had any better fighters than those niggers, they stripped to the waist, and fought like devils, sir, seeming to be utterly insensible to danger, and to be possessed with a determination to outfight the white sailors."s The cry that day was-" Remember the Chesapeake!” and, perhaps, those Maryland negroes, "stripped to the waist ", had it on their lips as well as in their hearts, as they worked the Constitution's guns. The action had occurred eight hundred miles east of Boston, about south of Cape Race, on the present steamship course to Southampton. Ten days later the anchor of the Constitution gripped bottom off Rainsford's Island, at the entrance to Boston harbor. It was a David returning from combat with another Goliath. Probably in their day the astonished and delighted compatriots of the son of Jesse cheered to the echo their champion. The Bostonians certainly did so now; for, yesterday cowering, to-day they, stood with heads erect. A deathly spell was dispelled. They, too, could fight! The 30th of August was the awakening day. 66 And yet on the morning of that August 30th the Constitution had occasion, in the famous figure of speech of George Canning, to assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion"; to ruffle its swelling plumage; to put forth its beauty and its bravery; and, collecting its scattered elements of strength, to prepare again to "awaken its dormant thunder". Fatigued beyond endurance by the strain and anxiety of the last fourteen days, believing himself and his ship at last in safety, Captain Isaac Hull had been suddenly roused from a deep sleep by the startling report that an armed squadron was at the harbor's mouth, and bearing in upon him. Simultaneously weighing anchor and clearing decks for action, he boldly moved out to meet the danger; but, as the Constitution approached the leader of the advancing squadron, signals instead of shots were exchanged, and to Hull's great relief he saluted the broad pennon of Commodore Rodgers, unexpectedly making port from a fruitless cruise." Not until Tuesday, September 1, did the Constitution find her way up above the Castle, as what was subsequently named Fort Independence was still called, to an anchorage in the inner harbor. Captain Hull then landed, and as he made a progress up State Street to the Exchange Coffee House-then Boston's leading hostelry-the town went wild. Innumerable flags waved, a procession was formed, salutes were exchanged between the shore and the ships of 8 * Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, p. 264. "Ibid., pp. 262-263; Paullin, Commodore John Rodgers, p. 257. war, and the intense feeling found utterance in every form of shouting and tumult. There was, too, sufficing occasion for it all. Its sense of self-respect had suddenly been restored to a people. One word more and I am done. It relates to a family incident curiously and even pathetically illustrative of the depth of feeling and intense sense of relief which the twice-told tale I have here re-told, excited generally at the time. John Adams, retired from the presidency in 1801, was then passing the closing years of life at Quincy. To no one did the victory of the Constitution appeal more directly and for better reason, than to him. Under his guiding impulse the United States Navy-“ Continental" it was then called -had thirty-seven years before come into existence.10 By his hand. were drawn up the first rules for its government adopted by the Congress, November 28, 1775. The frigate Constitution itself was one of the small armament somewhat derisively referred to in those days as “John Adams's frigates", probably to distinguish them from his successor's armament of coast-defense gunboats. The Constitution had taken the water during the administration of the second President, and Isaac Hull's commission bore his signature. In John Adams's family in 1812 was a granddaughter, born in 1808, a little over four years before, and so still an infant. More than ninety years later, one serene June afternoon in 1903, it devolved on me to sit by that granddaughter's parting bedside. A woman of four-score and fifteen, the lamp of life was flickering out. As she lay there in Quincy, dying in the house in which she had lived for nearly eighty years, I do not think she was conscious of my presence or of anything going on about her in that chamber of death, for as that day's sun went down she passed away. In those closing hours, however, one memory and only one seemed uppermost in her mind. In extremest old age her thoughts reverted to the first and deepest impression of her early childhood, and, over and over again, in a voice clear and distinct yet tremulous with emotion, she kept repeating these words: “Thank God for Hull's victory!" 11 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 10 See paper entitled "The American Navy and the Opinions of One of its Founders, John Adams, 1735-1825 ", by Capt. C. G. Calkins, U. S. N., United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 37, no. 2. "Elizabeth Coombs Adams, a daughter of Thomas Boylston Adams, born February 9, 1808, died, June 13, 1903. Further indicative of the intensity of family feeling at the time aroused by the Constitution-Guerriere incident, a younger brother of Elizabeth C. Adams, born nine months later, May 26, 1813, was named Isaac Hull. He died at Quincy, October 5, 1910. PROFITABLE FIELDS OF INVESTIGATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY, 1815-18601 THE principal subject which the student of this period of American history must appreciate is the development of a dominant interest, of a distinct civilization with definite ideals which was, like all other group evolutions, nationalist only in so far as the general government offered a guarantee of its existence and prosperity. This interest was the plantation system, based on negro slavery. Secured in their monopoly by the federal Constitution, the planters gradually conquered the lower South and the Mississippi Valley and set the standards for the progressive and accessible parts of the country. The planter was the perfect gentleman of his time and the plantation was the accepted economic and social model, not only for the South, but for most of the remainder of the United States. The group which in any country produces the largest annual surplus is apt to draw to it other interests and thus determine the common policy. The plantation owners increased their exports alone from $25,000,000 in 1815 to $250,000,000 in 1860, which gave them almost twice as great an income as all other exporters combined. It was natural, therefore, that the commercial classes, which