offer her views
in a meeting of men, or, for that matter, in any meeting,
was looked upon as an event utterly out of woman's
sphere. The fair rebel against the conventionalities
did not sin greatly. Her speech was not a long one,
but what there was of it was telling and pithy. She
said:

" Do you not see that as long as society says that
a woman has not brains enough to be a lawyer, a
doctor, or a minister, but has ample brains to be a
teacher, every man of you who condescends to teach
school tacitly acknowledges before all Israel and
the sun that he hasn't any more brains than a
woman ? "

With this brief but knotty sentence she sat down,
leaving it to them to digest. For years aftenvards
she strove in the association to bring women's wages

234 HEROES OF PROGRESS

and positions as teachers up to those of men, and she
succeeded in greatly improving the standing of women
in this respect.

Miss Anthonys' career as a teacher continued until
1852, but several years before it ended she began to
take an active part in reform movements as a public
speaker. Her first appearance in public was about
1846, in the temperance agitation. At that time the
popular prejudice against women taking part in public
work was very strong, but Miss Anthony was one of
those valiant souls that do not hesitate to cross the
Rubicon of custom and prejudice, and she dared criti-
cism by a bold ventilation of her views before some
women's meetings. She was helping to break down the
wall that stood between woman and the public plat-
form.

Two years later, as stated in our sketch of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, a Women's Rights convention was held
at Seneca Falls, New York, where a resolution was
proposed and carried demanding the right of suffrage
for women. When word of this action came to Miss
Anthony's ears she spoke of it as ridiculous. It was a
new thought, to which she had to become accustomed,
but two years later we find her in full acceptance of it,
convinced that only through the use of the ballot could
woman succeed in gaining an equality in industrial and
legal conditions with man.

By this time she was becoming widely known as a
lecturer on social topics and an organizer of temper-
ance societies, and in 1851 she called a State conven-
tion of women at Albany, to urge upon the public the
wrongs and to demand the rights of her sex. From
this time forward she was a friend and co-worker of
Mrs. Stanton and became regarded as one of the most

HEROES OF PROGRESS 235

ardent and able advocates of the various reforms which
she took in hand.

There were at that time more insistent questions
before the public than that of women's rights. First
among these was that of the freedom of the slave, in
which she took part with her accustomed ardor and
blunt plainness of speech. To this she gave much of
her time after 1856, while not forgetting the other sub-
jects to which she had devoted herself. One of these
was to secure for women admission to temperance
and educational conventions on equal terms with men.
In this she succeeded. The fence of exclusion was
slowly giving way before her assaults.

During the Civil War Miss Anthony was very
active, lecturing from city to city upon the vital ques-
tions of the day. She joined others in forming the
Loyal Women's League, and in association with Mrs.
Stanton sent petitions through the country to develop a
public opinion in favor of abolishing slavery as a war
measure. The duty of decreeing universal emancipa-
tion was strongly urged by her upon President Lincoln
and Congress.

By this time Miss Anthony had gained much facility
as a public speaker. She never indulged in flowers
of speech and rarely rose to eloquence, but was fluent
and earnest, direct and business-like, always talking to
the point, always sincere, and usually convincing. Her
energy was untiring, her good humor inexhaustible,
and she was always quick to see and to seize an
opportunity.

The war ended, a promising opening for the women
suffragists appeared, in the settlement of the many
problems that arose. Among these was the question
of negro suffrage. In Kansas in 1867 two amend-

236 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ments to the State constitution were proposed, one
giving the right to vote to negroes, the other to women.
Many Republican leaders favored the former but
fought shy of the latter. Miss Anthony and other
orators took an active part in the contest, but when
it came to a vote of the people both amendments
were rejected, the negroes getting a larger vote in their
favor than the women.

An unfortunate enterprise was undertaken about
this time, in the publication of The Revolution, a paper
devoted to the cause of women. Miss Anthony was
active in founding this, was one of its editors, and
when it failed after a brief career of two and a half
years, she was left with a debt of $10,000. This she
paid, principal and interest, from the proceeds of her
lectures.

She continued her work with indefatigable ardor,
and in the decade from 1870 to 1880 spoke five or
six times a week, in all the Northern and many of the
Southern cities, the rights of women being her un-
ceasing theme. She took advantage of every oppor-
tunity to deliver impromptu speeches on this subject.
Thus once, when ice-bound on the Mississippi in a
steamboat, she broke the monotony by organizing a
meeting in the cabin and addressing the passengers on
her favorite topic. Like the woman's cruse of oil, she
never ran dry on the theme of woman's rights. Mrs.
Stanton said she never knew her to be taken by surprise
but on one occasion, when she was asked to speak to
the inmates of a lunatic asylum. This was too much
even for the ardor of Susan B. Anthony.

In 1872, having been registered as a citizen at
Rochester, N. Y., and wishing to test her right to
the suffrage, she voted at the national election. For

HEROES OF PROGRESS 237

this she was arrested, tried, and fined, the judge
directing the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty and
refusing a new trial. Under the advice of her counsel,
she gave bonds to prevent being imprisoned. This she
always afterwards regretted, as it prevented her tak-
ing the case to the United States Supreme Court. Her
purpose was to test the validity of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution. As to the $100 fine,
it still remains unpaid.

The unceasing agitation kept up by Miss Anthony
was not without its effect. Gradually the people of
the country grew accustomed to the idea of woman
suffrage, it gained a large support among men, and
became established, in greater or less measure, in
many of the States. In 1880 she made a plea before
the Committee on the Judiciary, of which Senator
Edmunds has said that her arguments were unanswer-
able, and were marshalled as skilfully as any lawyer
could have done. For years she sought to rouse the
people of this country to demand the adoption of a
sixteenth amendment to the Constitution, making
woman suffrage a part of the fundamental law of the
country.

Miss Anthony said that her work was like subsoil
plowing. Through the many reforms brought about
by her in the condition of women she was simply pre-
paring the way for a more successful cultivation and a
more liberal harvest. One of her larger labors was the
" History of Woman Suffrage," edited by her in con-
junction with Mrs. Stanton and Matilda J. Gage,
which embraces three bulky volumes of 1000 pages
each.

Miss Anthony attained her eighty-sixth year of age
without losing her ardor in the cause. Her life's

238 HEROES OF PROGRESS

work had won her a reputation as wide as civilization,
while the honor in which she was held was indicated
by the refusal of the Empress of Germany to remain
seated in her presence when a party of American
suffragists visited the German court. The empress
was unwilling to seem to put herself on a higher
level of rank than this plain American woman, whom
she regarded as having won a station of honor above
that of the throne. Miss Anthony died, ripe in years
and in the world's respect, on the I3th of March, 1906.

DOROTHEA DIX, THE SAVIOR OF

THE INSANE

THE treatment of the insane in the past centuries
was a frightful example of " man's inhumanity to
man." Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. No
one had a conception of the proper way of dealing with
these unfortunates, and they were treated more like
wild beasts in a menagerie than human beings; iron
cages, chains, clubs, and starvation being used as
methods of restraint, while their medical care was
crude and barbarous, purging, bleeding, and emetics
being usually employed. It was ignorance rather than
malice that led to this merciless treatment. When in
1792 Pinel in France declared that such methods were
barbarous and fit only to make bad worse, no one was
ready to believe him. And when he proved that mercy
was tenfold better than severity, it came as a new
revelation. About the same time a similar system
began to make its way in England. The system of
restraint by straitjackets, etc., was continued till
later, and in the United States the old methods held
their own until well into the ninetenth century. The
change to a more merciful treatment of these unfor-
tunates was largely brought about by the efforts of one
woman, a philanthropist of the highest type.

This woman, Dorothea Lynde Dix, was born April
4, 1802, in Hampden. Maine, the daughter of an
itinerant physician, who died while she was quite
young. She had her own way to make, and at fourteen

239

240 HEROES OF PROGRESS

years of age was teaching a child-school. In 1821 she
taught an older school, and in 1831 opened a select
school for young ladies in Boston. Frail and delicate,
she broke down completely in 1836. Fortunately, she
had inherited an estate which made her independent.
She now went to Europe for her health, spending a
year or two there.

During her period of teaching she had given much
time to the care and instruction of the neglected in-
mates of the State's prison at Charlestown, and on
her return from Europe became deeply interested in
the condition of the paupers, prisoners, and lunatics,
especially the latter, of Massachusetts. She was not
alone in this. Others were awakening to the sorry
condition of these unfortunates, and the benevolent
Dr. Channing gave her much aid and encouragement
in the investigation which she undertook.

Her inquiry into the condition of the insane in the
State roused at once her pity and indignation ; her
deepest sympathies were awakened, and she began an
investigation of the subject which had the merit of
being thorough and untiring. Practical in character,
she made a complete study of the question as it existed
in other lands, and in 1841 began her earnest investiga-
tion of the methods of dealing with the insane in
America. What she discovered was heart-breaking
to one of her sympathetic nature.

At that time there were very few insane asylums in
the country. Lunatics were placed with the paupers in
almshouses and the prisoners in jail, all being herded
indiscriminately together, and treated with brutal in-
humanity. Filth prevailed, fires were lacking in bitter
weather, there was no separation of the innocent, the
guilty, and the insane, and fetters were used for the

HEROES OF PROGRESS 241

restraint of those who might easily have been managed
by kindness.

Miss Dix's investigation led to a memorial to the
legislature of Massachusetts, in which she vividly
depicted the state of affairs and earnestly called for
an amelioration of the horrors she had found. Her
memorial revealed a shocking condition of things, the
result of neglect and indifference. The methods of
mediaeval times had by no means died out even in
intellectual Massachusetts, ignorance of the true con-
dition of the almshouses and prisons having much to
do with it. Miss Dix was determined that the plea
of ignorance should no longer prevail. Her memorial
was full of disquieting facts and earnest appeals. We
can here quote only one of its most startling passages :
" I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the
present state of insane persons confined within the
commonwealth ; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens ;
chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into
obedience."

This general statement was borne out by detailed
accounts of the horrible things she had seen in many
instances. As a mild example may be mentioned the
recital of one almshouse keeper, who said that one of
his insane inmates had been troublesome and disposed
to run away, but was now satisfied and docile. His
docility proved to be due to an iron ring round his
neck and a chain fastening him to the wall.

The memorial was a revelation to the legislature. A

bill for measures of relief was quickly introduced and

carried by a large majority, and with that memorial

began the era of wise and merciful treatment of the

insane in Massachusetts. By two years of hard work

1 Miss Dix had set in train a regeneration of the con-

16

242 HEROES OF PROGRESS

dition of paupers and lunatics in that old common-
wealth.

Her researches in Massachusetts carried her over the
borders of other States, in which she found like con-
ditions prevailing, and her inquiry was gradually
extended until it covered the whole United States. She
traversed the entire country east of the Rocky Moun-
tains, made investigations everywhere, and found the
same sickening conditions which Massachusetts had
revealed. At that time very few States had any pub-
lic asylum for the insane, and an important field of
her labors was to have these established. Her first
success in this was in New Jersey, an asylum being
founded in Trenton in 1845 as a result of her earnest
representations. This was but the beginning; many
other States followed, and the herding of the indigent
and the insane together in almshouses began to be a
thing of the past.

Miss Dix spared no efforts in her indefatigable
labors. She went from legislature to legislature, inter-
viewing members, pleading, demanding, repeating the
results of her inquiries, winning votes, everywhere
commanding respect and attention, everywhere gaining
favorable legislation. And this was not alone in the
United States, for more than once she crossed the
ocean and found conditions still existing in Europe that
badly needed improvement. In Italy she appealed
to the Pope in aid of the ill-treated insane.

The plea of State poverty was one of the difficulties
she met at home, and this she sought to overcome
by an appeal to Congress. Large grants of the public
lands were being made for the endowment of schools,
and she begged for a similar grant in aid of her life-
work. Her first application was made in 1848, when

HEROES OF PROGRESS 243

she asked for 5,000,000 acres. She later on increased
this demand to 12,250,000 acres, 10,000,000 being for
the benefit of the insane and the remainder for the
deaf and dumb.

It was a difficult task she had undertaken. Congress
was then occupied with exciting questions that threat-
ened to lead to civil war, and it was hard to enlist its
attention to an act of pure beneficence. Year after
year Miss Dix kept up the struggle, only to meet
defeat and disappointment. More than once her bill
was passed by the Senate but killed in the House.
Again, the House supported it and the Senate defeated
it. Not until 1854 did she succeed in getting a favor-
able vote from both houses.

It was with the highest gratification that she heard
of her success, her triumph. The unfortunates for
whom she had so long worked and pleaded would now
be amply cared for, and the disgrace on the nation,
which had so long existed, come to an end. Her heart
was filled with joy, and congratulations poured in upon
her. Alas ! the bill had the President still to pass, and
her heart sank into the depths when President Pierce,
moved by a spasm of constitutionalism, vetoed the
bill, on the ground of its being alien to the Constitution.

Miss Dix was defeated. It was hopeless to seek to
revive the measure during the years of excitement that
followed, but she continued her work with success
among the States until the outbreak of the Civil War
rendered useless all labors in this direction.

She now sought Washington and offered her services
in a new role of benevolence, as a nurse for wounded
soldiers. In this the zeal and ability in manage-
ment she displayed were such that on the loth of July,
1861, Secretary Cameron appointed her Superintendent

244 HEROES OF PROGRESS

of Women Nurses. As such she established excellent
regulations, which were strictly carried out, but not
without controversies with others in authority. Miss
Dix had a somewhat autocratic manner, which was
likely to cause offence and lead to opposition, but her
instincts were all for good. She continued her service
till the end of the war, carefully inspecting the hos-
pitals, overseeing the work of the nurses, and main-
taining a high state of discipline among them. For this
she accepted no salary, and provided amply for the
health of those working under her.

The war ended, Miss Dix returned to her labors in
behalf of the insane and kept them up until advancing
age reduced her powers. She resided at Trenton, N. J.,
the seat of the first asylum instituted through her
efforts, and died there July 18, 1887.

GEORGE PEABODY, THE BANKER
PHILANTHROPIST

ON more than one occasion men of wealth have come
to the aid of this country when in need, and won fame
by their patriotism. We have spoken of two of them,
Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and
Stephen Girard, who bought the unmarketable Govern-
ment securities in the war of 1812, and relieved the
authorities in a great emergency. There is a third, less
known, though not less patriotic, to be named — George
Peabody, who used his wealth to sustain his country
in the dark days of the panic of 1837.

Gloomy times were those. A black cloud hung
over the nation. The business of the country was
prostrated and the nation itself in disgrace, for it was
unable to pay its debts. Money was needed for govern-
ment purposes, but the credit of the United States was
at a very low ebb. There was no money to be bor-
rowed at home, and foreign capitalists were not eager
to loan their funds, except at ruinous rates.

At that time there was an American merchant,
George Peabody by name, settled in London, where
he had done a large business and grown very rich. He
had begun his business life in Baltimore, and when
Maryland asked him for help in her low state of fi-
nances, Mr. Peabody did not hesitate. He showed his
faith in his country by buying American bonds freely,
at good prices. It was at a loss he did this, for the
securities could have been had at lower rates, but Pea-

245

246 HEROES OF PROGRESS

body's example was contagious, the other London
capitalists having faith in his judgment. They began
to buy bonds, too, and the crisis was passed. When
the trouble was over, he declined to accept any reward
for his valuable services.

This was a case in which Mr. Peabody was in no
danger of losing his money, but he looked for no profit
and was ready to face a possible loss. He afterwards
gave such large sums for useful purposes, and was so
benevolent, that he is looked upon as one of the noblest
of philanthropists. It is for this reason that we feel
called upon to tell the story of his life.

George Peabody was born at South Danvers (now
known as Peabody), Massachusetts, February 18, 1795.
He came from a good New England family, that in-
cluded patriots and thinkers among its members, but
not capitalists until he came. His father was poor.
His education was scanty. He was taken from school
and put at work in a grocery store at eleven years of
age. Here he stayed for four years, getting some idea
of how to do business, and showing some ability in
that field. After a short experience in another store,
he left South Danvers to take a place in his uncle's
establishment at Georgetown, District of Columbia.

He was there in 1812, when the war with England
broke out. Early in that war a British fleet came sail-
ing up the Chesapeake and the Potomac, threatening
the city of Washington, and the young merchant's
clerk joined the band that prepared to defend the city.
But the ships were only making a feint, and soon sailed
away, and Peabody went back to the store.

Young as he was, he showed much of the business
skill which was to make him rich in later days. He
\tas shrewd enough to see one thing: the business

HEROES OF PROGRESS 247

was conducted in such a way that there was danger of
his being held responsible for his uncle's debts. In
fact, it was carried on for a time under his name. This
induced him to give up his position and look around for
another place. It soon came. A Mr. Riggs of Balti-
more, a wealthy merchant, who had seen a good deal
of young Peabody and knew that he was bright and
trusty, offered to make him his manager in a dry-goods
store in Baltimore, he supplying the capital and Pea-
body handling the business. This was a splendid offer
for a boy of nineteen, and he lost no time in taking it.
Mr. Riggs knew what he was about. The boy was
alert and careful in business, with sound judgment,
knowing when to make a deal and when to avoid one,
when to spend and when to save. He had abundance
of energy, he was industrious, honest, courteous, and
had no bad habits. He was the man to command suc-
cess and was soon made a full partner, the firm being
named Riggs & Peabody.

The judgment of Mr. Riggs was fully justified. The
business grew rapidly, branches were established in
other cities, and before twenty years had elapsed both
partners were very rich. Mr. Peabody had often
crossed the ocean to buy goods for the firm, and in 1837
he decided to settle in London and carry on an English
branch of the business. A quick interchange of goods
was established between the two countries, money made
rapidly at both ends, and large sums began to be left
by customers in Peabody's hands, to be drawn upon
when needed.

In this way he was unintentionally led into the
banking business, and in 1843 the firm name was
changed to George Peabody & Co., and banking made
its principal business, the house dealing very largely

248 HEROES OF PROGRESS

in American securities. In this way he became one of
the richest men of the time, his bank being looked upon
as one of the strongest in London and immense sums
of money intrusted to its care.

As for Mr. Peabody himself, he was a fine-looking
but plainly-dressed man, generous and open-hearted,
courteous and obliging. Americans in London always
found a genial greeting at his office, and it became
their common resort. He remained unmarried, living
modestly in his bachelor apartments, but entertaining
generously at his club. When the Fourth of July came
around he did not forget that he was an American
patriot, and for many years gave a grand dinner in
honor of the day, to which distinguished guests of
both countries were invited.

George Peabody was one of those warm-hearted,
broad-minded souls who feel that riches are a gift from
heaven to be used for the good of the world ; their mis-
sion is one of duty to be done, not of hoards to be
laid away. Giving, in his mind, stood side by side with
getting ; his nature was broadly charitable ; he did not
wait until death to dispose of his great wealth, but
wisely gave it during his life, while he could see that
it was well administered and that his purposes were
faithfully carried out.

He began his career by giving. When a boy, with
a very small salary, his earnings went to the needs of
his mother and sisters. He had always a warm heart
for those at home, and from the time he was twenty-
four he took all the care of their support upon himself.
Later, when his wealth began to grow enormous,
he looked around for other places where he might do
good. Being a bachelor, he had no family of his own to
care for, and, with a broad Christian benevolence, he

HEROES OF PROGRESS 249

felt like making the world his family and using his
wealth so that it would do the greatest good.

Mr. Peabody was wise enough to know that giving
money for the direct support of the poor is a form of
charity that may lead to more harm than good. It is
apt to encourage improvidence, idleness, and a disposi-
tion to depend upon help rather than work, and the
effect of caring for the poor in this way is often only
to increase the number of the poor. He looked around
to see where he could make his money do help without
hurt, where it could benefit mankind by improving
their conditions or, by aiding their education, put them
in a way to take care of themselves.

His two greatest gifts were made for this purpose.
But before stating what they were, there are some
smaller examples of his public spirit to mention. In
1851, when the great World's Fair in London was
being held, our Government had not much money to
spare, and Congress was not willing to supply any
funds for the American exhibit. Seeing this, Mr.
Peabody generously offered to bear all the expense
and to see that his native country was fitly represented.
As a result there was a valuable American display, and
the inventors and producers of the United States went
home with many prizes and awards of honor. It was
the first occasion in which the world was made to see
the great things that America could do, and George
Peabody gave it the opportunity.

In 1852 he gave ten thousand dollars to pay the
expenses of the celebrated expedition of Dr. Kane to
the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin, who had
gone there years before and failed to return. In the
same year his native town of Danvers celebrated its
hundredth birthday, and he honored the occasion by

250 HEROES OF PROGRESS

sending it twenty thousand dollars for an institute
and a library. This was only a beginning. He kept
adding to it until the sum was more than two hundred
thousand dollars.

In 1857 Mr. Peabody had been away from the
United States for twenty years, heaping up wealth
in his foreign domicile. He thought it time to see
his home country again, and paid a visit to the United
States, going to Danvers and Georgetown and Balti-
more, and recalling his old memories in those places.
For many years he had been thinking over a plan for
benefiting Baltimore by a great educational institu-
tion, and had carefully laid out plans for it. He
wanted it to be one that would grow and keep up
with all demands upon it.

This splendid institution he saw well under way
before he left America. It is called the Peabody
Institute, and includes a large free library, an acad-
emy of music, an art gallery, and rooms for the Mary-
land Historical Society, which he helped also with
money. To this institution he gave over a million
dollars, supplying the money from time to time as
his plans unfolded and the institute developed.

A greater gift was that which he made soon after
to the city of London, for it was one which reached
down to the needs of the suffering poor of that mighty
city. Mr. Peabody had long seen in what miserable
homes they lived and the dirt and degradation which
surrounded them. To provide these hard-working
and poorly paid people with comfortable homes and
healthful surroundings was one of the best ways of
helping them, and this he was among the first to see.
The industrial home which he built, and the oppor-
tunities for education and recreation he provided,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 251

cost him in all about two and a half millions of dollars.
It was a splendid benefaction and was gratefully
received. Queen Victoria offered to make him a
baronet, but Mr. Peabody was a true American and
would accept no title. Then she had her portrait
painted on ivory and set in jewels, and presented it
to him as a token of her deep feeling for his charity
to her people. This was deposited by him in the insti-
tute at South Danvers.

His greatest gift was for the education of the poor
of the South. The Southern Education Fund, as this
is called, was a gratuity of $3,500.000. It has been
of immense benefit in the advancement of education
in that section of our country, in which education was
then greatly neglected, and it is of as much service
to-day as when it was given.

These are not all of Mr. Peabody's gifts. There
were many smaller ones. Harvard and Yale Colleges
each received $150.000, and smaller sums, for churches,
institutes, libraries, and colleges, were given to a
number of American towns. His total gifts amounted
to about eight and a-half million dollars, and when
he died he left five millions to be divided among his
relatives and friends.

