LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
TURNING POINTS 
 In the World's History. 
 
 HENRY MANN 
 
 'I 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 44 The Land We Live In 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, 
 
 Louis Klopsch, Proprietor, 
 BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK. 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 Copyright 1897 
 By LOUIS KLOPSCH. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The path of human progress has witnessed many- 
 turning-points from the time when superior in- 
 tellect taught man that he was different from the 
 brute. In religion, in literature, in science the 
 forward march has been one of difficulty, of pain, 
 of sacrifice. Religion is not alone in the precious 
 heritage of martyrs who have endured and per- 
 ished for the truth. Every line of invention, of 
 learning, of thought beyond the present, and of 
 aspiration for the improvement of mankind, has 
 had its martyrs, and in the end its victors. The 
 turning-points in history are a record of human 
 suffering, of human effort, and of human triumph 
 and achievement, under the control of that prov- 
 idence which guides the affairs of men. 
 
 I have sought to indicate in these pages some 
 of the leading occurrences that have influenced 
 the destinies of humanity, confining myself 
 chiefly to events connected with and subsequent 
 to the dawn of enlightenment in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. I have sought to trace the causes and 
 course of the Reformation, of the French Revo- 
 lution, and of the other great turning-points in 
 (3) 
 
4 Introductory \ 
 
 the beginnings of great inventions, and their 
 influence upon modern conditions have not been 
 neglected. 
 
 As war is the ultimate court of appeal in human 
 affairs, it follows that the battlefield has often 
 been a turning-point in history. Engagements 
 by land and sea have decided the fate of nations, 
 loosed the bonds of tyranny or riveted the chain 
 of despotism. A single battle has sometimes 
 halted manifest destiny, as Joshua halted the sun 
 in its inevitable course, for centuries. The battle 
 of Bannockburn was an instance of this. That 
 England and Scotland should some day become 
 united was as certain in the days of Edward the 
 Second as any event not accomplished. The 
 resolute valor of Bruce and the courage of his fol- 
 lowers postponed that union for three centuries, 
 and then it was brought about as a peaceful con- 
 sequence of the accident of royal succession. 
 
 It does not follow that what* is known as a 
 decisive battle has been the turning-point of the 
 historic episode of which that battle was the con- 
 clusion, but it is only natural that the human 
 mind should commonly associate great changes 
 with prominent events. But for Moscow Napo- 
 leon would, in all human probability, have never 
 had to confront the British at Waterloo. Never- 
 theless Waterloo decided his fate, and relieved 
 Europe from the scourge of his ambition. In 
 this sense, and for this reason, Waterloo will 
 
hitroductory . 5 
 
 always be regarded as the greatest military event 
 of the century, in the Old World at least. 
 
 The defeat and destruction of the "Invincible 
 Armada' ' merits a place in these pages because it 
 secured to England superiority to Spain on the 
 seas, and prevented a Roman Catholic conquest 
 of the leading Protestant kingdom. The story of 
 Pultowa can be read intelligently only in the 
 light of Lutzen. Pultowa brought the Swedish 
 empire to an end, and established the power of 
 Russia on an enduring foundation. 
 
 Since Waterloo the world has witnessed in 
 Europe two decisive battles — Koniggratz and 
 Sedan, the first of which established, and the 
 second confirmed, the unity of Germany. 
 
 Turning to our own land the struggle for the 
 possession of Fort Duquesne, ending in the re- 
 treat of the French, decided that the British race 
 should dominate North America. Burgoyne's sur- 
 render at Saratoga was the turning-point against 
 England in the War of Independence. The battle 
 of Lake Erie secured the Northwest to the United 
 States, and put an end to the dream of an Indian 
 power nursed by Great Britain, a mosquito mon- 
 archy on the shores of Lake Superior. There yet 
 remained to be decided whether Anglo-Americans 
 or Spanish-Americans should be the Romans of 
 the western hemisphere. The Mexican war, with 
 its decisive battle of Cerro Gordo, settled that 
 question so thoroughly that it has never since 
 been raised, and is never likely to be raised 
 again. 
 
6 Introductory. 
 
 Then came our great civil war, with Gettysburg 
 as its decisive battle. The American people, both 
 North and South, have reason to be proud of the 
 valor displayed on that fateful day. May the 
 future turning-points of our nation be only in the 
 direction of peace — save when peace would in- 
 volve dishonor. 
 
 HENRY MANN. 
 
 August, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I.— The Birth of the Saviour, . . . 
 
 II.— Canossa and the Rialto, .... 
 The Triple Crown — An Imperial Sup- 
 pliant—The Rialto — The Pope's 
 Heel on Caesar's Neck — Papal Ab- 
 solutism. 
 
 III.— The First Bible Printed, . . , 
 
 IV. — Gunpowder Versus Chivalry, 
 
 V.— Vasco DaGama's Voyage, . . . 
 
 VI. — First Voyage of Columbus, . 
 
 VII. — Spain's Expulsion of the Jews, 
 
 VIII.— The Reformation, 
 
 Erasmus — Luther — Charles V. — The 
 Reformation in Germany — The 
 Reformation in England — The 
 Reformation in Scotland — The 
 Reformation in Holland — The 
 Reformation in Sweden — The Ref- 
 ormation in France. 
 
 IX. — Trial of the Seven Bishops, . . . 
 
 X.— Hutchinson's Writs of Assistance, 
 
 XI. — The Guillotine Versus the Di- 
 vine Right of Kings, .... 
 Why Napoleon Failed. 
 
 XII.— The Monroe Declaration, . . . . 
 
 (7) 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 • 9 
 
 . 16 
 
 28 
 33 
 37 
 43 
 59 
 66 
 
 93 
 
 127 
 
8 Contents. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 XIII.— England's Commercial Turning- 
 point, 134 
 
 Peel Launches Free Trade. 
 
 XIV.— Lincoln's Death-Blow to Slav- 
 ery, 140 
 
 XV.— The Geneva Tribunal, 148 
 
 Arbitration's First Victory. 
 
 XVI. — Industrial Turning-Points, . . . 162 
 Watt Makes Steam Work— Murdock 
 Gives Light — Fulton Ploughs the 
 Hudson— Stephenson's "Rocket" 
 Flies — Franklin Draws the Light- 
 ning — Morse's Happy Thought — 
 Cyrus Field's First Cable Message 
 — Bell and Edison Make Light- 
 ning Talk — Electric Light and 
 Power — Cotton Spinning Machin- 
 ery — Arkwright in England — 
 Slater in America. 
 
 XVII.— Ten Military and Naval Turn- 
 ing-Points, 193 
 
 Europe. — Destruction of the Span- 
 ish Armada — Pultowa — Waterloo— 
 Koniggratz — Sedan. America. — 
 Duquesne — Saratoga — Lake Erie 
 — Cerro Gordo — Gettysburg. 
 
 XVIII. —Great Religious Movements of 
 
 the Century, 281 
 
TURNING POINTS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 WORLD'S HISTORY. 
 
 I.— THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 The birth of Christ was the greatest turn- 
 ing-point of history. It was the first chap- 
 ter in the gospel of a new dispensation — 
 the gospel of common rights, common 
 duties, a common manhood and common 
 fraternity. The Christianity of the earlier 
 days was typified in the stable at Beth- 
 lehem. According to the belief of Chris- 
 tians, the Saviour of mankind might have 
 been born in a palace on the Tiber, or 
 in the proudest residence of Herod the 
 Great, but He elected to come as one of 
 the vast, unnumbered multitude of un- 
 known toilers who, for ages before and 
 since His coming, have been trodden under 
 foot of the rich, the noble and the powerful. 
 In this He asserted at once the supremacy 
 of God and the dignity and the equality of 
 man. The birth of Christ was the first and 
 eloquent declaration of our human brother- 
 hood. It was a protest from Divinity itself 
 
 (9) 
 
io Turning Points hi the 
 
 against the artificial barriers of caste and 
 class, erected, like the Tower of Babel, to 
 overcome the decrees of heaven. 
 
 It has been said, as an objection to 
 Christianity, that Christ is not mentioned 
 outside of sacred history. No higher trib- 
 ute could be paid to the Saviour and Mes- 
 siah. He did not belong — He did not choose 
 to belong — to the class of whom history, or 
 at least ancient history, recorded the deeds 
 and achievements. He did not wade 
 through a Rubicon of blood to a dictator- 
 ship, or sweep with embattled armies over 
 desolated provinces, amid the anguish of 
 women and children and the ruins of un- 
 counted homes. Ah no! Christ did not 
 make history of that kind. His part was 
 cast with the myriads who from the begin- 
 ning of the world had been the victims of 
 the history-makers, whose sufferings and 
 sacrifices are known only to the Omniscient, 
 and whose names have passed into oblivion 
 with their unmonumented graves. Christ 
 came as one of these. He was of them and 
 with them. From among them He chose 
 His disciples, and among them He gained 
 His followers, and through their faithful 
 ranks He made His triumphal way on that 
 final ride to Jerusalem, the Passion and the 
 Cross. The name and the career of Christ 
 would have been out of place in the chron- 
 icles of the Caesars and the pages which 
 
World' s History . n 
 
 tell the story of Roman conquest and op- 
 pression. 
 
 ******* 
 
 CHRIST'S MISSION TO THK LOWLY. 
 
 It was undoubtedly this mighty lesson of 
 man's equality as taught by Christ in the 
 very moment of His birth that excited the 
 intense and fierce opposition of the powerful 
 and privileged classes in Judea, and sub- 
 sequently in Rome, against the Christians. 
 The antagonism to early Christianity was 
 based, not on religious differences, but on 
 social and political grounds. Every in- 
 stinct of wealth, power and authority be- 
 came arrayed against a creed which taught 
 that the poor man was as good as the rich 
 man, the serf the equal of the emperor; that 
 it was the duty of those who had, to share 
 with those who had not. First to the 
 Pharisee, as afterward to the Roman Caesar 
 and his parasites, Christian doctrine ap- 
 peared subversive of the very foundations 
 of society. The Christians were perse- 
 cuted, not because they did not believe in 
 the gods of Olympus, but because they held 
 Caesar to be no better, as a man, than any- 
 body else, and because they held it to be 
 the duty of Dives to divide with Lazarus, 
 and for all to labor for the common welfare. 
 The idea of worshiping as God one who 
 had been born in a stable and laid in a 
 
12 Turning Points in the 
 
 manger, who had worked as a carpenter 
 and then turned preacher, and who had 
 told the rich and fortunate to sell their 
 goods and give to the poor, impressed the 
 L,uculluses, the nobles, the kings, emperors 
 and priests of that age, as a menace to the 
 very foundations of the state, and a defi- 
 ance of the classes who made ordinary man- 
 kind the slaves of their appetites and the 
 ministers of their caprice. 
 
 At the same time the very doctrine of 
 human equality and the brotherhood of 
 man, which raised all the dominant forces 
 of ancient society against the stable-born 
 Christ, made Christian ity invincible. The 
 millions had been waiting and hungering 
 for just such a Deliverer. The Jews never 
 expected their Messiah to come in that 
 guise, but the common people, both Jew 
 and Gentile, were quick to understand the 
 Saviour because He understood them, and 
 the same touch of heart to heart which 
 drew multitudes to Jesus in His lifetime 
 drew multitudes to His apostles when they 
 went among the nations with their mission 
 from the manger and the cross. Christi- 
 anity was the people's faith. It did not 
 spread down to the people from the classes 
 above them, but gradually won recruits 
 from the higher ranks by the example of 
 self-denial, charity and purity, illustrated 
 in the Christian communit} T . 
 
World's History. 13 
 
 Persecution, intolerance and every form 
 of temptation, could not quench the star 
 that rose over the sleeping Babe in that 
 lonely stable in Bethlehem. The sword of 
 Herod sought in vain to destroy the new- 
 born Christ, although hundreds of inno- 
 cents perished that the fears of the tyrant 
 might be allayed. What a cruel sacrifice ! 
 What awful evidence of the depth of deg- 
 radation and oppression to which even 
 the chosen people had sunk under the ruth- 
 less despotism of the wretches who wore 
 the crown of David and of Solomon ! What 
 a picture of the condition of the class among 
 whom Christ chose to be born, and to whom 
 His birth was the morning light of deliv- 
 erance ! Helpless in the grasp of their op- 
 pressors, their children put to the sword 
 to gratify the whim of a monster, and 
 burdened almost beyond endurance by the 
 exactions of usurer and tax-gatherer, the 
 common people of that age had no rights 
 that were regarded as paramount to the 
 absolute will of the despots who scourged 
 them. Judaism had become loaded down 
 with forms and ceremonies, and its religion 
 was a gilded skeleton of the once vigorous 
 faith which had animated the Israelites in 
 heroic struggle against their hereditary foes. 
 The Romans held them in bondage and 
 looked upon them with contempt, while 
 permitting the degenerate rulers who 
 
14 Turning Points in the 
 
 exercised the worst form of Eastern tyranny 
 over their miserable subjects to retain the 
 thrones which they stained by the most in- 
 human excesses. Judea had lost its inde- 
 pendence without gaining as an equivalent 
 the firm and impartial government which 
 the Romans usually bestowed on subject 
 provinces. The age was ripe for a Saviour, 
 and nowhere riper than in Judea. 
 
 Looked at from its human consequences 
 alone, the birth of the Saviour was the most 
 momentous event in the annals of mankind. 
 The Christianity born in that stable did not 
 change human nature, but even alloyed as 
 it afterward became, it gave a higher, 
 purer, more inspiring and more exalting re- 
 ligious ideal than the world had ever 
 known. However absurd the divisions 
 among Christians of the earlier centuries 
 on technical points of doctrine may appear 
 to us now, the Christian ideal was at least 
 always and entirely free from the impurity 
 and depravity which characterized the 
 imaginary population of Olympus. The 
 Christians offered a God who could be wor- 
 shiped without blush or reservation, a 
 Christ who appealed to the noblest senti- 
 ments and to the purest sympathies, a faith 
 which rested on divine love as its corner- 
 stone and brotherly love and charity as the 
 chief pillars of its creed. 
 
World's History. 15 
 
 Men learned that there was something to 
 hope for, something to gain, which Caesar 
 and his legions could not achieve, which a 
 tyrant's tortures could not tear from them, 
 which the fires of persecution could not re- 
 duce to ashes. They learned that the 
 world, its ambitions, its strife and its fleet- 
 ing indulgences, were as vapor compared 
 with the promise of everlasting bliss in the 
 bosom of the ever-loving God; that the 
 pomp and parade of realty and riches were 
 to the wealth of the purified soul as tinsel 
 to the stars, and that the poorest slave in 
 Iberian mines might, if he lived a Christ- 
 like life, stand nearer the throne of God 
 than the ruler of an empire. 
 
 No wonder that doctrine such as this 
 amazed and aroused the masters of ancient 
 civilization, and that from the banks of the 
 Tiber to the frontiers of Parthia the fires 
 were lighted and the irons were heated to 
 efface from the earth a religion which 
 taught that Caesar was brother to his serfs. 
 And the struggle went on from emperor to 
 emperor, from century to century, between 
 all the powers of the known world on the 
 one side and the zeal of undying faith, the 
 supreme confidence of imperishable love, on 
 the other side — and at length the Nazarene 
 was conqueror, the manger triumphed, the 
 Babe of Bethlehem became the Romans' 
 God. 
 
1 6 Turning Points in the 
 
 IL— CANOSSA AND RIALTO. 
 
 It is a long step from Bethlehem to Ca- 
 nossa ; it is a long step from Constantine to 
 Canossa, and from the bishop of Rome, who 
 called himself "servant of the servants of 
 God," to the Pope with his heel on the 
 neck of an emperor. I have no room in 
 this book to trace the origin of the papal 
 power. The supremacy of the Roman See 
 appears to have been generally recognized 
 by the Western churches for centuries be- 
 fore the great Hildebrand came upon the 
 scene, and sought to convert that suprem- 
 acy into an absolutism, both spiritual and 
 temporal. In the view of the vast majority 
 of believers, the spiritual weapon hurled 
 by the hand of the successor of St. Peter 
 was as vivid as the lightning's flash, and 
 much more terrible, for the lightning could 
 only kill the body, while the papal anathema 
 doomed both soul and body to everlasting 
 tv/rments. Occasionally a prince, intoxi- 
 cated by the adulation of parasites, and 
 the possession of unlimited power over the 
 property and lives of millions of subjects, 
 challenged the hostility of the pope, and 
 he might, perhaps, achieve a momentary 
 success, but every day his cause was sure 
 to become weaker and less hopeful. Natu- 
 ral calamities were regarded as expressions 
 
World 's History. 17 
 
 of divine displeasure, and the very stars in 
 their courses seemed to be warring against 
 him. His trusted confidants, who might 
 have recklessly applauded his resolution 
 and courage in the beginning, shrank from 
 his presence as from that of a leper, and 
 the loyalty of his subjects was chilled by 
 the thought that their prince was the 
 enemy of God. His mind was irritated, 
 his conscience tortured, and at length life 
 appeared to be intolerable without recon- 
 ciliation to the Vicar of Christ. 
 
 Such was the condition of Christendom 
 when Hildebrand, a monk, the son of a car- 
 penter of Siena, in Tuscany, obtained an 
 ascendency in the papal court. Hildebrand 
 was one of those men who, in the ever-mov- 
 ing caravan of historical characters, loom 
 above their contemporaries like a giant 
 among pigmies. His was not a lovable 
 nature. He possessed an unconquerable 
 will and an inflexible singleness of purpose, 
 combined with that magnetic force which 
 compels the common to recognize the master 
 mind. There is no reason to doubt his 
 sincerity, or even to suppose that he was 
 consciously actuated by ambitious or selfish 
 motives. The last words of his life — ' ' I 
 have loved justice and hated iniquity, and 
 therefore I die in exile" — were doubtless 
 from his heart. To him the cause of the 
 Church was the cause of justice; its defeat 
 
1 8 Turning Points in the 
 
 the triumph of iniquity. Hildebrand aimed 
 to carry out to its logical conclusion the 
 doctrine that the pope is the Vicar of Christ 
 upon earth ; that the papal authority being 
 of divine origin is superior to any earthly 
 jurisdiction, and that the Roman pontiff, in 
 virtue of his sacred office, is invested with 
 the power to direct and govern all affairs, 
 both spiritual and temporal. He essayed 
 to establish through his legates papal super- 
 vision over the strictly secular acts of sov- 
 ereign princes, to summon them to his feet 
 to answer accusations of maladministration, 
 and, in a word, to make Christendom one 
 vast theocracy, with the pope as the inter- 
 preter and oracle of the divine will. He 
 endeavored to sever all ties which bound 
 the ecclesiastical order to the service of the 
 State, and to make the State the servant, 
 as he claimed it to be, the creature of the 
 Church. He tried to enforce the most rigid 
 celibacy, so that the priesthood might not 
 be diverted by the vexations and pleasures 
 of the family relation from the single object 
 of the aggrandizement of the pontificate. 
 In 1073, the son of the carpenter of Siena 
 ascended the chair of St. Peter, and as- 
 sumed the title of Gregory VII. He spent 
 the early period of his pontificate in enforc- 
 ing stricter discipline among the clergy, 
 and in strengthening himself for the com- 
 ing struggle with the young and arrogant 
 
World's History. 19 
 
 emperor of Germany. Henry IV. was a 
 brave and successful soldier, but he was of 
 resentful disposition, hasty and unstable in 
 action, and licentious in conduct. His 
 extravagances kept him always in want of 
 money, and he replenished his treasury by 
 the sale of episcopal sees to incapable and 
 unworthy men. Gregory admonished the 
 emperor to cease his simoniacal practices 
 but without effect. In 1074 the pope sum- 
 moned a council at Rome, which pronounced 
 an anathema against all persons guilty of 
 simon3^, and likewise ordered the deposi- 
 tion of priests who lived in concubinage. 
 In 1075 another council prohibited princes, 
 under pain of excommunication, from giv- 
 ing investiture of sees or abbeys, by con- 
 ferring the ring and crosier. 
 
 The emperor continued to dispose of 
 the episcopal dignity and emoluments for 
 money, without heeding the admonition of 
 the pontiff, or the anathema of the council. 
 Gregory, who was now thoroughly aroused, 
 summoned Henry to Rome; not only to 
 account for his defiance of ecclesiastical 
 laws, but also to answer charges of secular 
 misgovernment preferred against him by 
 his subjects. Henry, hotly indignant at 
 what he considered to be a gross insult to 
 the majesty, and encroachment upon the 
 prerogatives of the imperial crown, caused 
 a diet of the empire to be assembled at 
 
20 Turning Points in the 
 
 Worms, which fulminated a sentence of 
 deposition and excommunication against 
 Gregory; and the emperor addressed a mis- 
 sive, informing the Roman pontiff of the 
 action of the diet, to ' 'the false monk, Hil- 
 debrand. " Gregor} T replied by an edict 
 excommunicating the emperor, depriving 
 him of his kingdoms of Germany and Italy, 
 and releasing his subjects from their alle- 
 giance, and forbidding them to obey their 
 sovereign. Henry soon found that he had 
 bearded a foe more formidable than any he 
 had faced on the field of battle. Disloyal 
 nobles rose in rebellion against him, and 
 claimed that the}^ were carrying out the 
 will of Heaven in attacking a monarch ac- 
 cursed by the Vicar of Christ. Henry was 
 deserted by the prelates who had aided in 
 his attempt to drive Gregory from the papal 
 throne, but who now hastened to make 
 peace with their ecclesiastical Caesar. Even 
 the near friends of the emperor avoided 
 his presence, and he found himself a prince 
 without courtiers, a ruler without subjects. 
 He sank from the height of arrogance into 
 utter despondency, and resolved, as a last 
 desperate resort, to throw himself on the 
 mercy of the Roman pontiff. 
 
 AN IMPERIAL SUPPLIANT. 
 
 Accompanied by his faithful Bertha and 
 a single attendant, Henry crossed the Alps, 
 
World's History. 21 
 
 and proceeded to Canossa, a fortress near 
 Reggio, where Gregory was the guest of 
 his devoted adherent, the Countess Matilda. 
 The emperor was admitted into an outer 
 court of the castle, and remained there 
 from morning until evening, for three suc- 
 cessive days, clad in a shirt of hair, and 
 with naked feet, while Gregory, shut up 
 with the countess, appeared to ignore his 
 presence. On the fourth day the pope 
 condescended to grant absolution to his 
 humbled enemy, but on condition that he 
 should not resume the insignia of imperial 
 power until the pontiff had determined 
 whether or not his kingdoms should be re- 
 stored to him. 
 
 ********* 
 Canossa did not bring an end to the 
 struggle between pope and emperor, which 
 was soon resumed, and continued with vary- 
 ing fortunes. The conflict reached its 
 fiercest point when Frederick Barbarossa 
 directed all the power of the German em- 
 pire to the crushing of Pope Alexander III. 
 The pope wandered from court to court, 
 from kingdom to kingdom, a fugitive and a 
 suppliant, vainly begging the princes of 
 Christendom to champion the cause of the 
 Church, while the fairest regions of Italy 
 were desolated by contending armies 
 shouting the war cry of "Guelph!" or 
 "Ghibelin!" 
 
22 Turning Points in the 
 
 The decisive battle of Legnano, when the 
 imperial army was totally crushed by the 
 forces of the Guelphic confederacy, did not 
 break the proud spirit of Frederick. When 
 the Venetians, in behalf of Alexander, 
 made overtures to Barbarossa with a view 
 to an amicable settlement, he answered: 
 ' ■ Go and tell your prince and his people 
 that Frederick, king of Romans, demands 
 at their hands a fugitive and a foe ; that, 
 if they refuse to deliver him to me, I shall 
 deem and declare them the enemies of my 
 empire; and that I will pursue them by 
 land and by sea, until I have planted my 
 victorious eagles on the gates of St. 
 Mark's." 
 
 The islanders were not daunted by this 
 arrogant menace, and they got ready to 
 make a desperate defence against the 
 armada which, under Otho Hohenstauffen, 
 the son of the emperor, was preparing to 
 invade their lagoons. The Venetians met 
 the squadron of Barbarossa off Salboro, 
 seven miles distant from Pirano (May 26, 
 1 177). The imperialists numbered seventy- 
 five sail; the islanders only thirty-four; 
 but the latter were inspired by every mo- 
 tive that could nerve the arm or stimulate 
 the courage. The fight lasted for six 
 hours, and ended in the utter rout of the 
 imperial fleet. Otho himself was captured, 
 and forty of his vessels fell into the hands 
 
World's History. 23 
 
 of the conquerors, besides two which 
 foundered during the action. Pope Alex- 
 ander met the victors at the landing-place 
 on their return, and in token of his appre- 
 ciation of their invaluable services to his 
 cause, he bestowed upon Venice the perpet- 
 ual dominion of the ocean. 
 
 pope's heeiv on Cesar's neck. 
 
 Barbarossa was now willing to listen to 
 the proposals which he had so wrathfully 
 rejected but a few months before, and it was 
 arranged that a congress should meet at 
 Rialto and discuss and ratify the terms of 
 peace. The emperor likewise signified his 
 desire to be readmitted within the pale of the 
 Church, and Alexander acceded to his re- 
 quest. Frederick arrived in Venice on the 
 twenty-third of July, and was received in 
 a manner befitting his imperial station, and 
 the dignity of the republic of which he 
 was the guest. On the morning of the 
 twenty-fourth, a procession of the doge, 
 nobles and clergy of Venice escorted Barba- 
 rossa to St. Mark's, where the pope sat in 
 state, arrayed in his pontifical robes, and 
 surrounded by the ambassadors of Sicily, 
 France and England, the delegates of the 
 free cities and a throng of peers and cardi- 
 nals, bishops and archbishops. Assuming 
 a lowly attitude the emperor approached 
 the papal throne, and, casting off his purple 
 
24 Turning Points in the 
 
 mantle, prostrated himself before the pope. 
 The sufferings and persecutions of eighteen 
 years recurred at that moment to the mem- 
 ory of His Holiness, and a sincere and pro- 
 found conviction that he was the instrument 
 chosen of Heaven to proclaim the predes- 
 tined triumph of right might have actuated 
 the pontiff, as he planted his foot on the 
 neck of the emperor, and borrowing the 
 words of David, cried: ' 'Thou shalt go on 
 the lion and the adder; the young lion and 
 the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet. ' ' 
 "It is not to thee, but to St. Peter, that I 
 kneel, " muttered the fallen tyrant. "Both 
 to me and to St. Peter, ' ' insisted Ranuci, 
 pressing his heel still more firmly on the 
 neck of Frederick ; and as soon as the latter 
 appeared to acquiesce, the pope relaxed his 
 hold, and suffered His Majesty to rise. 
 
 A Te Deum closed this remarkable cere- 
 mony, and, on quitting the cathedral, the 
 emperor held the sacred stirrup, and as- 
 sisted his tormentor to mount. Barbarossa 
 continued ever after to be on friendly terms 
 with Rome, and the old emperor perished 
 in the river Calycadnus, in Cilicia, while 
 leading the Third Crusade against the 
 Moslems. 
 
 ********* 
 
 PAPAL ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 The papal power may be said to have 
 reached its apogee during the reign of 
 
World's History. 25 
 
 Innocent III., who was crowned with the 
 tiara, after the demise of Celestine, in 1197. 
 Born of a noble Roman family, versed in 
 all the learning of the mediaeval schools, 
 deeply imbued with the principles to which 
 Hildebrand had been a martyr, and yet in 
 the flush and vigor of early manhood, the 
 new pope speedily showed a purpose to sub- 
 ject the whole world to his domineering 
 will, and to make himself the ruler of the 
 earth, the prince of princes. In a com- 
 munication to the league of Tuscan com- 
 munes, Innocent averred that "as God 
 created two luminaries, one superior for the 
 day, and the other inferior for the night, 
 which last owes its splendor entirely to the 
 first, so he has disposed that the regal dig- 
 nity should be but a reflection of the splen- 
 dor of the papal authority, and entirely 
 subordinate to it. ' ' He required an oath 
 of allegiance from the prefect of Rome, thus 
 abolishing forever the authority of the Ger- 
 man empire over that city ; he drove from 
 the dominions of the Church the imperial 
 feudatories and took possession of their 
 territories in the name of the Roman See. 
 He asserted the papal suzerainty over Sicily, 
 and obtained from Constance, regent of that 
 kingdom for her infant son, Frederick II., 
 an acknowledgment of the pontifical claims; 
 and, after the death of Constance, he him- 
 self assumed the regency. 
 
26 Turning Points in the 
 
 Innocent decided the contest for the im- 
 perial throne in favor of Otho, the Guelph 
 candidate. He afterward, in 1210, deposed 
 Otho, and caused his own ward, young 
 Frederick II., to be crowned emperor at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, with the approval of the 
 Fourth Lateran Council. He excommuni- 
 cated Philip Augustus, of France, because 
 that monarch had repudiated his wife, In- 
 gerburga, of Denmark, and married Agnes 
 de Meranie. The French king persisting 
 in his defiance of the ecclesiastical and 
 moral law, Innocent laid an interdict upon 
 his dominions. The performance of public 
 worship was strictly prohibited, the churches 
 were closed, the dying were denied the con- 
 solations of religion, and the dead lay un- 
 buried. Neither Philip nor his subjects 
 could long sustain the horrors of such a sit- 
 uation, and the king relieved himself and 
 his kingdom from the papal curse by re- 
 ceiving back the wife he had discarded. 
 When Alfonso IX., of Leon and Castile, 
 took as his queen his own niece, the daugh- 
 ter of Sancho, king of Portugal, Innocent 
 first remonstrated, and when remonstrance 
 was found to be in vain, he laid the domin- 
 ions of the offending princes under interdict, 
 and did not remove the ban until the 
 scandal ceased. 
 