had played such an important rôle at the close of the French and Indian War and again during the Federalist supremacy, and was now a relatively decadent group, should ally itself with the planters both in economics and in politics. On the other hand the interest which opposed the planters and which under the aegis of the corporation was to dominate the country after 1861 was engaged in manufacturing. The surplus of the manufacturers was not exported but was sold, in the main, to the planters. The manufacturers drew to themselves the owners of the surplus capital in the great towns and cities not engaged in commerce, particularly the banking interest, and the nature of their business made them the masters of many densely populated communities. This gave them a power in Congress next to that of the planters. But the great majority of the people, not less than two-thirds of the total number, "the peasant proprietors ", as they have been 1 A paper read in a conference of students of American history at the meeting of the American Historical Association in Boston, December 30, 1912. called, were not attached to either party. They occupied the remote areas and had no markets and hence no surplus crops or products of any kind. Their votes were sought by both of the powerful rival groups, though most blunderingly by the planters until about 1850. Along the numerous river valleys of the West little communities of farmers became planters during the early years of our period and thus new forms and allies of the plantation came rapidly into existence; this applies to the region north of the Ohio as well as to that further south. The process gave assurance to the planter that he would control the coming nation and accordingly he and his allies were strongly nationalist. But the manufacturers held out to the inaccessible up-country the vision of home markets to be obtained. through extensive internal improvements which the federal government was to construct. The money for this was to be collected from the planters by means of a high tariff, the indirect effect of which would be to give the manufacturers control of the rich and growing domestic market. The result of these proposals was a fierce conflict in Congress between the planters, who already enjoyed a monopoly by reason of the three-fifths rule of representation and the nature of their business, and the manufacturers, who were bent on obtaining one. The tariff was the bone of contention and the war continued from 1820 to 1846, when the planters won through the shrewd manoeuvres of Robert J. Walker in his famous revenue bill of the latter year. In this fight both contestants proclaimed the sacrosanct character of the federal Constitution, while neither cared anything for its provisions unless they could be made to cover the desired privilege. Winning in the closely contested election of 1844, the planters went vigorously to work to conciliate the farmers of the upper West and the mountain regions and by a wise bargaining they secured that support which gave the history of the late forties and early fifties its strongly Southern stamp. The Polk administration thus appears to have been a much more important one than it has been thought. Under Polk and Robert Walker the Northwesterners were allowed the hotly desired expansion to the Pacific, the plantation masters extended their system to the Rio Grande, the commercial interests of the East were promised an ever-expanding market and the manufacturers were convinced that a moderate tariff to which all parties. gave their approval would be better than an everlasting economic war.2 2A most important pamphlet bearing on these arrangements is that of Robert J. Walker, published January 8, 1844. It had a wide circulation and was the basis of the Baltimore Democratic platform and the most influential campaign document of the year. Meanwhile the masses of the up-country people coming slowly into touch, through improved roadways, with the civilization of the time were giving up their repugnance to slavery and the aristocratic régime of which it was the basis; for wherever canals and railways went slavery, or at least sympathy with the South, followed; and where schools and newspapers were set up, save in a small section of the country, opposition to the "favorite institution" ceased. Since the Polk administration proved to be a great clearing-house for the warring interests of all sections, it may be time for historical students to cease ridiculing its head as a "do-nothing" and unworthy President. Polk may have been gifted with talent in the arts of deception, as has been so frequently asserted, but other occupants of that high office have not been wholly destitute of abilities in this respect. While a good deal of work has been done of late years on the Tyler and Polk period, there remains yet much more that ought to be undertaken. Some of the attention which has gone to Jackson, "the boisterous", might well have been given to Polk, "the mendacious", for when it comes to measuring administrations few have accomplished so much that was of vital importance. If one reviews the period from 1816 to 1846 it will be seen that the tariff, internal improvements, and a strong federal financial system composed the trio of nationalist policies which were always in mind and urged or resisted by the leading groups. The Jackson and Van Buren administrations only arrested progress along these lines, while Tyler marked time for nearly four years. Walker and Polk succeeded in committing the majority of the country, that is the South and West, to a new programme, that of radical territorial expansion in all possible directions, and this superseded definitely the older methods and purposes. There was no real break in the policy of succeeding administrations until 1861. Thus the régime of the despised Tennessee slave-owner assumes an importance which, though most if not all American historians have denied or overlooked the fact, must be recognized in the future. It is not the character of the President which interests the student but the schemes which he carries into effect. There was, to be sure, a small segment of the country which was not satisfied in 1848, but that was not the reason why Taylor and the Whigs were returned to power. The great majority of the people were being "worked into shape" by the dominant Southern group, the anti-slavery agitation to the contrary notwithstanding. American society, following the universal rule, was reconciling itself to the view that all men are not equal. A most significant illustration of this is to be seen in the fact that free negroes in every South |