He did not wait till death to dispose of his money;
he gave it during his life, and was careful to see
that his instructions were carried out. As a con-
sequence, his gifts have not gone astray in their
objects, but are still doing good. When he died, on
the 4th of November, 1869, his body was laid in state
in Westminster Abbey, and was then brought to
this country in a royal man-of-war. Here it was
received with the highest respect and buried with
national honors.

252 HEROES OF PROGRESS

While so generous to the public, Mr. Peabody was
abstemious in his personal habits. He had to live
with close economy in his youth, and he never changed
from this. His habits were very simple, and he might
often be seen making his dinner on a mutton chop at a
table laden with viands, at his cost, for his friends,
lie dressed neatly but plainly, did not indulge in
jewelry, and disliked display of any kind. In business
methods he was very exact, and while giving away
millions, would demand the last penny in the fulfilling
of a contract. When the conductor of an English
railway train charged him a shilling too much for his
fare, he complained and had the man discharged.
' It was not that I could not afford to pay the shilling,"
he explained, " but the man was cheating many trav-
elers to whom the swindle would be oppressive."

PETER COOPER, THE BENEFACTOR
OF THE UNEDUCATED

THE city of New York owes a deep debt of gratitude
to Peter Cooper, one of its most generous and far-
seeing philanthropists, who gave thirty years of his
life to planning and developing the Cooper Institute,
his noble educational gift to the metropolitan city. His
father had named him, not after some insignificant
Peter in the family, but after the Apostle Peter, and
trusted that this boy would prove worthy of his god-
father. He believed devotedly that his son would
" come to something," and his faith was not misap-
plied.

Peter Cooper was born in New York, February 12,
1791. His father was a poor hatter, and the boy had
to begin helping him as soon as he was tall enough to
reach above the table and pull the hair out of rabbit
skins. He kept at this till he knew all about the mak-
ing of beaver hats, the common head-gear of that day.
He badly wanted an education, he was not very old
when he saw the advantages of learning, but all the
schooling his father was able or willing to give him
was half of every day for one year. That was all
the school education he ever received.

The boy worked at hat-making till he was seventeen.
Then his father went out of that business and into the
brewing of beer, at which his son continued to work.
Peter did not like this occupation, and as his father
was willing to have him try something else, he became
an apprentice to a coach-builder. He kept at this till

253

254 HEROES OF PROGRESS

he was of age, learned the business thoroughly, and
proved himself so diligent and efficient that his late
master offered to build him a shop and set him up in
business. This was an excellent offer, but the young
man would not accept it. It would leave him with
a debt to pay, and of debt he had already a horror,
perhaps from his father's experience, so he declined the
kind offer.

The young coach-builder had three trades at his
fingers' ends, but he had only a smattering of book-
learning, and his loss in this respect he felt sorely.
While he was an apprentice he bought some books
and tried to teach himself. But good school books
were not then very plentiful, and those he bought were
so learned that he could not half understand them.
There were no evening schools to help him, but after
a time he found a teacher who was willing to give him
lessons in the evening for small pay. His difficulty
led the boy to a resolution that had much to do with
shaping his future life. He said to himself:

' If ever I prosper in business so as to acquire more
property than I need, I will try to found an institution
in New York wherein apprentice-boys and young
mechanics shall have a chance to get knowledge in the
evening." This was a noble purpose, that stayed by
him until it was realized.

Young Cooper was not long idle. He got a job that
fitted in with none of his three trades. This was in a
shop where machines were made for shearing cloth.
He got good wages at this and saved all he could, and
when a chance opened to buy cheaply the rights to
make the shearing-machines in New York he had cash
enough for the purchase. This was about the time of
the second war with Great Britain, and when the young

HEROES OF PROGRESS 255

man was not much over twenty-one years old. He
had done very well for a beginner, and he did very
well in his new enterprise. Always careful, energetic,
and enterprising, and with native business tact, he
made money from the start, and on one large trans-
action cleared five hundred dollars in profits.

This seemed like a good lift for the young manu-
facturer, but he did not look upon it in that way.
While he was going ahead his father had been going
behind and getting deeper into debt, and the affection-
ate son used the five hundred dollars to pay his father's
debts. This some might consider not business-like.
But it was laudable ; it showed a strong moral fibre in
the young man; it was something that stood higher
than business success.

Peter Cooper was a good deal of an inventor, and
made an improvement in the machines that helped their
sale, so that he built up quite a large and prosperous
business. But after the war ended the demand for
shearing machines fell off, and he looked around for
something that would pay better. There happened to
be a little grocery store for sale at some distance above
the town of that day. Fields and vacant lots sur-
rounded it. As he wanted to change his business, he
bought this place and moved his home to the store —
for he was married by this time. He was now twenty-
three years of age.

It is an interesting fact that the little store stood
just where the great Cooper Institute now stands. The
young merchant was looking far forward. The city
was fast growing, and would in time grow round this
spot, so that the land which he bought at a cheap price
would become very valuable. But he had his future
evening school already in his mind, and fancied that

256 HEROES OF PROGRESS

some day the plot of ground would become a good
central spot for the building he proposed to erect.

There was one thing that must be said for Peter
Cooper ; he was a born man of business. Everything
he touched paid. He knew nothing about the grocery
trade, but he soon had his store on a paying basis.
And the money he made in this, and that he had made
in the machine shop, enabled him after some years to
buy out a glue factory and to pay down in cash every
penny of the price. At the same time he was support-
ing his father and his two sisters and paying his
brother's way in a medical school. He had made him-
self the good angel of the family.

The glue factory, like everything he handled, proved
profitable, and grew to be one of the most important
in the country. He made isinglass as well as glue, and
went into other lines of business, and bought all the
pieces of land he could find for sale around his grocery
store plot, until in time he owned the whole block on
Astor Place, where Third and Fourth Avenues now
meet. It was thus he got together the ground on
which his evening school for boys was to be built.

In 1828 there was much land speculation in Balti-
more. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first
important one in the country, was then being built,
and many thought it would bring business prosperity
to that city. Peter Cooper evidently thought so. He
was now getting to be quite a capitalist, and concluded
that Baltimore property would be a good investment,
so he bought three thousand acres of land within the
city limits, paying for it one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. This was only thirty-five dollars an acre,
seemingly a very small price for city territory, but it
soon began to seem as if he had paid too much, for the

HEROES OF PROGRESS 257

building of the road came to an end. All the money
invested had been used, and the stockholders would not
put in any more. They were afraid of losing what they
had already paid in.

This was not to Peter Cooper's liking. He was now
a large holder of Baltimore property, and wanted to
make it profitable. So he asked the stockholders to
wait a while and he would see if he could do something
to help their road. He would build them a steam-
engine suited to run upon it.

At that time there was not a locomotive in this
country except one or two that had been imported from
England. And there were not many in that country,
for the locomotive was a new thing even there. George
Stephenson had only lately invented his improved
engine. But Cooper, as we have said, had the invent-
ive faculty, and he set himself to building a steam
engine adapted to the new railroad. He succeeded in
this. His locomotive was the first ever built in this
country, but it was a good one. It was in some ways
better than those that had been built in England.

He said about it : " This locomotive was built to
show that cars could be drawn around short curves,
beyond anything believed possible. Its success proved
that railroads could be built in a country scarce of
capital and with immense stretches of very rough
country to pass, in order to connect commerce centres,
without the deep cuts, the tunneling and leveling,
which short curves might avoid."

A queer little concern it was, this first American
engine. To-day it would look like a toy, but in those
days it seemed a wonder. It did what its builder
said it would do, and saved the railroad company
from failure. But it did not add any new value to
17

258 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Cooper's Baltimore land. To make this pay some-
thing else was needed, and he decided to build a
rolling-mill upon it. Nothing lay idle very long in
his hands. He built his mill. The establishment was
called the Canton Iron Works, and soon became pros-
perous. Great improvements were made in the blast
furnace, and the mill and the land both brought him in
money. The works were afterwards removed to Tren-
ton, N. J., and for many years were a source of great
profit to Mr. Cooper. And in New York he was mak-
ing not only isinglass and glue, but also oil, prepared
chalk, and Paris white; was grinding white lead, and
preparing skins for making buckskin leather. His
energies reached in many directions, and money was
flowing faster and faster into his coffers.

We may be sure that a man as full of public spirit
as he would not let his spare cash lie idle. He wanted
to help wherever he could, and was active in nearly
every work of public benefit going on. He helped
Governor Clinton in the Erie Canal project, and
invented an endless chain arrangement for pulling the
boats along. He aided in the building of telegraph
lines, and for many years was president of the New
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Com-
pany. He served in public offices in New York City,
and his interest in education was shown in the work
he did for the improvement of the common schools.

All these years Mr. Cooper had his cherished project
in mind, considering its character, developing its pur-
poses, adding to its site. By 1854 he felt himself ready
to begin the work which had been his boyhood's
dream, but which unfolded in his mind much be-
yond a simple night-school for poor apprentices. To
know just to what his plans had grown, one must see

HEROES OF PROGRESS 259

the Cooper Institute as it stands to-day, on the spot
where the little grocery store of its builder once
stood. His final purpose, as declared by him, was that
it should be " forever devoted to the improvement and
instruction of the inhabitants of the United States in
practical science and art."

He gave to it a great deal of money and a great deal
of thought and work. He haunted the building,
watching every step of its progress, taking hold him-
self where needed, altering and adding to it wherever
he could see a chance of making it better. As it stands
to-day it is the most complete free school of its kind
in the country, with every convenience for students
and everything necessary for them to gain an educa-
tion in the practical needs of life. Over two thousand
pupils attend it every year, coming from all parts of
the United States, and no man ever built himself a
nobler monument than Peter Cooper.

For almost thirty years his hale and hearty figure and
kindly face were to be seen by the students, while his
interest in their pursuits gave them zest in their work.
The warm-hearted philanthropist lived to a ripe old
age, during which his hands never ceased in good
work. He had passed the great age of ninety-two
when he died on April 4, 1883.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE EMANCI-
PATOR OF THE SLAVE

IN a miserable frontier hut, the son of miserably
poor parents, was born on the I2th of February, 1809,
a boy who fifty-four years later was to sign the grand
decree of emancipation that gave liberty to the slaves
of the United States. An offspring of the wilderness,
a child of poverty, a boy who had to win his way by
the sternest labor, to gain an education against the
severest obstacles, he developed qualities sure to make
him a great man, — simple-minded honor, noble in-
stincts, earnest devotion to life's duties, and a practical
ability and unusual power of expression which enabled
him to win his way with men.

The story of this man, Abraham Lincoln, has often
been told. But he holds a high station in the ranks
of the heroes of progress, and an outline sketch of
his life must be given here. In the words of Emerson,
" He was a man who grew according to his need ; his
mind mastered the problem of the day, and as the
problem grew so did his apprehension of it. By his
courage, his justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel,
his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of
a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the American
people in his time ; the pulse of twenty million people
throbbed in his heart, and the thoughts of their mind
were uttered by his tongue."

Lincoln was a self-made man in every respect. Born
at the bottom of the pit of poverty, he climbed his own
way up. Born on a stony and weedy hillside, at a

260

HEROES OF PROGRESS 261

place called Nolin's Creek, in Kentucky, in a house
without windows or floor; taken to as sorry a house
in Indiana while quite young; doomed to hard labor
from childhood ; he early manifested a desire for
knowledge that nothing could check and that forced
its way through all impediments. His scanty school
education taught him little more than how to read and
write, and he had to depend upon himself for the rest.
His stepmother, a good woman, helped him all she
could and taught him all she was able, and on this
slender foundation the ambitious student built nobly.

The frontier settlement. he lived in had few books,
but he borrowed all he could and read them thoroughly.
He read in the evening by the light of the log fire,
wrote on a shingle when paper was not to be had, and
worked out questions in arithmetic on the back of a
wooden shovel, scraping off the figures when it was
full and beginning again. The first book he owned,
a " Life of Washington," he had borrowed from a
farmer and kept it in a place \vhere it got soaked
with rain. He took the ruined book to the farmer and
asked how he should pay for it. The farmer's price
was " to pull fodder " for the cattle for three days.
In this way little Abraham earned his book, which he
dried, pressed out, and valued as a great prize.

A boy like this cannot be kept in ignorance. "Abe
Lincoln," as he was called, grew up to be the best
informed and the strongest young man in the whole
district. He was tall and sinewy; not a man in the
neighborhood could beat him at wood-splitting, at
wrestling, running, or any athletic sport. In addition
to this he was kind and helpful, bright and willing,
good-natured and fun-loving, ready to do anything for
anybody, and the prime favorite of all the district. As

262 HEROES OF PROGRESS

a young man he kept everybody laughing. He had
a store of amusing stories and was an adept in telling
them. He could make a speech also, and his book
learning grew to be wonderful to the uneducated
farmers around. He had not read many books, but
he had read them well.

Such was Abraham Lincoln as a boy and young man.
As he grew older he made river trips down the Ohio
and Mississippi to New Orleans, served as a store
clerk, and then set up a store of his own in which he
showed very little business ability, attending to his
books instead of to his customers. Yet the people
admired him so that after a time they elected him to
the legislature. He was at that period living in Illinois,
and in the legislature of this frontier State he served
four terms, making his mark by the clear good sense
and breadth of view of the speeches he made, so that
he came to be considered one of the leading Whigs of
the State.

While thus engaged, he became a surveyor, got hold
of some law books and studied them, was admitted
to the bar in 1836, and began to practice in 1837, when
twenty-six years of age. He had traveled up a long
distance from the poor boy of the log cabin of his child-
hood. And by this time he had developed some strong
ideas. During his visit to New Orleans he had seen
some things that gave him an earnest dislike to slavery,
and his sentiments on this subject he expressed vigor-
ously in the legislature in 1837. At that time anti-
slavery views were very unpopular in any part of the
United States, and some extreme pro-slavery resolu-
tions were passed by the Democratic majority in the
House. Against these he and another member entered
a protest, saying that " they believed that the institu-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 263

tion of slavery was founded in injustice and bad
policy."

That was Lincoln's first public statement about
slavery, of which he was afterwards to become one of
the greatest opponents. While he was in New Orleans
on his Mississippi trip he chanced to see an auction
where negroes were bought and sold. The scene
stirred his feelings deeply, and on leaving he said in
stern accents to his companion, " If I ever get a chance
to hit that institution, I'll hit it hard." He kept his
word in later days.

There are many stories showing what a genial,
kind, helpful man Lincoln was in his early life. All
round where he lived people grew to depend on him.
His tenderness of heart was such that he could not
bear to see even an animal in distress. There is one
story telling how he waded an icy river to rescue a
worthless pet dog that had been left behind and
could not get across. A second story tells of his see-
ing a pig mired in a ditch. As he was dressed in
his best, he rode on. But he could not get poor piggy
out of his mind, and after going a mile or two he
turned back and pulled the animal out of the ditch
without regard to his fine clothes.

Lincoln's law office was opened in Springfield, which
he had helped to make the capital of the State. His
knowledge of the law was not great. In studying
it he had sometimes walked miles to borrow a law
book, and doubtless lacked many which he should
have read. But he knew how to talk strongly and
to the point, which helped him with juries, and he
had the reputation of not taking any case which he
did not believe to be just. He was known to refuse
profitable cases which he thought unjust, even when

264 HEROES OF PROGRESS

i

the law favored them. This integrity helped him,
and he built up quite a business in the law.

Regarding young Lincoln's honesty, it may be said
that when he sold out his store on credit, the man who
bought it ran away, leaving debts for which he felt
himself responsible and all of which he paid, though
it took him many years to do so. His first public posi-
tion had been as postmaster at New Salem, where
there was so little business that he fairly kept his
office in his hat, handing out the letters when he met
the parties they were addressed to. The office was
soon discontinued, no settlement being made, so that
the postmaster owed the government some eighteen
dollars. Several years passed before this was claimed,
and in these years Lincoln had often been obliged to
borrow money to keep things going. But when at
length a postal agent came for a settlement the honest
young postmaster brought out an old blue sock from
which he poured the money in the very coins in which
it had been received. No needs of his own had been
met from that sacred store.

There was nothing going on in which young Abe
Lincoln did not take a hand. He had been farm-hand,
wood-chopper, boatman, clerk, storekeeper, postmaster,
surveyor, lawyer, and legislator. For a time he was
even a soldier, serving as captain of militia in the
" Black Hawk War," though he saw no fighting. But
there was nothing as yet to show that he would ever
be known beyond his own district or State, though
he had gained a powerful influence among his neigh-
bors, was becoming one of the prominent Whigs of
Illinois, and was several times a candidate for Presi-
dential elector. The leading politicians of that State
had a way of dividing the offices among them, and

HEROES OF PROGRESS 265

in 1846 it was Lincoln's turn to be sent to Congress.
He was accordingly elected and served one term.
While he did not distinguish himself in Washington,
the party leaders saw that there was some good wood
in the ungainly Congressman from the frontiers.

For a number of years after that Lincoln devoted
himself to the law. The biggest fee he ever got was in
1853. He defended the Illinois Central Railroad in a
suit for taxes and won his case, for which he sent in
a bill for two thousand dollars. This the company
refused to pay, whereupon Lincoln, on the advice of
some fellow lawyers, sued for five thousand dollars,
and the railroad company had to pay him this amount.

At this time, only seven years before his election to
the Presidency, few outside his own district looked
upon Abraham Lincoln as a man of any great merit
or ability. He was simply a country lawyer and poli-
tician who had seen some service in legislature and
Congress, was a ready and telling speaker, but was
not known outside his State. It was not till the time
of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854,
that his opportunity came. This radical act of the pro-
slavery party thoroughly awakened him. He had been
opposed to slavery ever since his visit to New Orleans,
and now roused himself to " hit it hard." An able and
popular orator, he took strong ground against the
extension of the slave system, denounced its acts of
encroachment bitterly, and became the leader of the
Whigs in the debate which Senator Douglas, the
Democratic champion, had started in favor of
" Squatter Sovereignty," or the right of the people
of each Territory to decide whether it should be
admitted as a slave or a free State.

Douglas was an able and powerful speaker, the

266 HEROES OF PROGRESS

" Little Giant " of the Democrats of the West. Many
thought that Lincoln, whose reputation as yet was
largely local, would be quite overweighted when pitted
against this skilled and vigorous debater, who was im-
mensely popular throughout the State. Their first great
battle took place in October, 1854, at Springfield, dur-
ing the State Fair. Douglas spoke first, making one of
his best speeches to an enthusiastic throng of people.
His friends thought he had demolished his opponent,
and were ready to carry him on their shoulders.

The next day Lincoln took the stand, a tall, awk-
ward, unprepossessing figure, with plain, homely face.
Few expected much from him, but he astonished his
hearers with an extraordinary burst of oratory and
width of argument. He had never shown himself so
great and able. The doctrines of Douglas were over-
thrown by his logical criticisms. As a friendly editor
said, " The Nebraska bill was shivered, and like a
tree of the forest was torn and rent asunder by the hot
bolts of truth. At the conclusion of this speech every
man and child felt that it was unanswerable."

It was in 1858 that Lincoln did the work that was
to make him President. In the four years that had
elapsed since his first contest with Douglas he had
grown rapidly in political importance and made him-
self the unquestioned leader of the Illinois Repub-
licans— the new party which had succeeded the Whigs.
It was the time for the election of a United States
Senator, and Lincoln was the choice of his party as
opposed to Douglas, who was seeking a re-election.

The debate that followed was the opening of the
door for Abraham Lincoln. It spread his reputation
from Illinois through the whole country. He showed
himself not alone a skillful orator, but a great political

HEROES OF PROGRESS 267

manager, one who was ready to sacrifice the hopes of
the present for the assurance of the future. He
pressed Douglas to declare himself upon an important
point. His friends said that Douglas would answer
his question in a way to insure his election. Lincoln
replied : " I am after larger game. If Douglas so
answers, he can never be President, and the battle
of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." He was right.
Douglas took a position that lost him his friends in the
South and robbed him of their support two years later.

In this debate Lincoln took his stand in a way that
gave him a continental reputation. He read to his
friends a part of his speech and they opposed it bitterly,
declaring that if he said those things it might ruin all
his political future. Lincoln answered sturdily : ' It
is true, and I will deliver it as written. I would rather
be defeated with those expressions in my speech held
up and discussed before the people than be victorious
without them."

What he said was this: "A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe this government can-
not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do
not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not expect
the house to fall; but I expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

This was a new and startling way of putting it.
It set the country to thinking and talking, and the
name of the man who could thus put the whole ques-
tion in a nutshell became more widely known. Douglas
defeated him for the Senate, but this he expected and
did not care for. He had said, " I am after larger
game."

During ten years Lincoln had been making himself
the leader of his party in Illinois ; now he began to be

268 HEROES OF PROGRESS

talked of all over the country. In 1860, at the invita-
tion of Horace Greeley, he made an address at the
Cooper Institute in New York, before an audience of
the best citizens of the metropolis. They had heard
of this eloquent Westerner, and were curious to hear
him, though many expected only something of the
nature of a grandiloquent stump speech, fitted for a
prairie audience. The calm, clear, scholarly, logical
address they heard surprised and electrified them.
They had listened to nothing equal to it in force and
dignity since the days of Webster. All New England
wanted to hear the prairie orator, and everywhere
he enlisted the deepest attention and warmest con-
viction. The character of his oratory was well ex-
pressed by one hearer, who praised him for " the
clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style
of your reasoning, and especially your illustrations,
which were romance and pathos, fun and logic, all
welded together."

In 1856 some of his friends had spoken of Lincoln
for Vice-President, and even for President ; but this
was mere local admiration. In 1860 Seward seemed
the man of the convention, but Lincoln had won the
West, and it proved too strong for the East. Lincoln
was nominated on the third ballot amid a most gen-
erous burst of enthusiasm. He was the man of the
West, the rail-splitter of the prairies and forests, and
a display of some fence rails of his own splitting by his
friends helped immensely in rousing the excitement
that carried the convention.

From this time on the life of Lincoln is the his-
tory of the Civil War. All readers know of his
triumphant election, of the secession of the Southern
States in consequence, of the danger to Lincoln's life

HEROES OF PROGRESS 269

in his journey to Washington, and of the need of
protection during his inauguration, there being men
in Washington who had sworn he should never take
his seat. They know also of his wisdom, his judg-
ment, his shrewdness, and his devotion to the best
interests of the country.

He had said in 1858, " This country cannot endure
permanently half slave and half free. It will become
all one thing or the other." Three years afterwards
the war that was to make it " one thing or the other "
began, and in less than two years more the act to
make it " one thing " was consummated in Lincoln's
Proclamation of Emancipation, that set the slave free.

There was righting still to be done, much of it, but
step by step the freedom of the slave came nearer
and surer, and early in 1865 the war ended in victory
for the North, and the great work of Lincoln's life
was achieved. In 1864 he was a second time elected
President, and on the 4th of March, 1865, in his sec-
ond inaugural address, spoke those famous words,
so full of the character of the man : " With malice
towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us
strive on to finish the work we are in."