 John Lackland took an oath of fealty to 
 the Roman See, and delivered to the papal 
 
World's History. 27 
 
 envoy a charter testifying that he surren- 
 dered to Innocent and to his successors for- 
 ever the kingdom of England and the 
 lordship of Ireland, to be held as fiefs, on 
 condition of the payment to the pope of a 
 tribute of seven hundred marks of silver for 
 England, and three hundred for Ireland. 
 Peter II., of Aragon, voluntarily made 
 himself a vassal of Rome, in order to secure 
 his dynasty against the jealous ambition of 
 his powerful lieges, and bound himself and 
 his successors to an annual payment of two 
 hundred pieces of gold. John, duke of 
 Bavaria, Premislas, of Bohemia, and Leo, 
 of Armenia, accepted kingly crowns from 
 Innocent. John, of Bulgaria, had long 
 boasted that he was a vassal only of the 
 pope. Hungary was acknowledged by its 
 monarch to be a fief of the Holy See, and 
 Denmark bowed to the power which had 
 vindicated the honor and avenged the 
 wrongs of her n^al daughter. Even Nor- 
 way felt the weight of papal censure, and 
 distant Iceland listened with respect and 
 fear to the admonitions of a legate from 
 the court of Rome. 
 
28 Tiiming Points in the 
 
 III. -THE FIRST BIBLE PRINTED. 
 
 An agency most potent in preparing 
 Europe for the Reformation was the inven- 
 tion of printing. The monkish scribes 
 would certainly have taken no pains to 
 spread doctrine which they considered 
 heretical, and the people would have re- 
 mained in ignorance of all arguments 
 tending to disparage the supremacy and 
 infallibility of Rome. 
 
 It is needless to go into the controversy 
 as to whether Johannes Gutenberg or Lau- 
 rens Coster was the pioneer of the printing- 
 press. ''While the learned of Italy," says 
 Hallam, "were eagerly exploring their re- 
 cent acquisitions of manuscripts, deciphered 
 with difficulty, and slowly circulated from 
 hand to hand, a few obscure Germans had 
 gradually perfected the most important dis- 
 cover recorded in the annals of mankind. 
 The invention of printing, so far from be- 
 ing the result of philosophical sagacity, 
 does not appear to have been suggested by 
 any regard for the higher branches of liter 
 ature, or to bear any other relation than 
 that of coincidence to their revival in Italy. 
 The question why it was struck out at that 
 particular time must be referred to that 
 disposition of unknown causes which we 
 call accident. 
 
World' s History. 29 
 
 1 ' Two or three centuries earlier, we can- 
 not but acknowledge, the discovery would 
 have been almost equally acceptable. But 
 the invention of paper seems to have nat- 
 urally preceded those of engraving and 
 printing. It is generally agreed that play- 
 ing-cards, which have been traced far back 
 in the fourteenth century, gave the first 
 notion of taking off impressions from en- 
 graved figures upon wood. The second 
 stage, or rather the second application, of 
 this art, was the representation of saints 
 and other religious devices, several in- 
 stances of which are still extant. Some of 
 these are accompanied with an entire page 
 of illustrative text, cut into the same wooden 
 block. This process is indeed far removed 
 from the invention that has given immor- 
 tality to the names of Faust, Schoeffer 
 and Gutenberg, yet it probably led to 
 the consideration of means whereby it 
 might be rendered less operose and incon- 
 venient. 
 
 "Whether movable wooden characters 
 were ever employed in any entire work is 
 very questionable — the opinion that re- 
 ferred their use to L,aurens Coster, of Haar- 
 lem, not having stood the test of more ac- 
 curate investigation. They appear, how- 
 ever, in the capital letters of some early 
 printed books. But no expedient of this 
 kind could have fulfilled the great purposes 
 
30 Turning Points in the 
 
 of this invention until it was perfected by- 
 pounding metal types in a matrix or mould, 
 the essential characteristic of printing, as 
 distinguished from other arts that bear 
 some analogy to it. 
 
 ''The first book that issued from the 
 presses of Faust and his associates at Mentz 
 was an edition of the Vulgate, commonly 
 called the Mazarine Bible, a copy having 
 been discovered in the library that owes 
 its name to Cardinal Mazarin at Paris. 
 This is supposed to have been printed be- 
 tween the years 1450 and 1455. In 1457 
 an edition of the Psalter appeared, and in 
 this the invention was announced to the 
 world in a boasting colophon, though cer- 
 tainly not unreasonably bold. Another 
 edition of the Psalter, one of an ecclesiasti- 
 cal book, Durand's account of liturgical 
 offices, one of the Constitutions of Pope 
 Clement V., and one of a popular treatise on 
 general science, called the Catholicon, filled 
 up the interval till 1462, when the second 
 Mentz Bible proceeded from the same 
 printers. This, in the opinion of some, is 
 the earliest book in which cast types were 
 employed — those of the Mazarine Bible 
 having been cut with the hand. But this 
 is a controverted point. 
 
 "In 1465, Faust and Schoeffer published 
 an edition of Cicero's Offices, the first trib- 
 ute of the new art to polite literature. Two 
 
World's History. 31 
 
 pupils of their school, Sweynheim and Pan- 
 nartz, migrated the same year into Italy, 
 and printed Donatus's grammar and the 
 works of Iyactantius at the monastery of 
 Subiaco, in the neighborhood of Rome. 
 Venice had the honor of extending her 
 patronage to John, of Spira, the first who 
 applied the art on an extensive scale to the 
 publication of classical writers. Several 
 authors came forth from his press in 1470; 
 and during the next ten years a multitude 
 of editions were published in various parts 
 of Italy. 
 
 "Though, as we may judge from their 
 present scarcity, these editions were by no 
 means numerous in respect of impressions, 
 yet, contrasted with the dilatory process of 
 copying manuscripts, they were like a new 
 mechanical power in machinery, and gave 
 a wonderfully accelerated impulse to the 
 intellectual cultivation of mankind. From 
 the era of these first editions, proceeding 
 from the Spiras, Zarot, Janson, or Sweyn- 
 heim and Pannartz, literature must be 
 deemed to have altogether revived in Italy. 
 The sun was now fully above the horizon, 
 though countries less fortunately circum- 
 stanced did not immediately catch his 
 beams ; and the restoration of ancient learn- 
 ing in France and England cannot be con- 
 sidered as by any means effectual, even at 
 the close of the fifteenth century." 
 
32 Turning Points in the 
 
 Of the tremendous influence of the print- 
 ing-press in spreading religious as well as 
 secular knowledge, we have all-sufficient evi- 
 dence in the decree of the French Diocletian, 
 Francis I., who in 1535 ordered the abo- 
 lition of printing "that means of propa- 
 gating heresies, ' ' and forbade the printing 
 of any book under penalty of death. It is 
 true that this decree, made all the more 
 atrocious by the fact that the king who is- 
 sued it was himself a man of letters, was 
 revoked for very shame about six weeks 
 later, but the spirit which prompted it 
 shows that, before the printing-press had 
 been in operation for a century, it was 
 hated and dreaded by bigots and tyrants 
 alike. 
 
 J& 
 
World's History. 33 
 
 IV.— GUNPOWDER VS. CHIVALRY. 
 
 Hardly less important than the invention 
 of printing was the introduction of gun- 
 powder as an efficient agent in war. Gun- 
 powder, or something very like it, had 
 been known for many centuries in the 
 Bast, and is even said by a Greek historian 
 to have been used by Indian armies in the 
 time of Alexander. The Greek-fire used 
 to defend Constantinople against the Sara- 
 cens was in composition very like gunpow- 
 der, but it was not a propellant. It was an 
 inflammable substance, which, projected by 
 means of arrows, or through a tube, spread 
 destruction and confusion among the enemy. 
 Greek-fire, however, was of little or no 
 value in open warfare, and until gunpowder 
 made it possible to kill at a considerable 
 distance, the knight in armor was master 
 of the field. Battles were fought by hand- 
 to-hand conflict, or by archery, which de- 
 cided Cressy, Agincourt and other impor- 
 tant engagements. It is an interesting fact 
 that the English were always superior to 
 the French as archers, and that the French 
 kings had to hire Scottish archers to make 
 headway against the English. The English 
 archers were organized in large divisions, 
 and the dense masses of arrows falling 
 among the foe often caused a panic, and 
 opened the way for an effective onslaught. 
 
34 Turni?ig Points in the 
 
 It may be needless to say that the use of 
 artillery in mediaeval battles did very little 
 damage. The victory of Cressy was due to 
 the archers, and not to two or three smooth- 
 bore "cannon," with crude gunpowder 
 which propelled a few balls into the hostile 
 ranks. 
 
 While the cannon of Cressy made but 
 little noise, they sounded the doom of chiv- 
 alry. In the fifteenth century artillery 
 came into general use, both in land and 
 naval operations, and armor no longer pre- 
 sented an impregnable defence to ordinary 
 weapons of war. Indeed, the cumbersome 
 mail, interfering with rapid movement, and 
 useless against artillery, became an impedi- 
 ment that was gradually discarded, piece 
 by piece, save for a stout helmet and the 
 cuirass. Suits of armor were laid aside in 
 ancestral halls among relics of the past, and 
 knight and peasant went forth to battle on 
 an equal footing. Gunpowder was a great 
 leveller. It respected neither pennon nor 
 pedigree. It was a mighty agency in pro- 
 moting equality by putting all classes on 
 the same plane in the arena of arms. It 
 brought an end to the robber barons by 
 placing in the hands of sovereign and people 
 a weapon before which castle walls crum- 
 bled, and compared with which the lance 
 was but a toy. 
 
 Much has been said about gunpowder 
 
World's History. 35 
 
 having made war less terrible and san- 
 guinary. The arguments in support of 
 this assertion are more plausible than 
 sound, and seem scarcely sustained by the 
 records of the Thirty Years' War, the wars 
 of Napoleon, in which millions perished, 
 the Franco-German war, and our own great 
 civil conflict. "War is cruelty, and you 
 cannot refine it, ' ' said General Sherman to 
 the city council of Atlanta, and he never 
 spoke more truthfully. War is at least as 
 destructive as before gunpowder vanished 
 archer and armor, and spread its pall of 
 smoke over the carnage of the battlefield. 
 
 Nevertheless, the destruction is not so 
 brutalizing as in the old times when fight- 
 ing was done with sword and battle-axe, 
 and each encounter was a series of duels 
 between men of different armies. In these 
 days the soldier seldom knows whether he 
 has killed anyone or not. Thousands may 
 fall, but the combatants are, with rare excep- 
 tions, spared the knowledge of having sent 
 the deadly missile which robbed a fellow- 
 man of life, and some home of father, hus- 
 band or son. In this regard gunpowder has 
 had a humane and humanizing influence. 
 
 Gunpowder has been the strong right 
 arm of civilization in bringing new and 
 savage countries under the power of Chris- 
 tianity. Firearms enabled Cortez to sub- 
 due Mexico, and Irmak to conquer Siberia. 
 
36 Turning Points in the 
 
 Without firearms the Pilgrims would have 
 been helpless, and New Amsterdam would 
 have been the grave of the thrifty settlers 
 from Holland. The wondrous explorations 
 at the close of the fifteenth century would 
 have been fruitless but for the artificial 
 lightning and thunder which carried terror 
 to the breast of Aztec and Iroquois, which 
 saved De Soto from angry savages, and 
 brought the affrighted Tartars to the feet 
 of Ivan the Terrible. It is a noteworthy 
 fact, also, that England, which speedily took 
 front rank as the champion of civil and 
 religious progress, was swift to improve 
 the use of artillery, and even in the reign 
 of Henry VIII. , had cannon of a superior 
 standard on her vessels of war. This en- 
 abled the English to defeat the Spanish 
 Armada, to assume the mastery of the seas, 
 and to foster and protect the colonies planted 
 by English exiles and adventurers. 
 
 In breaking down chivalry, gunpowder 
 undoubtedly helped to pave the way for the 
 Reformation. The reformers did not, as a 
 rule, belong to the class of chivalry, and 
 under mediaeval conditions of warfare they 
 would easily have been crushed. Armed 
 with artillery they were able to meet their 
 adversaries on terms that gave promise of 
 success. Gunpowder was in more than one 
 respect a useful ally to the Bible. 
 
World's History. 37 
 
 V.— VASCO DA GAMA'S VOYAGE. 
 
 Nothing but terrific heat which scorched 
 and burned any navigator unlucky enough 
 to come within its fatal sphere — nothing 
 but death and annihilation was supposed in 
 the popular mind of the fifteenth century 
 to await the adventurer who should seek 
 to penetrate beyond the northern coast line 
 of Africa. As the North was bounded by 
 darkness and eternal mountains of ice, so 
 the South was assumed to have its barrier 
 of fiery rays from a consuming sun, making 
 life impossible and the world beyond im- 
 penetrable. It was a comforting belief for 
 the Italian republics enjoying their mo- 
 nopoly of trade with India and nearer Asia, 
 but not so pleasing to the hardy seamen of 
 France and England and Portugal. Freed 
 from anxiety for their own independence, 
 as the power of the Moors declined in the 
 peninsula, the Portuguese looked with wist- 
 ful gaze toward those Oriental treasure- 
 lands which had enriched the merchants 
 of Venetia and Genoa. The vulgar belief 
 that there was no ocean pathway around 
 Africa was not shared by all. "The grand 
 impulse to discovery," says Washington 
 Irving, ' ' was not given by chance, but was 
 the deeply meditated effect of one master 
 mind." This was Prince Henry, of Portu- 
 gal, son of John the First, surnamed the 
 
3S Turning Poi?its in the 
 
 Avenger, and Philippa, of Lancaster, sister 
 of Henry the Fourth, of England. Having 
 accompanied his father into Africa, in an 
 expedition against the Moors at Ceuta, 
 Prince Henry received much information 
 concerning the coast of Guinea and other 
 regions in the interior hitherto unknown 
 to Europeans, and conceived an idea that 
 important discoveries were to be made by 
 navigating along the western coast of 
 Africa. On returning to Portugal, this 
 idea became his ruling thought. With- 
 drawing from the tumult of a court to a 
 country retreat in the Algarves, near Sagres, 
 in the neighborhood of Cape St. Vincent, 
 and in full view of the ocean, he drew 
 around him men eminent in science, and 
 prosecuted the study of those branches of 
 knowledge connected with the maritime 
 arts. He was an able mathematician, and 
 made himself master of all the astronomy 
 known to the Arabians of Spain. On study- 
 ing the works of the ancients, he found 
 what he considered abundant proofs that 
 Africa was circumnavigable. 
 
 It was the grand idea of Prince Henry, 
 by circumnavigating Africa to open a 
 direct and easy route to the source of Asian 
 commerce, to turn it in a golden tide upon 
 his country. He was, however, before the 
 age in thought, and had to counteract ig- 
 norance and prejudice, and to endure the 
 
World's History. 39 
 
 delays to which vivid and penetrating 
 minds are subjected, from the tardy co- 
 operation of the dull and the doubtful. 
 The navigation of the Atlantic was yet in 
 its infancy. Mariners looked with distrust 
 upon a boisterous expanse, which appeared 
 to have no opposite shore, and feared to 
 venture out of sight of the landmarks. 
 Every bold headland and far-stretching 
 promontory was a wall to bar their progress. 
 They crept timorously along the Barbary 
 shores, and thought they had accomplished 
 a wonderful expedition when they had ven- 
 tured a few degrees beyond the Straits of 
 Gibraltar. Cape Nun was long the limit 
 of their daring; they hesitated to double its 
 rocky point, beaten by winds and waves, 
 and threatening to thrust them forth upon 
 the raging deep. * 
 
 Prince Henry established a naval college, 
 and erected an observatory at Sagres, and 
 he invited thither the most eminent pro- 
 fessors of the nautical faculties ; appointing 
 as president, James, of Mallorca, a man 
 learned in navigation, and skilled in mak- 
 ing charts and instruments. 
 
 The effects of this establishment were 
 soon apparent. All that was known rela- 
 tive to geography and navigation was 
 gathered together and reduced to system. 
 
 ♦Washington Irving. 
 
40 T?ir?iing Points in the 
 
 A vast improvement took place in maps. 
 The compass was also brought into 
 more general use, especially among the 
 Portuguese, rendering the mariner more 
 bold and venturous, by enabling him 
 to navigate in the most gloomy day 
 and iii the darkest night. Encouraged 
 by these advantages, and stimulated 
 by the munificence of Prince Henry, 
 the Portuguese marine became signalized 
 for the hardihood of its enterprises and the 
 extent of its discoveries. Cape Bojador 
 was doubled ; the region of the tropics pene- 
 trated and divested of its fancied terrors; 
 the greater part of the African coast, from 
 Cape Blanco to Cape de Verde, explored ; 
 and the Cape de Verde and Azore Islands, 
 which lay three hundred leagues distant 
 from the continent, were rescued from the 
 oblivious empire of the ocean. To secure 
 the quiet prosecution and full enjoyment of 
 his discoveries, Henry obtained the pro- 
 tection of a papal bull, granting to the 
 crown of Portugal sovereign authority over 
 all the lands it might discover in the At- 
 lantic, to India inclusive, with plenary in- 
 dulgence to all who should die in these 
 expeditions; at the same time menacing, 
 with the terrors of the Church, all who 
 should interfere in these Christian con- 
 quests. 
 
World's History. 41 
 
 Henry died on the thirteenth of Novem- 
 ber, 1473, without accomplishing the great 
 object of his ambition. It was not until 
 many years afterward that Vasco da Gama, 
 pursuing with a Portuguese fleet the track 
 Henry had pointed out, realized his anticipa- 
 tions by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, 
 sailing along the southern coast of India, 
 and thus opening a highway for commerce 
 to the opulent regions of the Bast. On 
 July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama, an intrepid 
 mariner, started from Lisbon in command 
 of four vessels, fitted out by King Manuel, 
 to discover the route to India. For months 
 the little fleet sailed along the western coast 
 of Africa, its progress attended by frightful 
 storms and the difficulties of the enterprise 
 multiplied by the rebellious conduct of the 
 sailors. Da Gama sternly punished the 
 mutineers, and at length rounded the .south- 
 ern extremity of Africa. At Melinda, on 
 the eastern coast, the great navigator found 
 a competent pilot, a native of India, who 
 appeared to understand the astrolabe, com- 
 pass and quadrant. Under the guidance of 
 this man da Gama struck out boldly across 
 the Indian Ocean and arrived at Calicut in 
 India, May 20, 1498. 
 
 This was the beginning of Portuguese, 
 and, indeed, of European empire in India. 
 It was the beginning of the maritime great- 
 ness of Holland and England, as well as of 
 
42 Turning Points in the 
 
 Portugal. Vasco da Gama's expedition 
 opened the gateway of the Orient to the 
 maritime nations of western Europe, and 
 brought the rich and vast regions of Asia 
 into direct communication with the more 
 progressive nations of Europe. It was the 
 turning point in history which led to the 
 foundation of England's great Indian em- 
 pire, to the discovery of the Australian 
 Continent and ultimately to the opening 
 of Japan and China to western intercourse 
 and association. It is not to be forgotten 
 that da Gama's expedition was the realiza- 
 tion of the dream which inspired the voyage 
 of Columbus, and that, from the stand- 
 point of that day Columbus failed in en- 
 deavoring to accomplish that which da 
 Gama successfully achieved. Columbus 
 discovered America; da Gama uncovered 
 southern Africa and Asia. It may be 
 questioned even now whether the achieve- 
 ment of Columbus was as important in its 
 consequences as that of da Gama. At the 
 same time there is to be considered, in 
 judging the comparative merits of the two 
 men, that Columbus conceived and planned 
 and carried out his own mighty adventure, 
 while da Gama carried out a scheme con- 
 ceived and planned by others. 
 
World's History. 43 
 
 VI.— FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Columbus! What mighty thoughts are 
 crowded in the name of him who lifted the 
 veil of ages from a virgin world ! No other 
 great achievement in history was so sig- 
 nally the work of one man and one mind as 
 the discovery of America. To Columbus is 
 due all the credit and fame of that discov- 
 ery, however honorable and creditable in 
 others the fact that they dimly discerned 
 the magnitude of his undertaking and gave 
 him the assistance without which he could 
 not have succeeded. No life — not even that 
 of Washington — is so replete with lessons 
 of encouragement for high and noble en- 
 deavor through difficulties and against ob- 
 stacles that might seem to be insuperable. 
 Men may dispute as to where the bones of 
 Columbus rest, but there can be no dispute 
 as to the monument which marks his fame 
 — it is the Continent of America. 
 
 In these days when much is being writ- 
 ten — and much of it probably untrue — about 
 the early struggles of great men, the disap- 
 pointments and privations which Columbus 
 endured so manfully and so patiently have 
 a renewed and pathetic interest. We per- 
 ceive that, like many others of the world's 
 heroes, he succeeded because he deserved to 
 succeed ; because he had the will, the energy, 
 
44 Turning 1 Points in the 
 
 the indomitable resolution which not only 
 deserved but commanded success. Colum- 
 bus would doubtless have succeeded even 
 had Spain rejected him; the genius which 
 won the attention and confidence of Isabella 
 would surely not always have met with re- 
 pulse at the hands of those who controlled 
 the means necessary to make that genius 
 fruitful. 
 
 ********* 
 
 The chief crisis in the career of Colum- 
 bus was that which ended in the determina- 
 tion of Queen Isabella to support his 
 enterprise. The queen had been persuaded 
 by her priestly adviser, Fernando de Tala- 
 vera, that it would be degrading to her 
 dignity to grant the terms demanded by 
 Columbus, to the effect that he should be 
 invested with the titles and privileges of 
 admiral and viceroy over the countries he 
 should discover, with one-tenth of all gains, 
 either by trade or conquest. Columbus re- 
 fused to abate his conditions, and the ne- 
 gotiations were broken off. 
 
 "It is impossible not to admire the great 
 constancy of purpose and loftiness of spirit 
 displayed by Columbus, ever since he had 
 conceived the sublime idea of his discovery. 
 More than eighteen years had elapsed since 
 his correspondence with Paulo Toscanelli, 
 of Florence, wherein he had announced his 
 design. The greatest part of that time had 
 
World's History. 45 
 
 been consumed in applications at various 
 courts. During that period, what poverty, 
 neglect, ridicule, contumely, and disap- 
 pointment had he not suffered i Nothing, 
 however, could shake his perseverance, nor 
 make him descend to terms which he con- 
 sidered beneath the dignity of his enter- 
 prise. In all his negotiations he forgot his 
 present obscurity ; he forgot his present in- 
 digence; his ardent imagination realized the 
 magnitude of his contemplated discoveries, 
 and he felt himself negotiating about em- 
 pire."* 
 
 Though so large a portion of his life had 
 worn away in fruitless solicitings ; though 
 there was no certainty that the same weary 
 career was not to be entered upon at any 
 other court ; yet so indignant was he at the 
 repeated disappointments he had experi- 
 enced in Spain, that he determined to aban- 
 don it forever, rather than compromise his 
 demands. Taking leave of his friends, 
 therefore, he mounted his mule, and sallied 
 forth from Santa Fe in the beginning of 
 February, 1492, on his way to Cordova, 
 whence he intended to depart immediately 
 for France. 
 
 When the few friends who were zealous 
 believers in the theory of Columbus saw 
 him really on the point of abandoning the 
 
 ♦Washington Irving. 
 
46 Turning Points in the 
 
 country, they were filled with distress, con- 
 sidering his departure an irreparable loss 
 to the nation. Among the number was 
 Luis de St. Angel, receiver of the ecclesi- 
 astical revenues in Aragon. Determined if 
 possible to avert the evil, he obtained an 
 immediate audience of the queen, accom- 
 panied by Alonzo de Quintanilla. The 
 exigency of the moment gave him courage 
 and eloquence. He did not confine himself 
 to entreaties, but almost mingled reproaches, 
 expressing astonishment that a queen who 
 had evinced the spirit to undertake so many 
 great and perilous enterprises, should hesi- 
 tate at one where the loss could be so trif- 
 ling, while the gain might be incalculable. 
 He reminded her how much might be done 
 for the glory of God, the exaltation of the 
 Church, and the extension of her own power 
 and dominion. What cause of regret to 
 herself, of triumph to her enemies, of sor- 
 row to her friends, should this enterprise, 
 thus rejected by her, be accomplished by 
 some other power ! He reminded her what 
 fame and dominion other princes had ac- 
 quired by their discoveries; here was an 
 opportunity to surpass them all. 
 
 St. Angel entreated her majest}^ not to be 
 misled by the assertions of learned men, 
 that the project was the dream of a vision- 
 ary. He vindicated the judgment of Col- 
 umbus, and the soundness and practicability 
 
World's History. 47 
 
 of his plans. Neither would even his fail- 
 ure reflect discredit upon the crown. It 
 was worth the trouble and expense to clear 
 up even a doubt upon a matter of such im- 
 portance, for it belonged to enlightened and 
 magnanimous princes to investigate ques- 
 tions of the kind, and to explore the won- 
 ders and secrets of the universe. He stated 
 the liberal offer of Columbus to bear an 
 eighth of the expense, and informed her 
 that all the requisites for this great enter- 
 prise consisted but of two vessels and about 
 three thousand crowns. 
 
 These and many more arguments were 
 urged with that persuasive power which 
 honest zeal imparts, and it is said the 
 Marchioness of Moya, who was present, ex- 
 erted her eloquence to persuade the queen. 
 The generous spirit of Isabella was en- 
 kindled. It seemed as if, for the first time, 
 the subject broke upon her mind in its real 
 grandeur, and she declared her resolution 
 to undertake the enterprise. 
 
 There was still a moment's hesitation. 
 The king looked coldly on the affair, and 
 the royal finances were absolutely drained 
 by the war. Some time must be given to 
 replenish them. How could she draw on 
 an exhausted treasury for a measure to 
 which the king was adverse! St. Angel 
 watched this suspense with trembling 
 anxiety. The next moment reassured him. 
 
48 Turning Points in the 
 
 With an enthusiasm worthy of herself and 
 of the cause, Isabella exclaimed, "I under- 
 take the enterprise for my own crown of 
 Castile, and will pledge my jewels to raise 
 the necessary funds." This was the 
 proudest moment in the life of Isabella; 
 it stamped her renown forever as the 
 patroness of the discovery of the New 
 World. 
 
 St. Angel, eager to secure this noble im- 
 pulse, assured her majesty that there would 
 be no need of pledging her jewels, as he was 
 ready to advance the necessary funds. His 
 offer was gladly accepted ; the funds easily 
 came from the coffers of Aragon ; seventeen 
 thousand florins were advanced by the ac- 
 countant of St. Angel out of the treasury 
 of King Ferdinand. That prudent monarch, 
 however, took care to have his kingdom in- 
 demnified some few years afterward; for in 
 remuneration of this loan, a part of the first 
 gold brought by Columbus from the New 
 World was employed in gilding the vaults 
 and ceilings of the royal saloon in the grand 
 palace of Saragoza, in Aragon, anciently 
 the Aljaferia, or abode of the Moorish 
 kings. 
 
 Columbus had pursued his lonely journey 
 across the Vega and reached the bridge of 
 Pinos, about two leagues from Granada, at 
 the foot of the mountain of Elvira, a pass 
 famous in the Moorish wars for many a 
 
. World's History. 49 
 
 desperate encounter between the Christians 
 and infidels. Here he was overtaken by a 
 courier from the queen, spurring in all speed, 
 who summoned him to return to Santa Fe. 
 He hesitated for a moment, being loathe to 
 subject himself again to the delays and 
 equivocations of the court ; when informed, 
 however, of the sudden zeal for the enter- 
 prise excited in the mind of the queen, and 
 the positive promise she had given to under- 
 take it, he no longer felt a doubt, but, turn- 
 ing the reins of his mule, hastened back 
 with joyful alacrity to Santa Fe. 
 
 On arriving at Santa Fe, Columbus had 
 an immediate audience of the queen, and 
 the benignity with which she received him 
 atoned for all past neglect. Through 
 deference to the zeal she thus suddenly 
 displayed, the king yielded his tardy con- 
 currence, but Isabella was the soul of this 
 grand enterprise. She was prompted by 
 lofty and generous enthusiasm, while the 
 king proved cold and calculating in this as 
 in all his other undertakings. 
 
 The capitulations were signed by Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella, at the city of Santa Fe, 
 in the Vega or plain of Granada, on the 
 seventeenth of April, 1492. A letter of 
 privilege, or commission to Columbus, of 
 similar purport, was drawn out in form, 
 and issued by the sovereigns in the city of 
 Granada, on the thirtieth of the same month. 
 