In a little more than a month later the work, so
far as it was the work of the sword, was finished,
in the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox; and
in less than a week later, on the I5th of April, 1865,
Lincoln's career ended in the deed of an assassin, who
was moved by an insane fury which few men in the
South would have sustained even in that day of heated
feeling. The time came when the South suffered
bitterly for this act of horror, which had carried away
its best friend.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, THE WAR-TIME
SECRETARY OF STATE

SHALL we picture a tragic scene that took place in
Washington in April, 1865, just after the close of the
dreadful Civil War? There came then a night of
horror. An assassin shot down the noble President
Lincoln as, happy at the end of his great work, he
sat in quiet enjoyment in his box at the theatre. The
same dreadful night other assassins entered the house
of the Secretary of State, forced themselves into the
room where he lay ill in bed, and attacked him with
tigerish fury, stabbing him in the face and body. Only
the courage of the old soldier who served as his nurse
saved his life, and for days it was doubtful if he would
recover.

Fortune alone saved William H. Seward from suf-
fering the fate of his great chief. He had played as
active a part in the drama of insurrection and won the
hatred of the rebellious element as much as Lincoln
himself. It is our purpose here to give some of the
incidents in the life of this able and prominent man,
who so nearly became a victim of the band of assas-
sins that murdered the President.

William Henry Seward was at this time well ad-
vanced in years, having been born in the town of
Florida, New York, on May 16, 1801, almost at the
beginning of the century. The boy must have been
difficult to manage, for he began his career in life
by running away from college and seeking far-off
270

HEROES OF PROGRESS 271

Georgia, where he undertook to act as principal of
an academy at a salary of eight hundred dollars a
year. This was a daring escapade for a boy of seven-
teen. It was due to a dispute with his father about
tailor's bills and other such college matters. The young
rebel, however, surrendered when he heard that his
mother was in sore distress about his behavior. He
gave up his position to a friend and went back to his
studies.

After graduating at Union College, Seward studied
law and opened an office in the town of Auburn. This
town he made his home throughout his later life. It hap-
pened that here lived a Miss Frances A. Miller, with
whom the young lawyer had fallen in love, and whom
he married as soon as he had business enough to
make the venture and set up a home of his own.

The young lawyer was not long in practice before
he became active in politics. He had been brought up
a Democrat, but he soon joined the Anti-Masons, then
the Whigs, and in later years came to be a leader of
the Republicans. In 1830 he became intimate with
Thurlow Weed, then the most prominent figure in New
York politics, and the two formed a political partner-
ship which for many years ruled the politics of the
State and had much to do with the politics of the
nation. It was known as the Whig firm of Weed &
Seward. In later years, when Horace Greeley joined
in, it became what Greeley called the firm of Seward,
Weed & Greeley. Seward's name now came first.

In 1830 Seward was elected to the State Senate by
the Anti-Masonic party. When the next election for
Governor came round this party had vanished and
the Whig party had been formed. It nominated Sew-
ard for Governor, but he was defeated and went back

272 HEROES OF PROGRESS

to his law business. In 1836, however, he was elected
Governor. This position he held for six years, and
then retired to private life, declining to run for a
third term.

By this time Seward had taken a decided stand on
the slavery question. He made a visit with his wife to
the Natural Bridge of Virginia in 1835, and saw things
while in that State that made him a foe of the slave-
holding system. While Governor, he plainly showed
his enmity to this system. Three black sailors were
wanted by the Governor of Virginia on the charge of
having helped a slave to escape, but he refused to
give them up, saying that what they were charged with
was not a crime in New York. He also had the law
repealed by which a slave-holder travelling with his
slaves could hold them for nine months in the State of
New York.

One thing he did is of interest as taking a stand
against an old but evil New York custom. For many
years the celebration of New Year's day in New York
City had been an occasion for social visits at which
punch and wine were set out for the guests. The
Governor in 1842 substituted cold water and lemonade
for these strong drinks. This was not in consequence
of his own tastes, but he felt that it was his duty to
throw his influence on the side of the growing tem-
perance sentiment.

On returning to the law, Seward soon became very
successful, and gained a large practice in patent law
cases, of which he had previously known very little.
While active in the law, he did not give up his hold on
politics. He, Weed, and Greeley were the active powers
in New York politics, the causes they favored were
the winning ones, the State offices were theirs to

HEROES OF PROGRESS 273

dispose of, and they earned for New York the title
of the " Empire State " by making it the arbiter
in two Presidential elections. Seward supported
Henry Clay for President, opposed the annexation of
Texas, and in 1848 used all his influence in favor of
the election of President Taylor. Shortly after this
he was himself elected to the United States Senate and
took his seat in that great body of legislators.

He had won a reputation in his own State, and
soon made himself prominent in the Senate, placing
himself in the ranks of the most vigorous opponents
of the system of slavery. Seward was not a specially
attractive man personally. He is pictured to us as a
slender, hook-nosed, grey-eyed, homely man, with red
hair, a harsh and unpleasant voice, and a very awk-
ward manner. But his speeches were at once graceful
in delivery and strong in thought, his style clear and
pure, and when Seward rose to speak the Senators sat
still to listen. With all his defects of personality, he
had the power to hold an audience. He was never
addicted to coarse efforts at satire or buffoonery, but
he had a keen, dry humor, delightful and telling, which
still makes his speeches agreeable reading.

In the Senate he distinguished himself by certain
striking phrases which took hold of the public fancy
and became campaign cries in later political contests.
Thus, in the debate on the admission of California to
the Union, he said : " The Constitution devotes the
national domain to the Union, to justice, to defence,
to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law
than the Constitution, which regulates our authority
over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble
purposes."

This speech was widely read and much talked of,
18

274 HEROES OF PROGRESS

and its phrase, " a higher law," took hold strongly
upon the popular mind. It was everywhere repeated,
and the doctrine of the " higher law " became one of
the potent influences of the times. Another phrase
which struck the public fancy was that of the " irre-
pressible conflict," which could end only by making
the country all free or all slave. He had in some
degree the gift of prophecy.

Seward as a Senator made himself one of the great
forces of the time. He was one of the organizers
of the Republican party, and a strenuous opponent
throughout of the spread of slavery into the territories.
As such he had a marked share in bringing on the
" irrepressible conflict " which he foresaw, and in 1860
was so plainly the leader of the Republican party
that he was widely looked upon as the logical can-
didate for the Presidency. He fully expected it him-
self, and was bitterly disappointed when the voice of the
convention was given for Abraham Lincoln. Several
causes led to this — local prejudice, personal enmity
to Seward, the question of availability, and, perhaps
strongest of all, the opposition of his old associate,
Horace Greeley, who preferred Lincoln, and threw the
powerful influence of the Tribune in his favor.

However deeply Seward may have been disap-
pointed, he did not let it openly appear, but worked
earnestly for the success of his party, aiding the elec-
tion of Lincoln by a series of powerful speeches which
vigorously presented the anti-slavery side of the con-
test. After Lincoln's election, he did his utmost to
check treasonable designs in Buchanan's cabinet, and
made a very able speech against disunion.

It was the prominence of Seward and his declared
policy that induced President Lincoln to select him

HEROES OF PROGRESS 275

as his Secretary of State, and thus gave him the oppor-
tunity to make himself famous by his wise and skill-
ful management of the foreign affairs of the country
during the trying period of the Civil War. Various
questions arose that demanded the highest statesman-
ship in the Secretary, in some of which a man of less
discretion than Seward might have plunged the coun-
try into a foreign war.

It must be said that in all these questions President
Lincoln had a voice, and often a controlling one. It
is matter of common opinion that when Seward ac-
cepted the position of Secretary of State he looked
upon himself as the virtual master of affairs. He had
a degree of contempt for the awkward, uncultured,
inexperienced man who had been put in the Presi-
dential chair, and expected to pose as the " power be-
hind the throne," who would be able to manage and
control the new man from the West, keeping him from
doing harm.

He soon found himself mistaken. In his first at-
tempts to handle Lincoln he found himself " up against
a stone wall." He was taught that Lincoln had a mind
and a will of his own, and knew precisely where he
was and what he was doing. He was willing to take
advice, but preferred to make his final decisions for
himself, and Seward soon fell into his true place, that
of the President's adviser. He had enough to do in
managing Europe during the Civil War. Urgent and
perilous question arose, some of them with no pre-
cedent to aid in their settlement, but Seward rose in the
level of his duties, and showed himself as great in the
Cabinet as he had been in the Senate. It has been
said that during the four years of war " his brain was
pitted against all Europe and always won." Perhaps

276 HEROES OF PROGRESS

this is an exaggerated view, but he certainly showed
himself a statesman of unusual acuteness and ability.

The most critical question with which he had to deal
was that of the seizure by an American war-vessel of
two Confederate commissioners from the English mail-
steamer " Trent," and the bringing them into a North-
ern port as prisoners of war. The authorities of
Great Britain were furious and made more than threats
of war, for they sent troops and war-ships to Canada
and demanded in harsh terms that the commissioners
should be given up to them. They were turning the
tables on us, for in 1812 the United States had de-
clared war against Great Britain for a similar affront,
though a far more aggravated one.

What was Seward to do ? The whole North was in
a flame of patriotism. Everywhere Captain Wilkes
was praised for seizing the commissioners, and the
administration was called on to sustain his act. Sew-
ard had a very awkward affair to handle, but he
handled it very judiciously. The United States had
never admitted the right of search of vessels on the
high seas, and on this basis the administration admitted
that Captain Wilkes had done wrong, and agreed to
give up the men. But it took the opportunity to rap
England shrewdly on the knuckles and remind that
country that it had done the same thing hundreds of
times before the War of 1812, and had never acknowl-
edged that it had no right to do so.

As for the people of the North, they did not accept
placidly this settlement of the case. There was a wide
feeling that Great Britain had taken an unfair advan-
tage of this country by threatening it when its hands
were tied by a war at home. The show of unfriend-
liness was not soon forgotten. It was only one case

HEROES OF PROGRESS 277

among many. The result was a bitter feeling against
the British nation that took years to die away.

We have already told how, soon after the war ended,
President Lincoln was murdered and his great Secre-
tary narrowly escaped death. Seward continued as
Secretary of State under President Johnson, the re-
mainder of his career being marked by two important
events. While Great Britain had taken advantage of
the trouble in America in one way, France did so in
another, Napoleon III. taking the opportunity to in-
vade Mexico and put a monarch of his own choice
upon the throne. Seward protested against this at the
time, and as soon as the war was over he plainly
advised the French emperor to take his troops away
from Mexico if he did not want them driven out by our
Civil War veterns. Napoleon III. meekly obeyed
orders. He saw that he had made a mistake.

The other event was the purchase of Alaska from
Russia. By this purchase our country obtained for
a few millions of dollars a territory which has already
been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to us. Mr.
Seward was throughout an earnest, honest, and upright
man. He was always ready to help the poor or the
unfortunate, and to do his duty by his clients, and he
took the side of danger boldly when, in 1846, he
defended two negro murderers against whom a bitter
mob spirit had been aroused. He at that time, moved
by the feeling against him, expressed the hope that
some one might carve on his tombstone the words,
" He was faithful." These are the words to be seen
on his tomb in Auburn Cemetery, where he was
interred after his death on the loth of October, 1872.

JAMES G. ELAINE, THE PLUMED
KNIGHT OF REPUBLICANISM

IT was a memorable scene that took place in the
Republican National Convention of 1876, when Robert
G. Ingersoll, an orator of skill and power, rose to pre-
sent the name of James G. Elaine as a candidate for the
Presidency. Referring to Elaine's brilliant attack on
those who had accused him of wrongdoing, the orator
said:

" Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight,
James G. Elaine marched down the halls of the Amer-
ican Congress and threw his shining lance full and
fair against the brazen forehead of the defamers of
his country and the maligners of his honor. For the
Republican party to desert this gallant leader now is
as though an army should desert their general upon
the field of battle."

From this speech Elaine became known as the
' Plumed Knight," a title of honor that clung to him
as long as he lived. At that time he had been in Con-
gress for thirteen years, having entered it in 1863,
in the very heat of the Civil War.

Elaine was a Pennsylvanian by birth, though for
most of his life he was a citizen of Maine. He was
long known as the " Man from Maine," as Henry Clay,
the Virginian, with whom he was often compared, was
known as the " Man from Kentucky." But Elaine's
birthplace was in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
where he was born on January 31, 1830, and lived
until his days of manhood.
278

HEROES OF PROGRESS 279

When about eleven years of age young Elaine was
sent to the home of his uncle, Thomas Ewing, then
Secretary of the Treasury, at Lancaster, Ohio. William
T. Sherman, the great general of later times, had lived
with Mr. Ewing a few years before. His house was
frequented by statesmen and politicians, and during the
year or two that the boy stayed there the conversation
he heard must have been excellent early training for
his future career. He returned home in 1843, and
entered Washington College, where he made a good
mark as a scholar, always showing up well in his classes.

He preferred logic and mathematics, though history
and literature were favorite studies, and his memory
was so fine that it is said he could repeat from recollec-
tion many of the chapters in " Plutarch's Lives." As
another example of his retentive memory, it is said that
when anxious to be elected president of the literary
society of the college, he made himself familiar
with the whole of " Cushing's Manual " in one even-
ing, that he might know the rules of order in acting
as president. He early made himself a leader among
the college boys, and in debate he stood at their head.
The great power which he was afterwards to show as
an orator was thus early displayed.

Elaine's first position in life was as a teacher in the
Western Military Institute, at Blue Lick Springs,
Kentucky. Here he did very well as a young teacher,
making himself highly popular with the boys, with
whom he was friendly and confidential from the first.
He knew the whole of them by name, and knew also
in what each of them was weak or strong. He is said
to have been at this time a thin, handsome, earnest
young man, with the same fascinating manners that
remained with him throughout his life.

280 HEROES OF PROGRESS

At this place Blaine met a young lady from Maine,
named Harriet Stanwood, whom he soon afterwards
married. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1851, when
twenty-one years of age, and there obtained a position
as teacher of science and literature in the Institution
for the Blind at Philadelphia.

For two years he remained there, engaged in teach-
ing the blind, and then, at the solicitation of his wife,
who wished to return to her native State, he left Penn-
sylvania for Maine. He made Augusta his home, and
from teaching turned to oratory and editorship, as
fields better fitted to win him a successful career. He
became in 1854 part owner of a newspaper, the
Kennebec Journal, on which he served as editor, writ-
ing in a trenchant style that soon made itself felt. The
Journal was one of the organs of the Whig party, and
already had considerable influence. Its new editor
speedily added to this, and in a few years became a
leading spirit in Maine politics.

When the Whig party went to pieces, Blaine took
an active part in organizing in Maine the new Repub-
lican party. He entered into this with the energy of
youth and conviction. His life in Kentucky had made
him an enemy of the slave system, and he engaged
ardently in the conflict between freedom and slavery,
which was now growing intense. His clear discussion
of this vital subject added greatly to the influence of
his paper and his personal standing in the party.

He had not yet become widely known as a public
speaker, but was soon to make his mark. In 1856 the
new Republican party held its first national conven-
tion at Philadelphia. Blaine, as one of the party
leaders in Maine, was sent as a delegate, and on his
return reported the proceedings of the convention at

HEROES OF PROGRESS 281

a public meeting. It was his first appearance before
a large audience, and he began to speak in a timid and
hesitating way. But as he warmed up he grew confi-
dent and broke out into fervid speech, and before he
ended had proved his native power in oratory and
won himself a sure place upon the rostrum.

He began the real work of his life, that in which he
was to become eminent, in 1858, as a member of the
legislature of Maine. Here he soon distinguished
himself as a hard worker and fine speaker, and during
two of his three years there served as Speaker of the
House, doing so in an impartial and dignified manner
that won him great popularity in the State.

The second national convention of the Republican
party, that memorable Chicago meeting which nomin-
ated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, was held
in 1860, and as before Mr. Elaine attended it as a
delegate. On his return he plunged ardently into the
campaign for Lincoln's election, speaking with such
warm eloquence that he was called for on all sides.
" Send us Elaine !" was the appeal of every committee
that wanted a speaker. He had changed his place of
residence to Portland and became editor of the Port-
land Advertiser.

Elaine was growing too important to be buried in a
State legislature, and in 1862 he was elected to Con-
gress, in which he was to remain during much of his
later life. A believer in Lincoln, and his earnest sup-
porter, he became a confidential friend and adviser of
the great War President, worked vigorously for his
re-election in 1864, and was a sincere mourner of him
after his terrible death.

He continued a member of the House during the
stormy reconstruction period following the Civil War,

282 HEROES OF PROGRESS

and was one of the most prominent among those in
opposition to President Johnson. An expert in polit-
ical matters and management, and a ready and fearless
debater, he worked his way steadily to positions on
important committees, and became a prominent factor
in all the important legislation of the time. Brilliant
and impulsive, with a wonderful memory of persons,
facts, and faces, he was rapidly surging to the head,
and when Thaddeus Stevens died took his place as the
Republican leader of the House. In 1869, after
Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker, was made Vice-Presi-
dent, Elaine was chosen Speaker, and highly distin-
guished himself in this capacity by his thorough knowl-
edge of parliamentary rules, his firmness, quickness,
and impressive manner in the chair.

He was looked upon as one of the great speakers of
the House, always courteous and fair and especially
rapid in the discharge of his duties. It was one of the
sights of the times for visitors to see the rapidity and
accuracy with which Speaker Elaine counted a stand-
ing House for the ayes and noes. He continued in this
post for three terms, but in 1875 the Democrats gained
a majority in the House for the first time after 1860,
and his career as Speaker came to an end.

During the period of his Speakership the long dom-
inance of the Republican party had brought many men
of doubtful integrity to the front, and various scandals
were developed within Grant's second term. This was
the period of the " Credit Mobilier," the " Whisky
Ring," and other frauds, and in the investigation that
followed there was hardly a man in Congress who was
not accused of being in some way implicated in these
shady transactions. Elaine was too prominent to
escape. Several charges were brought against him,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 283

the severest being that he had been bribed with a gift
of Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds. All
these charges he disproved in an indignant speech on
the floor of the House, in which he showed that he had
bought and paid for the bonds and had lost $20,000
by the transaction. After showing the falsity of the
charge against him, he exclaimed:

" Having now noticed the two charges that have
been so extensively circulated, I shall refrain from call-
ing the attention of the House to any others that may
be invented. To quote the language of another, ' I do
not propose to make my public life a perpetual and
uncomfortable flea-hunt, in the vain effort to run down
stories which have no basis in truth, which are usually
anonymous, and whose total refutation brings no pun-
ishment to those who have been guilty of originating
them.' "

This was the speech to which Ingersoll referred
when he spoke of Elaine as a " plumed knight " in
the Republican National Convention of 1876. But the
charges hurt him before the convention, and Hayes was
nominated by 384 votes, Elaine receiving 351. On
every ballot but the last he had received the highest
number of votes, though not a majority of all the can-
didates. In the same year Elaine was appointed by the
Governor of Maine to the United States Senate to fill
a vacancy, and in the subsequent meeting of the legis-
lature was unanimously elected. While this was a
great compliment, the Senate was not well suited to
his energetic and vehement type of oratory, yet he con-
tinued to debate party questions urgently and to per-
form diligent committee work.

When the nominating convention of 1880 came
round Elaine was again a leading candidate, but General

284 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Grant and John Sherman were also strongly sustained,
and a deadlock ensued which was only broken by the
selection of a " dark horse " candidate in General Gar-
field, who was nominated in spite of his earnest pro-
tests. On taking his seat, the new President at once
called upon Elaine to fill the chief place in his Cabinet
as Secretary of State.

It was a position for which he was well fitted, but the
assassin's bullet that struck down the President made
his term in this office very brief. While the lamented
Garfield lay slowly dying, Elaine performed all the du-
ties of his office. When the sad drama closed at the
grave of Garfield in Cleveland, Elaine was much the
worse for his arduous duties. He remained in the Cab-
inet long enough to invite all the American republics
to join in a Peace Congress at Washington, but soon
after resigned and retired to private life.

On the 27th of February, 1882, he delivered in the
hall of the House of Representatives one of the great-
est orations of his life, his pathetic eulogy of the late
President, before an audience of the most distinguished
character. He was listened to with breathless atten-
tion as he bore touching tribute to the virtues and
abilities of his dead friend, and ended with a passage
of sublime beauty which held the audience spellbound
with approval and admiration. A solemn hush fell
upon the assembly as these impressive words were
spoken, and all present felt that they had listened to
one of the greatest oratorical efforts of history.

When, in 1884, another national convention was
held, it was the general feeling that Elaine's nomina-
tion was a sure conclusion. So it proved ; he was
triumphantly nominated, and the convention adjourned.
He had risen from the humble station of an obscure

HEROES OF PROGRESS 285

editorship to the choice of one of the great parties of
the country, the party which had been triumphant in
every Presidential election since 1860. Elaine had
every reason to look for election. His position was in
a measure like that of Henry Clay in 1844, but a far
more virulent personal attack was made upon him than
any one thought of bringing against Clay. In the end,
however, a trivial incident led to his defeat. In the last
week of the campaign he was visited at his hotel in
New York by a delegation of clergymen, of whom the
Rev. Dr. Burchard was the spokesman. The latter,
after some appropriate words, made the glaring mis-
take of his life, saying: "We are Republicans, and
don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves
with the party whose antecedents have been Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion."

This alliteration of the " three R's " defeated Elaine.
The Democrats took quick advantage of it, circulating
widely the scandal that Elaine was a declared enemy of
the Roman Catholic Church. The effect was fatal.
Enough votes were lost in New York State to give a
Democratic majority of about one thousand votes.
Elsewhere the election was so close as to give New
York the casting vote, and thus, because an insignifi-
cant clergyman pleased himself by getting off what he
thought a telling phrase, Elaine's hopes of the Presi-
dency went down in defeat.

During the administration of President Cleveland
Mr. Elaine remained in private life, part of his time
being spent in European travel, part in literary work.
It was during this interval that he wrote his highly
valuable " Twenty Years in Congress," a work which
admirably supplements Benton's " Thirty Years'
View." He made up his mind not to run again for

286 HEROES OF PROGRESS

the Presidency, and in 1888 positively declined a nom-
ination. As a consequence, Benjamin Harrison was
nominated, and Elaine resumed under him his old office
of Secretary of State. One of the most important
things done by him was to bring about that meeting
of the American republics which he had worked for in
1 88 1. This conference, called the Pan American, was
held in 1889, and was an important step in the interest
of American unity. Illness obliged him to resign
from the Cabinet in 1892, and he died January 27,
1893.

Thus passed away one of America's greatest legis-
lators. Chauncey M. Depew has said of him : " He
will stand in our history as the ablest parliamentarian
and most skilful debater of our Congressional history.
He had an unusual combination of boundless audacity
with infinite tact. No man during his active career
disputed with him his hold upon the popular imagi-
nation and his leadership of his party. He has left
no successor who possesses, in any degree such as he
possessed it, the affection and the confidence of his
followers."