50 Turning Points in the 
 
 In this, the dignities and prerogatives of 
 viceroy and governor were made hereditary 
 in his family; and he and his heirs were 
 authorized to prefix the title of Don to their 
 names; a distinction accorded in those days 
 only to persons of rank and estate, though 
 it has since lost all value, from being univer- 
 sally used in Spain. 
 
 All the royal documents issued on this 
 occasion bore equally the signatures of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, but her separate 
 crown of Castile defrayed all the expense; 
 and, during her life, few persons, except 
 Castilians, were permitted to establish 
 themselves in the new territories. 
 
 The port of Palos was fixed upon as the 
 place where the armament was to be fitted 
 out, Columbus calculating, no doubt, on the 
 co-operation of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, resi- 
 dent there, and on the assistance of his 
 zealous friend, the prior of the convent La 
 Rabida. Before going into the business 
 details of this great enterprise, it is due to 
 the character of the illustrious man who 
 conceived and conducted it, most especially 
 to notice the elevated, even though vision- 
 ary, spirit by which he was actuated. One 
 of his principal objects was undoubtedly 
 the propagation of the Christian faith. He 
 expected to arrive at the extremity of Asia, 
 and to open a direct and easy communica- 
 tion with the vast and magnificent empire 
 
World's History. 51 
 
 of the Grand Khan. The conversion of 
 that heathen potentate had, in former times, 
 been a favorite aim of Roman pontiffs and 
 pious sovereigns, and various missions had 
 been sent to the remote regions of the East 
 for that purpose. Columbus now consid- 
 ered himself about to effect this great work ; 
 to spread the light of revelation to the very 
 ends of the earth, and thus to be the in- 
 strument of accomplishing one of the sub- 
 lime predictions of Holy Writ. 
 
 ' The difficulties of Columbus did not end 
 with his success in engaging the Spanish 
 sovereigns as patrons and allies in his enter- 
 prise. Weeks elapsed without a vessel be- 
 ing procured. Further mandates were 
 therefore issued by the sovereigns, ordering 
 the magistrates of the coast of Andalusia to 
 press into the service any vessels they might 
 think proper, belonging to Spanish subjects, 
 and to oblige the masters and crew to sail 
 with Columbus in whatever direction he 
 should be sent by royal command. Juan de 
 Penalosa, an officer of the royal household, 
 was sent to see that this order was properly 
 complied with, receiving two hundred mara- 
 vedis a day as long as he was occupied in 
 the business, which sum, together with 
 other penalties expressed in the mandate, 
 was to be exacted from such as should be 
 
52 Turning Points in the 
 
 disobedient and delinquent. This letter 
 was acted upon by Columbus in Palos and 
 the neighboring town of Moguer, but appa- 
 rently with as little success as the preced- 
 ing. The communities of those places were 
 thrown into complete confusion; tumults 
 took place ; but nothing of consequence was 
 effected. At length Martin Alonzo Pinzon 
 stepped forward, with his brother Vicente 
 Yanez Pinzon, both navigators of great 
 courage and ability, owners of vessels, and 
 having seamen in their emplo} r . They 
 were related, also, to many of the seafaring 
 inhabitants of Palos and Moguer, and had 
 great influence throughout the neighbor- 
 hood. They engaged to sail on the expe- 
 dition, and furnished one of the vessels 
 required. Others, with their owners and 
 crews, were pressed into the service by the 
 magistrates under the arbitrary mandate of 
 the sovereigns. 
 
 During the equipment of the vessels, 
 troubles and difficulties arose among the 
 seamen who had been compelled to embark. 
 These were fomented and kept up by 
 Gomez Rascon and Christoval Quintero, 
 owners of the Pinta, one of the ships 
 pressed into service. All kinds of obsta- 
 cles were thrown in the way, by these 
 people and their friends, to retard or defeat 
 the voyage. The calkers employed upon 
 the vessels did their work in a careless and 
 
World's History. 53 
 
 imperfect manner, and on being commanded 
 to do it over again absconded. Some of 
 the seamen who had enlisted willingly re- 
 pented of their hardihood, or were dissuaded 
 by their relatives, and sought to retract; 
 others deserted and concealed themselves. 
 Everything had to be effected by the most 
 harsh and arbitrary measures, and in de- 
 fiance of popular prejudice and opposition. 
 
 The influence and example of the Pinzons 
 had a great effect in allaying this opposi- 
 tion, and inducing many of their friends 
 and relatives to embark. It is supposed 
 that they had furnished Columbus with 
 funds to pay the eighth part of the expense 
 which he was bound to advance. It is also 
 said that Martin Alonzo Pinzon was to 
 divide with him his share of the profits. 
 As no immediate profit, however, resulted 
 from this expedition, no claim of the kind 
 was ever brought forward. It is certain, 
 however, that the assistance of the Pinzons 
 was all-important, if not indispensable, 
 in fitting out and launching the expe- 
 dition. 
 
 After the great difficulties made by vari- 
 ous courts in patronizing this enterprise, it 
 is surprising how inconsiderable an arma- 
 ment was required. It is evident that Col- 
 umbus had reduced his requisitions to the 
 narrowest limits, lest any great expense 
 should cause impediment. Three small 
 
54 Turning Points in the 
 
 vessels were apparently all that he re- 
 quested. Two of them were light barks, 
 called caravels, not superior to river and 
 coasting craft of more modern days. Rep- 
 resentations of this class of vessels exist in 
 old prints and paintings. They are delin- 
 eated as open, and without deck in the 
 centre, but built up high at the prow and 
 stern, with forecastles and cabins for the 
 accommodation of the crew. Peter Martyr, 
 the learned contemporary of Columbus, 
 says that only one of the three vessels was 
 decked. 
 
 Columbus sailed from Palos on Friday, 
 the third of August, 1492. On losing 
 sight of this last trace of land, the hearts of 
 the crews failed them. They seemed liter- 
 ally to have taken leave of the world. Be- 
 hind them was everything dear to the heart 
 of man; country, family, friends, life itself; 
 before them everything was chaos, mystery 
 and peril. In the perturbation of the 
 moment, they despaired of ever more see- 
 ing their homes. Many of the rugged sea- 
 men shed tears, and some broke into loud 
 lamentations. The admiral tried in every 
 way to soothe their distress, and to inspire 
 them with his own glorious anticipations. 
 He described to them the magnificent coun- 
 tries to which he was about to conduct 
 
World's History. 55 
 
 them ; the islands of the Indian seas teem- 
 ing with gold and precious stones; the 
 regions of Mangi and Cathay, with their 
 cities of unrivaled wealth and splendor. 
 He promised them land and riches, and 
 everything that could arouse their cupidity 
 or inflame their imaginations, nor were 
 these promises made for the purposes of 
 mere deception ; he certainly believed that 
 he should realize them all. 
 
 He now issued orders to the commanders 
 of the other vessels, that, in the event of 
 separation by any accident, they should 
 continue directly westward; but that after 
 sailing seven hundred leagues, they should 
 lay by from midnight until daylight, as at 
 about that distance he confidently expected 
 to find land. In the meantime, as he 
 thought it possible he might not discover 
 land within the distance thus assigned, and 
 as he foresaw that the vague terrors already 
 awakened among the seamen would increase 
 with the space which intervened between 
 them and their homes, he commenced a 
 stratagem which he continued throughout 
 the voyage. He kept two reckonings; one 
 correct, in which the true way of the ship 
 was noted, and which was retained in 
 secret for his own government; in the 
 other, which was open to general inspec- 
 tion, a number of leagues was daily sub- 
 tracted from the sailing of the ship, so that 
 
56 Turning Points in the 
 
 the crews were kept in ignorance of the real 
 distance they had advanced. 
 
 For more than two months Columbus 
 sailed over the unknown ocean, quieting as 
 best he could the fears of his crew, who 
 were about to break out in open mutiny 
 when two signs of land fortunately became 
 so convincing as not to admit of doubt. At 
 length land was clearly seen. The great 
 mystery of the ocean was revealed. His 
 theory, which had been the scoff of sages, 
 was triumphantly established; he had se- 
 cured to himself a glory durable as the 
 world itself. It is difficult to conceive the 
 feelings of such a man at such a moment; 
 or the conjectures which must have thronged 
 upon his mind, as to the land before him, 
 covered with darkness. That it was fruit- 
 ful, was evident from the vegetables which 
 floated from its shores. He thought, too, 
 that he perceived the fragrance of aromatic 
 groves. The moving light he had beheld 
 proved it the residence of man. But what 
 were its inhabitants ? Were they like those 
 of the other parts of the globe ; or were they 
 some strange and monstrous race, such as 
 the imagination was prone in those times to 
 give to all remote and unknown regions? 
 Had he come upon some wild island far in 
 the Indian sea; or was this the famed 
 Cipango itself, the object of his golden 
 fancies? A thousand speculations of the 
 
World's History. 57 
 
 kind must have swarmed upon him, as, 
 with his anxious crews, he waited for the 
 night to pass away, wondering whether the 
 morning light would reveal a savage wilder- 
 ness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glit- 
 tering fanes, and gilded cities, and all the 
 splendor of Oriental civilization. * 
 
 The immediate effect of the discovery of 
 America by Columbus was to build up the 
 power of Spain. It aroused also the ambi- 
 tion of England, of France and of Holland, 
 and these countries soon disputed with 
 Spain the empire of the New World. North 
 America passed under the rule of the Eng- 
 lish-speaking races. While Spanish Amer- 
 ica sank into a volcanic torpor from which 
 it can hardly be said to have emerged, the 
 part of the continent controlled by men 
 chiefly of Teutonic blood has become a 
 highly civilized and most powerful nation, 
 the palladium of popular institutions, and 
 the pillar of light for those of the human 
 race still wandering in the desert of super- 
 stition and despotism. 
 
 Spanish America has exerted hardly more 
 influence on the affairs of the world than 
 the benighted nations of Africa. Its 
 
 *Washington Irving. 
 
58 
 
 Turning Points in the 
 
 greatness is yet to come, and that greatness 
 will be, in all human probability, under 
 English speaking auspices, with the United 
 States as the guardian and guide of Ameri- 
 can liberty. 
 
World's History. 59 
 
 VII.— SPAIN'S EXPULSION OF THE 
 JEWS. 
 
 When it is recalled that the power of 
 Spain in the sixteenth century overshad- 
 owed Europe, while known America was a 
 series of Spanish vice-royalties, and the 
 wealth of the Spanish monarchy was ap- 
 parently unlimited, it may be imagined 
 what Spain could have been with the 
 friendly guidance and assistance of the race 
 of Disraeli and the Rothschilds. Had 
 Spain protected the Jews instead of seeking 
 to destroy them, Madrid might have been 
 the rallying point and Spain the beneficiary 
 of the most talented minds of Hebrew 
 origin, and the Spanish dominion have been 
 established on an enduring foundation. It 
 is impossible to believe that Jewish finan- 
 ciers would have permitted Spain to go on 
 in the course of ruinous prodigality which 
 has left her scarce anything but Spanish 
 poverty and pride, or that Jewish statesmen 
 would have committed the blunders which 
 have reduced the once powerful empire to 
 a low place in the second rank of nations. 
 The fortunate experience with the Jews of 
 England and other countries which have 
 treated them well, is the best proof of 
 Spanish folly in the expulsion and at- 
 tempted extermination of the most brilliant 
 
60 Turning Points in the 
 
 portion of the Jewish race, of Israelites who 
 loved Spain as their native and ancestral 
 land, and who would willingly have devoted 
 their abilities to building up the power and 
 guarding the welfare of the Spanish mon- 
 archy. 
 
 The expulsion of the Jews was a suicidal 
 act. Retribution was not slow in overtak- 
 ing the bigoted dynasty responsible for the 
 crime ; the decline of Spain has been grad- 
 ual, but without interruption. Battered 
 and plundered by the English, overrun by 
 the French, and bankrupted in its efforts to 
 retain the remnants of its once extensive 
 colonial empire, Spain is to-day a mendicant 
 at the feet of members of the very race that 
 it so infamously persecuted. 
 
 The expulsion of the Jews from the 
 Iberian peninsula, as a result of the cruel 
 decree issued by Ferdinand and Isabella 
 from their court, at Santa Fe, in the same 
 year as the discovery of America, was, 
 therefore, an important turning point in 
 European history. It planted the seed of 
 decline in the very foundation of Spain's 
 magnificent empire, and it dispersed to 
 more tolerant regions of Europe that bright, 
 fervid, wealth- promoting and art-loving 
 genius which made the Jews of Moorish 
 Spain the very leaders of their race. The 
 
World's History. 61 
 
 Spanish Jews included philosophers, poets 
 and sages, men versed alike in the learning 
 of the ancients and the science of later cen- 
 turies. Some of the most valuable classics 
 were preserved in their Arabian transla- 
 tions, and to them we are indebted for 
 works of great merit that would otherwise 
 have been lost to the modern world. The 
 Christian kings of that country, influenced 
 no doubt by the example of the Moors, 
 treated the Jews with favor, until the con- 
 quest of Granada left Castile and Aragon 
 without a rival power of the Moslem faith 
 in the peninsula. The year which witnessed 
 the discovery of America witnessed the 
 monstrous edict which crushed at one 
 blow the Spanish Jews, and brought to 
 poverty, ruin, and in many instances a 
 miserable death, the most peaceable, pros- 
 perous and industrious subjects of Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella. The number driven 
 from Spain in consequence of this decree 
 has been estimated at from 300,000 to 800,- 
 000. It is regarded in Jewish history as a 
 calamity as great as the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, for indeed Spain had become to 
 the Jews another Land of Promise. 
 
 The terror and dismay which over- 
 whelmed the Spanish Jews can scarcely be 
 imagined. Wailing and lamentation per- 
 vaded every dwelling, and resounded in 
 every synagogue. Only two resources were 
 
62 Turning Poznfs in the 
 
 left to those who were unwilling to abjure 
 the religion of their forefathers. One was 
 to escape into Portugal; the other, to flee 
 to Morocco and other countries, where the 
 followers of Mahomet, more Christian in 
 feeling than the professed followers of 
 Christ, would afford them an asylum and 
 protection. 
 
 The scenes which occurred among those 
 who preferred to escape entirely beyond the 
 limits of the Roman Catholic countries, 
 were piteous indeed. It happened that 
 many of the ships which contained the 
 emigrants were too heavily laden, and sank 
 after setting sail. Other ships are recorded 
 to have taken fire, and been lost amid all 
 the horrors of a conflagration at sea. In 
 many vessels diseases broke out, which 
 carried off immense numbers of the fugi- 
 tives. Several captains of vessels ordered 
 all their Jewish passengers to be slain as the 
 cause of the misfortunes which overtook 
 their ships. Many perished by a violent 
 storm which swept the deep and drove their 
 vessels on the rocks. A famine is said to 
 have prevailed in Morocco at the time the 
 survivors landed, and a vast number perished 
 of hunger ; yet of the survivors, it is said 
 that on the Friday they gathered what herbs 
 and roots the land afforded, that they might 
 keep the ensuing Sabbath according to their 
 law. A large number were sold by the 
 
World's History. 63 
 
 captains of vessels as slaves to the inhab- 
 itants of Barbary, because they were unable 
 to comply with exorbitant demands for 
 passage-money. It is stated by Christian 
 writers that as many as thirty thousand Jews 
 perished in this exodus. 
 
 In Portugal the Jews were for some time 
 treated with tolerance and even with en- 
 couragement until King Manuel, in 1496, 
 issued an edict banishing them from his 
 dominions, and at the same time ordered 
 that they should be deprived of all their 
 children under fourteen years of age. When 
 the Jews became victims of this new perse- 
 cution they were overwhelmed with despair, 
 and many committed suicide. Some abjured 
 their faith, others fled to foreign countries, 
 a large number finding refuge in France, 
 where they received protection, and became 
 prosperous in commerce. Many of the ex- 
 iled Jews found homes in Holland, where 
 they were received with hospitality by their 
 brethren and with tolerance by the people, 
 and it is unnecessary to say where lay the 
 sympathies of these Jews and their de- 
 scendants when the time came for the revolt 
 of the Dutch against the tyranny of Spain. 
 
 A multitude of the refugees driven from 
 one land to another, sought asylum in what 
 might be called the neutral ground between 
 
64 Turning Points in the 
 
 the Eastern and Western churches. In 
 Poland the exiled Jews became an impor- 
 tant and influential element, filling the void 
 between a prodigal and proud aristocracy 
 and a servile and down-trodden peasantry. 
 They were the mercantile and trading class 
 in a nation which had no traders and mer- 
 chants of its own. In Germany the Jews 
 were treated, after the fifteenth century, 
 with comparative humanity, and while the 
 reformers did not look upon them with 
 favor, they did not assail them as enemies. 
 The Jew in Protestant countries inevitably 
 shared in the advantages which attended 
 the growth of soul independence, and even 
 the very fury of religious strife w T as favor- 
 able to him in that the contestants did not 
 regard him with the same hatred that they 
 felt toward each other. 
 
 In prosperity, as in adversity, the Jews 
 clung with tenacity to their ancient creed. 
 They were as true to their faith on the 
 banks of the Vistula as when, on the Eu- 
 phrates, they sang with tears of distant 
 Palestine : 
 
 1 ' By the rivers of Babylon there we sat 
 down; yea we wept when we remembered 
 Zion. We hanged our harps upon the wil- 
 lows in the midst thereof. 
 
 "For there they that carried us away 
 
World's History. 
 
 65 
 
 captive required of us a song, and they that 
 wasted us, mirth. Sing us of the songs of 
 Zion. 
 
 "How shall we sing the L,ord's song in a 
 strange land ? 
 
 "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my 
 right hand forget her cunning. 
 
 "If I do not remember thee, let my 
 tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if 
 I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." 
 
66 Turning Points in the 
 
 VIII.— THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Reader, try to imagine yourself in the 
 little world of that day when Luther posted 
 his theses on the gates of the church at 
 Wittenberg — a world bounded on the east 
 by Muscovy and India, on the north by the 
 midnight sun, on the west by the new con- 
 tinent, discovered, but unexplored, and on 
 the south by the African desert. Small as 
 was the world, few people knew much about 
 it outside of their own vicinity. Traveling' 
 was slow and difficult, and often dangerous, 
 and the man who had visited another coun- 
 try than his own was regarded with wonder, 
 if not with veneration. Foreign commerce 
 was confined to the Italian republics, the 
 Hanseatic cities and the ports on the western 
 coasts and isles which had caught from 
 Italy and the free towns some breath of 
 commercial enterprise and adventure. 
 Higher education was monopolized by the 
 universities and a few talented men like 
 Erasmus, who had scaled the heights of 
 knowledge against difficulties almost insur- 
 mountable, and were turning the search- 
 light of intelligence on the phantoms of 
 superstition. "As soon as I get money," 
 said Erasmus, when he was penniless and 
 in rags, "I will buy first Greek books and 
 then clothes. ' ' The spirit which spoke in 
 
World's History. 67 
 
 this utterance ploughed the domain of 
 scholarship for the seeds of the Reformation. 
 The rudiments of learning as distinct 
 from religious training, which are free to 
 all in the present age in nearly every civi- 
 lized country, were taught to the common 
 people only in the burgher schools. * These 
 schools were secular in origin and aim, and 
 the instruction was given in municipal build- 
 ings and other structures owned or occupied 
 by the civic authorities. The teachers were 
 generally connected with the Church, but 
 the schools were not ecclesiastical, and even 
 as early as the fourteenth century, there 
 was, it appears, some clashing on the ques- 
 tion of secular as distinguished from reli- 
 gious teaching in the burgher schools, f It 
 is noteworthy, and perhaps significant, 
 that the first building for use solely as a 
 public school — that is, the first schoolhouse 
 — was built in the republican city of Berne 
 in 1 48 1. These burgher schools gave the 
 people that knowledge of reading and writ- 
 ing necessary for intelligent study of the 
 religious and political problems soon to be 
 
 * Even the better class of citizens were not always able to 
 read and write. The father of Shakespeare was an alder- 
 man, but unable to write his own name, a cross remaining 
 as his signature in the records of the town of Stratford-on- 
 Avon. 
 
 f As early as 1329 the citizens of Frankfort-on-the-Oden 
 resisted their ecclesiastical superiors. They remained 
 twenty eight years without masses, baptisms, marriage or 
 funeral rites.— Merle U ' Aiibigne. 
 
68 Turning Points in the 
 
 submitted to the thought and conscience of 
 educated mankind. 
 
 Outside the cities the clergy had com- 
 plete charge of education. The parish 
 schools were drill-rooms of the church. 
 The priests and monks taught the peasantry 
 just enough to enable them to attend to 
 their religious duties, and not enough to 
 arouse a spirit of doubt and inquiry; and 
 the simple country folk thought themselves 
 bound to accept with unquestioning faith 
 whatsoever they were told by their religious 
 monitors. Neither in religion nor politics 
 had the common people — according to the 
 prevalent belief of that age — any right to 
 independent preference, and it is interesting 
 to note that this view was accepted as a 
 matter of course by Protestants as well as 
 Catholics.* 
 
 The State and Church were closely con- 
 nected, and it was sometimes difficult to 
 tell whether Rome or the secular head of 
 the State had the stronger claim to alle- 
 giance. This temporal power was a cause 
 of weakness as well as strength to the 
 Church. The princes of northern and 
 western Kurope were rarely so wrapped up 
 
 * In the Diet of Augsburg in 1555, which secured for a 
 time the religious peace of Germany, it was provided that 
 every prince should be allowed to choose between the 
 Catholic religion and the "Augsburg Confession," and the 
 belief thus adopted by the prince was to be that of his 
 people. It was not until the seventeenth century that 
 religious toleration was more than a transient dream. 
 
World's History. 69 
 
 in religion as not to be jealous of the en- 
 croachments of Rome, and one of the most 
 potent impulses of the Reformation was the 
 desire of secular rulers to be sovereigns in 
 fact as well as in name. Indeed, but for 
 this feeling on the part of sovereign princes 
 in Germany, in England, in Scandinavia, 
 Luther and his supporters might have 
 perished like Huss and Savonarola. Self- 
 interest is always a powerful prick to con- 
 science, and Henry and Frederick and 
 Vasa were swift to see in Luther and his 
 teachings a bulwark of their sovereignty 
 against the assumptions of Rome. The 
 very ignorance in which the masses had 
 been kept under ecclesiastical tutelage made 
 it easier for the people to be molded to the 
 new convictions of their secular lieges. 
 
 The people who could read were, there- 
 fore, already reading and thinking when 
 Tetzel, whether innocent or guilty of the 
 graver charges against him, caused wide- 
 spread scandal and indignation by the sale 
 of indulgences. Tetzel' s formal instructions 
 from his ecclesiastical superiors did not 
 permit him to go to the extremes to which 
 he appears to have resorted in order to pro- 
 cure money for ecclesiastical uses, but the 
 popular mind could not draw any nice dis- 
 tinction, and it is not strange that while 
 
70 Turning Points in the 
 
 the ignorant multitude was shocked by the 
 unseemly exhibition, the learned and pious 
 were grievously disturbed. 
 
 Suddenl}', while all Germany is in fer- 
 ment over Tetzel and his money-box, comes 
 the word that a monk at Wittenberg has 
 boldly declared that salvation cannot be 
 bought, that the pope cannot open for a 
 price the Kingdom of Heaven ! 
 
 Men cluster in the market place, and 
 talk of the wondrous report ; they whisper 
 it one to another at the gate of the church ; 
 they haste with it to their friends — and 
 never had news traveled so rapidly from 
 hamlet to hamlet, from city to city, from 
 court to court, throughout Christendom. 
 A monk cried ''Halt!" to the pope — a "con- 
 temptible monk, ' ' as Cardinal Cajetan called 
 him, had placed himself in opposition to all 
 the power of Rome. No wonder that the 
 pope himself did not at first perceive the 
 meaning of the theses of Wittenberg, and 
 Leo advised that Luther should not be 
 molested. The posting of the theses of 
 Wittenberg was the greatest turning point 
 in modern history ; it was a declaration of 
 religious independence for Teutonic nations 
 at least, and it was largely instrumental in 
 effecting a reformation in the Roman 
 Church itself. 
 
World" s History . 71 
 
 Luther himself had no idea of the scope 
 and meaning of his Wittenberg declaration. 
 
 It was a custom of the universities, as 
 Professor George Burton Adams points out, 
 for a teacher who had views which he wished 
 to publish and uphold, to post up a state- 
 ment of his views as a declaration that he 
 was prepared to defend them against all 
 comers. Luther's honest soul was aroused 
 in common with many others by the ex- 
 cesses of Tetzel, and in declaring his mind 
 on indulgences and the abuses connected 
 with them, he had no thought of the tre- 
 mendous consequences to flow from his act. 
 He probably expected some ecclesiastical 
 champion of Tetzel and his methods to step 
 forward and have a discussion with him, 
 and that there the matter would end, so far 
 as he was concerned. 
 
 But the people were ready for just such 
 an awakening. Clear and Christlike as the 
 preaching of Paul, sounded Luther's asser- 
 tion that ' ' Remission of sins and eternal 
 life are not to be purchased by money. ' ' 
 It was a challenge that Rome could not 
 ignore, however secure the Roman pontiff 
 may have felt himself in his acknowledged 
 supremacy over the Christian world. It 
 was a challenge echoed from heart to heart 
 from tongue to tongue throughout Germany 
 and France and Italy, England and Scot- 
 land, and distant Scandinavia. 
 
72 Turning Points in the 
 
 Luther, astounded at the effect of his 
 theses, could not have withdrawn from the 
 conflict, even had he so willed. He was 
 hurried on, as he himself declared, 03' a 
 force beyond his control, and was soon at 
 open war with the Church within whose 
 pale he found it impossible to remain. 
 The theses were followed not long after by 
 Luther's address to the " Christian nobles 
 of Germany," and his treatise on "The 
 Babylonish Captivity of the Church," 
 which contained, as Ranke says, "the 
 kernel of the whole Reformation. " Then 
 came the papal bull, and then began the 
 great struggle which, in one form or 
 another lasted, with intervals of unquiet 
 peace, until the present century, and the 
 echo of which has been heard in Germany 
 even in our own generation in the conflict 
 between Bismarck and the Roman hier- 
 archy. 
 
 At first it was a question whether Protes- 
 tantism could survive the hostility of the 
 powerful emperor, Charles V. , of Germany 
 and Spain. Charles was a most devoted 
 adherent of the Church, and he employed 
 the strength and resources of his empire in 
 endeavoring to crush the Reformers. The 
 latter banded together for self-defence. 
 The League of Schmalkald included nine 
 
World's History. 73 
 
 Protestant princes and twelve imperial 
 cities, and was subsequently joined by five 
 other princes and ten imperial cities. The 
 elector of Saxony and the landgrave of 
 Hesse were appointed to manage its affairs. 
 The object of the alliance, which included 
 northern Germany, Denmark, Saxony and 
 Wurtemberg, and portions of Bavaria and 
 Switzerland, was the common defence of 
 the Protestant States against imperial ag- 
 gression and oppression. Luther himself 
 drew up two "Articles of Schmalkald, " 
 setting forth the religious principles and 
 claims of the League. 
 
 The Protestants were not as successful in 
 the field as they ought to have been, in 
 view of the energies and resources at their 
 command, and had they been alone in deal- 
 ing with the emperor, he would probably 
 have subdued them. Fortunately, how- 
 ever, for the cause of religious liberty and 
 progress, the attacks upon Charles by Kiri£ 
 Francis I. , of France — himself, however, a 
 most cruel and narrow-minded persecutor — 
 and Solyman, the Magnificent, of Turkey, 
 greatly aided the German Protestants in 
 resisting the power of the emperor. It is 
 an interesting fact that even the pope of 
 Rome was for a time arrayed with the 
 enemies of the prince, who professed to be 
 the zealous champion of the Church, the 
 supreme pontiff apparently regarding the 
 
74 Turning Points in the 
 
 temporal schemes of Charles as more men- 
 acing to papal aggrandizement than the 
 efforts of the Reformers. While Charles 
 was no doubt a sincere Catholic, he showed 
 that streak of hypocrisy which seems insep- 
 arable from bigotry in his character, by 
 keeping the pope a prisoner, made such b}* 
 his own express orders, while at the same 
 time causing prayers to be offered up for 
 the pontiff's liberation. Notwithstanding 
 the disastrous defeat of the League forces 
 at Muhlberg, the emperor, pressed more 
 than ever by external enemies, was at length 
 obliged to concede the demands of his Pro- 
 testant subjects, and to acknowledge their 
 right to the free exercise of their religion 
 within the States governed by the Re- 
 formers. 
 