HORACE GREELEY, THE PREMIER OF
AMERICAN EDITORS

THE United States has been a nest of able editors,
who have lifted the art of the journalist to so high a
level that the American newspaper has no equal in the
world in enterprise and picturesque presentation of
news. There are many who have helped to make it
what it is, America's greatest lever of progress. Be-
ginning with Benjamin Franklin, editors of genius
have been numerous. Lack of space prevents us from
mentioning many who became famous in this field,
and we must confine ourselves to Horace Greeley, the
ablest and the most widely known of them all.

No one who saw Horace Greeley as a boy could have
dreamed that this awkward and backward lad, with his
tow-colored hair, his shabby and ill-fitting clothes, his
piping and whining voice, could ever become a man
of note. But his face bore the marks of intellect, and
no one could talk with him long without discovering
that he had an alert and intelligent mind, amply sup-
plied with facts, for he had read every book upon which
he could lay his hands and had a memory which
retained all of value that came into it. He was a
thinker, too, that was evident ; not alone a man of facts,
but of original opinions as well. Such was the boy
who was destined to make himself the most famous
figure in American journalism.

Horace Greeley was born at Amherst, New Ham-
shire, February 3, 1811. His father was a poor farmer,
who moved to Vermont in 1821, and in 1830 to a farm

287

288 HEROES OF PROGRESS

of wild, new-cleared land in western Pennsylvania,
building a log-cabin there, but finding it so hard to
make a living that Horace felt obliged to set out and
shift for himself.

He had learned the art of printing at East Poultney,
Vermont, and worked there from 1826 to 1830, picking
up during this time some valuable knowledge of party
politics. His opportunities for education had been
poor. Some of the leading men of the town, seeing
his quickness of mind and thirst for knowledge,
offered to pay his expenses through college, but his
parents refused. They either were not willing to
accept what might look like charity or could not spare
his help as a bread-winner. But in spite of this the
boy managed to learn a good deal at home, which he
added to by such chances as presented themselves in a
little country printing office. Certainly, while there
was little in his pocket, when he set out late in 1830
to seek his fortune in the world, there was much in his
mind.

Let us follow the boy in his wanderings. A tall and
awkward youth, ill fitted with homespun clothes, lack-
ing attractiveness of appearance and grace of address,
his chances seemed poor. Luckily for him, one of the
men on the Erie Gazette had been laid off for some
reason, and young Greeley found there an opening
awaiting him. He soon proved that he knew well how
to set type, and showed excellent qualities of character
that brought everybody in the office to look on him with
respect. But in seven months the absent hand came
back and there was no longer room for his substitute,
so Greely had to set out on his travels again.

He had worked hard and lived cheaply, but not for
his own benefit, for he kept only fifteen dollars of his

HEROES OF PROGRESS 289

wages, and sent all that was left — about one hundred
and twenty dollars — to help his father in his needs.
From Erie he made his way to New York, several
hundred miles distant, travelling- now on foot and
now by canal, and spending so little on the way
that when, one summer day in 1831, he walked into the
great city, ten of his fifteen dollars were left.

He knew nobody in New York, and his shabby, awk-
ward, and retiring aspect was not calculated to help
him to a place. Getting a very cheap boarding house,
he set out to look for work. Nobody would have him.
All printing offices were full, or doubt was felt of the
ability of this tow-haired country lad, who knew noth-
ing of the art of pushing himself.

A week passed and he began to despair. Then his
landlord, who liked the youth, spoke to a friend about
him and of his fruitless search for work. The friend
replied: "Tell him to try No. 85 Chatham Street;
they want printers there." The next morning Horace
was on hand before the doors were opened, and fell
into conversation with one of the first men who came.
This man afterwards said, " I saw that he was an
honest, good young man, and, being a Vermonter my-
self, I determined to help him if I could."

Horace's new acquaintance spoke in his favor to the
foreman ; the latter looked him over doubtfully, not
believing that a country-trained typesetter could be
fit for the difficult work they were engaged on, a poly-
glot Testament ; finally he agreed to give him a chance.
The new hand worked steadily all day, and at night
showed the foreman a printer's proof of his work. It
proved to be the best day's work — in quantity and cor-
rectness— done in the office that day, and Horace was
definitely engaged.
19

290 HEROES OF PROGRESS

He worked for more than a year in this office. The
wages were not high, and the bulk of it went to his
father to help him in paying for his farm. But the
young printer saved a little for himself. He was
ambitious. He had no idea of keeping at the bottom
of affairs. Those were the days in which the old style
of newspaper was passing away and the modern news-
paper coming into being, and Greeley, feeling that he
had the ability to edit and conduct a paper, grew
anxious to branch out into that broad field of
enterprise.

He began his editorial career by joining Francis
Storey in issuing the Morning Post, the first daily
penny paper ever published. It was very ably handled,
but the innovation did not take and the paper lived
only a few weeks. Its ambitious editor saved some
more money and was soon in the saddle again. The
next year, 1834, he founded, as head of the firm of
Greeley & Co., the New Yorker, a weekly literary
paper, and at that time the best of its kind in the
country. And Horace Greeley had most to do with
making it such.

The next year another of the aspiring New York
newspaper men, James Gordon Bennett, recognizing
the ability that lay behind the New Yorker, came to its
editor and asked him to join in a new enterprise, a
one-cent paper to be called the Herald. Greeley knew
Bennett to be a clever and progressive journalist, but
his experience with the Morning Post had made him
cautious. "How much money have you?" he asked.
" Five hundred dollars," was the answer. " It isn't
enough. I won't go in with you, for I don't think you
can succeed."

Everybody knows that the Herald did succeed, des-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 291

pite the handful of money with which it was started,
but Greeley did well in keeping out of it, for it is not
likely that his views and those of Bennett would have
agreed. He was a man born to be at the head of a great
journal, not to drive in an ill-matched team.

Greeley kept on with the New Yorker. It was not
profitable, but it kept afloat for seven years. During
one year, 1838-39, he also edited the Jeffersonian, a
weekly Whig paper, and in 1840 started the Log
Cabin, a spirited little weekly which supported Harri-
son for President, was ably handled, and became so
popular as to gain a circulation of over 80,000. It was
an ephemeral sheet, issued for the campaign in the
interest of Thurlow Weed, but it gave Greeley a great
reputation in all parts of the country as an able writer
and a zealous politician.

Politically, Greeley had cast his lot with the Whigs,
and was a strenuous advocate of their views and those
of the succeeding Republicans throughout his life. So
far his business ambition had led him into several
journalistic enterprises which had brought him into
notice but not made him money. The Herald, which
he had refused to take part in, was becoming a notable
success. The Sun was also in the field and making its
way. Greeley felt that it was time he was launching
out with the paper he had long held in mind. He had
married in 1836 a Miss Cheney, of North Carolina.
Years and family cares were creeping upon him. De-
lay was dangerous, and in the last number of the Log
Cabin he announced that a new daily paper, Whig in
politics, was about to appear. On April 10, 1841, the
Daily Tribune was launched, as a one-cent newspaper,
with Horace Greeley as its editor and proprietor, Henry
J. Raymond, afterwards editor of the New York

292 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Times, as its sub-editor. It was fortunate in obtaining
for business manager Thomas McElrath, an able and
experienced financier. Greeley himself lacked financial
judgment, and much of the success of the Tribune
was due to Mr. McElrath.

It was Greeley 's fixed purpose, while working for the
success of his party, to make his paper one that should
be an intellectual and moral aid to its readers. It was
to sail in a channel of its own on the sea of public
opinion, with his hand steadily at the helm. The first
edition of five thousand copies could hardly be given
away, but there was a new tone in the paper that
quickly attracted attention, readers came to it rapidly,
and before two months an edition of eleven thou-
sand was called for, while its four columns of adver-
tisements had increased to thirteen. It was a quick and
big success, and began from the very start that career
of journalistic good fortune which it has since main-
tained.

Its purpose was not like that of the Herald. The
latter set out to mirror in its columns the world's daily
events. The Tribune had a different aim. It was to be
a storehouse of opinions, a moulder of thought, a leader
of the public mind, and in this field Horace Greeley
proved himself unsurpassed. His views on political
subjects came to be looked for and read with avidity,
and its scope spread out to cover science, literature,
the drama, and all the fields of thought. Himself
possessed of excellent literary taste, he drew to the
Tribune many of the best editors, reporters, and critics
to be had, and thousands came to look for it daily as
their exponent of opinion on all subjects of interest.

Its moral tone was kept as high as its intellectual.
It warmly supported all projects of reform and philan-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 293

thropy. One of its great aims was to promote the good
and prevent the bad. Every movement designed to
aid the struggling poor was earnestly seconded. The
various " isms " of the day were supported in its
columns, despite the ridicule which its rivals cast upon
it. Temperance, women's rights, abolition of capital
punishment, the uplifting of the poor, were among
Greeley's " isms," and he supported every movement
which seemed to him to tend towards right and
justice.

But, first and foremost, the Tribune was a political
paper. While the Whig party lasted it fought its bat-
tles strongly and shrewdly, Greeley himself claiming to
be the junior partner of the great Whig firm of poli-
ticians, " Seward, Weed, and Greeley." The Repub-
lican party owed its existence largely to the powerful
influence of the Tribune. It fought slavery with all
its strength until slavery ended, and from its origin re-
mained one of the ablest advocates of a protective
tariff.

Mr. Greeley was elected to Congress in 1848, and
during his life filled various political offices. But it
was not in these fields he shone. His best field of effort
was in the editorial columns of his paper, in which for
many years he continued to mould and direct the opin-
ions of his readers. In 1850 he published " Hints to-
wards Reforms," made up of lectures delivered at
various times and places, a work which led Parton to
say: " His subject is ever the same; the object of his
public life is single. It is the Emancipation of Labor,
its emancipation from ignorance, vice, servitude, and
poverty."

At the end of the Civil War he was in favor of uni-
versal amnesty and universal suffrage, and in 1867 he

294 HEROES OF PROGRESS

offered himself as bail for Jefferson Davis, then in
prison, an act for which many of his own party severely
condemned him. But Greeley deprecated revenge on
the defeated ; he was always governed by his concep-
tions of right, and never hesitated, for fear of adverse
criticism, in adopting the course which appealed to him
as the just one.

Aside from the immense labors of his editorial pen,
he was the author of two works, " The American Con-
flict," a history, from his point of view, of the Civil
War, and " Recollections of a Busy Life," a work of
much biographical interest.

The Tribune, begun as a small, one-cent sheet, grew
in size and price as time went on. Important as it
was, the Weekly Tribune was perhaps still more im-
portant, from its able summing up of events and its fine
literary merit. The circulation of these papers was by
no means local. They made their way into all parts of
the land, and to-day their great influence persists.
Though Greeley has gone, his spirit prevails in their
pages.

That Greeley was always wise or correct, not even his
strongest partisan would maintain. No man ever is.
But he had the courage to sustain any view which he
thought right, and to support an unpopular cause which
appealed to him, no matter what his political friends
might say. No doubt he made many mistakes ; no
doubt haste or strong feeling often led him astray. But
he meant right through all ; he was not working from
the point of view of the office-seekers, but to secure the
best good of his fellow-men ; whether right or wrong,
he discussed all the questions of the day with a vigor
and intelligence that made his opinions always of value,
and the high moral purpose that always moved him

HEROES OF PROGRESS 295

won him the respect and esteem of many of his politi-
cal opponents.

The close of Greeley's career was a sad one. He,
the champion of Republicanism, permitted his name to
be used as the Democratic candidate for President in
1872, in a hopeless contest against General Grant.
That he would be defeated was almost a foregone con-
clusion. But what hurt him more than defeat was the
accusation, by friends and enemies alike, that he was
disloyal to his party and unprincipled in his act, and
that, moved by his ambition to be President, he had
committed dishonorable offences. To the depression
caused by this came that due to the severe illness and
death of his wife. The two combined seem to have
sapped his vitality, and shortly after the announcement
of his defeat he died, on November 29, 1872.

" It was not the Presidential defeat, but the cruel
impeachment of his integrity by old friends, that
wounded his spirit past all healing." His death
changed the current of opinion. Many who had
blamed him now mourned him, and it became apparent
how deep a hold he had taken upon the admiration and
esteem of the American people. He had made a great
mark as a journalist — few have reached his level in
this — and he had also made as great a mark as a mor-
alist. To quote again, he was " one whose name will
live long after many writers and statesmen of greater
pretensions are forgotten."

JOHN ERICSSON, THE INVENTOR OF
THE "MONITOR"

OUR great men have not all been of American birth.
Europe has sent us many men who became among the
best of American citizens and the ablest and most use-
ful dwellers upon our soil. One of these, a man of high
distinction in the field of invention, was John Ericsson,
born in Langbanshyttan, Sweden, July 31, 1803. He
came to America in 1839, when thirty-six years of
age, after having spent thirteen years in England,
where he built in 1829 a locomotive that ran thirty
miles an hour, and about 1833 exhibited a caloric
engine. His most important work there was the appli-
cation of the screw or propeller to steam navigation,
an invention which in time fairly drove the paddle-
wheel from the seas. When he reached the shores of
America it was as a distinguished inventor. He was
to spend here fifty years of his life, engaged in similar
labors of many kinds.

It was the invention of the propeller, now almost
universally used on steam vessels, that brought Erics-
son to America. He offered this to England, but the
British Admiralty, with the blindness which that body
has often shown, would have nothing to do with the
new-fangled notion, and the disgusted Swede crossed
the ocean in search of a more wide-awake government.

He found the Americans far more open to new ideas,

and was quickly set to work in building a warship, the

steamer " Princeton," called by some one " a gimcrack

of sundry inventions." It was the first steam vessel

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 297.

that had her engines and boilers entirely below the
water line, and the first in which the screw-propeller
took the place of Fulton's paddle-wheels. The
" Princeton " had many other new contrivances, con-
nected with her furnaces, her guns, her smoke-stack,
etc., and proved a great success in her trial trip. The
propeller in especial attracted the attention of engin-
eers, and before many years made a revolution in
steam-ship building.

Unfortunately, Ericsson's new ship, despite its good
beginning, had a sad ending. The first disphy of its
powers was hardly over when a terrible accident hap-
pened to a distinguished party that was visiting it.
The " Peacemaker," one of its great guns, burst in
firing and scattered its iron fragments among the guests.
Two of the Secretaries of President Tyler's Cabinet,
a commodore, and several other persons were killed
by the explosion.

This accident proved for the time fatal to Ericsson's
credit with the Government. The gun that burst was
an experiment in large cannon with which he had
nothing to do, but it put an end to his government
work for many years. It was not until the Civil War
began that his abilities were again called into service.
The idea of protecting warships with iron bars or
plates had now been devised, and the South was prompt
to make use of this idea, raising the sunken " Mer-
rimac " in Norfolk harbor with the purpose of cover-
ing it with iron.

Ericsson, ever fertile in new schemes, devised a
plan of his own, of a vessel that not only should be
iron-clad, but should be sunk so deeply in the water
as to leave only its gun turrets as a mark for hostile
shot. The Government badly needed a powerful type

298 HEROES OF PROGRESS

of war-vessel, but did not take kindly to Ericsson's
scheme, and he had great difficulty in obtaining an
order from the Navy Department. It came at length,
however, and he began work on his afterward-
famous " Monitor," the " cheesebox on a raft " as it
was derisively termed.

When he fairly began work on it haste was needed,
for it was known that the " Merrimac " was being
rapidly changed into an iron-clad, and the fear was felt
that it might do immense damage unless a vessel
of equal strength was ready to meet it. Not only the
fleet in Hampton Roads might be destroyed, but the
Potomac might be entered and Washington bombarded
by this dreaded monster. As a result, work was
pressed on the " Monitor," it was begun and finished
within one hundred days, and it steamed its way down
to Hampton Roads, reaching there on the night of the
8th of March, 1862, shortly after the " Merrimac " had
appeared and made havoc among the wooden vessels
of the fleet.

All readers of American history know what followed,
of the terrible battle between the iron monsters, and
of the withdrawal of the " Merrimac," leaving the
little " Monitor " master of the field. After that Erics-
son was kept busy building monitors, as all vessels
of this type have since been called, and the era of the
iron-clad warship was fairly inaugurated. To him is
due the credit of building the first successful vessel
of this kind.

Ericsson had now reached a high standing as an
inventor. His propeller and his iron-clad were both
great conceptions. In addition he spent many years
upon a caloric engine, in which hot air was to take
the place of steam. His caloric ship, the " Ericsson,"

HEROES OF PROGRESS 299

made a successful trip from New York to Washington
in 1851. It cost him and others large sums of money,
but it mainly served to prove that hot-air engines of
large size were much less powerful than those worked
by steam. Yet the caloric engine is very useful where
a small amount of power is needed, and many of them
are in use at the present day.

Captain Ericsson gave much of his time in later years
to inventing torpedoes and other devices for submarine
warfare. In 1881 the " Destroyer," a vessel which was
to fire projectiles containing 300 pounds of gun cotton
into an enemy's vessel below the armor line, was tried,
but its success was not sufficient to satisfy the Navy
Department. In his later years he gave much of his
time and ingenuity to the building of a solar motor,
for use on the great sandy plains of rainless regions,
where the sun gives out vast stores of heat which
might be made of service to man. He died before he
had perfected this machine, but since his death solar
motors of much usefulness have been made. They
are in use in Southern California and other hot and dry
regions.

As may be seen, Captain Ericsson was an inventor
of great versatility and fine powers. We have spoken
here only of his most important inventions, but he
made many others. In the thirteen years he spent
in England, before coming to the United States, his
inventions were numerous, most of them having some-
thing to do with power engines. One of these, which
was quite a novelty, was the first steam fire-engine
ever tried. This was used, to the great surprise of the
Londoners, on a fire at the Argyle Rooms in 1829.
As was said at the time, it was " the first time that fire
was ever put out by the mechanical power of fire."

300 HEROES OF PROGRESS

The inventions and improvements made by Captain
Ericsson were far too numerous to be mentioned here.
His studies and experiments added largely to the
world's knowledge of the proper use of steam and
other power agents. The old house on Beech Street,
New York, where he lived and worked for many
years, was the home of many inventions and experi-
ments, to which he gave most of his time every day.
His work was honored and his fame spread all over
the world, and many were the learned and honorary
titles conferred upon him by the governments and the
scientific bodies of Europe and America. He died in
New York, March 8, 1889.

THOMAS A. EDISON, THE WIZARD OF

INVENTION

THERE are men to whom the idea of invention
comes from seeing some great need. There are others
with whom the faculty of invention is born, and who
could scarcely take up a tea-cup without thinking of
inventing a better handle for it. Such a one was
the clever and enterprising little lad who, eager to
experiment in telegraphy, made a line of stove wire,
with bottles for insulators, wound the wire for his
electro-magnets with rags, and tried to obtain elec-
tricity for his current by rubbing the cat's back. The
effort was a failure but it showed the trend of his
mind and the ingenuity of his ideas.

This boy, Thomas Alva Edison, born at Milan, Ohio,
February u, 1854, was the son of a poor man, a
village jack-of-all-trades, who soon afterwards moved
to Port Huron, Michigan. He could not, or would
not, give his son any regular schooling, the boy's
school-life being only two months long. What else he
learned was given him by his mother at home, or
gained through his insatiable thirst for knowledge.
What can we think of a boy who was reading the his-
tories of Gibbon and Hume at ten years of age, and por-
ing over books of chemistry before he could pronounce
the long names he found there ? Before he was fifteen
he had read all the important works in the Detroit
public library and made a serious attempt to read the
whole library through. Nothing could keep a boy like
that from gaining an education.

302 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Young Edison had to begin work early. At twelve
years of age he was a newsboy on the Grand Trunk
Railway. With some of the money he earned he be-
gan experimenting with chemistry, setting up a labo-
ratory in an empty corner of the baggage car. One
day, in his absence, a bottle of phosphorus which he
had was upset and broken, setting the car on fire.
When the baggage-master found out what was the
trouble he kicked the apparatus out of the car and gave
the youthful chemist a warm piece of his mind.

Later on, while he was still railroading, a Chicago
publisher gave him a lot of worn-out type, and the
enterprising boy was soon publishing, with several
assistants, a paper of his own, called The Grand Trunk
Herald, devoted to railroad items. It was the first of
its kind ever known. The Civil War was now going
on. and one day the alert newsboy persuaded a tele-
graph operator at Chicago to send word of the great
battle of Shiloh to the principal stations along the
road. Edison loaded himself up with papers and found
crowds at every station eager to buy them at a high
price, netting a splendid profit on his venture.

This \vas his first introduction to the advantages of
telegraphy. He now wanted to know something about
that, as he did about everything else, and soon got
his opportunity by saving the child of a telegraph oper-
ator from being killed by a railroad train. The father,
grateful to the boy, taught him the art of sending"
messages, and Edison, in his usual fashion of experi-
menting, soon had wires and batteries rigged up in his
home at Port Huron and practised until he was quite
skilful.

His service as a telegrapher began at Indianapolis,
when he was eighteen years old. While here he made

EDISON'S MAGNETIC ORE SEPARATOR
(From original sketch by the inventor)

TfcE NEV
PUBLIC LIBF

HEROES OF PROGRESS 303

his first invention, this being an automatic register for
receiving messages and transferring them to another
wire. In this device lay the germ of the phonograph,
the triumph of his later life. Constantly practising,
Edison became very expert and swift as an operator,
as usual, however, giving all his spare hours to his
favorite study of chemistry. On one occasion, when
he was night operator, and had to show that he was
wide awake by sending the word " six " every half
hour to the superintendent, he found time to devote
to his books and experiments by contriving a device
that sent the signal automatically. Unluckily for him,
his clever scheme was found out, and he lost his
situation.

From Indianapolis he drifted eastward, getting
positions here and there, and finally reaching Boston,
then looked upon as one of the most important tele-
graph centres of the country. He got a position there,
and, as everywhere else, managed to do some chemical
experimenting in his off hours. A legend is told of his
experience in the Boston office which is worth repeat-
ing, even if its absolute truth cannot be vouched for.
It is said that the spruce Boston operators were amused
at the countrified aspect of the young Westerner who
had been installed at a wire in the office and decided to
have some fun at the tyro's expense. They therefore
got a very rapid operator in New York to send a mes-
sage at lightning speed to the newcomer, thinking to
set him utterly at sea. To their surprise, Edison took
the message with ease, and sent back an answer in
still more rapid style, confusing the New Yorker and
decidedly getting the laugh on the conspirators. This
is a good story, whether it is fact or fiction.

Edison's genius for invention was now turned to-

304 HEROES OF PROGRESS

wards telegraphy, and while in Boston he made one of
the greatest of inventions in that line, that of duplex
telegraphy — the sending of two messages at once over
a single wire. On this he spent many hours of his
spare time, making many failures, and finding success
very difficult to reach. From this invention he after-
wards developed that of quadruplex telegraphy, by
which four messages could be sent at once over the
same wire, two in each direction, without interference
with one another.