 In England, also, the revolt against the 
 Roman creed and supremacy received pow- 
 erful impulse from causes not directly asso- 
 ciated with questions of conscience or 
 dogma. In England, for the first time in 
 centuries, the king was an absolute mon- 
 arch. The nobility had been almost extir- 
 pated in the Wars of the Roses, and those 
 that remained were too weak to defy the 
 crown, and in many cases too impoverished 
 to be independent of the royal bounty. 
 Under Henry VI. , Sir John Fortescue had 
 
World's History. 75 
 
 declared that "a king of England cannot 
 at his pleasure make any alteration in the 
 laws of the land He is ap- 
 pointed to protect his subjects in their lives, 
 properties and laws ; for this very end and 
 purpose he has the delegation of power 
 from the people, and he has no just claim 
 to any other power but this. ' ' A similar 
 assertion under Henry VIII. would have 
 brought the person uttering it to the block. 
 
 The parliament was a parliament only in 
 name, and merely registered the wishes of 
 the king. Indeed parliament was useful to 
 the monarch, without being in any sense a 
 restraint upon him, for while it fulfilled his 
 dictates with Oriental subserviency, it re- 
 lieved him of the odium of putting his more 
 odious caprices into the form of law. The 
 Tudor kings were czars, without a czar's 
 responsibility. 
 
 It was to the most absolute of English 
 monarchs, Henry VIII., that the desire 
 came to divorce his Spanish wife, Katha- 
 rine, and to wed an English lady of good 
 family, Anne Boleyn. The marriage of 
 Henry and Katharine had been a contract 
 of policy, not of love. The couple probably 
 never cared much for each other, although 
 Katharine was a true wife. Her stately 
 virtue and chilling dignity alienated a hus- 
 band whose affections, as history shows, 
 were too readily inclined to stray, and he 
 
76 Turning Points in the 
 
 sought in more pleasing companionship the 
 happiness which the Spanish princess 
 seemed unable to bestow. Henry's great 
 minister, Cardinal Wolsey, earnestly sup- 
 ported the king's application to Rome for a 
 divorce, with the hope and expectation that 
 Henry would marry a daughter of France. 
 When the cardinal learned that the object 
 of Henry's passion was a young woman, 
 not of princely parentage, and whose friends 
 were inclined to the opinions proclaimed at 
 Wittenberg, and already planted in Eng- 
 land, he became lukewarm, and sought to 
 delay and obstruct the divorce proceedings. * 
 Even had Wolsey stood sincerely by his 
 sovereign and Anne Boleyn, it is not prob- 
 able that Pope Clement would have granted 
 a divorce and thereby have deeply offended 
 the sovereign of German} 7 and Spain, to 
 whose family Katharine belonged. It was 
 one thing for the pope to oppose the terri- 
 torial designs of the Emperor Charles; it 
 would have been quite another and far more 
 serious matter to have branded a daughter 
 of Aragon as having been unlawfully 
 wedded to the English king, and her child 
 as not entitled to her father's crown. 
 
 *The movement originated by Wyeliffe, the greatest of 
 the "Reformers before the Reformation," may be said to 
 have been extinguished lone: before the dispute between 
 Henry VIII. and the pope. Nevertheless the spirit which 
 gave Wyeliffe the support for a time of king and nation 
 against the pretensions of Rome never was extinguished in 
 England. It existed before Wyeliffe and it survived him. 
 
World's History. 77 
 
 The abolition of papal authority in Eng- 
 land was the direct result of the pope's re- 
 fusal to declare the marriage to Katharine 
 invalid, and from the hour of that declara- 
 tion Bngland was lost to Rome. England 
 did not become a Protestant country at 
 once ; under Henry it remained virtually 
 Catholic, save as to papal supremacy. It 
 took many years for the Protestant faith to 
 become established as the creed of the peo- 
 ple as well as the law of the land. The 
 nation marched steadily forward, however, 
 in the path of the Reformation, and even 
 the'reign of Mary, Katharine's daughter, 
 was hardly a pause in its progress. 
 
 ******* 
 
 In Scotland reformation sprang from the 
 people, and was the fruit of deep and earnest 
 religious convictions. The Church and 
 crown were at first united in striving to ex- 
 tinguish the flame of revived Christianity, 
 but the efforts of both were vain against a 
 preacher like Knox, sustained by a power- 
 ful element in the nobility, and the large 
 majority of the lower classes. Scotland 
 became a bulwark of the new religion in its 
 more radical form, and was the scene for 
 many years of unhappy strife between the 
 supporters of Episcopacy and the adherents 
 of that confession of faith to which James 
 VI. subscribed in his youth. 
 
78 Turning Points in the 
 
 Perhaps the most astonishing work of the 
 Reformation was its effect upon the people 
 of the Netherlands. Cautious, peace-loving 
 and commercial, the men and women of the 
 provinces, afterward known as the Dutch 
 Republic, would hardly have been suspected 
 of the heroic qualities which they displayed 
 in their struggle with Spain. Only the most 
 exalted motives could have evoked that 
 wondrous spirit of patriotism and religious 
 enthusiasm which made the Netherlands 
 an arena of one of the greatest conflicts of 
 modern times, which defied torture at the 
 stake and death on the battlefield, and 
 halted the hordes of Alva at the western 
 gate of Germany. A new nation sprang 
 into being, destined to take no unimpor- 
 tant part in planting in the newly discov- 
 ered world the principles of human progress 
 and liberty, and counteracting in the con- 
 tinent which Spain had discovered the ex- 
 tension of Spanish bigotry and misrule. 
 The story of the Dutch Republic is a chap- 
 ter of the Reformation, and could never 
 have been written but for the Reformation. 
 The torch of liberty in the Netherlands was 
 lighted in the flame of Wittenberg. 
 
 The same year in which Luther published 
 his address "to the Christian nobles of Ger- 
 many, ' ' witnessed the ' ' blood-bath of Stock- 
 
World's History. 79 
 
 holm. ' ' The story is worth telling, for it 
 had a momentous influence on the religious 
 destinies of Europe. Christian II., of Den- 
 mark, was crowned king of Sweden in the 
 church of St. Nikolaus, at Stockholm, late 
 in the autumn of 1520. For three days the 
 feasting and rejoicing went on. The king 
 was in especial good humor, and kissed and 
 embraced many of the guests. On the 
 fourth day, when the festivities were at 
 their height, many of the first nobles of the 
 kingdom, together with the chief burghers 
 of Stockholm and some of the most distin- 
 guished prelates of the Church, were sud- 
 denly summoned into the great hall of the 
 palace. Here, to their utter astonishment, 
 a charge of heresy was raised against them, 
 and on this flimsy pretext the nobles and 
 burghers were thrown into the dungeons 
 of the tower, and the clergy imprisoned in 
 a room by themselves. 
 
 At noon of the following day the gates of 
 the palace were thrown open, and there 
 inarched forth a sorrowful procession — the 
 best men of Sweden, surrounded by soldiers 
 and executioners. First came the bishops, 
 Vincentius and Matthias, clad in ceremonial 
 robes of the Church; next, senators, in 
 their regalia of office, followed by the 
 mayors and council and chief citizens of 
 Stockholm. They were conducted to the 
 great market-place hard by. Here the 
 
80 Turning Points in the 
 
 soldiers formed a hollow square around the 
 doomed men. Then a Danish councilor 
 called upon the populace not to be alarmed 
 at what was about to take place, since these 
 prisoners had sinned against the Church. 
 At this Bishop Vincentius raised his voice 
 and cried out, " This is not true. I demand 
 a legal trial. The king is traitor to the 
 Swedes and God will punish him. ' ' 
 
 About six hundred of the best men of 
 Sweden perished before the ' ' bath of blood' ' 
 came to an end. Even children were not 
 spared. Two little boys, eight and six 
 years of age, were beheaded, with their 
 father, at Jonkoping. The elder son was 
 first decapitated. When the younger saw 
 the flowing blood dye his brother's clothes, 
 he said to the headsman, "Dear man, don't 
 let my shirt get all bloody like brother's, 
 for mother will whip me if you do." This 
 childish prattle touched the heart of even 
 the grim headsman. Flinging away his 
 sword, he cried, "Sooner shall my own 
 shirt be stained with blood than I make 
 bloody yours, my boy." The barbarous 
 king beckoned to a more hardened butcher, 
 who first cut off the head of the lad, and 
 then that of the executioner, who had 
 shown merc3 T . 
 
 This "blood-bath" led to the rising 
 under Gustavus Vasa against Danish op- 
 pression. "The fate of Sweden, aye, the 
 
World's History. 81 
 
 outcome of the Thirty Years' War, the fate 
 of Europe, the salvation of the Protestant 
 faith, all hung upon the decision of that 
 fair-haired, full-bearded young Swede, as he 
 stood leaning on his staff on that winter's 
 day amid the snow in the northern forest" 
 — listening to the prayer of the Dalkarlar 
 to return and lead them against the Danes.* 
 Gustavus Vasa was, from the first, inclined 
 toward the Reformation, and ultimately 
 succeeded in making L,utheranism the na- 
 tional religion of Sweden. Gustavus 
 Adolphus, grandson of the founder of the 
 House of Vasa, undoubtedly saved Protes- 
 tantism from being extinguished in Ger- 
 many by the mercenaries of Austria and 
 the Catholic L,eague. 
 
 The Reformers did not overthrow the 
 ancient creed in France ; but they gave to 
 that nation the heroic epoch of its history, 
 an epoch thrilling with self-sacrifice, 
 with martyrdom, with battle scenes more 
 brilliant than any that chivalry had pre- 
 sented, and with piety and purity of motive 
 deeper than chivalry had ever known. 
 The Reformation, had it succeeded, would 
 doubtless have prevented the French Revo- 
 lution. Defeated and overcome as it was, 
 it deferred the Revolution by giving a 
 
 *" Sweden and the Swedes."—^. W. Thomas, Jr. 
 6 
 
82 Turning Points in the 
 
 health}^ tone for a time to the body politic, 
 and by turning the minds of men toward 
 the remedies which religion suggests for 
 the evils which afflict the State. When 
 Protestantism departed from France, its 
 place was quickly occupied by irreligious 
 philosophy and speculation, which clearly 
 pointed to a great political and social con- 
 vulsion as the only cure for the unspeakable 
 misrule of the Bourbons. 
 
 I have already said that the Reformation 
 was progressive. It is progressing to-day. 
 There has been no religious turning-point 
 since Wittenberg. In some respects the 
 Protestantism of the sixteenth century was 
 not different from Rome. The early re- 
 formers were opposed to Rome because they 
 believed Rome to be wrong, and in defend- 
 ing their own belief, they were just as in- 
 tolerant as Rome of any difference from the 
 creed they professed. The}' persecuted 
 Catholics and they persecuted each other. 
 It was more than a century before the prin- 
 ciple of religious toleration found lodgment 
 in the minds of men, and it was more than 
 two hundred years from Wittenberg before 
 the dissenter from the recognized creed, 
 either in Protestant or Catholic countries, 
 ceased to be regarded and generally treated 
 as a foe within the political household. 
 
World's History. 83 
 
 And yet toleration was the inevitable and 
 logical outcome of Luther's revolt against 
 Rome. The right of individual judgment 
 implied tolerance for those who conscien- 
 tiously arrived at a certain belief, provided 
 they were loyal and obedient to the civil 
 law. If Protestants were a long time in 
 coming to this conclusion, and in some 
 countries have not quite arrived at it yet, 
 it should be remembered that political cir- 
 cumstances narrowed the horizon of con- 
 science, that Europe was for centuries the 
 scene of sanguinary religious strife, and 
 that it was only too true in those perilous 
 times that a religious antagonist was a 
 public enemy. To this rule the history of 
 Great Britain presented noble exceptions, 
 but in Germany, swept and swept again by 
 religious wars during the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, and desolated by 
 armies destroying each other in the name 
 of Him who came to bring peace and good- 
 will to men, a difference in creed long meant 
 a difference in allegiance. 
 
84 Turning Points in the 
 
 IX.— TRIAL OF THE SEVEN 
 BISHOPS. 
 
 "It is indeed," says Buckle, "difficult to 
 conceive the full amount of the impetus 
 given to English civilization by the expul- 
 sion of the House of Stuart. Among the most 
 immediate results, may be mentioned the 
 limits that were set to the royal prerogative ; 
 the important steps that were taken toward 
 religious toleration; the remarkable and 
 permanent improvement in the administra- 
 tion of justice; the final abolition of a cen- 
 sorship over the press; and, what has not 
 excited sufficient attention, the rapid 
 growth of those great monetary interests by 
 which, as we shall hereafter see, the pre- 
 judices of the superstitious classes have in 
 no small degree been counterbalanced. 
 These are the main characteristics of the 
 reign of William III. ; a reign often 
 aspersed, and little understood, but of 
 which it may be truly said, that, taking its 
 difficulties into due consideration, it is the 
 most successful and the most splendid re- 
 corded in the history of any country. ' ' 
 
 The Declaration by both Houses of the 
 English Parliament, when the crown was 
 offered to William and Mary, clearly set 
 forth the reasons for which James the Second 
 was dethroned. "Whereas," it was de- 
 
World's History. 85 
 
 clared, "the late king, James the Second, 
 by the assistance of divers evil counsellors, 
 judges, and ministers, employed by him, 
 did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the 
 Protestant religion, and the laws and liber- 
 ties of this kingdom; by assuming and ex- 
 ercising a power of dispensing with and 
 suspending of laws, and the execution of 
 laws, without consent of Parliament; by 
 committing and prosecuting divers worthy 
 prelates, for humbly petitioning to be ex- 
 cused from concurring to the said assumed 
 power; by issuing and causing to be exe- 
 cuted, a commission, under the great seal, 
 for erecting a court called 'The Court of 
 Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes;' 
 by levying money for and to the use of the 
 crown, by pretence of prerogative, for other 
 time and in other manner than the same 
 was granted by Parliament; by raising and 
 keeping a standing army within the king- 
 dom, in time of peace, without consent of 
 Parliament, and quartering soldiers con- 
 trary to law; by causing several good 
 subjects, being Protestants, to be disarmed, 
 at the same time when papists were both 
 armed and employed contrary to law ; by 
 violating of members to serve in Parlia- 
 ment; by prosecutions in the Court of 
 King's Bench for matters and causes cog- 
 nizable only in Parliament, and by divers 
 other arbitrary and illegal causes; And 
 
86 Turning Points in the 
 
 whereas, of late years, partial, corrupt, and 
 unqualified persons have been returned, and 
 served on juries, and particularly divers 
 jurors in trials for high treason, which 
 were not freeholders; and excessive bail 
 hath been required of persons committed in 
 criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the 
 laws made for the liberty of the subjects; 
 and excessive fines have been imposed ; and 
 illegal and cruel punishments inflicted ; and 
 several grants and promises made of fines 
 and forfeitures, before any conviction or 
 judgment against the persons upon whom 
 the same were to be levied; all which are 
 utterly and directly contrary to the known 
 laws, and statutes, and freedom of this 
 realm." 
 
 This Declaration, or "Bill of Rights," 
 as it is commonly known, is the "greater 
 charter" of the English people, the original 
 charter also of American liberty. It 
 affirmed the freedom of debate in parlia- 
 ment, the freedom of elections and the free- 
 dom of petition. It assured the subjects of 
 the British crown against the usurpation of 
 absolute power by royalty, and it made the 
 throne of England a constitutional mon- 
 archy. 
 
 The Revolution of 1688 was not less de- 
 cisive in its influence on the destinies of 
 America. James II. had overturned pop- 
 ular government in the colonies, and at- 
 
World's History. 87 
 
 tempted to establish a despotic vice-royalty 
 in its place. With the mother country ac- 
 quiescent in his tyrannical rule, the feeble 
 settlements in America would have been 
 helpless. The deliverance of England was 
 the deliverance of all who owed allegiance 
 to the English crown. It was the end of 
 divine right as a title to the throne ; it was 
 the knell of the British Bourbons who had 
 worn so unw r orthily the mantle of Bruce and 
 of Edward. 
 
 It seems incredible that even a Stuart 
 should have thought of rolling back the car 
 of progress for over a century, restoring 
 the papal connection, and reviving the 
 arbitrary methods of government for which 
 James the Second's father lost his head. 
 James ascended the throne under the most 
 favorable auspices for a successful and happy 
 reign — barring his own determination to 
 abuse the power intrusted to him. The 
 attempt to exclude him from the succession 
 had failed, and the conservative sentiment 
 of the country was friendly to the new king. 
 "The magistrates of Middlesex," says 
 Macaulay, "thanked God for having con- 
 founded the designs of those regicides and 
 excluders who, not content with having 
 murdered one blessed monarch, were bent 
 on destroying the foundations of monarchy. 
 The city of Gloucester execrated the blood- 
 thirsty villains who had tried to deprive 
 
88 Turning Points in the 
 
 his majesty of his just inheritance. The 
 burgesses of Wigan assured their sovereign 
 that they would defend him against all 
 plotting Ahithophels and rebellious Ab- 
 saloms. The grand jury of Suffolk ex- 
 pressed a hope that the parliament would 
 proscribe all the excluders. Many corpo- 
 rations pledged themselves never to return 
 to parliament any person who had voted 
 for taking away the birthright of James. 
 Even the capital was profoundly obsequious. 
 The lawyers and traders vied with each 
 other in servility. Inns of court and inns 
 of chancery sent up fervent professions of 
 attachment and submission. All the great 
 commercial societies, the East India Com- 
 pany, the African Compan}', the Turkey 
 Company, the Muscovia Company, the Hud- 
 son's Ba}' Company, the Maryland Mer- 
 chants, the Jamaica Merchants, the Merchant 
 Adventurers, declared that they most cheer- 
 fully complied with the royal edict which 
 required them still to pay custom. Bristol, 
 the second city of the island, echoed the 
 voice of London. But nowhere was the 
 spirit of loyalty stronger than in the two 
 universities. Oxford declared that she 
 would never swerve from those religious 
 principles which bound her to obey the 
 king without any restrictions or limitations. 
 Cambridge condemned, in severe terms, the 
 violence and treachery of those turbulent 
 
World's History. 89 
 
 men who had maliciously endeavored to turn 
 the stream of succession out of the ancient 
 channel. ' ' 
 
 James proceeded to show his appreciation 
 of all this confidence by forthwith plotting 
 to secure absolutism for himself and to an- 
 tagonize the religious faith of the vast 
 majority of Englishmen. His misrule pro- 
 voked the rebellion headed by the Duke of 
 Monmouth, the natural sou of Charles the 
 Second, and nephew of James. The rising 
 was poorly planned and easily defeated. It 
 gave James an opportunity which he eagerly 
 seized to suppress constitutional agitation 
 and freedom of speech under the cover of 
 punishing treason.* 
 
 *"It has not been generally thought that," says Ma- 
 eaulay, " either after the rebellion of 1715, or after the rebel- 
 lion of 1745, the House of Hanover erred on the side of 
 clemency; yet all the executions of 1715 and 1745 added 
 together will appear to have been few indeed when com- 
 pared with those which disgraced the Bloody Assizes. The 
 number of the rebels whom Jeffreys hanged on this circuit 
 was 320. Iyonsdale says 700, and Burnet 600." In Somerset- 
 shire, "the chief seat of the rebellion, 233 prisoners were in a 
 few days hanged, drawn and quartered. At every spot 
 where two roads met, on every market-place, on the green 
 of every village which had furnished Monmouth with sol- 
 diers, ironed corpses clattering in the wind, or heads and 
 quarters stuck on poles, poisoned the air, and made the 
 traveler sick with horror. In many parishes the peasantry 
 could not assemble in the house of God without seeing 
 the ghastly face of a neighbor grinning at them over the 
 porch. The Chief Justice was all himself. His spirits rose 
 higher and higher as the work went on. He laughed, 
 shouted, joked and swore in such a way that many thought 
 him drunk from morning to night; but in him it was not 
 easy to distinguish the madness produced by evil passions 
 from the madness produced by brandy." 
 
90 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 The terror inspired by the "Bloody As- 
 sizes' ' encouraged James to step still farther 
 toward the precipice, and he now began 
 plotting to break down the English church, 
 with the eventual object of a reconciliation 
 with Rome. He pretended to favor free- 
 dom of religious worship, while taking a 
 course which, if successful, would have re- 
 sulted in the enslavement of the English 
 people, and the extension to England of the 
 religious conditions which prevailed in 
 France and Spain and Italy. The clergy 
 resolutely resisted the royal decrees, and 
 the climax was reached in the imprisonment 
 in the Tower of the seven bishops who ven- 
 tured upon a respectful remonstrance against 
 the action of the king. 
 
 James had ordered that his declaration 
 of indulgence should be read by the clergy 
 in the churches immediately after divine 
 service. A meeting of bishops was held at 
 Lambeth Palace, and it was resolved to pe- 
 tition the king to recall the order. The 
 words of the petition were, "that the great 
 averseness found in themselves to their dis- 
 tributing and publishing, in all their 
 churches, your majesty's late declaration 
 for liberty of conscience, proceeds neither 
 from any want of duty nor obedience to 
 your majesty ; our holy mother, the Church 
 of England, being, both in her principles 
 and her constant practice, unquestionably 
 
World's History. 91 
 
 loyal, and having, to her great honor, been 
 more than once publicly acknowledged to 
 be so by your gracious majesty; nor yet 
 from any want of tenderness to dissenters, 
 in relation to whom we are willing to come 
 to such a temper as shall be thought fit, 
 when the matter shall be considered and 
 settled in Parliament and Convocation ; but 
 among other considerations, from this es- 
 pecially, because that declaration is founded 
 upon such a dispensing power as hath been 
 often declared illegal in Parliament, and 
 particularly in the years 1662 and 1672, and 
 in the beginning of your majesty's reign; 
 and is a matter of so great moment and 
 consequence to the whole nation, both in 
 Church and State, that your petitioners 
 cannot, in common prudence, honor, or 
 conscience, so far make themselves parties 
 to it, as the distribution of it all over the 
 nation, and the solemn publication of it once 
 and again, even in God's house, and in the 
 time of divine service, must amount to in 
 common and reasonable construction. ' ' 
 
 King James was deeply offended, and the 
 bishops were arrested and committed to the 
 Tower on the charge of having contrived, 
 written and published a seditious libel. 
 The excitement was intense, and the trial 
 was watched as no State trial had been 
 watched before. A deafening huzza from 
 the audience welcomed the jury's verdict 
 
92 Turning Points in the 
 
 of acquittal, and that shout was echoed from 
 town to town, from hamlet to hamlet 
 throughout the land. From that day the 
 Stuart dynasty was doomed. 
 
 All eyes were now turned to William, 
 Prince of Orange, the husband of Mary, the 
 Protestant daughter of King James. Wil- 
 liam was one of the ablest generals and 
 statesmen of his time, and he promptly 
 proceeded to collect men and arms for an 
 expedition against his father-in-law. He 
 also published a declaration in favor of 
 popular rights and condemning the arbi- 
 trary government of James. The land- 
 ing of William at Torbay, the flight 
 of James, and the elevation of William 
 and Mary to the throne need not be 
 described here. The great turning 
 point in English, and I may add also in 
 American, history, was the trial of the seven 
 bishops, which aroused the English people 
 from the stupor of despotism, and laid fast 
 and sure the foundation of popular sov- 
 ereignty. 
 
 Jfr 
 
World's History. 93 
 
 X.— HUTCHINSON'S WRITS OF 
 ASSISTANCE. 
 
 "Governor Hutchinson is dead. * * * 
 He was born to be the cause and victim of 
 popular fury, outrage and conflagrations. 
 Descended from an ancient and honorable 
 family; born and educated in America; 
 professing all the zeal of the Congrega- 
 tional religion; affecting to honor the char- 
 acters of the first planters of the New 
 World, and to vindicate the character of 
 America and especially of New England; 
 early initiated into public business; in- 
 dustrious and indefatigable in it; beloved 
 and esteemed by the people; elected and 
 trusted by them and their representatives; 
 his views opened and extended by repeated 
 travels in Europe; engaged in extensive 
 correspondence in Europe as well as in 
 America ; favored with the crown of Great 
 Britain, and possessed of its honors and 
 emoluments — possessed of all these advan- 
 tages and surrounded by all these circum- 
 stances, he was perhaps the only man in 
 the world who could have brought on the 
 controversy between Great Britain and 
 America in the manner and at the time it 
 was done, and involved the two countries 
 in an enmity which must end in their ever- 
 lasting separation. Yet this was the char- 
 
94 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 acter of the man, and these his memorable 
 actions. An inextinguishable ambition 
 and avarice, that were ever seen among his 
 other qualities, and which grew with his 
 growth, and strengthened with his age and 
 experience, and at last predominated over 
 every other passion of his heart and prin- 
 ciple of his mind, rendered him credulous 
 to a childish degree of everything that 
 favored his ruling passion, and blind and 
 deaf to everything that thwarted it to such 
 a degree that his representations with those 
 of his fellow-laborer, Bernard, drew on the 
 king, ministry, parliament and nation to 
 concert measures which will end in their 
 reduction, and the exaltation of America. " 
 
 Such is the description by John Adams, 
 in a letter to the President of the Congress, 
 June 17, 1780, of the man who, as Chief 
 Justice of Massachusetts, was instrumental 
 in the measures which aroused the colonists 
 to the necessity of defending their liberties, 
 and of opposing a united front to British 
 injustice and oppression. 
 
 When the colonists, their western bounds 
 no longer threatened by civilized foes, their 
 plantations flourishing and their seaport 
 towns wealthy with the profits of a com- 
 merce carried on in contempt of imperial 
 restrictions, began to feel and to assert that 
 they were entitled to all the rights of free- 
 born Englishmen, and to the same commer- 
 
World's History. 95 
 
 cial and industrial independence enjoyed by 
 loyal subjects in England, they were sur- 
 prised to learn that parliament and the 
 English people regarded them not as free- 
 men, but as tributaries. The colonists were 
 themselves loyal, even up to the hour when 
 they were compelled by stubborn tyranny 
 to assert the right of revolution, for, to quote 
 the language of John Adams, ''it is true 
 there always existed in the colonies a de- 
 sire of independence of Parliament in the 
 articles of internal taxation and internal 
 policy, and a very general, if not universal 
 opinion, that they were constitutionally en- 
 titled to it, and as general a determination 
 to maintain and defend it. But there never 
 existed a desire of independence of the 
 Crown, or of general regulations of com- 
 merce for the equal and impartial benefit of 
 all parts of the empire." "If any man," 
 said the same great statesman, "wishes to 
 investigate thoroughly the causes, feelings 
 and principles of the Revolution, he must 
 study this Act of Navigation, and the Acts 
 of Trade, as a philosopher, a politician and 
 a philanthropist. ' ' 
 
 When the Act of Navigation was origi- 
 nally passed, in the Cromwell period, it is 
 probable that the colonies were not seriously 
 in the minds of the people and of parlia- 
 ment. The act was aimed by English trading 
 interests, at the Dutch, and was effective 
 
96 Turning Points in the 
 
 for the purposes intended ; but within the 
 decade that elapsed before its re-enactment 
 under the Restoration, the colonial trade 
 had grown with a vigor that aroused jeal- 
 ousy and uneasiness at home, and the Act 
 of Navigation was soon followed, in 1663, 
 by the first of the Acts of Trade, which 
 provided that no supplies should be im- 
 ported into any colony, except what had 
 been actually shipped in an English port, 
 and carried directly thence to the import- 
 ing colony. This cut the colonies off 
 from direct trade with any foreign coun- 
 try, and made England the depot for all 
 necessaries or luxuries which the colo- 
 nies desired, and which they could not 
 obtain in America. Nine years later, 
 in 1672, followed another act ''for the 
 better securing the plantation trade," 
 which recited that the colonists had, 
 contrary to the express letter of the 
 aforesaid laws, brought into diverse parts 
 of Europe great quantities of their growth, 
 productions and manufactures, sugar, to- 
 bacco, cotton, wool and dye woods being 
 particularly enumerated in the list, and that 
 the trade and navigation in those commo- 
 dities from one plantation to another had 
 been greatly increased, and provided that 
 all colonial commodities should either be 
 shipped to England or Wales before being 
 imported into another colony, or that a 
 
World's History. 97 
 
 customs duty should be paid on such com- 
 modities equivalent to the cost of conveying 
 the same to England, and thence to the 
 colony for which they were destined. For 
 instance, if a merchant in Rhode Island de- 
 sired to sell some product of the colony of 
 Massachusetts in New York, and to forward 
 the same by vessel, either a bond had to 
 be given that the commodity would be trans- 
 ported to England, or a duty had to be 
 paid, in money or in goods, sufficiently 
 onerous to protect the English merchant 
 and ship-owner against serious colonial com- 
 petition in the carrying trade. 
 
 The above act was followed up by another 
 providing penalties for attempted violation 
 of the customs laws. In this statute no 
 mention was made of the plantations, and 
 its general tenor indicated that it was in- 
 tended to apply to Great Britain only, pro- 
 viding, as it did, for the searching of houses 
 and dwellings for smuggled goods by virtue 
 of a writ of assistance under the seal of His 
 Majesty's court of exchequer. Under Wil- 
 liam the Third, who was as arbitrary a 
 monarch toward the colonies as the second 
 James had been, the statute was made 
 directly applicable to the plantation trade, 
 with the provision that "the like assistance 
 shall be given to the said officers in the ex- 
 ecution of their office, as by the last-men- 
 tioned act is provided for the officers in 
 
98 Turning Points in the 
 
 England." It was on the question of 
 whether such a writ could be issued from a 
 colonial court that James Otis made the 
 famous speech in which he arraigned the 
 commercial policy of England, stripped the 
 veil of reform from the bust of the Stadt- 
 holder-King, and awakened the colonists to 
 a throbbing sense of English oppression and 
 of American wrongs — the oration which, in 
 the language of John Adams, who heard it, 
 " breathed into this nation the breath of 
 life." 
 