It was about 1868 that Edison began to be known as
an inventor. He had given up his position as an oper-
ator, and had tried in vain to make his duplex tele-
graph work between Rochester and Boston. This
failure was a sore trial to the inventor, who made his
way in a down-hearted mood to New York, where, after
trying vainly to interest the telegraph companies in his
inventions, he established himself as an expert in teleg-
raphy, ready to do any odd jobs that offered. One
day the indicator of the Gold and Stock Company
broke down, and the electricians of the company made
long and vain efforts to adjust it. Finally Edison,
hearing of their difficulty, offered his services and his
offer was accepted as a forlorn hope. He was not long
in discovering the source of the trouble, and soon had
the line in working order again. This established his
reputation as an expert, and business began to come
to him from all sides. In 1871 he became superin-
tendent of the company.

The trouble with the indicator suggested to his mind
a new device, the printing telegraph for gold and stock
quotations, and before long he had a shop at work in
Newark, New Jersey, for the manufacture of his new
instrument, the " stock ticker," designed for reporting

HEROES OF PROGRESS 305

in brokers' offices the prices of stocks on the exchange.
It has since come everywhere into use. Money now be-
gan to come in rapidly to the inventor, his shop turning
out the stock tickers and other devices, for which a
ready market was found, and telegraph companies em-
ploying him in researches aimed at further inventions.
The young experimenter of the Grand Trunk Railway
train was making his way.

It was not until 1872 that full success was gained
with the duplex telegraph. The quadruplex came later,
also the electric pen. The latter is a hollow needle,
driven by electricity and working like a sewing machine
needle, perforating and inking the lines of a message
on a number of sheets of paper.

In 1876 Edison made the great venture of his life.
He proposed thereafter to devote his time solely to the
work of invention, especially in the line of the electric
light, and his reputation as an inventor had now be-
come so great that he had no difficulty in interesting a
number of wealthy capitalists in the project, they to
supply the money and he the brains. A shop was
built and equipped at Menlo Park, New Jersey, and
there his experiments in this new field of labor began.
They have since been kept up in this and other direc-
tions, his inventions being fairly multitudinous in
number.

The arc system of electric lighting had some years
before been invented and was coming into use. It was
to the incandescent system that Edison applied himself,
seeking to produce a satisfactory lamp for houses and
stores. He began by using platinum wires in a glass
bulb, but soon sought a better and cheaper material.
Carbon was at length selected as having the highest
power of resistance to the current. To prevent its

20

306 HEROES OF PROGRESS

destruction by oxygen, the bulbs had to be exhausted
of air as completely as possible. Carbon fibres were
tried from a great number of materials, carbonized
bamboo being finally chosen. This gave lamps good
for at least six hundred hours.

One great difficulty experienced in the use of the in-
candescent light was that, when the light was subdivided
between many burners, the extinction of one light
affected all the others. Edison finally overcame this
difficulty, so that any light on his circuit might be
raised, lowered, or extinguished without affecting the
others.

Edison was an indefatigable investigator; when
actively at work upon an intricate problem he fairly
forgot the need of eating and sleeping. At one time,
when his printing telegraph for some reason refused to
perform, he worked for sixty hours without rest, eating
nothing but some crackers and cheese as he worked. On
another occasion all the electric lamps at Menlo Park
suddenly ceased to burn. The problem annoyed him.
He worked at it incessantly for five days, taking no
rest himself and giving his assistants none. At the
end of that time he had to go to bed, leaving the dif-
ficulty unsolved. He was worn out with chagrin and
weariness. For fifteen hours he had worked without
eating a morsel, and was surprised when it was sug-
gested to him that food was in order. The trouble,
in the end, proved to be that the vacuum in the globes
was not sufficient, and long experiment was needed to
gain a more complete exhaustion of the air. In this,
as in almost everything he tried, Edison succeeded.

Aside from the electric light, the Edison inventions
have been very numerous. He has taken out some
500 patents and invented machines of the most extra-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 307

ordinary character. He has perhaps a hundred patents
in connection with telegraphy, including the duplex,
quadruplex, and sextuplex system. Among the most
remarkable of his inventions relating to sound are the
microphone, by which the faintest of sounds can be
detected; the megaphone, by which ordinary sounds
can be heard at great distances ; the carbon telephone ;
and especially the phonograph, one of the most mar-
vellous of instruments, by which the sounds of the
human voice can be registered and kept for reproduc-
tion at a future time. This has been remarkably
developed since its invention. His kinetoscope is a
development of the zeotrope, in which a continuous
picture is produced by a swift succession of instantane-
ous photographs, taken forty-six or more per second.
It has also had a splendid development, yielding what is
known as the living picture. For a time he devoted
himself to the problem of obtaining the iron from the
iron-bearing sands of New Jersey by aid of the magnet.
Large works were built to apply this process, but with-
out encouraging success in the way of profits.

As an inventor Edison may truly be named a wizard.
The world has never known his equal. He has made
invention a business, and by the aid of a large capital,
trained assistants, and incessant application, has suc-
ceeded in adding remarkably to the mechanical devices
possessed by the world. He is untiring and unconquer-
able. He never lets go of a possibility of invention
until he has exhausted it. His workshop is unique.
He has gathered there everything that can be used in
his experiments, and all the leading scientific journals
of the world are indexed ready for instant use. He is
equipped for any experiment that may suggest itself.
His mind is never at rest. He says, in relation to his

308 HEROES OF PROGRESS

contract to manufacture a large number of his
" stock tickers " at his Newark shop : " I was a poor
manufacturer, because I could not let well enough
alone. My first impulse, upon taking in my hand any
machine, from an egg-beater to an electric motor, is
to seek a way of improving it. Therefore, as soon as
I have finished a machine I am anxious to take it
apart again in order to make an experiment. That is
a costly mania for a manufacturer."

He is one of the busiest men of the world, constantly
at work, constantly devising. One of his latest produc-
tions is an improved electric storage cell for auto-
mobiles. Of his inventions he says : ' These are only
trials, with which we may accomplish still greater
wonders. The very fact that this century [the nine-
teenth] has accomplished so much in the way of inven-
tion makes it more than probable that the next century
will do far greater things."

A rather tall, compactly-built man is the famous in-
ventor, with a somewhat boyish, clean-shaven face,
to which incessant thought is adding lines of premature
age. He cares little about dress, and usually manages
to have hands and clothes stained with oil and chem-
icals. Somewhat deaf, he watches his visitor's lips
closely to catch what he is saying. Kind and genial in
disposition, he is patient in explaining his methods
and results to inquiring visitors. On the whole,
Thomas A. Edison is the most marvellous example of
the American genius for invention.

FRANCES E. WILLARD, THE WOMEN'S
TEMPERANCE LEADER

IT was in the year 1873 that the women of America
first became active in the war against drunkenness,
which had been going on in this country, in the hands
of men, for half a century before. A '' woman's
crusade " broke out in Ohio in that year and spread
like a consuming fire through the middle West, ardent
women advocates of temperance invading the saloons,
praying and imploring and doing all in their power to
break up the sale of strong drink and the vile habit of
intoxication. Their labors led in 1874 to the organiza-
tion of the Women's Christian Temperance Union,
which since then has been the strongest force in the
fight for this great reform. At its head for twenty
years was the notable figure of the woman with whose
life history we are now concerned, one of the ablest and
noblest in the reform movements of the age.

Frances Elizabeth Willard came from the best New
England stock, being a descendant in a direct line from
Major-General Simon Willard, who came from Eng-
land in 1636, was the founder of Concord, Massachu-
setts, and took a prominent part in early colonial
affairs. Born at Churchville, New York, September
23, 1839, Miss Willard was taken by her parents to
Oberlin, Ohio, in the following year, and in 1846 to
Wisconsin. Here her father became a farmer and her
mother was for many years engaged in teaching, and
here her own education was obtained, it being com-

3°9

3io HEROES OF PROGRESS

pleted in the Milwaukee Female College and the
Northwestern Female College, from the latter of which
she graduated in 1859.

As a girl she was full of vitality and energy, pass-
ing a very active outdoor life with her brother and
sister, and being fond of riding, fishing, sketching,
tree-climbing, and other outing occupations. Her
mother encouraged these health-giving pursuits, by the
aid of which the young girl laid up a stock of vigor
which aided in carrying her through the strenuous
duties of her later years. That she did not neglect
intellectual pursuits we know from the fact that at
the age of sixteen she won a prize from the Illinois
Agricultural Society for an essay on " Country
Homes," and that in college she was active with
pen and voice.

At the time of her graduation Miss Willard was a
resident of Evanston, Illinois, the chief suburb of Chi-
cago, which remained her place of residence till her
death. Her graduation was quickly followed by a
period of teaching in the Northwestern Female Col-
lege, where she served as Professor of Natural Science
from 1861 to 1866, and during part of this time was the
college dean. She taught also one year in the Genesee
Wesleyan Seminary, of Lima, New York, and spent the
years 1868 to 1870 in European travel. Her route
covered the whole of Europe and parts of Africa and
Asia, extending from Helsingfors on the north to
Nubia on the south, and eastward as far as Damascus,
while much of her time abroad was occupied in the
study of language and of the history of the fine arts.
Aside from rest and enjoyment, she gained new in-
spiration and mental development from the extended
journey.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 311

In 1871, shortly after her return to America, she
was made president of the Woman's College of the
Northwestern University, at Evanston. Her presi-
dency of this institution is notable for the introduction
under her auspices of a system of self-government by
the pupils. This important educational experiment,
of which she was the originator, proved so successful
as an aid in discipline, that other colleges soon began to
take it up, and it is now adopted in many of our institu-
tions of learning. In addition to her duties as presi-
dent, Miss Willard was also Professor of ^Esthetics
in the college during 1873-74. In the latter year she
resigned, and shortly afterwards became identified with
the temperance movement, to which the remainder of
her life was devoted. She had already engaged to some
extent in literary work, especially in her " Nineteen
Beautiful Years," the story of the brief but inspiring
and noble life of her younger sister.

Miss Willard's entrance into the field of labor
which became the unresting occupation of her later life
was a natural outcome of her sympathy with all move-
ments of reform. She had signed the temperance
pledge under her father's and mother's names while
still a young child, but did not awaken to the need of
entering actively upon temperance work until after the
crusade of the women of Ohio in 1873, which she
watched with warm approval.

The event which finally enlisted her energies in the
cause was the ill-treatment of a band of women
crusaders in the streets of Chicago by a rough party of
men. Filled with indignation at this outrage, she
declared the crusade to be " everybody's war," took
part in it as far as her college duties permitted, and
began speaking at temperance meetings, in so ardent

312 HEROES OF PROGRESS

and effective a manner that her services were soon
much in demand.

Shortly after this Miss Willard resigned from the
college in consequence of some lack of harmony in the
faculty, and at once entered fervently upon temperance
work. She made a journey East, conferred with the
leaders in the cause, saw the mission temperance work
in the slums of New York, became familiar with the
extent of the evil and the character of the effort to
eradicate it, and determined to give her life to this
labor. While in Pittsburg she took part personally in
crusade work, going to the saloons with a party of
earnest women, kneeling with them on soiled bar-room
floors, praying fervently, and pleading earnestly with
liquor sellers to give up their soul-destroying business.

One day in 1874 two letters reached her. One was
from a school principal in New York, asking her to
take charge of a young ladies' department at a salary
of $2400 a year ; the other was from a friend at home
begging her to become president of the Chicago branch
of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, then
just organized as an outcome of the crusade movement.
It took her no time to choose between the salaried and
the non-salaried offer. She at once accepted the latter
position, flung herself ardently into the work, and in
October, 1874, accepted the position of corresponding
secretary of the Illinois section of the Union.

The formation of the Women's Christian Temper-
ance Union was a new move in the temperance cause,
a substitution of organized and systematic work, under
womanly auspices, for the largely desultory work
which had before prevailed, and it had a broad field
before it. Miss Willard threw herself, body and soul,
into this movement, became its leader and most ener-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 313

getic worker, and was elected president of the National
Union in 1879, a post which she held during the
remainder of her life.

A ready and pleasing orator, Miss Willard is said
to have averaged one speech daily in favor of temper-
ance and other reforms during the first ten years
of her work, during which she visited every town of
10,000 and more inhabitants and most of those of
5,000 in the United States. In 1883 alone she is said
to have addressed audiences in every State and Terri-
tory in the country, travelling thirty thousand miles
through the land. Her work was begun without salary,
other than such chance contributions as might come in,
but as the Union grew more prosperous a regular
salary was paid her for her arduous and incessant
labors.

As the years went on, Miss Willard's evident ability
and incessant activity led to her engaging in other
reform movements and being given various positions
of leadership. Strongly religious in sentiment, she
was occupied in 1877 in aiding the evangelist Moody in
his mission work in Boston, and subsequently took
active part in other duties. In 1882 she was made
a member of the Central Committee of the National
Prohibition Party, and in 1883 organized a World's
Women's Christian Temperance Union, with the pur-
pose of carrying the crusade against strong drink into
all parts of the world. Of this body also she was made
the president.

Indefatigable in her labors, and constantly seeking
for some new opportunity for effective effort, in 1884
she presented, under the auspices of the Union, a me-
morial to each of the four political conventions for the
nomination of Presidential candidates. In the same

3i4 HEROES OF PROGRESS

year she took part in the founding of the Home Pro-
tection Party, organized for the protection of the home
against the evils of intemperance, and became a mem-
ber of its executive committee. The petition prepared
by it was presented before the legislature of nearly
every State.

A new field of labor now entered by her was that of
the White Cross and the White Shield, for the pro-
motion of social purity, upon which she spoke widely
in the United States and Canada, engaging in it with
her usual vital earnestness. She accepted the leader-
ship of this movement in the Unions of which she was
president, making this her special department till her
death. An active member of the Methodist Church,
she was sent as a delegate to its General Conference in
1887, and in 1889 was elected to its Commercial Coun-
cil, but was refused admittance on some technical plea.

The World's Women's Christian Temperance Union,
organized by her in 1883, spread until it had member-
ship in thirty-five different countries, and a huge poly-
glot petition against the sale of intoxicating liquors
and opium was distributed for signature, it eventually
receiving the vast number of seven million signatures.
Of these about 6,500,000 were in the United States,
the remainder being from many countries covered by
the World's Union.

The petition was presented to President Cleveland
in 1895, and two years afterwards to the govern-
ment of Canada. Its most effective and picturesque
presentation was before a great World's Temperance
Convention held in London in 1896, at which the
monster petition encircled the entire hall and lay in
huge rolls in front of the platform. Delegates from
temperance societies of many different countries were

HEROES OF PROGRESS 315

present, many of them in their picturesque native
costumes. Miss Willard and Lady Henry Somerset
were the presiding officers of the meeting, which was a
very large and highly enthusiastic one. But as for the
vast petition, it need only be said that it proved of no
effect, the sale of liquor and opium going on unchecked.

In 1893 Miss Willard was honored with the chair-
manship of the World's Temperance Convention at the
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Recognition of her
standing as a worker came to her in the honorary
degree of A.M. from Syracuse University in 1871, and
of LL.D. from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1894.
Her active work on the platform was kept up to the
close of her life in all parts of the country, she mak-
ing among her tours eight journeys through the South-
ern States, bringing together the women of the two
sections of the Union in harmonious association under
the white flag of the W. C. T. U., with its famous
motto, " For God and Home and Native Land."

In these incessant labors the indefatigable president
of the Union was always dignified, earnest, and in-
spiring, while as a temperance orator her powers were
rare and fine. As a presiding officer her excellence
was everywhere acknowledged, her grace and gracious-
ness of manner, tact and judgment, quickness at rep-
artee, and intellectual alertness, winning her universal
respect and esteem at the meetings of the White Rib-
bon class.

Miss Willard did not confine herself to the lines of
activity here mentioned, but engaged also earnestly in
editorial and literary labors. Editorially, her work was
done on the Chicago Daily Post, the Boston Our Day,
and The Union Signal, the special publication of the
W. C. T. U. She was also the director of the Women's

316 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Temperance Publishing Association, of Chicago. Her
books included " Nineteen Beautiful Years," already
mentioned ; " Glimpses of Fifty Years," " Women and
Temperance," and a number of others. Of these,
" Glimpses of Fifty Years " was of the character of an
autobiography, and had a very large sale, more than
fifty thousand copies being called for from all parts
of the world.

Her persistent and unceasing labors in time told
upon Miss Willard's strength, and for several of her
later years she suffered from ill health. Despite this
she kept diligently at work, and, though worn out with
labor, presided at the convention of 1897. The exer-
tion here required proved too much for her strength,
and she died on the i8th of February, 1898.

We may close with an estimate of the character of
this indefatigable worker for reform from Lady Henry
Somerset, her intimate friend in the presidency of the
World's Women's Christian Temperance Union:

" Capacity for work, untiring and unremitting, is
one of the great characteristics which close friendship
of these years has revealed ; and save when sleeping I
have never seen her idle. The secret of her success has
perhaps lain in this, that she has set herself towards
her aim and nothing would tempt her from the goal.
' She is ambitious,' is the worst condemnation of her
enemies ; but surely if there has been a noble and pure
and true ambition it has been that of Frances Willard."

CLARA BARTON, THE RED CROSS
EVANGEL OF MERCY

THE famous Red Cross Society, founded in Europe
in 1864 as a result of the Geneva Conference in 1863,
did not make its way to America until 1881, its estab-
lishment in this country being due to the efforts of the
noble-hearted Clara Barton, who was appointed its
president. Most of us are familiar with the beneficent
purpose of this society, to ameliorate the sufferings
arising from war ; but most may not know that twenty
years before its founding in America Clara Barton was
carrying out its ends and aims with an unselfish devo-
tion which has rarely been equalled. If any woman in
our land has earned a crown of glory by works of
mercy and beneficence, none could be more deserving
of it than this bearer of relief to the afflicted, the story
of whose life we are about to tell.

The daughter of a soldier who fought under Anthony
Wayne against the Indians of the West, Clara Barton
was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, December
25, 1821. She was educated in an academy at Clinton,
New York, became a teacher, and quickly showed her
progressive spirit and ability by founding at Borden-
town, New Jersey, at her own risk, the first free school
ever opened in that State. Beginning with six pupils,
she had six hundred by the end of her first year, and
had obtained the money to erect a new schoolhouse, at
a cost of four thousand dollars.

Her life as a teacher ended in 1854, when failing

318 HEROES OF PROGRESS

health obliged her to give up the absorbing duties of
her school. Soon afterwards she obtained a position
as clerk in the Patent Office at Washington, holding
it till the outbreak of the Civil War, when the demands
of the wounded and suffering appealed so strongly to
her warm heart that she resigned her position and
offered her services as a volunteer nurse. It was the
first step in a long life given to this cause.

Seeking the hospital, the camp, the battle-field itself,
she devoted herself unflinchingly to the distressing
work she had undertaken, nobly facing the terrible
scenes into which it brought her, and when the army
began its Peninsular campaign in 1862 she went with
it to the field, where she pursued her chosen work in
a quiet, self-contained, and most efficient way, never
flinching from the most arduous duties or the most
harrowing scenes. Her earnest solicitation brought her
supplies in abundance from the charitable, and all the
resources of military trains and camp equipage were
placed at her service, her noble and valuable work of
aid to the suffering being everywhere acknowledged.

She was present on many of the battle-fields of Vir-
ginia, was eight months engaged in hospital duty on
Morris Island during the siege of Charleston, was
afterwards busied in the Wilderness campaign, and in
1864 was put in charge of the hospitals at the front
of the Army of the James, her devotion to duty not
ceasing until the war ended.

The close of the war brought her new work to do.
At the request of President Lincoln she took up the
arduous duty of searching for the 80,000 men marked
on the army muster rolls as missing. In this service
she went to the prison at Andersonville, aided the
prisoners there upon their release, and continued the

HEROES OF PROGRESS 319

work of identifying the dead until gravestones had
been erected over the bodies of 12,920 men, and tablets
marked " unknown " placed over four hundred more.
This labor took four years of her life, during part of
which she gave a series of lectures upon " Incidents of
the War," in which she told to hundreds of thousands
of interested listeners the facts of her thrilling
experience.

It was while in Switzerland in 1869, whither she
had gone for rest after her many years of hard work,
that she first heard of the Red Cross Society. Every
power in Europe had joined in the treaty which gave
the members of this beneficent association immunity
on the battle-field, and licensed them to care for the
wounded of every creed and race, whether friends or
foes. It was a work of mercy that appealed strongly
to her sympathetic soul, and she promptly joined the
society, entering quickly upon its duties, and devoting
herself to them with the warmest zeal during the
Franco-Prussian War.

After the capitulation of Strassburg, she accom-
panied the German troops in their entry into its streets,
and there found the most urgent need for this mission
of benevolence. There were many thousands of home-
less and starving people within the walls, and her heart
was rent with sorrow at the suffering visible on every
hand. Systematic and energetic work was needed here,
and Miss Barton earnestly undertook the task of seek-
ing to relieve the distress that surrounded her. Food
was supplied for the hungry, materials for thousands
of garments were procured, and she set the hungry and
half-clad women at work in making these into articles
of wear, seeing that they were paid for their labor and
thus enabled to obtain food.

320 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Her work at Strassburg was quickly followed by
similar work at Paris, where the outbreak of the Com-
mune had caused wide-spread suffering and distress.
Entering that terror-haunted city courageously on foot,
she began her work with an earnestness that quickly
won her recognition and protection among the warring
elements, food and clothing being supplied her which
she distributed with the judicious care born of long
experience. The story is told that on one occasion a
hungry mob, fiercely demanding food, had overcome
the police in front of her dwelling. Opening the door,
she spoke earnestly to the infuriated throng. Recog-
nizing her as the bringer of relief to their families,
their mood changed.

" Mon Dieu, it is an angel !" they exclaimed. Then
they quietly dispersed, their wild fury tamed by the
voice of this giver of food to them and theirs.

Miss Barton returned to America in 1873. She
brought with her, as tokens of appreciation of her
work, the Golden Cross of Baden, presented her by the
Grand Duke, and the Iron Cross of Germany, presented
by the Emperor, both of them in recognition of her
invaluable services. In her native land, in which she
was at that time the only member of the Red Cross,
she earnestly applied to Congress to join in the
international European treaty establishing this
society, an effort in which she did not succeed until
1881.

As president of the American branch of the society,
she proposed an amendment which vastly widened its
scope. There was at that time no probability that the
services of the Red Cross members would for years
be called for by wars in America, and the duties of the
society bad been restricted to this purpose. Her pro-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 321

posal was that its scope should be widened so as
to embrace all cases suffering from fire, flood, fam-
ine, pestilence, or disasters of any kind calling for
relief.

Her amendment, which also embraced protection to
Red Cross agents under duties of any nature, was
agreed to by a conference of the society held at Berne
in 1882, but was not adopted by any of the nations of
Europe. Had the work of the society been confined
to war, Miss Barton would have found little call for
her services at home, but its new and broader scope
brought her no end of duties, of the most diversified
kind. The Michigan forest fires and the Mississippi
Valley floods of 1882 and 1883 called for active relief
work, which was conducted under her supervision.
In 1884 there came the Louisiana cyclone. Later there
was the Charleston earthquake, the drought in Texas,
and that frightful disaster, the Johnstown flood. When
the news of this terrible affliction reached her she hur-
ried to the ground on the first train, and remained there
for five months, having under her a force of fifty men
and women, and vast sums of money being placed at
her disposal, for use in giving relief to the suffering
and destitute. Later the dreadful cyclone on the Sea
Islands of South Carolina called for similar devoted
services.

During part of this period Miss Barton held the posi-
tion of superintendent of the Reformatory School for
Women at Sherborn, Massachusetts, which was placed
under her care in 1883. As evidence of the kind of
work she did there, and the respect and admiration
felt for her by the inmates, we may give the following
incident told by a lady visitor to the institution. While
she was being taken by the superintendent through the

21

322 HEROES OF PROGRESS

wards, a girl convict raised herself on her cot and
gazed fixedly at Miss Barton.

" Well, what is it ? " the latter kindly asked.

" Nothing. I heard you coming and just wanted to
look at you."

It was a pathetic demonstration of the warmth of
their feeling towards her.

In 1883 Miss Barton, at the request of a committee
of Congress, prepared a volume entitled " History of
the Red Cross Association." This was supplemented
at a later date by a work similar in character, " History
of the Red Cross in Peace and War."

In 1884 she attended the International Peace Con-
gress at Geneva, as a deputy from the United States,
and on two occasions subsequently was appointed by
the United States Government to international con-
ferences in Europe to discuss questions of relief in
war.

Though the nations of Europe had not accepted the
American widening of the purposes of the Red Cross
Society, Miss Barton volunteered her services there
on two critical occasions unwarlike in character. Dur-
ing the famine in Russia in 1891-92 the American Red
Cross Society took active part under the auspices of
its noble president in the work of relief. Food and
clothing were obtained in quantities and widely dis-
tributed among the sufferers.

Again in January, 1896, moved by the frightful
massacres in Armenia, she made an appeal for aid to
the charitable of this country, and in February
reached Constantinople, attended by five assistants.
Here an appeal w*as made to the Sultan for permission
to proceed to Armenia and relieve the distress there as
far as could be done. A reluctant assent was given,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 323

with the demand that Miss Barton and her assistants
should place the crescent above the cross on the badges
worn by them. This being complied with, a gratifying1
change was visible, the government giving prompt
and courteous assistance, while the messengers made
their way without delay to the scene of trouble and
rendered timely and important service to the destitute
and injured sufferers.

Miss Barton's services during this mission of mercy
were recognized by Guy de Lusignan, Prince of Jeru-
salem, Cyprus, and Armenia, through the decoration
of the Order of Melusine, which he conferred
upon her. In addition to this and the crosses of honor
bestowed upon her at the close of the Franco-Prussian
War, she received at intervals other valuable tokens of
appreciation, including a handsome jewel from the
Duchess of Baden, a medal and jewel from the Em-
press of Germany, a decoration of gems from the
Queen of Servia, and a brooch and pendant of dia-
monds as a tribute of gratitude from the people of
Johnstown.

In 1898 Miss Barton, at the request of President
McKinley, proceeded to Cuba as a bearer of relief to
the suffering and starving reconcentrad&s of that coun-
try, and in the war that succeeded she did valuable field
work among the sick and wounded of the army in
Cuba. In 1900 another demand for relief came from
the sufferers at Galveston, where a vast ocean storm
had inundated and ruined the city. Miss Barton, with
her accustomed promptness, hastened to the scene of
suffering, but the strain proved too much for her, now
nearly in her eightieth year, and she broke down and
was forced, for the first time in her long life of ardu-
ous work, to desist from active labors.

324 HEROES OF PROGRESS

History does not contain many records of devo-
tion to humanity and self-sacrifice in women surpass-
ing that of Clara Barton, and she amply earned the
high regard in which she was held. She was one of
the few American women who won a European reputa-
tion, her name being known and revered from Paris
and Strassburg to Russia and Armenia. In her own
land she nobly earned her crown of fame.

ANDREW CARNEGIE, AND THE NEW
GOSPEL OF WEALTH

THIS work is not designed as a record of the careers
of men whose chief claim to distinction has been the
accumulation of large sums of money. Astor and
Girard have been spoken of as pioneers in this field,
and the latter especially for the praiseworthy use made
by him of his wealth. But in these later days of enter-
prise and the development of the natural resources
of this country the opportunities for money making
have greatly increased, and many have far surpassed
these pioneers in the gathering of wealth. Some
among these have died and left part or all of their
money to found useful institutions, but of these exam-
ples of public service without self-sacrifice Astor and
Girard must suffice. In our day there are some who
are doing far better than this, giving their money while
living, and it seems only just to tell the story of one
of these. We select for our example Andrew Carnegie,
the Pittsburg multimillionaire and free-handed giver of
good gifts, a man who has converted benevolence into
a business. We may here fitly quote an old writer
who quaintly said : " To amass money and to make no
use of it is as senseless as to hunt game and not roast
it." If he had said " good use of it " he would have
bettered his saying. .Carnegie has put the idea into
better shape in his new " Gospel of Wealth " motto :
"A man who dies rich dies disgraced."

Andrew Carnegie is of Scotch birth, having been
born in Dunfermline, Scotland, November 25, 1837.

325

326 HEROES OF PROGRESS

In 1848 his father, unable longer to get work in Scot-
land, emigrated to America. He brought with him
a sturdy republican in his young son, whose mind had
been filled with democratic ideas by his uncle and
father, both of them reform orators. The stories of
Scotch history and English tyranny had been deeply
impressed upon his mind, and filled him with hatred of
tyrants and love of liberty. We may find the results of
his early training in his notable book published forty
years afterwards, " Triumphant Democracy."

Father, mother, and the two boys, Andy and Tom,
duly reached their future home in Pittsburg, where
Mr. Carnegie got work in a cotton factory, and where
Andy, when twelve years old, began his business career
as a bobbin-boy at the wrages of a dollar and twenty
cents a week. It was a modest beginning for one who
was in time to become the owner of hundreds of
millions of dollars. There have been several marvel-
lous examples of money-making in our day, but that of
the bobbin-boy of Pittsburg is one of the most extra-
ordinary of them all.

We do not propose to give in full detail the story
of Andrew Carnegie's progress to fortune. It is a tale
that might be repeated in different words in the career
of many living Americans, and may be dealt with
somewhat briefly here. It is remarkable only in the
vast wealth he accumulated, but the narration of enter-
prise and alertness in taking advantage of business
opportunities has nothing in it new. There are many
who have the abilities necessary to become very rich.
There are few who have the opportunity to use these
abilities. Carnegie was one of these few favorites of
fortune.

Changes soon came in the boy's career. At thirteen

HEROES OF PROGRESS 327

he was put at the hard work of firing for the boiler of
a factory engine. At fourteen he was given a much
easier position as telegraph-boy, with three dollars a
week salary. His escape from the stoker's den to life
in the open air was to the boy like an escape from
purgatory to paradise. His leisure moments were given
to practicing with the telegraph, in which he learned to
take by sound instead of by tape, as was then much the
custom.

The boy was apt and quick, and made such progress
that at sixteen he was installed as an operator at a
salary of three hundred dollars a year. It came in good
time, for his father had died and he had to bear much
of the weight of the family support. Thomas A.
Scott, then superintendent of the Pittsburg Division of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, gave him his next lift.
Attracted by the alert intelligence of the young opera-
tor, he offered him a position as railroad telegrapher
at ten dollars a month advance, and soon after gave
him an opening to make an excellent investment in
shares of the Adams Express Company. The offer
was a good one, but the boy had no money. His
mother, however, had a business head. She saw its ad-
vantages, and mortgaged her house to raise the four
hundred dollars needed. She thus gave the boy his
first step as a capitalist on a small scale.

When the Civil War broke out Carnegie was in his
twenty-fourth year and had become private secretary
and right hand man of Mr. Scott, who was appointed
in 1861 Assistant Secretary of War, with charge of
the important work of keeping the railroads steadily
active. Promptness in the moving of trains, instant
attention to stoppages and break-downs, etc., were
highly necessary, and it needed a clear head and sound

328 HEROES OF PROGRESS

nerves to handle the military traffic and movements of
troops. This was a heavy strain on Scott and Car-
negie alike, and he was glad enough when his chief
gave it up and returned to Pittsburg on the ist of June,
1862.

There was one great opportunity in Carnegie's
career of success that must be mentioned. Splendid
opportunities came to him for profitable investments,
and he was quick to take advantage of them, though
never lacking in caution and judgment. His second
investment arose from a gentleman on a railroad train
showing him a model of a sleeping car he had invented.
Carnegie was quick to see its value and to push it
into notice, he taking an interest in the company, which
in time gained a profitable business. Shortly after-
wards he was advanced to the position which Mr. Scott
had formerly held, that of superintendent of the Pitts-
burg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

So far he had only been getting his foot firmly fixed
on the highway of life, but now came the opening for
an immense boom in his fortunes, far beyond his
dreams. The coal oil business was then in its early
days of activity, new fields were being rapidly opened,
and Carnegie joined some friends in the purchase for
forty thousand dollars of the Storey Farm, a piece of
promising ground on Oil Creek. The well on it, then
running one hundred barrels daily, proved in the end
to be immensely valuable, gaining a value on the Stock
Exchange of $5,000,000, and paying in one year the
surprising dividend of $1,000,000 — certainly a splendid
return for a $40,000 investment.

Andrew Carnegie, now twenty-seven years old, was
thus suddenly made a capitalist. He might have pre-
ceded Rockefeller as a great oil magnate but that

HEROES OF PROGRESS 329

his energies were turned in another direction. The
wooden bridges then in use on railroads were for vari-
ous reasons very unsatisfactory, and the Pennsylvania
Railroad had just made a successful experiment with
iron. This set its Pittsburg superintendent to think-
ing. There was going to be a business, very likely a
large business, in iron bridges, and the first in the field
would have the best chance. He decided to be one of
the first, organized a company, and started the Key-
stone Bridge Works.

A big order soon came, to build an iron bridge over
the Ohio River, with a three hundred foot span.
Others followed rapidly, and the Keystone Company
soon had to extend its works. Thus our shrewd Scotch-
man launched himself into what became a great busi-
ness, and laid the foundation of what is to-day one of
the finest iron and steel works in the world. Carnegie,
inspired by the success of his first venture in the field
of manufacture, now resigned his railroad position and
devoted all his time and attention to the business he had
given so timely a start.

The Keystone Company made very rapid progress.
Orders came from all sides, and Carnegie, as its man-
ager, kept it fully up to date in all particulars. The
newest time and labor saving machiner}' was always put
in, every promising invention was taken advantage of,
and a far-seeing enterprise was visible in all its affairs.

But this establishment was far from exhausting all
of Carnegie's energies. Another great opportunity
came to him, and he was quick to grasp it. He made a
visit to England in 1868, just at the time the Bessemer
steel process had passed from the stage of experiment
to that of success. He saw its vast prospective value
at a glance. Steel had then in many directions, espe-

330 HEROES OF PROGRESS

cially in rails, begun to replace iron. He himself had,
while in the Pennsylvania Railroad service, made a
very successful experiment in the hardening of iron
rails by carbon. But the rails made from Bessemer steel
were far superior to these, and he determined at once
to take advantage of the new process. On his return
to Pittsburg he set promptly to work in the erection
of a great Bessemer steel plant. As he had been
among the first in America to see that iron was about
to replace wood in bridges, so he was one of the
earliest to realize that steel was soon to take the place
of iron. It was by his foresight in these two partic-
ulars that he laid the foundation of his enormous
fortune.

We have here described the initial steps of Mr.
Carnegie's progress to fortune, from the position of
bobbin-boy to that of the chief proprietor of great in-
dustrial works. He might have stopped at this point.
His fortune was large, his needs were small, he had
abundance to live on in comfort or in luxury if he de-
sired. But men who are on the highroad of pros-
perity do not stop. Ambition, more than actual desire
for larger wealth, carries them on. They like to excel,
to stand at the top, the admired of the world, and
Andrew Carnegie was not free from this ambition.
Great designs awakened in his mind and he hastened to
put them into execution.

He felt that a great steel plant should take advantage
of all available resources. It should own its own iron
and coal fields and its own railways and steamships, so
as to put itself fairly beyond competition. In pursuance
of this scheme he built the great plant known as the
Edgar Thompson Steel Works, on the Monongahela
River ; bought vast tracts of mineral land, much of it

HEROES OF PROGRESS 331

on the Great Lakes, hundreds of miles away ; purchased
a fleet of steamships to carry the ore from the mines
across the lakes, and built a railroad four hundred and
twenty-five miles long to carry coal and iron directly
to his works.

The results of this enterprise are well known. The
cheap steel rails turned out created an immense de-
mand. The great works were swamped with orders.
Their manager could not wait to build new ones, but
purchased the plant of the neighboring Homestead
Steel Company, whose immense foundries were close
to his own works. He had reduced the cost of produc-
tion to the lowest possible point. No concern in exist-
ence could compete with him in price. The home
trade for steel was in his hands, and he stretched out
to grasp the trade of the world. A genius in practical
affairs, he kept this enormous business under his own
control, and the millions of his wealth grew until they
became overwhelmingly large.

We must stop here. We cannot follow the steps of
progress of the titanic plant which rapidly grew up. It
must suffice to say that by 1900 it included ten different
concerns, three of them of enormous size, with a total
of 45,000 employees. We must step forward to the
early years of the twentieth century, when a Steel Trust
with enormous capital was formed, its purpose being to
control all the important works in the country. First
of all stood the vast Carnegie plant. The " steel mas-
ter " was ready to sell. He had always resolved to
retire before old age came upon him. He could and did
make his own terms, being given for his interest the
enormous sum of $250,000,000 in bonds on the prop-
erties of the United States Steel Corporation, bearing
interest at the rate of five per cent.

332 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Mr. Carnegie had spent more than sixty years of his
life in getting. Now began his era of giving. His
views in regard to the use of money he has himself
tersely expressed : ' The day is not far distant when
the man who dies, leaving behind him millions of
available wealth which was free for him to administer
during life, will pass away unwept, unhonored, and
unsung, no matter to what use he leaves the dross
which he cannot take with him. Of such as these
the public verdict will be: 'The man who dies thus rich
dies disgraced.' '

How to give for the best good of mankind was the
problem before him. He strongly opposed indiscrim-
inate charity, as likely to do far more harm than good,
saying, " It were better for mankind that the millions
of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as
to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy."
It was his fixed idea that men should be helped to
help themselves, and this has been his view in all his
giving.

In this he followed what many look upon as a mis-
taken method, believing that to establish libraries and
thus get men into the habit of reading, at once keeping
them from more harmful enjoyments and cultivating
their minds, was the best way in which he could dis-
tribute his money. Perhaps a difficulty of getting
books in his younger days may have inspired him to
this. Certainly most of his gifts have been in this
direction, and he has made himself a power in the
work of advancing the education and adding to the
knowledge of the world.

Let us briefly state the results of his gifts during
the past five years. The libraries founded by him in the
United States number nearly eight hundred, and those

HEROES OF PROGRESS 333

abroad more than five hundred, their total cost being
about $40,000,000. The splendid Carnegie Institute
founded by him at Pittsburg consumed $7,000,000, the
Polytechnic Institute $2,000,000, and the pension fund
for steel works workingmen $4,000,000. Scotland, his
native land, has been remembered with $15,000,000 for
the benefit of its university students, and Dunfermline,
his birth-place, with $2,500,000. More recently he has
branched out into new fields of beneficence, establish-
ing a fund of $5,000,000 for the benefit of those who
perform deeds of heroism, $10,000,000 to pension off
superannuated college professors, and $10,000,000 to
establish a National University at Washington, its
purpose being to encourage discovery by aiding those
engaged in original researches. These are his greatest
gifts. There are many smaller ones. The total is esti-
mated at considerably over $100,000,000.

This is what Andrew Carnegie had done up to 1906
to avoid the disgrace of dying rich. It will be seen that
he kept firmly to his theory of not helping directly
those able to help themselves, and did nothing to help
those unable to help themselves, except in the way of
pensions. But he was hale and hearty yet, his ideas
seemed spreading, his wealth remained enormous ; no
one could say what views he might take as to its ulti-
mate disposal. Whatever else may be said of Andrew
Carnegie, he must be given the honor of being a
pioneer in establishing the theory that it is the duty of
every rich man to use his wealth while living for the
benefit of mankind. At the present day there are many
following his example, doubtless largely inspired by his
action, and the time may come when no very rich man
will permit himself to die disgraced in this manner.

Mr. Carnegie has not confined himself to money

334 HEROES OF PROGRESS

making and money giving. Since he left business he
has enjoyed himself in a sane and moderate way. He
has purchased a castle and an estate in Scotland, where
much of his time is spent, and where he keeps wide
awake to all the events of the world. He has always
been an able thinker and a ready writer, having an in-
cisive and picturesque way of expressing himself and
taking broad views of political and other affairs.

He has long been addicted to literary pursuits, and
has written a number of interesting books. One of
these, " Round the World," contained a lively descrip-
tion of a journey westward around the seas and con-
tinents. " Our Coaching Trip," issued in 1882, was a
rambling and agreeable story of a drive through Eng-
land and Scotland. " Triumphant Democracy," al-
ready spoken of, shows him to have become a true
American in grain, however he may prefer to dwell
in his native land. Finally we may name the " Gospel
of Wealth," in which he lays bare his sentiments about
many of the economic problems of the day.

Here we have Mr. Carnegie. He is still with us and
may long remain. And he still holds in hand much the
greater part of that vast store of wealth with which he
has set out to do all the good he can, in consonance
with his own ideas of doing good. The world has
benefited much from his beneficence; it is likely to
benefit much more. He will win a crown of honor
if he succeeds in establishing as a worthy rule his
theory that " he who dies rich dies disgraced."

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, PIONEER
OF NEGRO PROGRESS

NEAR the end of the days of slavery, on a plantation
in Franklin County, Virginia, was born a negro boy
who was destined to lift himself, by moral and mental
strength, into the ranks of the great men of the world.
He is the sole representative which we can give here of
a race that numbers more than nine millions of people
in the United States. Freed from slavery only forty
years ago, not yet freed from ignorance, the negro
race has had little opportunity to develop the powers it
may possess. Frederick Douglass, an able and brilliant
orator of the times before the war, was the only man
of negro blood who raised himself to a national reputa-
tion before the coming of Booker T. Washington, of
whose striking career it is our purpose now to speak.

Born in a tumble-down log-cabin on an old Virginia
plantation, the boy named came into a world in which
he was expected to play so small a part that no record
was kept even of the year of his birth. All he knew
of it was that it was some time in the years 1858 or
1859. His father, a white man, he never knew.
He knew no name except Booker, by which he was
called during his few years of slave life on the plan-
tation. A mere toddler as he was, only six or seven
years old when the war ended and freedom came, he
was kept busy at odd jobs, cleaning the yard, carrying
water to the men, taking corn to the mill, and, as he
says, at times falling from the horse with his bag of

335

336 HEROES OF PROGRESS

corn and sitting in tears by the wayside until some
one came along to lift him up again.

Schooling was not thought of for any one with
a black skin, though the little slave boy already felt
a thirst for knowledge. He tells us how he would
carry the books of his young mistress when she went
to school and gaze wistfully through the door into
the school-room, closed against all of his color, but
which seemed to him like a paradise to which he was
denied entrance.

The slaves, he tells us, knew well the purpose of
the war. They had a system of wireless telegraphy
of their own, by which they often heard of events
in the field before their masters. The fact that "Massa
Linkum " had set them free was quickly spread
among them, and when the war ended and they could
move about without hindrance, many of them hastened
to test their new liberty by leaving the plantations
on which their lives had been spent.

Booker's reputed father, who had been a slave on
a neighboring plantation, made his way to West
Virginia, where he got work in the mines and soon
sent for his wife and children. Here little Booker
was put to work in a salt furnace. His childish
desire to learn grew intense as time passed on. The
art of reading seemed something magical to the child,
who had an alert brain under his sable skin; and,
getting possession in some way of a book, he pored
over it intently, with no one to help, for all around were
as ignorant as himself. All he succeeded in doing was
to learn the alphabet from it; the joining of the letters
into words was beyond his childish powers.

Some time later a young negro opened a school
in the vicinity, but, to his keen disappointment, his

HEROES OF PROGRESS 337

father would not let him go, insisting that he should
keep at work. Determined to open the closed door
of knowledge, he managed to get some lessons at
night from the teacher, and appealed so earnestly that
his father finally consented to his going to day school
for a few months, if he would work in the furnace
until nine o'clock in the morning and for two hours
in the afternoon after school had closed.

Little Booker was willing to do anything to gain an
education. His thirst for knowledge had grown with
his years, and there was no danger but that he would
be a diligent student. But his first day at school
brought him in face of a distressing difficulty. When
the teacher called the roll he learned that every boy
there had at least two names. He felt a deep sense
of shame at the fact that he had only one. He had
never been called anything but Booker, and knew of
no other name. But a native shrewdness made him
equal to the situation. When the teacher asked for
his name he calmly replied that it was Booker Wash-
ington, appropriating the name of the Father of the
Country without a qualm of conscience. Later on
his mother told him that his real name was Booker
Taliaferro, but he clung to the name he had adopted,
and has ever since been known as Booker T.
Washington.

From the salt furnace the boy was transferred to
a coal mine, a change, in his opinion, much for the
worse ; but a few months later he got a place as
servant in the house of Mrs. Ruffner, the wife of the
mine owner. Mrs. Ruffner had the name of being
a hard mistress, with whom no servant would stay
more than a few months, but Booker soon found that
the trouble was more with the servants than with

22

338 HEROES OF PROGRESS

the mistress. What she demanded was that they
should keep things clean and do their work promptly
and systematically. When her new boy learned what
she wanted he did his best to please her, and instead
of a harsh taskmaster found her considerate and just.
He stayed with her a year and a half, and might have
stayed much longer, for he had made Mrs. Ruffner a
kind friend, but for a new desire that stirred his
soul.

One day, while in the coal mine, he had heard two
miners talking about a great school for colored people
somewhere in Virginia. He heard also that worthy
students could work out part of their board and be
taught a useful trade. The news filled him with an
intense eagerness to go to this wonderful school,
and in the fall of 1872, when he was thirteen or four-
teen years old, he determined to get there if it was
possible.

His mother strongly opposed the idea, and gave
her consent only after long pleading. But the colored
people of the vicinity favored it, education seeming to
them like an inestimable treasure. Some of them
helped the boy with a little money, and at length, with
a very slender purse, he set out on his long journey
to Hampton, five hundred miles away.