 It is needless to follow the numerous Acts 
 of Trade in their order, for they were all in 
 a line with the accepted and established 
 principle of that age in England, that the 
 colonies should minister to the commercial 
 aggrandizement of the mother country, in- 
 stead of being the centres of an independent 
 traffic, that they should be communities for 
 the consumption of British manufactures 
 and the feeding of British trade. New 
 England was especially the object of Eng- 
 lish jealousy and restriction, and for reasons, 
 as given by Sir Josiah Child, in his ''New 
 Discourse on Trade, ' ' written about the 
 year 1677, that are creditable to the founders 
 of those States, or after speaking of the 
 people of Virginia and the Barbadoes as a 
 loose vagrant sort, "vicious and destitute 
 
World's History. 99 
 
 of means to live at home, gathered up 
 about the streets of London or other places, 
 and who, had there been no English foreign 
 plantation in the world, must have come to 
 be hanged or starved, or died untimely of 
 those miserable diseases that proceed from 
 want and vice, or have sold themselves as 
 soldiers to be knocked on the head, or at 
 best, by begging or stealing two shillings 
 and sixpence, have made their way to Hol- 
 land to become servants to the Dutch, who 
 refuse none," he goes on to describe "a 
 people whose frugality, industry and tem- 
 perance and the happiness of whose laws 
 and institutions do promise to themselves 
 long life, with a wonderful increase of peo- 
 ple, riches and power." But, after paying 
 this probably reluctant tribute to New 
 England virtue and industry, he frankly 
 avows his full sympathy with the restrictive 
 system, and adds that ''there is nothing 
 more prejudicial and in prospect more dan- 
 gerous to any mother kingdom than the 
 increase of shipping in her colonies, plan- 
 tations and provinces." It is no wonder 
 that John Adams said that he never read 
 these authors without being set on fire, and 
 that at last the same fire spread to every 
 patriotic breast. 
 
 The Acts of Navigation and of Trade were 
 not the dead letters that some superficial 
 writers and readers have seen fit to term 
 
ioo Turning Points in the 
 
 them. It is true that obedience was reluc- 
 tant and slow, and that evasion was exten- 
 sive, and it is also true, that colonial com- 
 merce flourished in spite of the restrictions; 
 but it should be remembered that the pro- 
 longed wars in which England was engaged 
 gave lucrative opportunities for privateer- 
 ing, and that even the customs duties, 
 though intended to be virtually prohibitory, 
 were not heavy enough to overcome the ad- 
 vantages which the colonists enjoyed. In 
 Rhode Island the General Assembly asserted 
 and maintained the right to regulate the 
 fees of the customs officers, and, as far as 
 was possible, the collection of the dues. 
 The shipping of the colony rapidly in- 
 creased, and in 1731 included two vessels 
 from England, as many from Holland and 
 the Mediterranean, and ten or twelve from 
 the West Indies, and ten years later num- 
 bered one hundred and twenty vessels en- 
 gaged in the West Indian, African, Euro- 
 pean and coasting trade. The period 
 preceding the Revolution witnessed New 
 England's greatest commercial prosperity, 
 and it was in that age that Moses Brown 
 and other enterprising merchants and ship- 
 owners laid the foundation of fortunes, a 
 liberal share of which has been expended 
 with illustrious munificence in monuments 
 of learning, of art and of charity. As for 
 the restrictions upon domestic industry 
 
World's History. 101 
 
 they were not severely felt among a people 
 devoted, in the country to agriculture, and 
 in the towns to local traffic and shipping, 
 and the American farmer who wore home- 
 spun attire, did not realize the harshness or 
 appreciate the purpose of the statute which 
 prohibited the export of wool or woolen 
 manufactures. As for the Southern planter, 
 the question of fostering domestic manufac- 
 tures never entered his thoughts. He 
 raised his tobacco and his cotton, exported 
 them to England, and got what goods he 
 needed there just as his descendants, in a 
 later age, procured the manufactured ne- 
 cessities and luxuries of life from the depots 
 of New England trade.* 
 
 But even if the British Parliament had 
 never attempted to raise a revenue by taxa- 
 tion in the American colonies, it is prob- 
 able that in time the restrictions on com- 
 merce would have led to revolution, unless 
 rescinded. This was the opinion of the 
 shrewd observer Du Chatelet, who, after 
 France had surrendered her American pos- 
 sessions to Great Britain, said that "they 
 (the chambers of commerce) regard every- 
 thing in colonial commerce which does not 
 turn exclusively to the benefit of the king- 
 dom as contrary to the end for which colo- 
 nies were established, and as a theft from 
 
 * ' ' English Free Trade ; Its Foundation, Growth and 
 Decline." By Henry Mann 
 
102 Turning Points in the 
 
 the State. To practice on these maxims is 
 impossible. The wants of trade are stronger 
 than the laws of trade. The north of 
 America can alone furnish supplies to its 
 south. This is the only point of view under 
 which the cession of Canada can be regarded 
 as a loss for France ; but that cession will 
 one day be amply compensated, if it shall 
 cause in the English colonies the rebellion 
 and the independence which become every 
 day more probable and more near. ' ' 
 
 America, if not contented, was quiet un- 
 der restrictive laws not stringently enforced, 
 and but for the measures initiated by Gren- 
 ville and Townshend, and approved by the 
 king, the parliament and the people of 
 England, there would, if the leading Amer- 
 ican minds of that day were sincere, have 
 been no insurrection in that era against 
 British authority. George the Third is 
 called a tyrant on every recurring Fourth 
 of July, but the nation he ruled was as 
 tyrannical as he, and impartial history 
 cannot condemn the monarch without 
 awarding a greater share of odium to his 
 people, who sustained by their pronounced 
 opinion and through their chosen represen- 
 tatives, every measure for the destruction 
 of the liberties of these colonies, and who 
 began to listen to the dictates of reason and 
 
World's History. 103 
 
 of humanity only when America had become 
 the prison of thousands of England's sol- 
 diers, and thousands of others, hired Hes- 
 sian and kidnaped Briton alike, had been 
 welcomed by American freemen to graves 
 in American soil. The measures which 
 led to war, and the war itself, were inspired 
 and incited by the trading classes, as well 
 as the aristocracy of England, who expected, 
 in the destruction of a powerful commer- 
 cial and menacing industrial rival, an ample 
 return for the blood and treasure expended 
 in the strife. The American people recog- 
 nized that the struggle was for commercial 
 and industrial as well as for political inde- 
 pendence, and the stand in behalf of Amer- 
 ican industry was taken long before the 
 scattered colonies met an empire in the field 
 of arms. 
 
 Even before peace had been made with 
 France the king's officers in America began 
 to enforce the revenue laws with a rigor to 
 which the colonists had been unaccustomed. 
 Charles Paxton, commissioner of customs 
 in Boston, applied to the Superior Court for 
 authority to use writs of assistance in 
 searching for smuggled goods. These 
 writs were warrants for the officers to search 
 when and where they pleased and to call 
 upon others to assist them, instead of pro- 
 curing a special search warrant for some 
 designated place. Thomas Hutchinson, 
 
104 Turning Points in the 
 
 chief justice, and afterward royalist gover- 
 nor and refugee, favored the application, 
 which was earnestly opposed by the mer- 
 chants and the people generally. ' ' To my 
 dying day," exclaimed James Otis, in 
 pleading against the measure, "I will 
 oppose with all the power and faculties 
 God has given me, all such instru- 
 ments of slavery on one hand, and of 
 villain}^ on the other." Parliament had 
 authorized the issue of the writs, how- 
 ever, and the custom house officers there- 
 fore had the law on their side. Writs 
 were granted, but their enforcement was 
 attended with so man}' difficulties that 
 the customs authorities virtually gave 
 up this attempt to encroach upon the rights 
 of the people. The next step in pro- 
 voking the colonists to revolution was the 
 Stamp Act. The object of this enactment 
 was to raise money for the support of Brit- 
 ish troops and the payment of salaries to 
 certain public officers in the colonies who 
 had depended upon the colonial treasuries 
 for their compensation. In this there was 
 a threefold invasion of colonial rights. 
 Taxation without representation was con- 
 trary to a principle recognized for centuries 
 in England, vindicated in the revolution 
 which cost Charles I. his head, and upheld 
 in America from the very beginning of the 
 settlements here. Again, while British 
 
World's History. 105 
 
 troops had been welcome as allies in bat- 
 tling against the French and the Indians, 
 they were not desired as garrisons to over- 
 awe the free people of the colonies, and 
 finally the colonial officers whom it was 
 proposed to pay from the royal treasury 
 would become the masters instead of ser- 
 vants of the people — or they would be ser- 
 vants only of the king. The purpose of the 
 Stamp Act obviously was to make America 
 the vassal of Great Britain. The act re- 
 quired that legal documents and commer- 
 cial instruments should be written, and 
 that newspapers should be printed, on 
 stamped paper. 
 
 The people everywhere protested against 
 the tyrannical action of Parliament. Sam- 
 uel Adams drew up the instructions to the 
 newly- elected representatives of Boston to 
 use all efforts against the plan of parlia- 
 mentary taxation. It was resolved "that 
 the imposition of duties and taxes by the 
 Parliament of Great Britain upon a people 
 not represented in the House of Commons 
 is irreconcilable with their rights. ' ' A 
 committee of correspondence was appointed 
 in Massachusetts to communicate with other 
 colonial assemblies, and the idea of union 
 for the common defence began to take firm 
 hold on the public mind. Benjamin Frank- 
 
io6 Turning Points in the 
 
 lin, in the Congress held at Albany in 1754 
 to insure the aid of the Six Nations in the 
 war then breaking out with France, had 
 proposed a plan of union for the colonies, 
 with a grand council having extensive 
 powers and a president to be appointed by 
 the crown. The plan was not adopted. 
 Adams had written about the same time 
 that ' ' the only way to keep us from setting 
 up for ourselves is to disunite us." Every- 
 body now began to perceive the need of 
 union, which the great intellects of Frank- 
 lin and Adams had discerned long before. 
 
 The story of the American Revolution 
 need not be told over again in these pages. 
 The turning-point toward that tremendous 
 struggle, with all its burden of destiny for 
 mankind, was the issue of writs of assistance 
 by Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice of 
 Massachusetts. Hutchinson paid a bitter 
 penalty for the wrong he had done his 
 country. He did not live to see indepen- 
 dence achieved, but he lived long enough 
 to keenly feel the chill of royal displeasure 
 and aversion, resulting from evidence which 
 even King George could not disregard that 
 American patriotism and endurance had 
 been grossly undervalued and misrepre- 
 sented by the so-called American loyalists. 
 
 The political effects of the American 
 
World's History. 107 
 
 Revolution have been almost entirely con- 
 fined to the American continent. While 
 the revolt of the Spanish- American colonies 
 was neither inspired nor promoted from the 
 United States, the newly-enfranchised na- 
 tions adopted our institutions, in form at 
 least. Their independence to-day of Euro- 
 pean dictation and interference is largely 
 due to the influence on Europe of the pres- 
 ence of a great power in North America able 
 to repel and rebuke European encroachment. 
 
 But when we look toward Europe we see 
 there no sign of American influence in 
 national politics, no disposition to adopt or 
 imitate our American system of govern- 
 ment. The French Revolution had no in- 
 spiration from this side of the Atlantic, and 
 wherever the people of Europe have been 
 admitted to a voice in public affairs, Eng- 
 lish, and not American, institutions have 
 been copied. America is politically isolated 
 from the rest of the world. We neither 
 give nor take. Europe has progressed ac- 
 cording to lines of its own ; and we along 
 lines that are distinct and separate from 
 those of the parent continent. 
 
 The most important political effect of the 
 American Revolution, outside of our own 
 boundaries, has been to make England dis- 
 card her policy of selfishness in dealing with 
 her colonies. Had the American War of 
 Independence ended differently, Canada 
 
108 Turning Points in the 
 
 and Australia would not, in all probability, 
 have home rule to-day. Like Charles the 
 Second, who did not care to go on his 
 travels again, England has not cared to risk 
 more revolutions by a policy of injustice 
 and oppression. This effect of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution has been a gain not only for 
 England and her colonies, but for mankind. 
 
 An effect of the American Revolution of 
 vast advantage to all the world is the de- 
 velopment of American genius under free 
 institutions. It is a noteworthy fact that 
 the great discoveries of the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries have had their birth 
 in England and America, and America has 
 full right to claim at least equal honors with 
 the mother land. The climate of despotism 
 is not favorable to the flower of genius; and 
 the same may be said of a cramped colonial 
 horizon. It is difficult to believe that a 
 Fulton, a Morse, or an Edison would have 
 grown to maturity in colonial soil, and we 
 may say the same of a Watt or a Stephen- 
 son. The ozone of liberty is a healthy 
 stimulus to inventive talent. 
 
 The American Revolution made it certain 
 that the western hemisphere would be free 
 from crowns and kings, that in North and 
 South America the problem of popular self- 
 government would be worked out under the 
 
World's History, 109 
 
 most favorable auspices possible. Tile 
 Revolution did not solve the problem; it 
 is not solved yet ; more ordeals may try the 
 nation's courage and grit and integrity be- 
 fore it will be solved ; but there is every 
 reason to hope and believe that the spirit 
 which has subdued every obstacle in the 
 past will not be wanting in the trials to 
 come. 
 
no Turning Points in the 
 
 XI.— THE GUILLOTINE VERSUS 
 
 THE DIVINE RIGHT OF 
 
 KINGS. 
 
 There is one passion in the minds of 
 men stronger than love of liberty — it is 
 national pride. It is a passion which has 
 often defeated the best designed schemes of 
 rulers and statesmen, which has sometimes 
 retarded the progress of mankind, and 
 maintained nationality at the cost of many 
 advantages. It is not a passion to be de- 
 spised or. condemned, for it is patriotism 
 in its crude, untempered form, and history 
 is red-lettered with the deeds of heroism, 
 loyalty and self-sacrifice springing from 
 that spirit which preferred national identity 
 with all its drawbacks to civilization and 
 progress as gifts from an alien hand. The 
 Edwardian conquest was a distinct benefit 
 to Scotland, yet that fact does not diminish 
 our admiration of Wallace and of Bruce. 
 The majority of the Poles probably lost 
 nothing, and many of them came under 
 better conditions by the partition of Poland, 
 yet Poland's brave and hopeless struggle 
 for the restoration of a nationality whose 
 government was in all respects the worst in 
 Europe, evokes our deepest sympathy. 
 
 It was mainly this spirit which defeated 
 the French Revolution and its offspring, the 
 
World's History. 1 1 1 
 
 First Empire, in their attempts to extend 
 liberal institutions to other countries of 
 Europe. And yet the French Revolution 
 was a memorable turning-point in history, 
 and the changes which it brought about in 
 the institutions of the continent could not 
 be effaced by all the efforts of the Holy 
 Alliance. It began as a flood, violent and 
 destructive in its course, and it swept first 
 over France, and then over Italy and Ger- 
 many and Spain and lesser countries, carry- 
 ing away the ancient landmarks so swiftly 
 and fiercely that they could never be fully 
 restored, and leaving a political desert, 
 studded with altars of liberty, as odious as 
 they seemed impious to the subject people.* 
 The French revolutionists overthrew prin- 
 cipalities and republics alike. There was 
 nothing constructive in their policy. As 
 iconoclasts, as exterminators of ancient 
 regimes, whether of liberty or despotism, 
 they surpassed the Goths and the Vandals. 
 
 ♦The presence and proceedings of the French in Leghorn 
 were alike odious to the inhabitants, who found an im- 
 portant branch of their trade — that with England — com- 
 pletely cut off, and who had to satisfy unceasing demands 
 for money and equipments. Large bodies of ragged, bare- 
 footed troops continually entered the town, to quit it well 
 shod and with new uniforms. The republican cockade 
 became an abomination in the eyes of the Leghornese, who 
 christened it il pasticcino — the little pie — and wrote innu- 
 merable lampoons upon its wearers. Leghorn was con- 
 verted into a camp, and on a large altar in the middle of the 
 Piazza d'Arme, a statue of Liberty was erected, at the foot 
 of which the popular representatives, Garat and Salicetti, 
 daily harangued £ne troops upon parade.— Vincent Nolle' s 
 "Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres." 
 
112 Turning Points in the 
 
 The French nobility sank out of sight 
 under the guillotine. The reaction against 
 the Terror had begun before the tricolor 
 had been carried far beyond the boundaries 
 of France ; but while the lives of foreigners, 
 not in arms against France, were spared 
 under the milder regime, the substance of 
 the people was consumed in requisitions and 
 exactions for the support of the French 
 troops, and of the cloud of officials who 
 swarmed upon the conquered communities. 
 From these sources were derived the for- 
 tunes of French generals and other public 
 men, including Napoleon himself, who 
 seems to have risen from abject poverty to 
 opulence with a speed as astonishing as his 
 military successes. 
 
 It may be said that the First Republic 
 never had a fair opportunity to show what 
 it would have done for other countries ; but 
 judging from what it did for France, other 
 countries are to be congratulated. It is not 
 probable that Marat and Robespierre and 
 their associates would have been any more 
 merciful to the better classes of Rome, or 
 Vienna, or Berlin, than they were to those 
 of Paris, had the sans culotte armies given 
 them the power to play the role of Terror- 
 ists in those capitals. And while the re- 
 publican successors of the Terror were more 
 humane, they were likewise more corrupt 
 They used their victories to levy and extort 
 
World' s History. 113 
 
 ransom from States in dread of their arms, 
 and mistook the American people to such a 
 degree as to make a similar attempt on the 
 United States, thus bringing on a naval war 
 between the two nations. It may be re- 
 peated, indeed, that the French Republic 
 was simply and solely destructive, the sole 
 and important exception to this characteri- 
 zation being the abolition of the old system 
 of land tenure in France, and the beginning 
 of the creation of a land-owning peasantry, 
 the conservative bulwark of the present 
 Republic. 
 
 WHY NAPOLEON FAIIyED. 
 
 Napoleon was not merely a conqueror; 
 he was also one of the greatest of statesmen 
 and lawgivers. He made a sincere attempt 
 to establish liberal institutions in the various 
 countries under his rule, with the reserva- 
 tion that he himself should be the absolute 
 master of all. He had no trouble in obtain- 
 ing for his usurpation the support of the 
 middle class in France, weary of the narrow 
 oligarchy that tyrannized in the name of 
 liberty, and imitated the corruptions of the 
 Bourbon court, without the prestige of 
 aristocracy. With the Terrorists and Re- 
 actionists glaring at each other, Napoleon 
 rode in between and seized the prize of 
 power, risking on the one hand the hate 
 and vengeance of the Jacobins, and on the 
 
 8 
 
114 Turning Points in the 
 
 other the royalist fanaticism of Georges 
 Cadoudal. 
 
 It is useless to talk of what Napoleon 
 might have done, had he been let alone. 
 He was not let alone. Even had all the 
 continent been willing to bow to his will, 
 to live at peace with him, and give him 
 opportunity to build up the internal inter- 
 ests of his empire, England would not have 
 permitted him to enjoy rest. The sympa- 
 thies of the ruling classes in England were 
 aristocratic. The people of England were 
 still controlled by ancient prejudice against 
 their neighbors across the Channel, and in 
 face of the stupendous continental successes 
 of the French, the ministry received almost 
 unanimous support in its policy of war. 
 England maintained the empire of the seas, 
 but Napoleon continued to be supreme on 
 land. 
 
 The wars in which Napoleon was almost 
 continually engaged might well have ex- 
 cused him from the accomplishment of great 
 internal reforms, but he found time, never- 
 theless, to frame the Code Napoleon, and 
 institute for France and for a great part of 
 Europe, a system of laws which is his last- 
 ing monument. He created the code known 
 by his name with the assistance of the 
 ablest lawyers of France, but the work was 
 
World's History. 1 15 
 
 his own in the sense that it bore his stamp 
 in every section, and carried into effect his 
 carefully matured views of the changes 
 made necessary in the law by the changed 
 conditions of France. The Code Napoleon 
 was to modern times what the Justinian Code 
 had been to the later Roman period. It 
 enfranchised the law from feudalism and 
 ecclesiasticism. It garnered and preserved 
 the best fruit of the Revolution, and pro- 
 vided, at the same time, for that equal and 
 impartial protection of the citizen and his 
 property which is the best guarantee against 
 revolution. So obvious were its benefits, 
 that it has survived all political changes in 
 France, and has continued to be the ground- 
 work of legislation in States unfriendly to 
 France. 
 
 It was the expressed desire and purpose 
 of Napoleon to secure in countries under 
 his control the abolition of all pecuniary 
 and other exemptions of the privileged 
 classes, the extinction of all their vested 
 rights to labor, service, tolls and charges 
 on land, and the introduction of a system 
 of equal local rates for all persons. To 
 Jerome, his brother, king of Westphalia, he 
 wrote : ' ' What the German peoples desire 
 with impatience is that individuals who 
 are not noble and who have talents shall 
 have an equal right to your consideration 
 with the nobility ; that every sort of servi- 
 
n6 Turning Points in the 
 
 tude and of intermediate obligations be- 
 tween the sovereign and the lowest class in 
 the people should be entirely abolished. 
 The benefits of the Code Napoleon, the 
 publicity of legal procedure, the establish- 
 ment of the jury system, will be the dis- 
 tinctive characteristics of your monarchy. 
 And to tell you my whole mind on this 
 matter, I count more on the effect 
 of these benefits for the extension and 
 strengthening of your kingdom, than upon 
 the result of the greatest victories. Your 
 people ought to enjoy a liberty, an equality, 
 a well-being unknown to the German peo- 
 ples What people would wish 
 
 to return to the arbitrary government of 
 Prussia, when it has tasted the benefits of 
 a wise and liberal administration? The 
 peoples of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, 
 desire equality, and demand that liberal 
 ideas should prevail." 
 
 Napoleon found to his cost that the peo- 
 pie of Germany and Spain and the Nether- 
 lands did wish to return to their old rulers, 
 after they had tasted what he called "a 
 wise and liberal administration," and the 
 reason was that their patriotism was 
 stronger than their gratitude for any bene- 
 fits that Napoleon could bestow, especially 
 as those benefits were made almost worthless 
 by the exacting demands of a merciless con- 
 scription. 
 
World's History. 1 1 7 
 
 The power of Napoleon reached its zenith 
 in the Treaty of Tilsit, and it was under 
 the readjustment of State boundaries and 
 political conditions which followed that 
 the Napoleonic system was most widely 
 developed. The imperial regime, after 
 and in consequence of this treaty, was 
 attended by the reduction of a number of 
 small sovereignties to a subordinate rank, 
 and by the introduction of French laws in 
 the territories annexed to France, or 
 brought under the rule of Napoleon's vassal 
 princes. The emperor sincerely intended, 
 as indicated in his correspondence, that 
 these changes should benefit the people 
 subjected to them. The Germans, how- 
 ever, while more or less sullenly submissive 
 to a master who seemed invincible, con- 
 tinued to regard the French as intruders 
 and oppressors. 
 
 Two circumstances tended to defeat Na- 
 poleon's aim to establish an absolute empire 
 with a foundation of democracy. One of 
 these circumstances was the attempt to 
 buttress his throne with a new nobility, 
 created by himself; the other was the de- 
 mand for a continuous supply of recruits, 
 made imperative by the exhaustion of his 
 armies in ceaseless warfare. The princes 
 and dukes to whom he awarded titles were, 
 
Ii8 Turning Points in the 
 
 as a rule, not anxious for the distinctions. 
 Most of them were men of high military 
 rank, who preferred to be known as "Mar- 
 shal" or "General," rather than as 
 "Prince" this, or "Duke" that, when 
 everybody knew that they were not of 
 princely or ducal ancestry. Napoleon had 
 to order Bernadotte to take the title of 
 Prince of Ponte-Corvo before he would ac- 
 cept it, and others were equally reluctant. 
 The creation of a nobility did not strengthen 
 the empire; but on the contrary it sapped 
 the popular basis of Napoleon's power, 
 without gaining for him the good-will of 
 the dynasties he vainly sought to conciliate 
 by absurd imitation. 
 
 The insatiable demand for soldiers to 
 meet the enemies who rose continually on 
 every side of the empire, spurred on by 
 British diplomacy, and subsidized with Brit- 
 ish gold, was in itself a grievance mon- 
 strous enough to more than offset every 
 benefit associated with French supremacy. 
 The departments were swept year after 
 year with the besom of a remorseless con- 
 scription, which spared neither the father 
 of a family, nor the widow's son. "In the 
 Prussian States," said a writer of that 
 period, "where the military system is 
 reckoned extremely severe, there are re- 
 strictions which humanity claims, which 
 equity prescribes, and which the interests 
 
World' s History . 119 
 
 of society demand. The requisition spares, 
 in behalf of the husbandman, the eldest son 
 who is the support of the family ; it estab- 
 lishes exceptions in favor of the masters of 
 workshops and manufactories, and admits 
 of exemptions to whole cities and provinces. 
 According to the French law no situation, 
 no condition of life exempts from appear- 
 ing. The summons to the conscripts of the 
 year 14, which the prefect of the depart- 
 ment of the Seine published at the time in 
 Paris, will furnish an idea of it. 'All the 
 conscripts of the year 14,' it is there de- 
 clared, 'present within the limits of the 
 district, whether married men, widowers or 
 bachelors, susceptible or not susceptible of 
 exemptions, even those who by deformity 
 or disease are evidently incapable of sup- 
 porting the fatigues of war, are commanded 
 to present themselves in person at the as- 
 sembly herein pointed out. Persons absent, 
 and those in actual confinement, must be 
 represented by their parents, guardians, 
 friends, or some other person delegated by 
 themselves.' The French law is general 
 and includes no mitigating regulation. 
 The widow's only son; he whose labor is 
 the sole support of a sick or aged father; 
 he who by the death of father or mother 
 has become the parent of a family of help- 
 less brothers and sisters; the young man 
 who has just been, as well as he who is just 
 
120 Turning Points in the 
 
 going to be, married ; all are equally seized 
 in its unrelenting grasp. I have seen a 
 conscript, the son of a blind mother, com- 
 pelled to march. I have seen carried off in 
 three successive years the three sons of a 
 handicraftsman, who had bred them to his 
 own occupation, and who beheld himself, 
 at the age when his strength had left him, 
 bereft of the support to which he had fondly 
 looked during many years of labor and 
 
 solicitude A ma3'or who 
 
 should presume to protect a conscript with- 
 out being powerfully supported would incur 
 certain ruin. Several mayors have been 
 branded with a hot iron, as guilty of 
 forgery, have been condemned to be ex- 
 posed to 'the public view' (the pillory), or 
 to the galleys, for having favored certain 
 young men by giving them certificates de- 
 claring them incapable of service. Over no 
 operation does terror so arbitrarily preside 
 as over that of the conscription."* 
 
 It should be remembered that this mili- 
 tary reign of terror extended over provinces 
 of Germany and other countries then sub- 
 ject to France. So great was the dread of 
 punishment for any evasion of the conscrip- 
 tion, that when a river in what is now 
 Rhenish Prussia overflowed the ordinary 
 routes of travel, the conscripts plunged 
 
 * "Sketches of the Internal State of France." M. Faber, 
 1812. 
 
World's History. 121 
 
 into the stream up to their necks, and made 
 their way in time to the place appointed 
 for rendezvous. ' ' You are traveling, ' ' said 
 the author previously quoted. "Presently 
 you are stopped. A numerous crowd ob- 
 structs the highway. The clanking of 
 chains; plaintive voices ; an escort of cavalry; 
 naked swords; men pale and emaciated, 
 heads shaven, hideously dressed, dragging 
 fetters and cannon balls, form a shocking 
 procession on the road. Of what atrocious 
 crime, great God! are these miserable 
 wretches guilty, to be reduced to so abject 
 and deplorable a condition ? They are re- 
 fractory conscripts and deserters who, col- 
 lected in the depots in a department, are 
 transported to a fortress in the interior. ' ' 
 
 M. Pasquier, who, different from the 
 writer first quoted, was friendly to Napoleon, 
 draws in his Memoirs a deeply impressive 
 picture of the exhaustion of France under 
 militarism. "The number of refractory 
 conscripts,' ' he says, "increased daily to an 
 alarming extent, and it is easy for those 
 who can recall what were then the laws 
 against refractory conscripts, and every- 
 thing that was devised to punish in the 
 parents the resistance of the children, it is 
 easy, I say, to form an idea of the perturba- 
 tion which was bound to invade the whole 
 of society from the daily enforcement of 
 laws which had become so odious. The 
 
122 Turning Points in the 
 
 peace of even the most humble dwellings 
 was continually troubled, and the cottage, 
 given up in spite of its poverty to the 
 bailiff, fell a prey to sufferings until then 
 unknown." 
 
 Such is the other side, the sombre side, 
 the human side, of Napoleon's glory and 
 Napoleon's triumphs. France and the ad- 
 joining regions were robbed of the flower 
 of their manhood to win the victories and 
 endure the sacrifices which make the story 
 of the First Empire so brilliant and so 
 tragic. " There did not remain," says 
 Pasquier, writing of the levies of 1813, "a 
 single family which was not in terrible 
 anxiety or mourning." What a picture of 
 the Moloch of war ! What a price to pay 
 for the fame of having dictated terms to 
 Europe! It is not strange that even in 
 France there were murmurs of rebellion ; it 
 would have been strangely unnatural, had 
 German and Hollander and Swiss submitted 
 willingly to the minotaur which devoured 
 them in the name of liberty. It is not 
 strange that the Spaniard concluded that he 
 might better perish fighting for Spain than 
 for France. 
 
 The country which gained most in 
 national spirit, character and development 
 was Italy. "The master carver," says 
 
World' s History. 123 
 
 Professor Thayer, "cut her into several 
 slices to feed his favorite clogs of war; 
 nevertheless she gained much. She 
 woke from torpor to activity; she 
 lived in the Present. Instead of being 
 stranded like a rotting hulk, she was once 
 more swept into the current of European 
 destiny. The Napoleonic administration, 
 though autocratic, was centuries in advance 
 of that of Pope or Bourbon. Antiquated 
 placemen were laid on the shelf. Civilians 
 succeeded to ecclesiastics in every depart- 
 ment of government. The Code Napoleon 
 did away with mediaeval courts, recognized 
 equality before the law, and promoted 
 respect for justice. Incessant campaigns 
 and the military conscription not only 
 made the Italians fighters — between 1796 
 and 1814 Italy furnished 360,000 soldiers to 
 the imperial armies — but also broke down 
 provincial barriers and encouraged national 
 
 vSpirit Above all, Italy learned 
 
 that her petty princes, and even the pope 
 himself, whom Italians had regarded as 
 necessary and incurable evils, could be 
 ousted by a strong hand. Thus were the 
 Italians rejuvenated by contact with the 
 European autocrat ; thus did they store up 
 some of the strength and courage which are 
 given out in da}'S of stress and mighty un- 
 dertakings. ' ' * 
 
 * " Dawn of Italian Independence." , 
 
124 Turning Points in the 
 
 It is significant of the friendly sentiment 
 of Italy toward the Empire that there was 
 no fire in the rear from the Italian people 
 when Napoleon was engaged in the final 
 struggle against his allied enemies. The 
 Italians felt that the Empire had, in their 
 case, constructed, instead of destroying a 
 nation, and they also felt that, however 
 heavy their burdens under Napoleon, those 
 burdens were light compared with the 
 abominable misrule of the petty tyrants 
 whom the French had expelled. The unity 
 and the deliverance of Italy can be directly 
 and clearly traced to the work of the First 
 Napoleon. 
 
 Germany, while a grievous sufferer, was 
 also benefited in most important respects by 
 the successes of Napoleon. The old feudal 
 rubbish, which he cast aside as useless, was 
 never again dragged from the attic of the 
 past. Many of the petty sovereigns whom 
 he displaced from their toy principalities 
 were not recalled from obscurity when the 
 tide of war ebbed back beyond the Rhine. 
 The Germans, like the Italians, learned 
 that they were a nation, and the very hatred 
 which they bore the conqueror made their 
 national spirit the stronger. Northern 
 Germany also acquired a prestige and pre- 
 ponderance in German affairs which pres- 
 aged the consummation of 1870. The 
 Prussians learned the art of war anew from 
 
World' s History. 125 
 
 their peerless adversary, and discarding the 
 obsolete system of Frederick the Great, they 
 laid the foundation of that military organi- 
 zation which is now the most perfect in the 
 world. 
 
 Russia, whose emperor was arbiter in the 
 readjustment of Europe, after Napoleon, 
 was brought into closer relations than ever 
 before with western powers and became a 
 factor never again to be ignored in the set- 
 tlement of international issues. England 
 added vastly to her colonial empire, and 
 made up from the plunder of France and 
 Spain and Holland, for her losses in North 
 America. With Napoleon in St. Helena 
 England saw but one rival in the Old 
 World, and that was Russia, and she has 
 been watching Russia ever since. 
 
 Spain went back to her Bourbons, and 
 they, with thorough Bourbon bigotry, forth- 
 with resurrected the Inquisition, just as if 
 the car of civilization could be rolled back 
 three centuries by royal decree. Torture 
 was restored, and the common people were 
 sharply taught that they had the same old 
 masters.* Nevertheless, even in Spain the 
 influences springing from French occupa- 
 
 * The following item of news in a newspaper of 1817— after 
 the Bourbon restoration— reads like a leaf from the fifteenth 
 century: "-Pamplona, Feb. 10th. On the 2d, 3d and 4th of 
 this month, and in the prison of this city, the torture was 
 inflicted on Captain Olivan, who, for this purpose, was 
 brought down from the citadel, where he had been confined 
 during eight months, merely because he was suspected of 
 
126 Turning Points in the 
 
 tion and the example of the French Revo- 
 lution could not be entirely suppressed, and 
 the Bourbon rulers were at length obliged 
 to reluctantly concede some measure of a 
 freeman's rights to their subjects. 
 
 On the American side of the Atlantic the 
 effects of the French Revolution were hardly 
 less important than in Europe, The revolt 
 of Spanish America, and the separation of 
 Brazil from Portugal, insured an inde- 
 pendent future to the American continent. 
 In our own Republic the principles of the 
 French Revolution made a deep impression, 
 and gave an irresistible impulse to demo- 
 cratic ideas. Although the party, now 
 knowm as Democratic, may perhaps be 
 traced back to the Leisler period in the 
 North and Bacon's Rebellion in the South, 
 the French Revolution infused into that 
 party a spirit which has never been extin- 
 guished. It might almost be said that up 
 to a recent period at least, American poli- 
 tics, apart from the slavery struggle, 
 turned on the issues of the French Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 disaffection to government. Amidst the most excruciating 
 pangs, no other than energetic declarations of his own in- 
 nocence were heard, as well as of that of more than thirty 
 other officers confined with him under similar circum- 
 stances." 
 
World's History. 127 
 
 XII.— THE MONROK DECLARATION. 
 
 The independence of South America in- 
 directly resulted from Napoleon's conquest 
 of Spain. The Spanish-Americans, like 
 the American colonists before the Revolu- 
 tion, were loyal to the motherland, and 
 when they heard of the French invasion, 
 and the establishment of an alien king in 
 Madrid, they organized, not to assert their 
 own independence, but to aid in driving the 
 stranger from the peninsula. With that 
 fatuous selfishness and intolerance which 
 has always characterized Spanish officialism 
 in the colonies, the viceroys treated the 
 very evidence of the people's loyalty as in- 
 subordination, and by their cruelties com- 
 pelled the colonists to raise in self-defence 
 the standard of revolution. 
 
 Arbitrary measures, instead of extin- 
 guishing the spirit of independence, only 
 served to enliven its latent sparks and blow 
 them into flame. Miranda died in chains, 
 and Hidalgo, the patriot priest of Mexico, 
 was put to death by his cruel captors, but 
 Bolivar and Paez, Sucre and San Martin, 
 led the patriot armies to ultimate victory, 
 and established the independence of Spanish 
 America. Only one great revolutionary 
 leader, Iturbide, failed to follow the ex- 
 ample of Washington. Iturbide attempted 
 
128 Turning Points in the 
 
 to found an imperial dynasty in Mexico, 
 and lost his life and his crown. Bolivar, 
 on the other hand, with a foresight worthy 
 of Washington himself, sought to form a 
 general confederation of all the States of 
 what was formerly Spanish America, with 
 the object of uniting the resources and 
 means of the several States for their general 
 defence and security. This great project 
 was accepted by Chile, Peru and Mexico, 
 and treaties concluded in accordance there- 
 with. 
 
 Intelligent self-interest inspired the 
 United States and England to support the 
 independence of South America. England's 
 motive was chiefly commercial and partly 
 political. She wanted Spanish America to 
 be independent because the continent would 
 thus be thrown open to British commerce, 
 and because, not looking forward herself to 
 territorial aggrandizement in that direction, 
 she wished other powers to keep their hands 
 off. The British Government had no de- 
 sire, in taking this position, to promote the 
 growth and extension of republican institu- 
 tions. The ruling class in Great Britain 
 would doubtless have preferred to see every 
 Spanish-American State a monarchy, pro- 
 vided that under monarchy it could be 
 equally useful to the British empire and 
 independent of every other European power. 
 If England, in championing the Spanish- 
 
World's History. 129 
 
 American republics, seemed to champion 
 republican institutions, it was because re- 
 publican institutions gave the strongest as- 
 surance of political separation from Europe, 
 and of a free field for Great Britain.* 
 
 On the part of the United States the 
 Monroe Doctrine was the formal and 
 authoritative expression of a sentiment 
 which had animated American breasts 
 from the origin of the Republic. The 
 Monroe Doctrine is based on patriotism 
 and self-preservation, and the crisis which 
 called it forth was of the gravest conse- 
 quence to the American people. The 
 Spanish empire in America had never been 
 a menace to the United States. It was too 
 decrepit to be dangerous. Conditions 
 would have been very different with 
 France, for instance, or Prussia, established 
 
 *"The Spanish-American question is essentially settled. 
 There will be no Congress upon it, and things will take 
 their own course on that continent which cannot be other- 
 wise than favorable to us. I have no objection to monarchy 
 in Mexico ; quite otherwise. Mr. Harvey's instructions 
 authorize him to countenance and encourage any reason- 
 able project for establishing it (project on the part of the 
 Mexicans I mean), even in the person of a Spanish Infanta. 
 But, as to putting it forward as a project, or proposition of 
 ours, that is out of the question. Monarchy in Mexico, and 
 monarchy in Brazil, would cure the evils of universal de- 
 mocracy, and prevent the drawing of the line of demark- 
 ation, which I most dread, America versus Europe. The 
 United States naturally enough aim at this division, and 
 cherish the democracy which leads to it. But I do not much 
 apprehend their influence, even if I believed it. I do not 
 altogether see any of the evidence of their activity in 
 America. Mexico and they are too neighborly to be 
 friends."— Canning, to the British Minister at Madrid, De- 
 cember ji, 1823. 
 9 
 
130 Turning Points in the 
 
 as a great South American power. There 
 was the strongest reason for believing that 
 the governments of continental Europe 
 combined in the "Holy Alliance" seriously 
 intended to dispose the destinies of South 
 America, as they had divided the continent 
 of Europe. The primary object of the 
 allied powers — the proscription of all politi- 
 cal reforms originating from the people — 
 could leave no doubt of the concern and 
 hostility with which they viewed the de- 
 velopment of events in Spanish America, 
 and the probable establishment of several 
 independent, free States, resting on institu- 
 tions emanating from the will and the valor 
 of the people. But there is more specific 
 evidence of their hostile intentions — Don 
 Jose Vaventine Gomez, envoy from the gov- 
 ernment of Buenos Ayres at Paris, in a 
 note to the secretary of his government of 
 the twentieth of April, 1819, said that "the 
 diminution of republican governments was 
 a basis of the plans adopted by the Holy 
 Alliance for the preservation of their thrones 
 and that in consequence, the republics of 
 Holland, Venice, and Genoa, received their 
 deathblow at Vienna, at the very time that 
 the world was amused by the solemn decla- 
 ration that all the States of Europe would 
 be restored to the same situation they were 
 in before the French Revolution. The 
 sovereigns assembled at Aix la Chapelle 
 
World' s History. 131 
 
 have agreed, secretly, to draw the Ameri- 
 cans to join them in this policy, when Spain 
 should be undeceived, and have renounced 
 the project of re-conquering her provinces; 
 and the king of Portugal warmly promoted 
 this plan through his ministers. ' ' France 
 also sought by intrigue to secure the ac- 
 ceptance by the United Provinces and Chile 
 of a monarchical government under French 
 protection. 
 
 For the reasons before stated these de- 
 signs naturally alarmed Canning, England's 
 distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 and he proposed to Mr. Rush, the American 
 Minister at London, that Great Britain and 
 the United States should join in a protest 
 against European interference with the in- 
 dependent States of Spanish America. 
 This was in September, 1823, and in a 
 message of December 2, following, Presi- 
 dent Monroe uttered his famous declaration 
 to the effect that ' ' the United States would 
 consider any attempt on the part of the 
 European powers to extend their system to 
 any portion of this hemisphere as danger- 
 ous to our peace and safety. ' ' * Mr. Mon- 
 roe's motive in issuing this declaration was 
 
 *"They (the United States) have aided us materially. 
 The Congress (Verona) was broken in all its limbs before, 
 but the President's (Monroe's) speech gives it the coup de 
 grace. While I was hesitating in September what shape to 
 give |the protest and declaration I sounded Mr. Rush, the 
 American Minister here, as to his powers and disposition 
 to join in any step which we might take to prevent a 
 
132 Turning Points i7i the 
 
 wholly American and patriotic. England's 
 designs were inevitably aided by the action 
 of the American President, and the English 
 Government approved and their press ap- 
 plauded America's resolute course, but it 
 was not to win English applause, but to de- 
 fend the integrity of the United States that 
 the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed to the 
 world. The opposition of Great Britain and 
 the attitude of the United States proved more 
 than the Holy Alliance cared to confront, 
 and the nations of Spanish America were 
 allowed to enjoy, without further molestation 
 the independence which they had gained b} r 
 years of heroic effort and sacrifice. 
 
 The " Monroe Doctrine," so-called, has 
 since been accepted b}' the American people 
 as a principle to be enforced at any cost in 
 their dealings with other nations. The 
 French were compelled to retire from Mex- 
 ico, the English to take their grasp from 
 Venezuela in obedience to warnings which 
 offered no other choice save war with the 
 United States. Behind those warnings 
 were millions of fighting men of the same 
 
 hostile enterprise on the part of the European powers 
 against Spanish America. He had not power, but he 
 would have taken upon himself to join with us if we 
 would have begun oy recognizing the Spanish-American 
 States. This we could not do, and so we went on alone. 
 But I have no doubt that his report to his government of 
 this sounding, which he probably represented as an over- 
 ture, had a great share in producing the explicit declara- 
 tions of the President."— Canning to" the British Minister at 
 Madrid. 
 
World's History. 133 
 
 race that conquered at Waterloo and Tra- 
 falgar, and resources unsurpassed bj^ any 
 nation in the world. Any European power 
 prepared to defy the Monroe Declaration 
 must face America in arms. This is not 
 "jingoism," it is not braggodocio; it is 
 the calm determination of a great people, 
 who have gained their liberties at priceless 
 cost, and who mean that those liberties 
 shall not be imperilled by alien intrusion on 
 the American continent. 
 
 The American people make no claim to 
 right of interference with self-rule in the 
 other American republics. Our neighbors 
 can indulge in revolutions and pronuncia- 
 mentos; they can change their presidents 
 every week and be governed by military 
 dictators, or any other native tyrants as 
 they please — but free from subjection to 
 European power they shall be while an 
 American arm can aim a rifle and an Amer- 
 ican forge can fashion the armor -plate for 
 our battleships. 
 
 President Monroe thought but little, 
 probably, of the full scope of his famous 
 message. It was a declaration of inde- 
 pendence for the American continent — the 
 charter of liberty for half the world. Euro- 
 pean nations have blustered about it, and 
 sneered at it, but they have never yet dared 
 to defy it. When they do, if ever they do, 
 they will find America ready. 
 
134 Turning Points in the 
 
 XIII.— ENGLAND'S COMMERCIAL 
 TURNING-POINT. 
 
 PEEL LAUNCHES FREE TRADE. 
 
 The adoption of a free trade policy by 
 Great Britain in 1842, was the commercial 
 turning-point of the century. And yet, 
 while it is true that England has made 
 wonderful progress in commerce and in 
 manufactures since the adoption of a free 
 trade policy, it is equally and historically 
 true that the foundation of England's pros- 
 perity was laid, and the strong fabric was 
 erected during a period of protection which 
 lasted for over two centuries, protection 
 which was prohibition in its earlier, and 
 in some forms, of its later stage, and which, 
 not content with a mere embargo on the 
 products of alien nations, inspired the wars, 
 and dictated the policy of the empire in 
 stamping out foreign and colonial rivalry. 
 It was this policy which provoked the 
 American Revolution, and which embroiled 
 England in conflict with the Dutch. The 
 wars against Holland were in the line of 
 commercial aggrandizement, and resulted 
 in the subjection to the English crown and 
 to English commerce of the colonial posses- 
 sions of that industrious people. 
 
 One identical policy guided British ad- 
 ministration in dealing with America and 
 
World's History. 135 
 
 with Ireland, and that was to prevent the 
 building up of trade, or the establishment 
 of any industry that might conflict with 
 English monopoly. ''The year before the 
 Peace of Ryswick," writes Webber, in his 
 Account of the Woolen Manufactories, 
 quoted in J. Gee's Trade and Navigation 
 (1730), "the English, jealous lest Ireland, 
 by being able to work the woolen goods 
 cheaper than they could do, would by that 
 means supplant them in foreign markets, 
 took the following occasion to cramp their 
 free trade with other nations which they 
 
 then enjoyed It was agreed 
 
 that Ireland should lay a tax of four shillings 
 on the pound on all woolen goods exported 
 to foreign markets. Upon this England 
 became fearful that the Irish, not having, 
 as before, the opportunity of their foreign 
 trade, might prejudice the English manu- 
 factories, by importing woolen goods to 
 England cheaper than we could have them 
 here; and therefore they prohibited the im- 
 portation of woolen goods from Ireland to 
 England, except only to the five wool ports, 
 and subjected all such goods to duties laid 
 on them by antecedent acts." While 
 America asserted her rights by successful 
 revolution, Ireland, deprived of the manu- 
 factures, except flax and linen, which had 
 commenced to flourish, notwithstanding 
 almost continuous and devastating strife, 
 
136 Ticrnifig Points in the 
 
 sank into abject industrial as well as politi- 
 cal dependence, and into an apathy re- 
 lieved by occasional spasmodic uprisings 
 against the power which at once enslaved 
 and enfeebled her. 
 
 The policy of protection by heavy import 
 duties afforded to the English producer and 
 manufacturer an ever-extending market, not 
 only in the British Isles, but in the terri- 
 tories which were continual^ being an- 
 nexed at the expense of the blood and 
 treasure of the English people, while the 
 wars consequent upon the Revolution in 
 France enabled the British to sweep from 
 the seas the remnant of Continental com- 
 merce which had survived previous aggres- 
 sions. The growth of the British empire, 
 and of British capital and enterprise during 
 the early part of the nineteenth century, 
 proved the effects of protection in building 
 up the wealth and strength of the nation, 
 and had it been only a question of protect- 
 ing manufacturing industries, England 
 would have had a high tariff to-day. The 
 paramount issue of a free food supply, con- 
 sequent upon increasing population, over- 
 came, however, all other considerations, 
 and the agriculturists refused to be sacri- 
 ficed without an accompanying surrender 
 on the part of the manufacturers, among 
 
World's History. 137 
 
 whom, indeed, were found some of the 
 leading advocates of free trade in food. 
 
 The movement, which was initiated as an 
 agitation for the repeal of the corn laws, 
 and which had its origin and centre in the 
 manufacturing districts, where the artisans 
 were most severely affected by the prohibi- 
 tive tariff on corn from abroad, gradually 
 extended in its scope until it embraced a 
 demand for the reduction of duties on all 
 foreign articles to such a scale as might 
 admit of a fair competition with domestic 
 produce, the object being, as stated by Sir 
 Robert Peel in his introductory speech in 
 parliament in 1842, "to make a consider- 
 able reduction in the present price of living 
 in England, as compared with the price of 
 living in other countries. ' ' Four years 
 later, in the great debate which preceded 
 the adoption of free trade as the commercial 
 policy of England, Sir Robert Peel explained 
 why, in his opinion, England could, under 
 the new policy, continue to command the 
 markets of the world. "We stand," he 
 said, "on the confines of Western Europe, 
 the chief connecting link between the old 
 world and the new. The discoveries of 
 science, the improvements in navigation, 
 have brought us within ten days of St. 
 Petersburg, and will soon bring us within 
 ten days of New York. We have an ex- 
 tent of coast greater, in proportion to our 
 
138 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 population and the area of our land, than 
 any other great nation, securing to us mari- 
 time strength and superiority. Iron and 
 coal, the sinews of manufacture, give us 
 advantages over every rival in the great 
 competition of industry. Our capital far 
 exceeds that which they can command. In 
 ingenuity, in skill, in energy, we are in- 
 ferior to none." 
 
 Such were the cogent reasons advanced 
 by England's leading statesman why the 
 system of protection, pursued for two hun- 
 dred years, and which had elevated Great 
 Britain to the proud and imperious situ- 
 ation he so eloquently pictured, should 
 give place to free trade. And says Mon- 
 gredien, himself an earnest supporter of 
 the free trade movement, "the adoption 
 of free trade principles was not the result 
 of pressure from adverse circumstances. 
 The country was flourishing, trade was 
 prosperous, the revenue showed a surplus, 
 railways were being constructed with un- 
 exampled rapidity, the working classes 
 were fully and remuneratively employed, ' ' 
 and all this under a tariff, which was not 
 only protective, but in some respects pro- 
 hibitory. The reasons stated by Sir Robert 
 Peel show clearly why England was ready 
 and willing to challenge the competition of 
 the world. She was without a rival; un- 
 limited capital, a degree of skill in man- 
 
World's History. 139 
 
 ufacture which our American industries 
 are as yet far from having achieved, iron 
 and coal almost at her furnaces, the com- 
 mand of the carrying trade of the world — 
 all these were the weapons and the invin- 
 cible armor which protection had forged for 
 Great Britain to be armed with in the battle 
 of free trade. 
 
140 Turning Points in the 
 
 XIV. —LINCOLN'S DEATH-BLOW 
 TO SLAVERY. 
 
 The abolition of slavery in the United 
 States was the work of Americans. Eng- 
 lish agitation of the subject and English 
 abolition in the West Indies had no appre- 
 ciable effect in promoting the cause of 
 emancipation in America. On the con- 
 trary, British attacks on the institution of 
 slavery in the United States had a tendency 
 to arouse resentment on the part of Ameri- 
 cans, and to retard and embarrass the steps 
 toward liberation. Nevertheless the anti- 
 slavery agitators in America and England 
 were inspired by a common sentiment — that 
 better sentiment of an age which induced a 
 Howard to devote life and fortune to his 
 suffering fellow men; and which gave birth 
 to a Wilberforce and a Whittier. 
 
 The lowest class of labor was the labor 
 of bondmen in nearly all countries until 
 a comparatively recent period. It is an 
 interesting fact that there was a time when 
 the English of both sexes were not onl}^ 
 exposed for sale in the markets of Europe, 
 but transported and sold in Africa. Be- 
 tween the fifth and eleventh centuries, in- 
 deed, it would have been no abuse of 
 language to call a great part of Englishmen 
 beasts of burden. Our word team, though 
 
World's History. 141 
 
 derived from the original Saxon, which 
 signified children, came nevertheless by its 
 present meaning, from being applied to 
 slaves who ranked with cattle of all kinds, 
 under the general denomination of living 
 money. Dr. Henry tells us in his "History 
 of Great Britain," that, "for some time 
 after the settlement of the Saxons in Eng- 
 land, their slaves were in the same circum- 
 stances with their horses, oxen, cows and 
 sheep, except that it was not fashionable to 
 kill and eat them." 
 
 The Magna Charta secured the rights of 
 freemen only. Servitude of the most ab- 
 ject kind existed long after King John, and 
 was expressly recognized by English law.* 
 
 Bondage in England gradually died out, 
 without any special enactment, although it 
 was not until late in the eighteenth century 
 that the last remnant of slavery was abol- 
 
 * A statute of Edward VI. provided^hat " if any persou 
 shall bring to two justices of the peace any runagate 
 servant, or other which liveth idle or loiteringly, by the 
 space of three days, the said justices shall cause the said idle 
 and loitering servant or vagabond, to be marked with a hot 
 iron on the breast, with the mark V, and adjudge him to be 
 a slave of the same person that brought or presented him, 
 to have him, his executors, or assigns, for two years after; 
 so shall he take the said slave, and give him bread, water or 
 small drink, and refuse meat, and cause him to work by 
 beating, chaining, or otherwise, in such work or labour as 
 he shall put him unto, be it never so vile. And if such slave 
 absent himself from the said master within the said term of 
 two years, by the space of fourteen days, then he shall be 
 adjudged by the two justices of the peace, to be marked on 
 the forehead, or the ball of the cheek, with a hot iron, with 
 the sign of an S, and further shall be adjudged to be slave lo 
 the said master for ever. 
 
142 Turning Points in the 
 
 ished in Great Britain by the release of col- 
 liers and salters from their obligation to 
 perpetual service. In our own country 
 the form of white servitude known as "re- 
 demption" — the sale of labor for a term of 
 years to pay the cost of passage from Europe 
 to America — existed in the early part of the 
 present century. 
 
 Servitude was abolished in Russia about 
 the beginning of the American Civil War, 
 but it should be unnecessary to say that 
 there was no relation between the emanci- 
 pation of the Russian serfs and that of the 
 American negroes, although these memor- 
 able events occurred within two years of 
 each other. Previous to the Emancipation 
 Act of 1 86 1 all peasants in Russia were 
 serfs of the State, the Crown or the nobility. 
 The soldiers, being at that time, and until 
 1873, enrolled exclusively from the masses 
 of the peasantry and the burghers, did not 
 return to the condition of serfs on their re- 
 lease from military service, but formed a 
 class by themselves. 
 
 The Russian serfs belonging to a private 
 person lived on his land, and cultivated a 
 part of the soil for their own special benefit. 
 This part of the land was called the peas- 
 ants' lot, and the serfs were bound to till 
 the remainder of the land for their master's 
 
World's History. 143 
 
 benefit. Practically, although not legally, 
 the peasants owned the land they cultivated 
 for their own use. They even enjoyed 
 some vestiges of self-government, and the 
 landlords seldom interfered in their private 
 and personal affairs. The State and Crown 
 peasants were personally free, but under the 
 guardianship of the Department of Crown 
 Lands and of the Ministry of State Domains. 
 It w 7 ill be seen, therefore, that there was 
 no similarity between the condition of the 
 American negro slave and that of the Rus- 
 sian serf, although immortal honor attaches 
 to the name of the czar, Alexander II., 
 who, by his ukase of March 3, 1861, eman- 
 cipated twenty-three millions of his subjects, 
 and by the same memorable decree endowed 
 them not only with freedom, but with com- 
 munal self-government. It may be that the 
 Russian Emperor had in mind that this 
 great act of justice and of humanity might 
 have a favorable influence on the cause of 
 union and liberty in the United States, but 
 whether such was the case or not, he de- 
 serves to be remembered as one of the bene- 
 factors of mankind. 
 
 Negro slavery survived so long, because 
 it was color slavery — the enslavement of a 
 race, which, if not inferior by nature, had 
 become inferior through centuries of bar- 
 
144 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 barism and oppression, to Europeans and 
 their American descendants. The slave- 
 holders saw that only by maintaining this 
 inferiority could slavery be maintained; 
 hence the laws against teaching negroes to 
 read or write. The negro was to be kept 
 as near to the brute as possible, as an ex- 
 cuse for being treated as a brute. 
 
 Public sentiment, alike in America and 
 England, was opposed to the slave trade, 
 audit is significant as showing the progress 
 pari passu of opinion on both sides of the 
 Atlantic that, while the American Constitu- 
 tion in 1789 provided that the slave trade 
 might be prohibited by Congress not prior 
 to 1808, William Wilberforce, also in 1789, 
 first proposed the abolition of the slave-trade 
 in the House of Commons, and the slave- 
 trade was prohibited by the United States 
 and Great Britain almost simultaneously. 
 
 Agitation continued in Great Britain for 
 the abolition of slavery in the British colo- 
 nies. With England the question was 
 hardly a political one. There were no 
 slaves in Great Britain, and the colonies 
 had no voice in parliament. Jamaica and 
 the other slave-holding islands were help- 
 less, so far as offering any resistance to the 
 will of the British government, and 
 although the West India planters protested 
 earnestly and vigorously, and even uttered 
 empty threats, the Imperial Parliament at 
 
World's History. 145 
 
 length voted to emancipate the slaves, pay- 
 ing to the owners an indemnification 
 amounting to about one hundred millions of 
 dollars. 
 
 This act of Great Britain, followed by 
 French abolition in 1848, left the United 
 States alone among important and highly 
 civilized nations as a slave-holding country, 
 and here the battle between freedom and 
 slavery w T as brought to an issue. Here 
 almost from the beginning of the century 
 the nation had been divided in two sections 
 on the slavery question, and it grew in 
 gravity with the progress of the century. 
 The Union, to quote the language of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, could not have survived half 
 slave and half free, but slavery might have 
 survived the nineteenth century but for the 
 Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Ne- 
 braska- bill, which broke down the barriers 
 between the free and slave States, and per- 
 mitted the slave- owner and slave-hunter to 
 range all over the Union, protected by Fed- 
 eral laws in the possession of human chat- 
 tels. 
 