He had expected to ride there, but his first day's
journey in the stage coach showed him that his funds
would not carry him a fifth of the way, and he changed
riding for walking, except when he could beg a ride.
He reached the city of Richmond at length. His
pockets were empty, and Hampton still far away. No
lodging was to be had for a wandering colored urchin,
and that night he slept under a raised part of the board
sidewalk. The next day he earned a little money

HEROES OF PROGRESS 339

by helping unload a vessel at the wharves, and this
he kept at for several days, still sleeping under the
boards. Years afterwards, when he visited Richmond
as a distinguished man, he sought out this spot in the
streets and looked with pathetic interest upon his first
sleeping place in Virginia's capital city. When he
reached Hampton at length, he had just fifty cents
with which to get an education in the famous institute.

A sorry picture was the vagrant student \vhen he
presented himself tremblingly before the head teacher
of the institute. Ill-clad, begrimed, hungry-looking,
he waited with sinking heart while others were ad-
mitted, but no attention paid to him. At length, after
a weary probation, the teacher looked him over dis-
approvingly, and put a broom into his hands, telling
him to sweep one of the recitation-rooms. Now
young Booker's severe training under Mrs. Ruffner
served him well. He swept and dusted that room so
thoroughly that when the teacher, a Yankee house-
wife, came in she could not find a speck of dust
hiding anywhere. "I guess you will do to enter this
institution," she said.

The boy had swept his way into her good graces.
She offered him a position as janitor, which enabled
him to pay his board, and was ever afterwards his
good friend. General Armstrong, that faithful friend
of the blacks who was at the head of the institution,
was so pleased with the earnestness and intelligence of
the boy, one of the youngest under his care, that he
induced a friend to pay the $70 a year for the little
lad's tuition, and thus he was fairly launched upon the
highroad of education.

That Booker worked hard we may be assured. His
diligence, fidelity, and studiousness won him friends

340 HEROES OF PROGRESS

on all sides. He got work outside during the vaca-
tions, and after two years paid a visit home, only to
see his mother die. She had been a good mother to
him, and he mourned her loss.

His term at Hampton ended in 1875, but his con-
nection with the institution did not cease, for after a
time he was made a teacher in the night-school and
also put in charge of the Indian inmates. The oppor-
tunity of his life, for which he had been unwittingly
preparing, came in 1881, while he was still night-
school teacher at Hampton. An application had come
to General Armstrong for some one to take charge of a
colored normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama. The
kindly superintendent, who knew well the capability of
his night-school teacher, offered him the position, and
Booker, with some natural hesitation, agreed to try.

Tuskegee was a town of about two thousand popula-
tion, nearly half of them colored. It was situated in
the Black Belt of Alabama, negroes being plentiful
and education sparse. The legislature had voted an
annual appropriation of $2000 to pay the running ex-
penses of the school, but when the new teacher reached
Tuskegee he was disappointed to find that no building
and no equipment had been provided. There were
plenty of scholars, but that was all.

Booker went to work with a will, determined to
make the most of his chance. The best place he could
get for a school-house was an old shanty near the
colored Methodist church, and here he opened with
thirty students, ranging from fifteen to forty years of
age, most of them having already served, in some fash-
ion, as school-teachers. The roof was so leaky that
when it rained one of the students had to hold an
umbrella over him as he taught.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 341

After three weeks Miss Olivia A. Davidson came to
the school as a co-teacher — a bright girl, with new
ideas, who afterwards became Mr. Washington's wife.
Booker Washington was a born man of business
from the start. After he had been in Tuskegee for
three months an abandoned plantation near by was
offered for sale for the low sum of $500. He deter-
mined to obtain it if possible, and succeeded in bor-
rowing from the treasurer of the Hampton Institute
$250 for a first payment. The remaining sum was
raised by various measures in time to make the final
payment and secure the property.

The mansion house of the plantation had been
burned down. The buildings remaining consisted of
a cabin which had been used as the dining-room, a
kitchen, a stable, and an old henhouse. The latter
two were used for school purposes, and the others
as residences. The first animal obtained was an old,
blind horse. It was the pioneer in a troop of animals
which now embraces over two hundred horses, oxen,
and cows, about seven hundred hogs, and many sheep
and goats, while the original tumble-down buildings
have been replaced by a large number of well built
structures, nearly all erected by the students them-
selves.

The new principal was a man of ambitious views
and genius for affairs. His first daring undertaking
was to build a $6000 school-house without a dollar
of capital. But he had already won a reputation for
ability and integrity and help came in. The neces-
sary lumber was supplied by a dealer in the vicinity
who insisted on sending it and waiting for pay. Con-
tributions came from many sources, and the building
was completed and paid for. By this time the stren-

342 HEROES OF PROGRESS

uous and self-sacrificing efforts of the young teacher
and the remarkable results he was achieving with the
smallest means were becoming known and appreciated
throughout the country, and aid began to come in
from many sources. He made in subsequent years
frequent lecturing tours in the North, describing with
simple eloquence the character and needs of his work,
and obtaining in this way the annual amount neces-
sary for its prosecution.

His purpose was to develop at Tuskegee an educa-
tional and industrial school, teaching the essential
elements of education while making each student
familiar with some trade, and in this he has had so
signal a success that he is looked upon as having
solved the problem of the future of the negro in
America. It has throughout been his purpose to make
his students capable, self-supporting, and self-respect-
ing, a design which has been carried out to a highly
gratifying extent, while the present school at Tuskegee
has given birth to various offsprings in which the same
methods are pursued.

All the ordinary trades are taught in the institution,
especially the various branches of farming. Twenty-
five separate industries are carried on by the students,
the object being to train the colored youth in self-
supporting occupations, while the girls are taught
the branches most useful to them. Washington holds
that the race problem will be solved when the negro
becomes a valuable workman and financially indepen-
dent, and he has done noble work in the effort to bring
this about.

The leaky cabin with which he began is now super-
seded by forty or more handsome and well adapted
buildings, large and small, all but four of which have

HEROES OF PROGRESS 343

been erected by student labor, even to the making of
the bricks and the sawing of the planks. The thirty
students with whom he began have increased to over
eleven hundred, and his solitary labors have been
replaced by the work of some eighty instructors,
while the old shanty of 1881 has grown in the short
space of twenty years to an extensive group of edifices,
and his fragment of meeting-house ground to a broad
estate of 2460 acres, the whole valued at over $300,000,
and with an endowment fund of $215,000. This looks
like a magical result from the work of the ragged and
penniless boy who made his way on foot to Hampton
Institute in 1872, and we cannot but look upon Booker
Washington as an extraordinary man.

This was the state of affairs in 1900. Since then the
development has continued, and the endowment fund
has been greatly increased by the generous gift from
Andrew Carnegie of $600,000, to be used as Mr.
Washington wishes, except that he and his wife shall
be provided for out of its proceeds. Carnegie says
of Mr. Washington : ' To me he seems one of the
greatest of living men, because his work is unique,
the modern Moses who leads his race and lifts it
through education to even better and higher things
than a land overflowing with milk and honey. History
is to tell of two Washingtons, one white, the other
black, both fathers of their people."

Carnegie is not alone in this opinion. There are
many who look upon Booker T. Washington as one
of the greatest of living men. He has won the respect
and admiration of the South as well as of the North.
He went far to win the South by his highly effective
address at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition of
1895. The Boston Transcript said of this speech : " It

344 HEROES OF PROGRESS

seems to have dwarfed all the other proceedings and
the Exposition itself. The sensation it has caused in
the press has never been equalled." Its purpose
was to show how the whites and blacks could live
together in harmony in the South.

Since then Tuskegee has become a place of pilgrim-
age for our Presidents on their journeys through the
land. President McKinley visited it, with the general
approbation of the people, and in 1905 President
Roosevelt did the same. In history there are few
examples of so remarkable a career as that of this
Moses of the negro race.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS AMERICA'S
ALL-ROUND MAN AND CHAMPION

THE opening of the twentieth century marked the
beginning of a great era in American history, one in
which the most mighty and famous of the world's
republics began to spread its wings afar and make its
voice heard from the Arctic to the Antarctic seas and
to the bordering lands of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans. The time was at hand for new men to arise,
new doctrines to be proclaimed, new rights and duties
to be set forth. The world, which had long been
divided between the East and the West, continents with
separate ideas and institutions, was to meet and join,
and enter upon the preliminaries of a vast struggle for
power and dominion on one side, for human rights
and justice on the other — the most stupendous contest
of nations the world had ever known.

Many men of might and ability took part in this
revolutionary movement, men with advanced aims and
claims, men of wide thought and mighty purpose ; and
among them all rose one great warrior for the right,
who on the very threshold of the century was raised
to the high position of President of the United States
and who while the century was still in its infancy was
hailed the world over as one of the supreme figures
in history, a man of unsurpassed ability in all fields of
government and statesmanship and all-round daring
and endeavor.

Such a man was Theodore Roosevelt, a born fighter,
but not on the field of battle. His war history was a
very brief one, it being that of his picturesque charge

345

346 HEROES OF PROGRESS

up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American
war. But his vigorous contest against graft and dis-
honor, his long and sturdy battle for reform, his
demand of equal rights for all men, a square deal for
high and low, rich and poor, gave him a standing in
world politics that made his name a household word
throughout the nations, and in his journey through
Europe after his hunting trip to Africa brought him
warm invitations from the kings and emperors of that
ancient continent. His journey there was a continued
ovation, marked by the cheers of multitudes in foreign
nations and the crowding of thousands to gaze upon
this simple American citizen, a man without rank or
power, for his term of presidential rule was then at
an end. But the people hailed him as their friend and
champion, the man who stood for the masses against
the classes. Whatever the warrant for his prominence,
he stood in the limelight of the world's applause, a man
of supreme significance in human affairs.

Theodore Roosevelt, to the story of whose active and
varied career we must give a somewhat extended
notice, was born in the city of New York on the 27th
day of October, 1858, of old Knickerbocker stock, a
descendant from Klass Martinson Van Roosevelt, who
made his way from Holland to New Amsterdam in
1640. He inherited from his father his love of outdoor
life and his warm interest in the doings and claims of
the " common people," but had a fight from the begin-
ning, a battle for health and strength. A pale, delicate
lad, weak in body and short, of sight, he looked like
one born for an indoor life. But below this lay an
unusual store of that native energy from which strong
men are made. No indoor career for him. He deter-
mined to outlive his normal weakness, to equal his

THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN HIS LIBRARY AT OYSTER RAY

TI-:E NEW
PUBLIC LIB

LENOX

HEROES OF PROGRESS 347

companions in health and strength, to take full part in
outdoor sports and exercises of all sorts. He tramped
over hill and dale, learned to swim, row and ride, trav-
ersed the forests and studied their secrets, and grew
up to be a hardy lad, all his natal weakness overcome.

When he was but six years of age his love of outside
nature began to declare itself and as well his later
enjoyment of a good, hard light. He developed a love
for adventure, was fond of stories of animal life and
gained as useful an education in the wilds and woods
as in home and school. He himself tells us: "My
father, all my people, held that no one has a right to
merely cumber the earth: that the most contemptible
of created beings is the man who does nothing. I
determined to be strong and well and I made my health
what it is. By the time I entered Harvard College I
was able to take my part in whatever sports I liked.
I wrestled and sparred and ran a great deal while in
college, and though I never came in first I got more
good out of the exercise than those who did, because
I immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself."

As a boy he was a busy reader, especially of stories
of adventure. Cooper's Leather-Stocking Tales he
devoured greedily, declaring later, " Why, man, there
is nothing like them. I could pass an examination in
the whole of them to-day."

He entered Harvard at the age of eighteen and did
his best while there to " hit the line hard." His tastes
in study lay towards gaining a knowledge of living
things, men and animals. Later he devoted himself
to history and political principles. It was common with
him to pick up a book and become so absorbed in it
that a cannon's roar would hardly have awakened
him to his surroundings.

348 HEROES OF PROGRESS

Before he left college his love of books led to his
writing a book of his own — and certainly no boyish
one. Having read a history of the naval battles in the
war of 1812, he found it so one-sided, so unduly pro-
American, that he made a special study of the subject
and followed this by writing " The Naval History of
1812." This was no schoolboy exercise, but was so care-
fully and capitally done that it is still regarded as an
authority upon this topic. In 1880 he graduated, not
at the top of his class, but at a very reputable distance
from the bottom.

Such, briefly, is the story of Roosevelt's early life — •
his career of preparation. It was very quickly followed
by one of operation. After a short journey abroad, in
which he took a tramp afoot through Germany and
climbed the Jungf rau and the Matterhorn, he returned
home again, ready to take his full part in the battle of
life. He began by a brief term of law study in the
office of his uncle, Robert B. Roosevelt, but at the
same time took part in the political affairs of his dis-
trict, and with such remarkable ability that he was
elected a state representative before the end of the
year.

Thus placed, in 1881, at the age of twenty-three, he
took his seat in the New York Assembly in the follow-
ing year, the youngest member of the House. Boy as he
seemed, he was not long there before he became a centre
of political storm and stress of his own stirring. He
found the Assembly rotten with corruption, deep and
intrenched, which had remained undisturbed for years,
it being sustained by a large majority of the member-
ship. The minority needed a leader. It quickly found
one in young Roosevelt, who plunged into the campaign

HEROES OF PROGRESS 349

with such force and energy that he quickly made him-
self the undisputed advocate of their views.

The New York city government at that time was
stagnant with fraud, and a new and reformed charter
was sadly needed. It was in favor of this that the
young champion began his battle, fighting for it
unflinchingly during his three terms in the Assembly
and saving the people hundreds of thousands of dollars,
which he wrenched from the hands of the grafters.
His chief victory had to do with a choice bit of graft in
connection with the elevated railway ring, sustained
by the attorney general of the State and by Judge
Westbrook, of the Supreme Court.

On April 6, 1882, Roosevelt began his legislative
career by rising from his seat in the House and demand-
ing that Judge Westbrook should be impeached. The
young statesman was squelched by his numerous oppo-
nents. But he pounded away day after day, and with
such effect that a knowledge of the scandal spread
through the state, his opponents were forced to yield
to public opinion, and Roosevelt won by a vote of
104 to 6. In the end, however, the delinquent officials
escaped by a whitewashing report.

Another demand then in vogue was civil service
reform, alike in state and nation. The first intelligently
drawn bill for this purpose offered in the New York
Assembly was presented by Roosevelt. It was carried
in 1883 and signed by Governor Cleveland at nearly
the same time that the civil service bill passed by Con-
gress was signed by President Arthur.

Roosevelt was by this time looked upon by all parties
as a man of power and ability. He had thrown his hat
into the ring in the cause of reform, and the ringsters
were far from eager to take it up. His energy had so

350 HEROES OF PROGRESS

impressed his party that George William Curtis, a
fellow delegate, said of him : " You will know more
of him later ; a good deal more, or I am much in error.
He is just out of school almost, and yet he is a force to
be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will
be criticizing or praising him. He will not truckle
nor cringe. His political life will probably be a turbu-
lent one, but he will be a figure, not a figurehead, in
future development."

Such was the verdict passed by an able critic on
Roosevelt in 1884, four years after his graduation from
college. With this year his legislative career ended.
He had from boyhood been eager to see the great West,
and now broke loose from settled civilization to take
a long holiday in this favorite realm of the pioneer, the
land of the cowboy and the hunting field. Seeking the
frontier of Dakota, he established a cattle ranch of his
own, where he spent two years, living in a rough log
house of his own building, dressing in cowboy
attire, caring for his own herds and finding high
enjoyment in the wild life of the hunting field. It
.was the first of his three notable periods of adven-
ture in the world's greatest hunting fields. Here
also he devoted some time to authorship and writ-
ing " Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," " Ranch Life
and Hunting Trail " and two works of biography,
lives of Thomas Hart Burton and Gouverneur Morris.

Roosevelt had other adventures than those of the
hunting field. Various interesting stories are told of
his life during those two years in the wilds. Of these
his encounter with one of the " bad men " of the West
is oftenest told. This tough, well primed with whisky,
invited all in a saloon which the young rancher had
entered to drink with him. Roosevelt declined, saying

HEROES OF PROGRESS 351

that he did not care to drink. But when the tough drew
a pistol and flourished it in the face of the tenderfoot,
the young rancher rose as if to obey. In a moment
more the " bad man " was laid on his back by the force
of a potent left-hander from the spectacled, " four-
eyed " stranger, while the pistol was kicked from his
hand across the room. When the bully regained his
wits he felt as if an elephant had trod on him, and he
gave up all interest in that hard-hitting tenderfoot.

The Wild West holiday ended suddenly in 1886,
when news reached the rancher that the independent
citizens of New York had nominated him as their
candidate for mayor of that city. That night he packed
his trunk and( the next day bade good-by to his life on
the plains and set out for the East, to embark again on
the sea of politics. His fight was brief but vigorous,
there being two other candidates in the field. One of
these, Abram S. Hewitt, was elected. But Roosevelt
had made new capital for himself. As evidence of the
effect of his brief career on the public mind we may
quote a remark of Andrew D. White, president of Cor-
nell College, who said to his class in the early eighties :

" Young gentlemen, some of you will enter public
life. I call your attention to Theodore Roosevelt. He
is on the right road to success. It is dangerous to pre-
dict a future for a young man, but let me tell you that
if any man of his age was pointed straight for the
Presidency, that man is Theodore Roosevelt."

The young Assemblyman was now fairly launched
on his great political career. He had sown the seed ;
the time was fast coming when he would reap the
harvest. In the years that followed promotion came
rapidly and he played a prominent part in public life.
Having carried a civil service reform bill through the

352 HEROES OF PROGRESS

New York Assembly in 1884, he was appointed on the
Civil Service Commission by President Harrison in
1889 and was made chairman of that body. He went
into the work with all his native energy, remained on
the commission for six years and during that period
kept things on the jump. When he entered the com-
mission there were 14,000 officials under civil service
rules. When he left there were 40,000. Of his work
in it Mr. John H. Proctor, one of his fellow-members,
said:

" Every day I went to the office as to an entertain-
ment. I knew that something was sure to turn up to
make it worth my while, with him there. When he
went away I had heart in it no longer."

When he left, to engage in a new line of work,
President Cleveland warmly congratulated him on the
able service he had rendered.

The new duty that came to him was that of president
of the Board of Police Commissioners of New York
city. This was a task that strongly appealed to him.
There was strenuous work to be done. So corrupt had
the police board become that it needed an earthquake
to shake it up. Its new president, young and boiling
with energy, was this earthquake. A reform adminis-
tration, that of Mayor Strong, was then in power, and
soldiers of reform were needed to carry out its plans.
The new commissioner was the man for the place. He
went into it with his wonted energy, and stirred up the
evils that prevailed with a vigor never before seen in
that special field of duty. The whole country looked
on, for the young and ardent reformer had by this
time won a national reputation. Corruption was deeply
planted in the soil of the police department and it was
not easy to uproot. There was a system of blackmail

HEROES OF PROGRESS 353

by policemen and officials, including the non-enforce-
ment of the Sunday liquor law and other evils, to be
handled. Dishonesty at elections was one of these evils,
and it needed vigorous labor on the part of the com-
missioner to overcome it. All this and more Roosevelt
had to deal with during his two years of duty in the
police presidency, and he did so with a vigor that
brought the prevailing corruption largely to an end.
Disorder and bad administration prevailed before he
entered the board. When he left it these had been over-
come and New York had a well-trained and ably
organized force of blue-coated public protectors, whose
honor, ability and devotion to duty were beyond ques-
tion. The police force thus organized was the ablest
and cleanest the metropolis had ever known, loot and
blackmail had ceased to exist, and for the first time in
years decency and honesty prevailed in the New York
police department.

Such was the state of affairs in 1897. In that year
men of ability in other fields were in demand, and
Roosevelt was one of the first called into the national
service. The barbarities of Spanish rule in Cuba
brought up questions with which the United States
had to deal, and another President, McKinley, found
it desirable to call the young New York reformer into
the national service, as aide and assistant in the threat-
ened conflict. It was important to make the American
navy ready for any contingency that might arise, and
strong and competent men were needed to take hold.
McKinley, in consequence, appointed Roosevelt Assist-
ant Secretary of the Navy, looking upon him as the
man best fitted for the post.

The American naval service had been allowed to fall
into decay after the civil war. A new navy was in the

23

354 HEROES OF PROGRESS

making, but it needed men of capacity and energy to
take care of its development. Roosevelt was amply
qualified for this task, and though bearing the minor
rank of assistant, he soon made his force felt through
every branch of the department.

The chief and most important work done by him
was that of collecting arms and ammunition and insist-
ing on the gunners being well trained in marksmanship.
He felt that war was coming and that it was his duty
to see that the naval force was fully prepared for it.
The ships must be put in order and the foreign coaling
stations well supplied with fuel. It was largely due
to his activity in this direction that Dewey was able
to make his prompt movement from Hongkong to
Manila when the war broke out. Of this we have
testimony in the statement of Senator Davis, then head
of the Committee on Foreign Relations.

" If it had not been for Roosevelt," said the Senator,
" Dewey would not have been able to strike the blow
that he dealt at Manila. Roosevelt's forethought,
energy and promptness made this posible."

In respect to the efficiency of the men at the guns
may be related an anecdote that outlines in picturesque
shape the work done by the ardent Assistant Secretary,
Shortly after his appointment to the post he asked
Congress for an appropriation of $800,000 for ammu-
nition. The appropriation was made, but, to the sur-
prise of the members, the Secretary was in a few
months again before them demanding more money for
powder. This time he asked for $500.000.

" "What has become of the other appropriation ?" he
was asked.

" Even,' cent of it was spent for powder and shot,

HEROES OF PROGRESS 355

and every ounce of powder and shot has been fired
away," he replied.

"And what do you propose to do with the $500,000
you now want ?"

' I will use every dollar of that, too, within the
next thirty days in practice shootipg^*'

It was costly practice, but it paid. It was mainly due
to it that the gunners were able to fire true and straight
the next year at Manila and Santiago.

:' It is useless," Roosevelt said, " to spend millions
of dollars in the building of perfect fighting machines
unless we make the personnel which is to handle these
machines equally perfect."

This work, these ideas, were soon to prove their
utility. Early in the next year the battleship Maine was
blown up in Havana harbor and sent to the bottom with
nearly her entire crew. \Yhile attempts were made to
settle the hot controversy that followed by negotiation,
many felt that war was the only probable outcome, and
the energetic and capable Assistant Secretary lost no
time in preparing for all contingencies. It was he who
selected Commodore Dewey to command the squadron
in Chinese waters, saying to those who objected to the
commodore as only a well-dressed dude :

" It does not matter what kind of clothes and collars
he wears," declared Roosevelt ; " the man will fight.
He is the man for the place. He has a lion heart."

He not only sent Dewey to Hongkong, but he kept
his fleet there also. \Yhen the Olympia was ordered
home Roosevelt objected so strongly that the order
was repealed.

" Keep the Olympia." he cabled to Dewey, " and
keep full of coal."

356 HEROES OF PROGRESS

He saw clearly what was in the air and was deter-
mined that the small American navy, so far as his
power over it extended, should not be caught napping.