 In another work* I have endeavored to 
 describe the slavery conflict, and it is un- 
 necessary to repeat that history here. The 
 
 * " The I^and We Live In," Christian Herald Library for 
 1897. 
 
 10 
 
146 Turning Points in the 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law was the prologue of the 
 tragedy which ended in the complete eman- 
 cipation of American slaves. From the 
 day that law was enacted only cowardice 
 on the part of the North could have pre- 
 vented war, and even then war would only 
 have been postponed, for the South would 
 have demanded more and more guarantees 
 and imposed greater humiliations. Indeed, 
 it brings a blush to the cheeks of a Northern 
 reader even now to see the terms which a 
 Congress controlled by Northern votes was 
 willing to offer to the South to prevent se- 
 cession, and which the South contemptu- 
 ously spurned. 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation of Pres- 
 ident Lincoln, although an act of war, was 
 the long-withheld answer of the North to 
 the Fugitive Slave Law and the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise. The victory of 
 Northern arms made the Emancipation 
 Proclamation effective, and slavery ceased 
 in the United States with the surrender of 
 the Confederate armies. The former slaves 
 are now citizens, and, as a rule, law-abid- 
 ing and industrious citizens. 
 
 When slavery fell in the United States it 
 ceased to have standing anywhere. Hol- 
 land, the only other reputable nation which 
 held slaves up to that time, also conferred 
 freedom in 1863, and Brazil soon after pro- 
 vided for gradual emancipation. 
 
World's History. 147 
 
 Slavery still exists, but in no part of the 
 world which pretends to be civilized, and 
 the recent extension of European power in 
 Africa has struck a final blow at the very 
 core of the traffic. At last, not in America 
 alone, but wherever Christianity's arm can 
 reach, the cry of Whittier is answered: 
 
 1 ' Speak ! shall their agony of prayer 
 
 Come thrilling to our hearts in vain ? 
 To us whose fathers scorned to bear 
 
 The paltry menace of a chain ; 
 To us whose boast is loud and long 
 
 Of holy Liberty and Light; 
 Say shall these writhing slaves of Wrong 
 
 Plead vainly for their plundered Right?" 
 
148 Turning Points in the 
 
 XV.— THE GENEVA TRIBUNAL. 
 
 arbitration's first victory. 
 
 Arbitration, as a means of settlement of 
 important international differences, was vir- 
 tually unknown before the Washington 
 Treaty of 187 1. It is true that history is 
 not without instances of the adjustment by 
 a third party of questions at issue between 
 States, or between factions in a State nomi- 
 nally independent of the arbitrator ; but it 
 will be found that in every such instance 
 one or both of the parties submitting to ar- 
 bitration acted in some degree under foreign 
 compulsion. The Geneva Arbitration was 
 the first instance in which two great powers, 
 with an issue at stake which would other- 
 wise have led to war, chose to submit the 
 controversy to the judgment of an impartial 
 tribunal, instead of appealing to the arbitra- 
 ment of arms. For that reason it was a 
 memorable turning-point in history. 
 
 In i860, the United States had been an 
 independent nation for a period of eighty- 
 four years, and acknowledged as such by 
 Great Britain for seventy-seven years. 
 During this period, while sharing to a re- 
 markable extent in the general prosperity 
 of the Christian Powers, they had so con- 
 
World's History. 149 
 
 ducted their relations toward those Powers 
 as to merit, and they believed that they had 
 secured, the good-will and esteem of all. 
 Their prosperity was the result of honest 
 thrift; their exceptional increase of popu- 
 lation was the fruit of a voluntas immigra- 
 tion to their shores ; and the vast extension 
 of their domain was acquired by purchase 
 and not by conquest.* 
 
 From no people had the United States 
 better right to expect a just judgment than 
 from the people of Great Britain. In 1783, 
 the War of Separation had been closed by 
 a treaty of peace, which adjusted all the 
 questions then pending between the two 
 governments. In 1794, new questions hav- 
 ing arisen, growing out of the efforts of 
 France to make the ports of the United States 
 a base of hostile operations against Great 
 Britain, a new treaty was made, at the in- 
 stance of the United States, by which all 
 the difficulties were arranged satisfactorily 
 to Great Britain, and at the same time so 
 as to preserve the neutrality and the honor 
 of the United States. In the same j^ear, 
 also, the first neutrality act was passed by 
 Congress, prescribing rules and establishing 
 the modes of proceeding to enable the 
 United States to perform their duties as a 
 neutral toward Great Britain and other 
 
 *See " Papers Relating to the Treaty of Washington— Case 
 of the United States." Government Printing Office. 1872. 
 
150 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 belligerents. In 18 12, they were forced 
 into war with Great Britain, by the claim 
 of that Power to impress seamen on the high 
 seas from vessels of the United States. After 
 three years the war ceased, and the claim 
 has never since been practically enforced. 
 
 In 1 818, the United States met British 
 negotiators more than half-way in arrang- 
 ing disputed points about the North Amer- 
 ican fisheries. In 1827, having added to 
 their own right of discovery the French 
 and Spanish titles to the Pacific coast, they 
 voluntarily agreed to a joint occupation of 
 a disputed portion of this territory, rather 
 than resort to the last arbitrament of na- 
 tions. In 1838, when a serious rebellion 
 prevailed in Canada, the Congress of the 
 United States, at the request of Great 
 Britain, passed an act authorizing the gov- 
 ernment to exercise exceptional powers to 
 maintain the national neutrality. In 1842, 
 the Government of the United States met a 
 British envoy in a spirit of conciliation, 
 and adjusted by agreement the disputed 
 boundary between Maine and the British 
 possessions. In 1846, the United States 
 accepted the proposal of Great Britain, 
 made at American suggestion, to adopt the 
 forty-ninth parallel as a compromise line 
 between the two Columbias, and to give to 
 Great Britain the whole of Vancouver's 
 Island. 
 
World's History. 151 
 
 In 1850, the American Republic waived, 
 by the Clayton -Bulwer Treaty, the right 
 of acquisition on the Isthmus of Pan- 
 ama. In 1854, the American Government 
 conferred upon the people of the British 
 possessions in North America the advan- 
 tages of a free, full commercial intercourse 
 with the United States for their products, 
 without securing corresponding benefits in 
 return. Thus a series of difficult ques- 
 tions, some of which might have led to 
 war, had been peaceably arranged by nego- 
 tiations, and the increasing intercourse of 
 the two nations was constantly fostered by 
 continuing acts of friendliness on the part 
 of the government of the United States. 
 
 All the political relations of the United 
 States with Kngland, with the exception of 
 the episode of the War of 18 12, had been 
 those of increasing amity and friendship, 
 confirmed by a repeated yielding of extreme 
 rights, rather than imperil the cordial re- 
 lations which the United States so much 
 desired to maintain with their nearest 
 neighbors, their best customers, and their 
 blood relations. They had good right, 
 therefore, to believe, and they did believe, 
 that, by virtue of this friendly political un- 
 derstanding, and in consequence of the 
 gradual and steady assimilation of the com- 
 
152 Turning Points in the 
 
 mercial interests and the financial policies 
 of the two governments, there was in Great 
 Britain, in the summer of i860, sympathy 
 for the government and affection for the 
 people of the United States. They had 
 equal reason to think that neither the 
 British Government nor people would 
 look with either ignorance or unconcern 
 upon any disaster to them. Above all, 
 they had at that time a right to feel confi- 
 dent that, in any controversy which might 
 grow out of the unhappy existence of Afri- 
 can slavery in certain of the Southern 
 States, the British Government would not 
 exercise its sovereign powers, questionably 
 or unquestionably, in favor of the support- 
 ers of slavery. 
 
 Therefore, when the war of secession 
 began, the United States had no cause to 
 anticipate that the course of Great Britain 
 would be, as it proved to be, not only un- 
 friendly, but virtually hostile, to our 
 national government, that the British 
 Government would, as it did, hasten to 
 recognize the Confederacy as a belligerent 
 power even before the British Cabinet had 
 official knowledge that a state of war ex- 
 isted here, and that a Confederate navy 
 would be constructed, armed and manned 
 in British ports to destroy American com- 
 
World's History. 153 
 
 merce. Agents of the insurgents acted on 
 British soil as if England was an ally of the 
 Confederacy, and the conduct of the British 
 Cabinet seemed to justify the assumption. 
 
 When information against the "Florida" 
 was conveyed to the British Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs, he interposed no 
 objection to her sailing from Liverpool. 
 When the overwhelming proof of the com- 
 plicity of the Alabama was laid before 
 him, he delayed to act until it was too late, 
 and then, by his neglect to take notice of 
 the notorious criminals, he encouraged the 
 guilty Laird to construct the two rebel rams 
 — the keel of one of them being laid on 
 the same stocks from which the Alabama 
 had just been launched. When the evi- 
 dence of the character and destination of 
 those rams was brought to his notice, he 
 held it for almost two months, although 
 they were then nearly ready to go to sea, 
 and then at first refused to stop them. 
 Wiser and more just counsels prevailed 
 four days later. But when Mr. Adams, 
 under instructions from his government, 
 transmitted to Karl Russell convincing 
 proof of "a deliberate attempt to establish 
 within the limits of this kingdom (Great 
 Britain) a system of action in direct hos- 
 tility to the government of the United 
 States," embracing, "not only the building 
 and fitting out of several ships of war under 
 
154 Turning Points in the 
 
 the direction of agents especially commis- 
 sioned for the purpose, but the preparation 
 of a series of measures under the same 
 auspices for the obtaining from Her 
 Majesty's subjects the pecuniary means 
 essential to the execution of those hostile 
 projects," Lord Russell refused to see in the 
 inclosed papers any evidence of those facts 
 worthy of his attention, or of the action of 
 Her Majesty's government. 
 
 Karl Russell spoke against the Union in 
 public speeches, and urged that "the san- 
 guinary conflict' ' should be brought to an 
 end — of course by the destruction of the 
 Union. He declared in Parliament that 
 the "subjugation of the South by the 
 North" would be "a great calamity," "a 
 calamity to the United States and to the 
 world. ' ' Laird, the builder of the Ala- 
 bama, was cheered when he arose in Par- 
 liament to assert that he "would rather be 
 handed down to posterity as the builder of 
 a dozen Alabamas than as the man who 
 applies himself deliberately to get class 
 against class and to cry up the institutions 
 of another country, which, when they came 
 to be tested, are of no value whatever, and 
 which reduced liberty to an utter ab- 
 surdity." 
 
 Even Mr. Gladstone was carried away by 
 the prejudice of the governing classes of 
 
World's History. 155 
 
 England against America. "We do not 
 believe," he said, "that the restoration of 
 the American Union by force is attainable. 
 I believe that the public opinion of this 
 country is unanimous upon that subject. 
 (No!) Well, almost unanimous. I may 
 be right or I may be wrong — I do not pre- 
 tend to interpret exactly the public opinion 
 of the country. I express in regard to it 
 only my private sentiments. But I will go 
 one step further, and say I believe the pub- 
 lic opinion of this country bears very 
 strongly on another matter upon which we 
 have heard much, namely, whether the 
 emancipation of the negro race is an object 
 that can be legitimately pursued by means 
 of coercion and bloodshed. I do not believe 
 that a more fatal error was ever committed 
 than when men — of high intelligence, I 
 grant, and of the sincerity of whose phil- 
 anthropy, I, for one, shall not venture to 
 whisper the smallest doubt — came to the 
 conclusion that the emancipation of the 
 negro race was to be sought, although the}^ 
 could only travel to it by a sea of blood. I 
 do not think there is any real or serious 
 ground for doubt as to the issue of this con- 
 test." 
 
 As late as the ninth of June, 1864, Karl 
 Russell said in the House of Lords: "It 
 is dreadful to think that hundreds of thou- 
 sands of men are being slaughtered for the 
 
156 Turning Points in the 
 
 purpose of preventing the Southern States 
 from acting on those very principles of in- 
 dependence which in 1776 were asserted by 
 the whole of America against this country. 
 Only a few years ago the Americans were 
 in the habit, on the Fourth of July, of cele- 
 brating the promulgation of the Declaration 
 of Independence, and some eminent friends 
 of mine never failed to make eloquent and 
 stirring orations on those occasions. I 
 wish, while they keep up a useless cere- 
 mony — for the present generation of 
 Englishmen are not responsible for the 
 War of Independence — that they had incul- 
 cated upon their own minds that they 
 should not go to war with four millions, 
 five millions, or six millions of their fellow- 
 countrymen who want to put the principles 
 of 1776 into operation as regards them- 
 selves. ' ' 
 
 These sentiments, publicly uttered by 
 members of the British Government, jus- 
 tified the United States in assuming that in 
 permitting armed vessels to go forth from 
 British ports, and fly the flag of the Confed- 
 eracy as privateers engaged in war against 
 the United States and the destruction of 
 American property, the British authorities 
 were designedly and culpably remiss in the 
 performance of their duties both under in- 
 ternational law and the municipal law of 
 Great Britain. The aid given by Great 
 
World's History. 157 
 
 Britain was an important part of the rebel- 
 lion. It swept the seas almost clear of the 
 American carrying trade; it supplied the 
 Southern States with many of the neces- 
 saries of war, and it helped to prolong the 
 conflict, thereby causing enormous addi- 
 tional expenditure of blood and treasure on 
 the part of the American people. It is not 
 strange that when the Confederacy fell, and 
 the Union was triumphant over its domestic 
 enemies, a general demand arose in the 
 North that Great Britain should be called 
 to account for its share in the conflict. 
 Abraham Lincoln had said, "one war at a 
 time, ' ' after the Trent affair, and it seemed 
 that the time had come for another. 
 
 Fortunately in higher quarters a spirit 
 of conciliation prevailed, and while the 
 government at Washington was determined 
 to obtain redress for the wrongs inflicted, it 
 resolved to exhaust all peaceable and hon- 
 orable means before resorting to the decision 
 of arms. After prolonged negotiations the 
 Treaty of Washingto , signed in May, and 
 ratified in June, 1871, provided that all 
 complaints and claims growing out of the 
 escape of the " Alabama" and other Anglo- 
 Confederate war vessels from British ports 
 should be "referred to a Tribunal of Arbi- 
 tration, to be composed of five arbitrators, 
 
158 Turning Points in the 
 
 to be appointed in the following manner, 
 that is to say : One shall be named by the 
 President of the United States; one shall be 
 named by Her Britannic Majesty; His 
 Majesty the King of Italy shall be re- 
 quested to name one; the President of the 
 Swiss Confederation shall be requested to 
 name one, and His Majesty the Emperor 
 of Brazil shall be requested to name one. ' ' 
 "Incase of the death, absence, or incapa- 
 city to serve of any or either of the said 
 arbitrators, or in the event of either of the 
 said arbitrators omitting or declining or 
 ceasing to act as such, the President of the 
 United States, or Her Britannic Majesty, 
 or His Majesty the King of Italy, or the 
 President of the Swiss Confederation, or 
 His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, as the 
 case may be, may forthwith name another 
 person to act as arbitrator in the place and 
 stead of the arbitrator originally named by 
 such head of a State. And in the event of 
 the refusal or omission for two months after 
 receipt of the request from either of the 
 contracting parties of His Majesty the 
 King of Italy, or the President of the Swiss 
 Confederation, or His Majesty the Em- 
 peror of Brazil, to name an arbitrator, 
 either to fill the original appointment, or 
 in the place of one who may have died, be 
 absent, or incapacitated, or who may omit, 
 decline, or from any cause cease to act as 
 
World's History. 159 
 
 such arbitrator, His Majesty the King of 
 Sweden and Norway shall be requested to 
 name one or more persons, as the case may 
 be, to act as such arbitrator or arbitrators. ' ' 
 The Tribunal of Arbitration was to meet 
 at Geneva, Switzerland, and the decision 
 of the Tribunal to be delivered, if possible, 
 within three months after the close of the 
 arguments on both sides. The contracting 
 parties engaged to consider the result of 
 the proceedings as a full, perfect and final 
 settlement. The Tribunal awarded $15,- 
 500, 000 damages in gold for the vessels and 
 cargoes destroyed by the three Anglo-Con- 
 federate cruisers and their tenders, and this 
 amount was paid over to the United States 
 by Great Britain. 
 
 The principle of arbitration has been 
 applied to other issues between the United 
 States and Great Britain, the most signal 
 instance being that of the disputed Vene- 
 zuela boundary, in which the United States 
 appeared as the champion of the weak 
 South American State, and compelled Eng- 
 land to withdraw from the arrogant position 
 which that country has commonly assumed 
 toward inferior nations. It is to be noted, 
 however, that the principle of international 
 arbitration has not yet been generally ac- 
 cepted, and that in the cases where it has 
 
160 Turning Points in the 
 
 prevailed the parties interested adopted it, 
 not from motives of humanity, but wholly 
 from self-interest. England was defeated 
 in the fall of the Confederacy, and accepted 
 arbitration as a dignified cover for retreat 
 from an untenable position. The British 
 had no desire to do directly the fighting 
 which they had helped others to do. They 
 had failed in attempting to break down the 
 Union with batteries masked by Confeder- 
 ate redoubts, and they wanted to resume 
 friendly relations with the power they could 
 not destroy. The American people, on the 
 other hand, were in a temper to fight both 
 France and England, if necessary, in vin- 
 dication of American rights, and to punish 
 indirect attacks on the security and unity 
 of the Republic. Both France and England 
 counted the cost, and both yielded to 
 American demands, France by withdraw- 
 ing from Mexico, and England by consent- 
 ing to the arbitration of an issue which no 
 honorable arbitrator could decide in her 
 favor. 
 
 Arbitration has, therefore, so far been 
 accepted not as a substitute for war, but as 
 a plan to be resorted to when less expensive 
 than war and more honorable than surren- 
 der. It is significant that great powers in 
 dealing with lesser States refuse to counte- 
 nance arbitration. When they know the 
 advantage of strength to be on their side 
 
World's History. 161 
 
 they stand upon that advantage, and they 
 accept arbitration only when war would be 
 certain to cost them more than a peaceable 
 adjustment. In other words, arbitration so 
 far has been a recognition, not of justice, but 
 of force. This is not a satisfactory or a 
 promising condition of affairs. Interna- 
 tional arbitration should be founded, like 
 judicial decisions between man and man, 
 on a general recognition of what is right 
 and what is wrong, and a general determi- 
 nation that the right shall prevail. Until 
 that time comes civilized nations will not 
 be far in advance of the barbarous tribes of 
 the forest in the settlement of their mutual 
 difficulties, save in the refinement and in- 
 genuity of mutual slaughter. Neverthe- 
 less the Alabama Claims arbitration was a 
 grand step toward universal peace and good- 
 will, and the United States, as the party 
 that had been signally injured and whose 
 patience and magnanimity made arbitration 
 possible, can point with satisfaction, that 
 will grow as years roll on, to the Treaty of 
 Washington. 
 
1 62 Turning Points in the 
 
 XVI.— INDUSTRIAL TURNING 
 POINTS. 
 
 WATT MAKES STEAM WORK. 
 
 Greater in its influence on mankind than 
 any invention since printing, the discovery 
 of steam power was the most important 
 event of the eighteenth century. Euro- 
 peans had visited America before Colum- 
 bus, and Watt was not the first to perceive 
 and study the qualities of steam. The 
 ancients knew something of its force, and 
 as early as 1623, Solomon de Caus, a French 
 engineer, published a book in Paris on 
 " moving forces," in which he said that 
 "if water be sufficiently heated in a close 
 ball of copper, the air or steam arising from 
 it will at last burst the ball with a noise 
 like the going off of a petard." He also 
 actually describes a method of raising 
 water, as he expresses it, by the aid of 
 fire, which consists in the insertion in the 
 containing vessel of a perpendicular tube 
 reaching nearly to its bottom, through 
 which, he says, all the water will rise when 
 sufficiently heated. The agent here is the 
 steam produced from part of the water by 
 the heat, which, acting by its expansive force 
 upon the rest of the water, forces it to make 
 its escape in a jet through the tube, the 
 supply of the water being kept up through 
 
World's History. 163 
 
 a cock in the side of the vessel. Later in 
 the seventeenth century the Marquis of 
 Worcester described in his wonderful dis- 
 coveries of the age what he called "an ad- 
 mirable and most forcible way to drive up 
 water by fire." "I have seen," he says, 
 "the water run like a constant fountain - 
 stream forty feet high ; one vessel of water 
 rarefied by fire driveth up forty of cold 
 water. ' ' Sir Samuel Morland, Denis Papin, 
 Savery and other ingenious persons gave 
 the world from time to time new informa- 
 tion about the effects of heated water and 
 steam. The invention, however, most wor- 
 thy of notice previous to Watt was an en- 
 gine constructed about the year 171 1 by 
 Thomas Newcomen, an ironmonger, and 
 JohnCalley, a glazier, both of Dartmouth, in 
 Devonshire, England. This contrivance pro- 
 ceeded on the principle of making steam 
 the moving power in the machinery, the 
 weight of the atmosphere acting upon a 
 piston so as to carry it down through a vac- 
 uum created by the condensation of the 
 steam. Newcomen' s engine was applied 
 to various important purposes, but it was 
 by no means capable of securing the com- 
 plete command of the energies of steam. 
 It is most noteworthy as having been the 
 immediate object-lesson which suggested 
 Watt's great invention. 
 
164 Turning Points in the 
 
 James Watt, a native of Greenock, Scot- 
 land, was from boyhood deeply interested 
 in mechanical science. He was mathemati- 
 cal instrument maker to the college at 
 Glasgow, and his association with Dr. 
 Black and other distinguished members of 
 the University served greatly to enlarge his 
 knowledge and sharpen his instinct for 
 scientific research. After living some 
 years at the college Watt removed to the 
 city, and entered upon the profession of a 
 general engineer. He acquired a high 
 reputation and was extensively employed 
 in making surveys and estimates for 
 canals, harbors, bridges and other public 
 works. 
 
 While attending to his duties as en- 
 gineer he found time to study the employ- 
 ment of steam as a mechanical agent, a 
 subject to which his attention had been 
 directed by Dr. John Robison, of Glasgow 
 University, an author of treatises on me- 
 chanics. 
 
 A model of Newcomen's engine having 
 been sent to Watt in the winter of 1763-4 
 he perceived its imperfections and began to 
 turn in his mind the possibility of employ- 
 ing steam in some new manner which 
 should enable it to operate with much more 
 powerful effect. Having become possessed 
 of this idea, Watt started on a series of ex- 
 periments for the purpose of ascertaining 
 
World's History. 165 
 
 as many facts as possible with regard to 
 the properties of steam. He found that 
 the rapidity with which the water evapo- 
 rated depended simply on the quantity of 
 heat which was made to enter it, and this 
 again on the extent of the surface exposed 
 to the fire. He also ascertained the quan- 
 tity of coal necessary for the evaporation of 
 any given quantity of water, the heat at 
 which the water boiled under various pres- 
 sures, and many other particulars never 
 before accurately determined. 
 
 It is needless to follow Watt through the 
 series of experiments and discoveries which 
 resulted in the construction of a real steam 
 engine, and which entitle him to be re- 
 garded as the author of the practical use of 
 steam as the chief motive power in our 
 modern civilization. Without pecuniary 
 resources of his own, and without friends 
 willing to risk their money in his behalf, 
 he struggled along under much discourage- 
 ment. At length he found a helper in Dr. 
 Roebuck, of the Carron ironworks, near 
 Glasgow, and an engine was constructed 
 with a cylinder of eighteen inches diame- 
 ter, which, although far from perfect in all 
 its parts, demonstrated the great value of 
 Watt's improvements. Owing to pecuni- 
 ary difficulties Dr. Roebuck had to with- 
 draw from the enterpirse, and Watt formed 
 a connection with Boultoii, the eminent 
 
1 66 Turning Points in the 
 
 hardware manufacturer of Birmingham. 
 The firm of Boulton and Watt commenced 
 the business of engine-making in 1775, and 
 from that year may be dated the age of 
 steam. 
 
 MURDOCK GIVES LIGHT. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the manu- 
 factory of Messrs. Boulton and Watt was 
 one of the first places lighted with gas 
 distilled from coal. To William Murdock 
 belongs the credit, not of discovering the 
 illuminating power of gas, but of putting 
 it to practical use, and the inventor of the 
 steam engine was among the earliest to 
 perceive the value of Murdock' s experi- 
 ment. Gas has been a most important fac- 
 tor in building up nineteenth century civil- 
 ization, especially in our large cities. It 
 is a potent moral agent, a foe of public dis- 
 order and revolution, and it would have 
 been difficult, if not impossible, for science 
 and industry to have achieved their present 
 conditions without illuminating gas. 
 
 FULTON PLOUGHS THE HUDSON. 
 
 To an American, Robert Fulton, is due 
 the application of steam-power to the 
 movement of vessels in the water. Fulton 
 
World* s History. 167 
 
 was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylva- 
 nia, in the year 1765; his father died in 
 1768, leaving little patrimony to his chil- 
 dren. Robert Fulton, the son, was attached 
 in his youth to drawing and painting, and 
 from his earnings and savings in this pro- 
 fession between his seventeenth and twenty- 
 second year, he purchased a small farm in 
 Washington County, Pennsylvania, on 
 which he settled his mother; who re- 
 mained on it till her death in 1799. Ful- 
 ton, therefore, commenced his career of life 
 by sacrificing the profits of his earliest ex- 
 ertions to make his surviving parent com- 
 fortable and independent. This was a 
 commencement of excellent augury. 
 
 Fulton went to England to study paint- 
 ing. While in that country he turned his 
 attention to the construction and use of 
 navigable canals, a subject then of the 
 greatest interest both in America and Eu- 
 rope. He invented a torpedo for the de- 
 struction of vessels of war, and at length 
 he approached the great problem, the solu- 
 tion of which was to earn for him the grati- 
 tude of mankind — steam navigation. 
 
 Others had attempted to navigate vessels 
 by means of steam, but until Fulton under- 
 took the task, no one had succeeded in the 
 attempt for any practical or useful purpose. 
 Fulton was fortunate in encountering at an 
 early date in his efforts the Hon. Robert 
 
1 68 Turning Points in the 
 
 R. Livingston, American Minister to 
 France, who was himself interested in 
 steam navigation. Mr. Livingston had, in 
 March, 1798, obtained an exclusive right 
 for steam navigation from the New York 
 Legislature, but his experiments were abor- 
 tive as to any practical utility. He had 
 the merit, however, of rightly appreciating 
 Mr. Fulton's talents. He joined Mr. Ful- 
 ton in the plan of steam navigation; and 
 in 1803 they jointly built a boat which was 
 propelled by steam on the Seine, at Paris, 
 with so much success, that, on their return 
 to New York, in 1806, the project was put 
 in execution without delay. Fulton gave 
 directions for a steam engine to Boulton 
 and Watt, which was executed in such a 
 manner as to give the experiment fair 
 play. With this engine the first successful 
 steamboat, built under Fulton's direction, 
 navigated the Hudson in 1807. 
 
 To show how little pretensions the Eng- 
 lish have to this discovery, I quote the fol- 
 lowing extract from the London Monthly 
 Magazine for October, 18 13: "We have 
 made it our special business to lay before 
 the public all the particulars we have been 
 able to collect relative to the invention of 
 steam passage boats in America, and their 
 introduction into Great Britain; because 
 we consider this invention as worth to man- 
 kind more than a hundred battles gained, 
 
World's History. 169 
 
 or towns taken, even if the victors were 
 engaged in a war, which might have some 
 pretence to be called defensive and neces- 
 sar}^. " 
 
 The history of the steamboat, since Ful- 
 ton, would be a history of navigation, in- 
 deed, of civilization. The steamboat has 
 brought Europe and America within a few 
 days' distance of each other. It has en- 
 abled commerce to penetrate every sea ; it 
 bears the missionary and the trader into 
 the heart of Africa, and propels the vast 
 machines of traffic, of pleasure and of war, 
 compared with which the vessels of the 
 Armada, of Drake and Magellan were pig- 
 mies. 
 
 STEPHENSON'S " ROCKET" FUES. 
 
 It is a singular fact that although rail- 
 ways had been in use in the transfer of coal 
 from mines to places of shipment in the 
 early part of the seventeenth century, it 
 was not until 1830, many years after the 
 success of steam navigation had been de- 
 monstrated, that the first steam railway 
 was opened for traffic. 
 
 Considerable credit is due to Richard 
 Trevithick for his invention of a self-acting 
 steam carriage, for wmich he took out a 
 patent in 1802, and which successfully drew 
 railway wagons at Merthyr-Tydvil in 1804. 
 
170 Turning Points in the 
 
 This, the first locomotive, drew only ten 
 tons of bar iron at the rate of five miles an 
 hour. It appears to have been Trevithick's 
 intention to move carriages for the ordinary 
 use of traffic by means of his locomotive, 
 but the public did not view his plan with 
 favor, and the powerful canal interests, in 
 which large capital was invested, discour- 
 aged any improvement in the direction of 
 land carriage. 
 