Roosevelt's foresight was fully justified. The war
came, and without hesitation the fighting Secretary
plunged into it, resigning his post without hesitation
and preparing to take part in the contest as a soldier.
Chains could not have held him back. He had in his
veins too much of the berserker blood for that. All
his life he had been fighting, alike in the assembly, on
the ranch, in the police and other official duties, and in
the naval department. Now had come the opportunity
to fight on the battlefield and he hailed it with the zeal
of a born warrior.

" There's nothing more for me to do here," he said
to his colleagues. !< I've got to get into the fight myself.
I have done all I could to bring on the war, because it
is a just war. Now that it has come, I have no busi-
ness to ask others to do the fighting and stay at home
myself."

But he went into it in a way that won him the atten-
tion and admiration of the whole nation. It was a happy
idea of his to enlist the regiment named the " Rough
Riders," consisting of cowboys, hunters, Indians from
the West, athletes, football players, oarsmen from the
East, even the society men of athletic training. It was
such a body of horsemen as the world had rarely seen,
and the name of " Roosevelt's Rough Riders " swept
like a cheer from end to end of the land. They were,
unfortunately, unable to show their prowess as horse-
men, being out of their native element on foot, but the
name clung to them. " Roosevelt's Weary Walkers "
was the humorous title they chose for themselves, after
three long and dreary months in the Cuban jungles.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 357

This name was one that had more truth than
poetry in it.

Roosevelt had for several years been a member of
the National Guard of New York, in which he had
risen to the rank of captain. He had ample warrant
to make himself colonel of his new regiment, but he
preferred to serve as lieutenant colonel, choosing his
friend, Colonel Leonard Wood, an officer of the regular
army, to take command. At a later date Wood was
promoted to the rank of general and Roosevelt suc-
ceeded him as colonel. During all his after life the
title of " Colonel " clung to him.

The story told of Roosevelt and his men, after
reaching the battlefield in Cuba, near Santiago, was
one of picturesque activity. Up San Juan Hill they
stormed in the face of the intrenched Spaniards, who
poured down upon them a hot fire of shells and bullets.
Roosevelt in the lead, the Rough Riders and the Tenth
Cavalry all on foot, charged with wild yells through
the hail of gunfire. On they went, faster and faster.
Suddenly Roosevelt's horse, stopped by a bullet, fell in
a heap, but in an instant the rider was free from the
saddle, landing on his feet and charging onward afoot,
sword in hand. The top of the hill was reached. The
Spaniards in their trenches were so dazed by the daring
and audacity of the Americans that they had no heart
to wait for them. Wavering for an instant, they
turned and ran, their works being quickly over-
run. More than half of the Rough Riders had been
wounded, but their daring leader was untouched. He
had passed triumphantly through his baptism of fire.

That brilliant charge practically ended the fight,
Santiago soon after surrendering. There was but one
more event in which Roosevelt figured in Cuba, this a

358 HEROES OF PROGRESS

month or more later. The victors were suffering
from an attack of malaria, but they were uselessly
kept in Cuba. Roosevelt — then a colonel — boiled over
with indignation, finally writing a " round robin," which
his men signed, and in which he protested against the
keeping of his regiment in that pestilential climate.
This protest, with a vigorous letter, was sent to Gen-
eral Shafter, and though it met adverse criticism, had
the desired effect. The men were recalled, and with
this event the war experience of the Colonel and his
rough-riding regiment came to an end.

Almost every war has its popular hero, and the
Cuban war was no exception. The dramatic pictu-
resqueness of the cowboy regiment, with its telling title,
and the newspaper story of its spectacled leader charg-
ing up San Juan Hill, yelling and firing, hit the fancy
of the American people from Maine to California, and
Roosevelt became its hero in the West as Dewey did
in the East. A place for the Colonel, thus standing on
the pedestal of public appreciation, was ready. New
York state needed a new governor, and Theodore
Roosevelt was the man of the hour. The Citizens'
Union was the first to nominate him, but he declined
the compliment, saying that he was a Republican and
proposed to stand by his colors. The nomination of
the Republican party followed and he carried the elec-
tion by a majority of 18,000 over Van Wyck, the Demo-
cratic nominee.

Governor Roosevelt held the office thus given him
for two years. As to his administration we may
quote from Dr. Albert Shaw, the editor of the " Re-
view of Reviews." The clear-headed editor said :

" He found the state administration thoroughly
political; he left it business-like and efficient. He

HEROES OF PROGRESS 359

kept thrice over every promise that he made to the
people in his canvass. Mr. Roosevelt so elevated
and improved the whole tone of the state administra-
tion, and so effectually educated his party and public
opinion generally, that future governors will find easy
what was before almost impossible."

We must deal very briefly with his record as
governor thus characterized. A larger and wider
field of action awaited him. He was on his way to
the Presidency, which years before had been pre-
dicted for him, though no indication of this high
elevation was yet visible in his career. As governor
little was achieved in his first year in the way of
practical reform. He was feeling his way and the
utmost he was yet able to do was to see that no bad
laws were enacted. During the second year his hold
on the situation grew stronger and much new and
beneficial legislation was carried through. But
there was ample work before him still, important
reforms which he was eager to have enacted, and
which he deemed essential to the well-being of the
state. Therefore, when in 1900 there was suddenly
held before his eyes the glittering lure of the Vice-
Presidency of the United States he was not at all
pleased with the prospect. His work at Albany wras
not yet finished, and he was not the man to desire to
be shelved in the seat of chairman of the Senate,
a sleepy dignity for so active a man. He had it in
mind to be again a candidate for governor of New
York, a post promising live work to be done, and to
be laid on the shelf in this manner was a compliment
that failed to appeal to his taste.

The date of 1900 was that of the second nomina-
tion of McKinley, this nomination being seconded

360 HEROES OF PROGRESS

by Roosevelt at the convention in a strong speech.
Hardly had he finished his address before the con-
vention hailed him as its choice for Vice-President —
to his consternation rather than his approval. Sen-
ator Depew, of New York, who was not anxious to
have Roosevelt remain in the governor's chair, took
the opportunity to drawl out : " In the East we call
him Teddy." At this the applause was roof-rending.
"Teddy Roosevelt! Teddy Roosevelt!" was
shouted to the skies. Calls for a vote arose from all
parts of the convention. It was quickly taken and
under the circumstances could end but in one way.
McKinley and Roosevelt were chosen as the Republi-
can candidates for 1900.

The nomination was sorely against his will. He
did not want the office and he well knew the pur-
pose of Depew and others who were pressing him
into it. He strongly objected to accepting the nomi-
nation, and was finally persuaded to yield to the demand
only under strong pressure. Not a man in the hall
dreamed of the real issue that awaited, and that
before the first year of the term would end the tide
of events would sweep Roosevelt into the Presi-
dential chair. When the day of election came the
vote for the candidates showed a plurality of 850,000
votes and an electoral majority of 137. Only twenty
years had elapsed since his graduation at Harvard
College and less than twenty years since the begin-
ning of his political career.

It was, as we have said, on the threshold of the
twentieth century that Theodore Roosevelt attained
the highest office in the gift of the American people.
Taking office with McKinley in March 4, 1901, the
opening year of the century, the year had about a

HEROES OF PROGRESS 361

third of its length to run when the hand of an
assassin brought the term of McKinley to an end
and launched Roosevelt upon a career of which his
opponents had not dreamed when they planned to
remove him from an active into a passive position.
On Friday, August 13, when word was sent adrift
that the victim of the assassin's bullet was fast sink-
ing, Roosevelt was away on a tramp and hunt in the
New England mountains, no one knowing just where
he could be found. Hours passed before he was dis-
covered, and it was near evening when the news of
the fast approaching death of the President was
brought to his ears.

The nearest railroad station was thirty-five miles
away, with a rough forest road between, and it was
the morning of the I4th before the station could be
reached. It was not until 1.40 P.M. that the fast-driven
train reached Buffalo, where the tragedy had been
enacted. He reached there to find that the Presi-
dent had passed away and that the late Vice-Presi-
dent was now President of the United States. He
was the youngest man in the history of the country
to win this exalted office, being still less than forty-
three years of age. But he had lived what seemed a
long life since his schoolboy days and few people
before him had held so many important offices in so
brief a time.

During his first term of office as President the
new; head of the American government sought to
follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and avoid
any radical legislation of anti-McKinley type. Yet
a man of his energy could not well help taking firm
hold of such compelling conditions as confronted him.
His first radical act was to invite Booker Washing-

362 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ton, the famous negro educator, to take dinner with
him. Though this was not the first colored man to
sit at table with a President, the act aroused a storm
of denunciation in parts of the South. Again, when
a coal-strike broke out in Pennsylvania, Roosevelt
broke all precedents by stepping into the breach and
by his influence bringing the labor war to an end.
Most significant of all was his act when the Republic
of Colombia refused to sustain the action for the
building of the Panama Canal and the State of
Panama declared its independence in consequence.
Roosevelt hastened to recognize this act. His im-
patience of delay in this instance ran away with his
judgment, and his haste gave rise to a situation
whose ill results remained vital for many years
later. Other acts of a radical character might be
mentioned, but the above will suffice to show that
the new President was a very live man. He might
cause mischief by overhaste, but the man who charged
up San Juan Hill was not likely to sin on the side
of overdelay.

In his second term as President, Roosevelt felt no
longer under obligation to carry out the policies of
his predecessor. He was now the direct, instead of
the indirect, choice of the people and was free to
carry out the promises of his platform. This he did
without hesitation, the platform being broad enough
to enable him to work for all the reforms in which
he felt an interest. And aside from the interest of
the party and the country there were world-wide
matters that appealed to him. A desperate war was
going on between Russia and Japan, one which the
nations of Europe made no effort to bring to an
end. In 1905, the year of his inauguration, Roosevelt

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HEROES OF PROGRESS 363

took this matter in hand, stretching across the two
oceans the olive branch of peace. Thus, while
Europe dallied and delayed, America acted. Both
the belligerents wanted peace, but neither ventured
to act, and it was left to President Roosevelt to bring
this about in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of Sep-
tember 5, 1905.

The world, as well as his country, had been watch-
ing and admiring the career of the American Presi-
dent, and this bold venture into world politics
brought him distinctly into the limelight of world
events. It seemed a simple thing to do, but no other
nation had volunteered to do it, and the act gave
Roosevelt and the United States an international
prominence they had not hitherto attained. Roose-
velt's direct reward for it was the Nobel prize in the
following year for the best work in the interests of
peace.

As for his own country, one of his most important
acts was the organization of the National Conserva-
tion Commission for the preservation of the natural
resources of the country, which were vanishing at an
alarming rate. Wasteful modes of lumbering and
devastating fires were destroying the forests; the
coal supply was disappearing through bad handling;
the fisheries were being exhausted through igno-
rance and greed; the fertile soil was being washed
away into the streams ; all was going wrong, and all
sadly needed righting. It was due in great part to
the initiative of President Roosevelt that this waste-
fulness has been overcome and the vast natural
wealth of the country conserved.

This was one of the Roosevelt policies. There
were others of equal note. Among these may be

364 HEROES OF PROGRESS

named his favorite dogma of good citizenship and a
square deal for all men. To this may be added the
control of corporations and the reign of law over that
of force and fraud ; the arbitration of labor disputes ;
the larger good in place of the system of temporary
expediency ; national defense and the need of a
strong army and navy ; and the development of
international arbitration and world-peace, to be
gained by some measure like the league of nations,
now so widely advocated and developed.

Theodore Roosevelt was, as we have entitled him,
in every respect an all-round man. Any duty offered
him he was ready to undertake and whatever he did
was well done. Few men have been called upon to
handle such a diversity of public duties and none
have dealt with them more efficiently. As a poli-
tician, a handler of men and public affairs, he was
unsurpassed. As rancher, hunter, soldier he was as
active and capable. As for his spare time, he had
none. Every minute was occupied. He was a de-
vourer of books and a maker of books. Any one who
would like to test his power in the author field must
read his " Winning of the West." This is the ablest
of the many books that came from his pen. As a
writer of presidential messages and an orator, he
was practical to a marked degree. His method of
dealing in this field had in it nothing of the imagi-
native and ideal. He was thoroughly direct and
literal. In his speeches every point was well made,
flung straight out and aimed to hit its mark like a
bullet. His messages were long — verbose some
thought them. But he had a wide field to cover and
it was his effort to cover it fully and ably. While he

HEROES OF PROGRESS 365

spoke apparently to Congress he had a far wider
audience in view than that of the Capitol.

At noontide of March 4, 1909, the official life of
Theodore Roosevelt came to an end. It had ex-
tended for a quarter of a century and all that he had
done had been done ably and capably. He was ready
for a holiday; but the holiday was, like the man,
full of that " Strenuous Life " of which he was an
ardent advocate. There was no war with foreign
countries to plunge into, but there was the war with
wild beasts. He had many years before fought with
the beasts of the " Wild West," but he had long
felt an eager desire to grapple with the most fero-
cious and perilous of all animals, those of the wilds
of Africa, the lion and leopard, the rhinoceros and
elephant, and the host of other creatures with which
the African continent abounds.

He lost no time. On the morning of March 23, less
than three weeks after leaving the presidential chair,
he set out from Oyster Bay, his Long Island home,
on the long journey to Mombasa, the East African
landing place of his projected hunting trip, in com-
pany with the party of skilled hunters who had been
chosen to accompany him to this huntsman's
" promised land." Among them was his son Ker-
mit, not skilled in hunting but with all the ardor of
youth. The expedition had been equipped by the
Smithsonian Institution of Washington, which was
to be repaid by the series of African animals which
the party hoped to collect. As for Roosevelt and his
son, he paid his own and Kermit's way.

Mombasa was reached on April 21, the voyage lasting
somewhat less than a month. In addition to the
leader of the expedition and his son, the party was

366 HEROES OF PROGRESS

made up of Colonel Edgar A. Mearns, a retired
officer of much skill and experience as a naturalist;
Edmund Heller, also a skilled huntsman and col-
lector, and J. Alden Loving, of whom the same may
be said. It is not our purpose to tell the long story
of this hunt. It must suffice here to say that it jvas
highly successful, and the results of it are now to be
seen at the United States National Museum at Wash-
ington, instituting an admirable series of African
mammals. The most we can here say is to speak of
some of the perils of the party and its leaders.

The locality of the hunting ground sought by the
Roosevelt party >vas in the Uganda district of
British East Africa, north and northeast of the great
Lake Victoria Nganza, a region lying five hun-
dred miles by rail from the Pacific coast, and a true
hunter's paradise, as it abounded with game of all
sorts and sizes and of every grade of temper, from
the ferocious lion to the gentle giraffe and antelope,
the latter in a great variety of species.

It was not lacking in scenes of peril, and more
than one member of the party found themselves in
danger from the lions, leopards and other beasts that
fell victims to their bullets. The endurance of the
Colonel was notable. He was ready at any time for
a thirty-mile ride on horseback or a long tramp on
foot, and after a hard day's work afield and a hearty
meal at its end, might have been seen, pen in hand,
writing away until after midnight. Yet when day
dawned again he was often astir before sunrise, ready
to take the field. His comrades were amply justi-
fied in speaking of him as " a glutton for work."

More than once the eager hunter rashly invited
death, and would have met it but for the vigilance of

HEROES OF PROGRESS 367

his trained comrades, his eagerness drawing him into
imminent danger. On one occasion he found himself
facing a herd of elephants some twenty in number.
He raised his rifle against one of the largest of these
and was on the point of firing when Selous, a skilled
hunter of African game who had joined the party,
gave him hasty warning :

" Don't shoot ! On your life, don't shoot ! A bul-
let will bring a charge of the herd and we may be
trampled to death. Follow me."

A safer spot being reached, Selous bade the risky
sportsman to climb a tree and followed him hastily
into its branches. In a few minutes the great beasts
came crushing through the tall reeds bordering their
path. Selous now told his excited companion how
to aim, and Roosevelt, Winchester in hand, brought
down the great beast with a half dozen balls from
his trusty weapon, the giant tusker falling dead close
to the tree which held its hidden foes.

Other perilous situations had to do with the rhi-
noceros and the black-maned lion, only a hasty and
fatal shot saving the incautious hunter when charged
by one of the latter. His greatest peril came from
a herd of buffaloes, a fierce African species of this
animal, a herd of some eighty or more of these
beasts charging into the plain and facing the party
of hunters. The peril was imminent. Had the
brutes pushed on with their accustomed fury not a
man would have escaped alive. A single shot would
have been sure to provoke an attack. As it proved,
it was rather curiosity than fury that moved the
animals, and after a brief interval of suspense they
turned and rushed away across the plain. The dan-

368 HEROES OF PROGRESS

ger had been great and none of the party wanted a
second similar adventure.

This memorable visit to the domain of the world's
most varied centre of beast life was followed by an
experience of a quite different kind. Nearly a year
was spent by the Colonel in the hunting field, in
which he made many narrow escapes, yet came
through without a scratch. His journey homeward
was by way of the Nile, reaching the outposts of
civilization at Khartum and Cairo and landing in
Naples on April 2, 1910. Europe was waiting for him
with a welcome which few travellers had ever ex-
perienced. No man in the world at that time was so
much talked of or bore so great a reputation as
Theodore Roosevelt, and the ruling kings and em-
perors of the European continent were eager to greet
the man from over the ocean who then stood fore-
most in the world's regard.

The first potentate to greet and honor him was
King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, in the capitol of
the old Roman Empire. The second was Francis
Joseph, ruler of Austria and Hungary. Both of these
did their utmost to pay him every honor, as a man
fully their equal in dignity. Next in his route came
the Republic of France, with its President, M. Fal-
lieres, as his host. Thence he made his way to
Holland, the home of his ancestors, passing through
Belgium and visiting Brussels on his route. Wher-
ever he appeared he was greeted with the heartiest
applause and dealt with as a full equal in dignity
with the potentates he visited. Denmark, Norway
and Sweden, the Scandinavian Kingdoms, welcomed
him with warm enthusiasm, and Germany came next
in his route, with Emperor William, the then all-pow-

HEROES OF PROGRESS 369

erful Kaiser, as his host. Little did the latter and
his people at that time dream of the change that was
to come upon them during the decade which had
then been entered upon.

England was the final European country in his
route. Here a different reception awaited him. King
Edward VII, its monarch, had just died, and the
whole country was in deep mourning. Roosevelt
had a brief interview with King George, the new
monarch, but the dead king still awaited burial and
all greetings and festivities were for the time at an
end. But while his reception was a quiet one, he
was visited by various of the royalties of Europe
whom the late king's obsequies had called to Lon-
don and by many of England's dignitaries. Of his
experience there the event that most pleased him
was a tramp with Sir Edward Grey through New
Forest, a picturesque and romantic woodland near
Southampton. Grey was a keen angler and a skilled
ornithologist, and at nightfall, when they reached
their hotel, rain-soaked and mud-spattered, Rooser
velt said to a friend :

" My day in New Forest with Sir Edward Grey
was the crowning experience of the whole three
months."

During this journey through Europe the Ameri-
can visitor took the opportunity to make a series of
orations, some of them extended lectures, in which
he gave remarkable evidence of his breadth of view
and his familiarity with history and international
affairs. Of these we can give only the titles of the
most significant.

His lecture before the University of Paris was on
the appropriate subject of " Citizenship in a Re-
24

370 HEROES OF PROGRESS

public." That delivered in Norway was on "A
World League of Peace," it being the occasion of
the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize. He advo-
cated a condition of national affairs resembling the
now-advocated League of Nations for the maintenance
of peace. Others were : " The World Movement,"
before the University of Berlin, and " Biological Analo-
gies in History," the Romanes lecture at Oxford Uni-
versity, the whole showing a broad acquaintance with
historical and political subjects.

This ovation in Europe formed the culminating
phase in Theodore Roosevelt's career. His subse-
quent life showed a gradual decline in influence and
popularity, though to the end he had a vast multi-
tude of admirers at home and abroad. With this
final period of his life we must more briefly deal.
After his return home he made a journey through
the Middle West in which he lectured on a radical
system of national politics which he denominated
the " New Nationalism." Returning to his native
state he made an unsuccessful effort to carry it for
the Republican party, and then withdrew for a time
from public affairs, devoting himself to editorial
duties on the Outlook periodical.

In 1912 he took a leading part in the Presidential
campaign of the Republican party, but met with
strong opposition in the convention and ended by
withdrawing from the party and forming a new one,
which took the name of the Progressive party. While
campaigning for this party he was shot by a lunatic
at Milwaukee and narrowly escaped death. So great
was his energy, however, that he did not let the bul-
let stop his speech. He was defeated in the election
and again withdrew from public life.

HEROES OF PROGRESS 371

The following year found him again abroad, this
time in South America. This continent presented no
great hunting field, like that of Africa, but the broad
basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries con-
stituted a field of discovery in considerable part un-
known and awaiting investigation. After a visit to
the great southern capitals, Rio de Janeiro and
Buenos Ayres, in both of which he was given a flat-
tering reception, he plunged into the great tropical
realm of southern Brazil with a party of adven-
turers of his own type, and made his way through
that pestiferous climate northward towards the
mighty Amazon, enduring a multitude of hardships,
but none sufficient to subdue his ardent spirit and
love of strenuous adventure.

What he had chiefly in view was to find and ex-
plore an unknown river which had been touched
upon by some travellers but never traced or de-
scribed. This he succeeded in doing, after under-
going a series of arduous and dangerous experiences,
tracing the stream from its head waters northward
to its junction with the Amazon. In honor of his
exploit it was named after him by the Brazilian
authorities, being entitled the Rio Teodoro. He was
to pay rather dearly, however, for the honor, as he
left Brazil infected by a tropical fever from which
it is doubtful if he ever fully recovered.

The later experience of Colonel Roosevelt was
marked by severe criticism of President Wilson's
" watchful waiting " policy in Mexico, and by a
strong anti-German attitude after the European war
broke out, especially after the sinking of the Lusi-
tania, which he held to demand an attitude on the part
of the United States far more dominant and hostile

372 HEROES OF PROGRESS

than the long-drawn-out diplomatic policy of Wilson
and his advisers. War, in his view, was called for a
full year before it came.

In the presidential campaign of 1915 efforts were
made to bring about harmonious relations between the
Republican and Progressive parties, with Roose-
velt as their candidate. The Republican leaders,
however, opposed this movement and chose Charles
E. Hughes, a Supreme Court Justice, as their candi-
date. Roosevelt now declined the nomination of his
party followers and supported Hughes with much
of his old fire and energy, but not with his accus-
tomed success.

With the re-election of Wilson the public career
of Theodore Roosevelt came to an end. After ,war
had been declared against Germany he showed an
eagerness to take an active part in it, but Presi-
dent Wilson checked his aspirations. The best that
the champion of San Juan Hill was enabled to do
was to send his four sons to represent him on the
battlefield — one of them to his death, as it proved.

During his active and ardent career Roosevelt had
burned his candle at both ends, and at the close of his
sixtieth year his power of endurance was practically
at an end. Death came to him suddenly and unex-
pectedly on January 6, 1919, removing from the field
of human affairs one of the most energetic, capable
and remarkable men that the world had ever known,
an American " to the manner born."

OCT 1 9 1929