 George Stephenson made railway travel 
 by steam-power practical, and was the 
 founder of the railway systems of to-day. 
 The career of Stephenson had its lesson of 
 deepest interest and value for every man 
 laboring against apparently insurmounta- 
 ble difficulties. His father supported a 
 family of six by tending a colliery engine 
 for twelve shillings — about three dollars — 
 a week. Young Stephenson was glad to 
 eke out the family income by herding cows 
 for four cents a day, and later on hoeing 
 turnips at eight cents a day. Being ap- 
 pointed fireman in a colliery, he gave him- 
 self to the study of the steam engine. It 
 is of interest to note that when but twenty- 
 one years of age he married a young woman 
 of his own station in life, but was left a 
 widower two years later. 
 
 Stephenson managed to pay eight cents 
 
World's History. 171 
 
 a week out of his earnings for lessons in 
 reading, writing and arithmetic. He had 
 a hard struggle, and wept bitterly, he tells 
 us, over the thought that he might have to 
 emigrate. He first attracted public atten- 
 tion by inventing a colliery safety-lamp, 
 which brought him some income. He was 
 then about thirty-five years of age, and three 
 years later he married his second wife, the 
 daughter of a farmer. About the same 
 time he constructed his first locomotive, 
 and his great improvement, the "steam- 
 blast, ' ' made rapid railway travel possible. 
 In 182 1, Stephenson was appointed engineer 
 for the construction of the Stockton and 
 Darlington Railway, which, however, could 
 not be considered a railway in the modern 
 sense, and soon afterward he was chosen 
 engineer of the proposed line between Liv- 
 erpool and Manchester. 
 
 When Stephenson's locomotive, the 
 "Rocket," proved itself capable of going 
 at the speed of twenty-five miles an hour 
 the world awoke at last to the possibilities 
 of steam travel. Said a writer of 1831: 
 "Another application of steam which has 
 been made only within the last few months 
 is perhaps destined to be productive of still 
 greater changes in the condition of society 
 than have resulted from any of its previous 
 achievements. It had been employed sev- 
 eral years ago at some of our collieries in 
 
172 Turning Points in the 
 
 the propelling of heavily loaded carriages 
 over railways; but the great experiment of 
 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway has* 
 for the first time, demonstrated with what 
 hitherto almost undreamt-of rapidity trav- 
 eling by land may hereafter be carried on 
 through the aid of steam. Coaches, under 
 the impetus communicated by this, the most 
 potent and at the same time the most per- 
 fectly controllable of all our mechanical 
 agencies, have already been drawn forward 
 at the flying speed of thirty and thirty -two 
 miles an hour. If so much has been done 
 already it would be rash to conclude that 
 even this is to be our ultimate limit of at- 
 tainment But even when the 
 
 rate of land traveling already shown to be 
 quite practicable shall have become univer- 
 sal, in what a new state of society shall we 
 find ourselves ! When we shall be able to 
 travel a hundred miles in any direction in 
 six or eight hours, into what comparative 
 neighborhood will the remotest extremes, 
 even of a large country, be brought, and 
 how little shall we think of what we now 
 call distance ! A nation will then indeed 
 be a community; and all the benefits of the 
 highest civilization, instead of being con- 
 fined to one central spot, will be diffused 
 equally over the land, like the light of 
 heaven. This improvement, in short, w T hen 
 fully consummated, will confer upon man 
 
World' s History. 1 73 
 
 nearly as much new power and new enjoy- 
 ment as if he were actually endowed with 
 wings." 
 
 Steam has already far surpassed even the 
 prediction which we have quoted. It is 
 the right arm of civilization, laboring un- 
 ceasingly in the field, the factory, the mart 
 of trade and the dwelling-place of civilized 
 man. It has made possible the industrial 
 system of to-day, with its gigantic concen- 
 tration of human and mechanical energies; 
 a system which seems to render inevitable, 
 within the coming century, social and po- 
 litical changes of the most radical char- 
 acter. 
 
 FRANKLIN DRAWS THE LIGHTNING. 
 
 Some one has said that ' ' Franklin drew 
 the lightning from the sky and Morse made 
 it speak. ' ' While ancients as well as 
 moderns had some knowledge of electricity, 
 it was not until the year 1746 that the dis- 
 covery was made of the possibility of ac- 
 cumulating large quanties of the electric 
 fluid by means of what was called the Ley- 
 den jar, or phial. The announcement of 
 the wonders of the L,eyden jar excited the 
 curiosity of all Europe, and led to many ex- 
 periments by persons interested in the new 
 and mysterious power. Dr. Franklin wit- 
 nessed some of these experiments at Bos- 
 
174 Turning Points in the 
 
 ton, and when he went back to Philadel- 
 phia, soon after, he devoted much of his 
 time to electrical study. He did not rest 
 content with ascertaining the principle of 
 the Leyden phial, but made an applica- 
 tion of the principle in the construction of 
 an electrical battery. He also proved that 
 lightning was caused by electricity. "If 
 two gun-barrels electrified, " he said, "will 
 strike at two inches distance and make a 
 loud report, at how great a distance will ten 
 thousand acres of electrified cloud strike, 
 and give its fire; and how loud must be 
 that crack!" Franklin's experiment with 
 the kite and key has often been related. 
 Seeing a thunderstorm approachiug he took 
 a walk into a field in which there was a 
 shed. He was accompanied hy his son to 
 assist him in his experiments. They car- 
 ried with them a kite, made of a large silk 
 handkerchief, stretched over two cross- 
 sticks, this simple apparatus being intended 
 to draw the lightning from its cloud. The 
 kite was held by a hempen string. The 
 kite being raised, Franklin fastened a key 
 to the lower extremity of the string, and 
 then insulating it by attaching it to a 
 post by means of silk, he placed himself 
 under the shed, and awaited the result. 
 
 For some time no signs of electricity ap- 
 peared. A cloud, apparently charged with 
 lightning, had even passed over them with- 
 
World's History. 175 
 
 out producing any effect. At length, how- 
 ever, just as Franklin was beginning to 
 despair, he observed some loose threads of 
 the hempen string rise and stand erect, ex- 
 actly as if they had been repelled from each 
 other by being charged with electricity. 
 He immediately presented his knuckle to 
 the key, and to his inexpressible delight, 
 drew from it the electrified spark. It is 
 said that his emotion was so great at this 
 completion of a discovery which was to 
 make his name immortal that he heaved a 
 deep sigh, and felt at that moment he would 
 have willingly died. As the rain increased 
 the cord became a better conductor and the 
 key gave out electricity copiously. 
 
 Franklin also ascertained by experiment 
 that distance made virtually no difference 
 of time in the passage of electricity. In 
 a circuit of several miles he could observe 
 no difference of time between the touch at 
 one extreme and the spark at the other. 
 We have the authority of Professor Samuel 
 Finley Breese Morse himself that it was 
 Franklin's experiments which suggested to 
 Morse the transmission of intelligence by 
 means of the electric wire. 
 
 MORSE S HAPPY THOUGHT ON SHIPBOARD. 
 
 Professor Morse was, as he himself states, 
 not deep in the mysteries of electricity. 
 
176 Turning Points in the 
 
 Having come to the conclusion that the 
 electric current could be transmitted in- 
 stantaneously, he applied himself to the dis- 
 covery of some practical method for con- 
 veying intelligence by means of that cur- 
 rent; and doubtless this concentration of 
 his energies on the one practical point, ir- 
 respective of abstract research and experi- 
 ment, had much to do with his success in a 
 field neglected by men much deeper in elec- 
 trical science. Professor Morse says, in 
 defending his claim to the invention of 
 telegraphy : 
 
 "From the autumn of the year 1829 till 
 the autumn of the year 1832, I was in Eu- 
 rope, principally in Italy. I conceived 
 the telegraph on board the ship (Sully), 
 in 1832, while on my return home, essen- 
 tially as it now exists. It was operated in 
 my rooms before numerous persons, my 
 pupils and others, in 1835; it was exhib- 
 ited to a large audience of a thousand or 
 more persons through ten miles of wire in 
 the New York City University in the au- 
 tumn of 1837 J to a committee of the Frank- 
 lin Institute in Philadelphia in January, 
 1838 ; to Congress and the Cabinet at Wash- 
 ington for three months in the early part 
 of that year; to the Academy of Sciences 
 and thousands of visitors in Paris in the 
 autumn of 1838; to members of the Royal 
 Society of both Houses of Parliament, and 
 
World' s History 177 
 
 the Lords of the Admiralty at Lord Lin- 
 coln's in London, in the mouth of March, 
 1839, and after all this I first became ac- 
 quainted, either personally or by correspon- 
 dence, with Professor Henry. ' ' 
 
 The Professor Henry alluded to was 
 Professor Joseph Henry, of Princeton Col- 
 lege, to whom Professor Morse applied for 
 some information on the subject of electric- 
 ity, after the Morse invention had been 
 completed, and who was mentioned by some 
 people as the real author of telegraphy. 
 On this question the following written by 
 Professor Henry to Professor Morse in 
 1842, ought to be decisive: 
 
 ' ' The idea of transmitting intelligence to 
 a distance by means of electric action has 
 been suggested by various persons from the 
 time of Franklin to the present ; but until 
 within the last few years, or since the prin- 
 cipal discoveries in electro-magnetism, all 
 attempts to reduce it to practice were ne- 
 cessarily unsuccessful. The mere sugges- 
 tion, however, of a scheme of this kind is 
 a matter for which little credit can be 
 claimed, since it is one which would natu- 
 rally arise in the mind of almost any per- 
 son familiar with the phenomena of elec- 
 tricity ; but the bringing it forward at the 
 proper moment, when the developments of 
 science are able to furnish the means of cer- 
 tain success, and the devising of a plan for 
 
178 Turning Points in the 
 
 carrying it into practical operation, are the 
 grounds of a first claim to scientific reputa- 
 tion, as well as public patronage." 
 
 Professor Morse was always indignant at 
 any intimation that his invention did not 
 originate with himself, and on this point 
 he makes the following sound observations 
 regarding inventions in general: 
 
 "It is often assumed that an invention 
 is prompted and perfected by a knowledge 
 of former attempts by others to realize a 
 similar result. The dates of these are re- 
 corded in chronological sequence, as if the 
 latter attempts depended upon and were 
 the resultants of the former. Such se- 
 quence is often imaginary. Indeed, it sel- 
 dom exists. It is much more frequently 
 the case that an invention is conceived and 
 perfected wholly in ignorance of any pre- 
 vious attempts by others. ' ■ 
 
 "It was at table in the cabin," wrote 
 Professor Morse to Dr. Charles T. Jackson, 
 of Boston, another claimant, "just after we 
 had completed the usual repast at midday. 
 We were conversing on recent scientific dis- 
 coveries. The question was asked by a 
 passenger if electricity was retarded by the 
 length of the wire. You replied no, that 
 the electricity passed instantaneously over 
 any known length of wire, and you then 
 
World's History. 179 
 
 alluded, in proof, to the experiment of Dr. 
 Franklin, who had made many miles in cir- 
 cuit near Philadelphia (London). He as- 
 certained the velocity of electricity, but 
 could observe no difference of time between 
 the touch at one extreme and the spark at 
 the other. I then remarked, 'This being 
 so, if the presence of electricity can be 
 made visible in any desired part of the cir- 
 cuit I see no reason why intelligence should 
 not be transmitted instantaneously by elec- 
 tricity. ' ' ' 
 
 Professor Morse then relates how he lay 
 awake at night thinking over the problem, 
 and how he devised a system of signs, and 
 constructed a species of type, which he 
 drew in his sketch-book, and by which he 
 proposed to regulate the passage of elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 The struggle was not over when Profes- 
 sor Morse had worked out his plan of tele- 
 graphy. He filed his caveat at Washing- 
 ton in 1837, and made a public exhibition 
 of his discovery in the same year. During 
 several years following he appealed in vain 
 to Congress and to foreign governments for 
 aid in establishing a telegraph line. At 
 length, when Morse had almost given up 
 hope, Congress, in the last moments of the 
 session of 1843, appropriated $30,000 for 
 an experimental line between Washington 
 and Baltimore. After the success of his 
 
180 Turning Points in the 
 
 system had been fully demonstrated, Pro- 
 fessor Morse had to face long and expen- 
 sive litigations in defence of his rights; but 
 he finally triumphed over every obstacle, 
 and in the latter part of his life he enjoyed 
 in full measure the honor and wealth which 
 he had so arduously earned. 
 
 CYRUS field's first cable message — 
 
 " GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST." 
 
 Professor Morse was the author of the 
 idea of submarine telegraphy. About the 
 same time that he originated his land tele- 
 graph system he announced to the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury "that a telegraphic 
 communication on his plan might, with 
 certainty, be established across the Atlan- 
 tic." To the late Cyrus W. Field, how- 
 ever, is due the credit for having carried 
 the idea into practice, after surmounting 
 with patience, energy and enterprise unsur- 
 passed difficulties and disappointments 
 which would have amply excused failure. 
 " Europe and America are united by tele- 
 graph. Glory to God in the highest; on 
 earth peace and good will towards men , ' ' 
 were the words that flashed under the 
 ocean, August 17, 1858. This cable 
 ceased working after a few weeks, and the 
 great civil war soon afterward distracted 
 
World's History. 181 
 
 the American people from everything save 
 that tremendous conflict. Disaster again 
 attended the plan to lay a cable in 1865, 
 but in 1866 the undertaking was renewed, 
 and successfully accomplished, and from 
 that time to the present communication by 
 submarine telegraph oetween America and 
 Europe has been an established fact. So 
 perfect and convenient is that communica- 
 tion that, when a great storm interrupted 
 telegraphic communication between New 
 York and Boston — a distance of about two 
 hundred and forty miles-- in March, 1888, 
 messages were exchanged between the two 
 cities under the ocean by way of London. 
 
 The value of telegraphy to mankind is 
 inestimable. In addition to its uses in 
 commerce and trade, and the personal 
 affairs of life, it makes the whole civilized 
 world a board of censors on the actions of 
 public men everywhere. Through the tel- 
 egraph public opinion in all parts of the 
 globe is brought to bear simultaneously on 
 the course of events. Wars are often thus 
 prevented, and peace, when it comes, puts 
 an immediate end to conflict. The War of 
 18 1 2, for instance, lasted for months, and 
 its principal battle was fought after peace 
 had been declared. Thousands of lives 
 would have been saved if the Treaty of 
 
1 82 Turning Poijits in the 
 
 Ghent could have been made known at 
 once in New Orleans. 
 
 The cable bearing to every part of civili- 
 zation news of the brave battle of the Boers 
 in defence of their liberties quickened pub- 
 lic sentiment in their behalf, and was in- 
 strumental in staying the arm of England, 
 outstretched to destroy them. Had the 
 fight at Majuba Mountain occurred before 
 the age of the telegraph, England would 
 have avenged the defeat and crushed the 
 Boers before the rest of mankind had even 
 learned that the struggle was going on. 
 Barbarism, as well as civilization, feels the 
 influence of the electric spark flashing its 
 light into those dark places of the earth, 
 which, the inspired writings sa}% are ''the 
 habitations of cruelty. " The Sultan in his 
 chamber, the autocrat in his fortress-palace, 
 are compelled to bow to the power which 
 the telegraph evokes. 
 
 BELL AND EDISON MAKE LIGHTNING TALK. 
 
 The telephone, invented about twenty 
 years ago by Alexander Graham Bell, and 
 made practical by Thomas A. Edison and 
 others, seems to promise a time when men 
 will converse with each other, though thou- 
 sands of miles apart. It is generally be- 
 lieved that the telephone, already in gen- 
 
World's History. 183 
 
 eral use, would have been made far more 
 useful than it is now, but for the restrict- 
 ing influence upon its development of the 
 vast capital invested in telegraph systems. 
 The electric light, in the improvement 
 of which Edison has added greatly to his 
 fame, besides acquiring large wealth, is 
 turning night into day in many of our 
 cities, and is coming into use also in fac- 
 tories, shops and dwellings, instead of 
 gaslight, although gas continues to be 
 profitable to its makers and acceptable to 
 the public. 
 
 steam's fellow-titan. 
 The greatest recent development in elec- 
 trical science has been the conversion of 
 electricity into mechanical power. Elec- 
 tricity, as a motive power, is where steam 
 was when Fulton launched his first steam- 
 boat. Its possibilities seem incalculable. 
 It can be conducted great distances from 
 the source of supply, and bring Niagara to 
 the doors of New York. It can utilize the 
 far-away mountain stream in running the 
 machinery of the city factory. It may yet, 
 in a vast degree, supersede steam, and it 
 may be that in the harnessing of our great 
 American cataract we witness another turn- 
 ing-point of the centuries. 
 
184 Turning Points in the 
 
 ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING MACHINE — HOW A 
 BARBER BECAME A NOBLEMAN. 
 
 It is not the purpose of the compiler of 
 this work to indulge in observations on the 
 political economy of machinery or to dis- 
 cuss the arguments advanced for and 
 against the industrial conditions that have 
 arisen within the present century. This 
 book is intended to deal with facts, not 
 with theories. It may be proper, however, 
 to remark that there is much to be said on 
 both sides of the machinery and labor-sav- 
 ing question, and that a great good may 
 become an evil when carried to extremes. 
 The changes which have occurred since 
 machines run by water . and steam-power 
 took the place of handiwork have added to 
 national wealth at some cost of individual 
 independence, and have made the luxuries 
 of the past the cheap and general comforts 
 of the present. To a certain limit they 
 broadened the field of labor, but the evi- 
 dence is now altogether too manifest that 
 the limit has been passed, and that the ten- 
 dency of concentrated capital, with ma- 
 chinery as its weapon, is to restrict the op- 
 portunity of the toiler to earn a living for 
 himself and his family. 
 
 Until the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury manufacturing was almost universally 
 
World's Histo?y. 185 
 
 — as the word itself indicates — handiwork, 
 aided by rude implements, and a few recent 
 improvements, which still left the operative 
 in a large degree his own master. There 
 were master manufacturers, but the} 7 de- 
 pended upon the cottagers for their mate- 
 rial, and the latter were in a position more 
 like that of contractors than of employes 
 bound to certain hours of service. 
 
 The manufacture of cotton goods in Eng- 
 land received a considerable impetus, about 
 1760, from increased exportation to Amer- 
 ica and to the continent. The thread had 
 hitherto been spun entirely by the tedious 
 process of the distaff and spindle, the spin- 
 ner drawing out only a single thread at a 
 time. As the demand for the manufac- 
 tured article continued to increase, a greater 
 and greater scarcity of weft was experi- 
 enced, till, at last, although there were fifty 
 thousand spindles constantly at work in 
 Lancashire alone, each occupying an indi- 
 vidual spinner, they were insufficient to 
 supply the quantity of thread required. 
 The weavers generally in those days had 
 the weft used spun for them by the females 
 of their family. Those weavers whose 
 families could not furnish the necessary 
 supply of weft had their spinning done by 
 their neighbors, and were obliged to pay 
 
1 86 Turning Points in the 
 
 more for the spinning than the price al- 
 lowed by their masters. 
 
 It was no uncommon thing for a weaver 
 to walk three or four miles in a morning, 
 and call on five or six spinners, before he 
 could collect weft to serve him for the re- 
 mainder of the day, and when he wished to 
 weave a piece in a shorter time than usual, 
 a new ribbon or gown was necessary to 
 quicken the exertions of the spinner. * 
 
 It was natural, under these circumstances, 
 that ingenious individuals should turn their 
 attention to contrive some improved method 
 of spinning, and it was then that a man 
 working at the humble calling of a barber 
 conceived and invented the machinery 
 which eventually superseded the cottage 
 system of manufacturing. 
 
 Sir Richard Arkwright was born at Pres- 
 ton, in Lancashire, England, in 1732, of 
 very poor parents, being the youngest of 
 thirteen children. He had very little, if 
 any, schooling, and was brought up to the 
 barber's trade, which he followed until 
 thirty years of age. Arkwright had a 
 genius for mechanics, which even his mo- 
 notonous routine at the barber's chair could 
 not suppress. He became acquainted with 
 a clockmaker named Kay, and from this 
 
 ♦Guest's " History of the Cotton Manufacture." 
 
World's History. 187 
 
 connection dates his entrance upon a new 
 career. 
 
 Arkwright and Kay appeared at Preston 
 in 1767, and occupied themselves with the 
 erection of a machine for spinning cotton 
 thread, of which they brought a model with 
 them. They prevailed upon a Mr. Smalley, 
 who is described as a liquor merchant and 
 painter, to join them in their speculation, 
 and the machine was put together in the 
 parlor of the dwelling-house attached to the 
 free grammar school, the use of which 
 Smalley had obtained from his friend, the 
 schoolmaster. At that time Arkwright 
 was so poor that, an election taking place 
 in the town, his friends had to subscribe to 
 get him a new suit of clothes before he 
 could present himself at the poll-room. 
 
 As soon as the election was over Ark- 
 wright and Kay moved to Nottingham, 
 being apprehensive of the hostility of the 
 people of Lancashire to the introduction of 
 spinning by machinery. There Arkwright 
 submitted his model to Messrs. Need and 
 Strutt, stocking makers of that place. Mr. 
 Strutt, who was himself an ingenious stu- 
 dent of mechanics, inspected the model and 
 saw its value, and he and Mr. Need at once 
 agreed to enter into partnership with Ark- 
 wright, who accordingly, in 1769, took out 
 a patent for the machine as its inventor. 
 A spinning mill, drawn by horse-power, 
 
1 88 Tumi?ig Points in the 
 
 was at the same time erected and filled with 
 the frames. 
 
 Arkwright did not claim to be in all re- 
 spects the inventor of the machinery known 
 by his name. He admitted that as to some 
 of the designs included in his patent he 
 had improved rather than invented. He 
 attributed the conception of the spinning- 
 jenny to one Hargreaves, who had lived at 
 Blackburn, and who had been driven out 
 of Lancashire in consequence of his inven- 
 tion, and died in obscurity and distress. 
 
 Arkwright' s invention was the turning- 
 point in giving to England pre-eminence 
 in manufactures, and was the starting-point 
 of cotton manufactures in America. Ark- 
 wright was fought on eve^ side by the 
 very manufacturers whom he did so much 
 to benefit, and his principal patent was 
 annulled by the adverse decision of a jury. 
 His remarkable energy, however, carried 
 him through every struggle, and his busi- 
 ness ability enabled him to accumulate a 
 considerable fortune. A few years before 
 his death he received the honor of knight- 
 hood. 
 
 HOW SLATER SMUGGLED ARKWRIGHT 'S 
 MACHINE IN HIS BRAIN. 
 
 Samuel Slater, the 'father of cotton man- 
 ufactures in America, was an apprentice to 
 
World's History. 189 
 
 Strutt, the partner of Arkwright. The 
 laws of England forbade anyone to convey 
 models out of the country, and Slater, when 
 he determined to emigrate to the United 
 States, had to rely upon his memory for the 
 reproduction of the Arkwright machinery. 
 Slater was fortunate in attracting the at- 
 tention of Moses Brown, an eminent mer- 
 chant, of Providence, R. I., with whose 
 aid he established his first factory at Paw- 
 tucket, in that State. 
 
 Aided by water-power, steam and gas, 
 and with electric power also recently 
 brought into service, manufacturing has 
 grown enormously in every civilized coun- 
 try, and especially in the United States and 
 Western Europe. In the United States, in 
 England, in Germany, Belgium and France, 
 the markets are generally over-supplied 
 with goods, as compared with the ability 
 of the people to buy, and protective bar- 
 riers have been raised nearly everywhere, 
 save in Great Britain and Belgium, to pre- 
 serve the native market to the resident 
 manufacturers. And while the markets 
 are thus glutted with an over-abundance of 
 manufactured goods, and multitudes are 
 clamoring in vain for leave to toil, inven- 
 tive genius is at work in both hemispheres 
 seeking to make it possible for the employer 
 
190 Turning Points in the 
 
 to get along with fewer employes by means 
 of labor-saving machines. 
 
 Thus the ranks of unemployed labor are 
 continually recruited through labor-saving 
 inventions, and in this country, also, 
 through virtually unrestricted immigration. 
 The barrier of protection is raised higher 
 and higher on this side of the Atlantic only 
 to be challenged by ingenious devices for 
 reducing the cost of production on the other 
 side. Tidings of prosperity in English or 
 German manufacturing centres are received 
 with a pang, as if it were a blow at our- 
 selves, while the news that operatives in 
 this or that part of Europe have been 
 driven to the soup-house and suicide is 
 hailed with hardly concealed satisfaction. 
 
 The market for labor is being still 
 further narrowed by the formation of vast 
 combinations of capital, generally known 
 as ' ' trusts, ' ' which control certain lines of 
 production. The "trusts," with the rea- 
 sonable purpose of making all the profit they 
 can, keep down expenses to the lowest limit 
 consistent with efficient management, and 
 close factories wherever factories are deemed 
 unnecessary. They are able to apply all 
 the power and energy of concentrated capi- 
 tal, directed by individual ability, and the 
 best services that wealth can command. 
 
World's History. 191 
 
 Legislation has been enacted to suppress 
 ''trusts," but such legislation being repug- 
 nant to free institutions and to individual 
 rights, is of no effect in practice. 
 
 It is obviously as fair, from a moral 
 and common-sense standpoint, for an indi- 
 vidual to put his capital into a "trust" as 
 to put it into any other form of investment, 
 and to deny him that right is to abridge his 
 freedom as a citizen. The "trust" may be 
 dangerous, but it is logical. It is the com- 
 mercial energy of the age carried to an ex- 
 treme. 
 
 The "trusts," however, are blazing the 
 way to State socialism. The people are 
 instinctively opposed to the ' ' trust' ' system, 
 and it seems plain enough that the people 
 will eventually conclude that if all the bus- 
 iness of the country in certain important 
 lines is to be concentrated in a few hands, 
 if individualism and competition are to dis- 
 appear, the people might as well form a 
 "trust" of their own, and apply to the gen- 
 eral uses the profits which now go to swell 
 enormous fortunes. I am not suggesting 
 this result as one to be approved. I am an 
 advocate of individualism, and have always 
 been opposed to socialism, but now that in- 
 dividualism is disappearing under the pres- 
 sure of concentrated capital, and of the 
 Titanic tools which invention has placed at 
 the command of capital, it seems to me 
 
192 Turning Points in the 
 
 inevitable that the people will ultimately 
 prefer State socialism to an oligarchy of 
 "trusts," competition, the most powerful 
 bulwark against State socialism, having 
 been effaced by the "trusts" themselves. 
 
 The cry for municipal ownership is simply 
 the beginning of State socialism. It is al- 
 ready a strong movement, and gaining in 
 strength, and the indications are that the 
 twentieth century will dawn upon the Amer- 
 ican people entering upon this new struggle 
 — this probably final phase of the industrial 
 revolution. 
 
World's History. 193 
 
 XVII.— TEN MILITARY AND NAVAL 
 
 TURNING POINTS. 
 
 EUROPE. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 "The Invincible Armada" — what 
 thoughts crowd upon us at that name of 
 England's later vikings, Sir Francis Drake, 
 Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher 
 and the rest, who returned from the ex- 
 ploration of unknown seas and continents 
 to do brave battle in defence of England's 
 homes and England's faith and liberties! 
 
 Philip II., the most powerful monarch of 
 his time, had decreed that England should 
 be subdued and the Protestant religion ex- 
 tinguished, and the wealth and valor and 
 pride of Spain were gathered to do his bid- 
 ding. With England at his feet the Dutch 
 insurgents could not long hold out, and all 
 of Europe, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, 
 would be ready to do his bidding. France 
 was too weak for rivalry ; the dry bones of 
 Germany had not been evoked to life by the 
 summons of a Vasa or a Frederick. Philip 
 was master of the New World, and resolved 
 to dominate the Old. Even the Sultan 
 bowed to his will. England's queen alone, 
 among the leading rulers of Europe, scorned 
 13 
 
194 Turning Points in the 
 
 to truckle to the Spaniard, and held aloft 
 the standard of Protestantism. 
 
 The Spanish fleet consisted of one hun- 
 dred and thirty vessels, of greater size than 
 any seen up to that time in Europe. Italy, 
 Portugal and the isles of the Levant con- 
 tributed to swell the armament, which car- 
 ried 20,000 soldiers, and was prepared to 
 transport 34,000 more from the Low Coun- 
 tries to invade England. The Spanish 
 vessels resembled castles in their height 
 and hugeness, but their very superiority of 
 size made them unwieldy, and easy prey 
 for the lighter vessels of the English. 
 "They contained within them," we are 
 told, "chambers, chapels, turrets and other 
 commodities of great houses. ' ' Their 
 pieces of brazen ordnance were 1600, and of 
 yron a 1000. The bullets thereto belong- 
 ing were 120,000. Moreover they had 
 great stores of cannons, double cannons, 
 culverings and field-pieces for land ser- 
 vices. ' ' They had an abundant equipment 
 for the troops in march after landing, and 
 vast quantities of wine, bacon, and other 
 food and drink. "To be short, they brought 
 all things expedient, either for a fleete by 
 sea, or for an armie by land. " " This 
 navie was esteemed b}^ the king himselfe to 
 contain 32,000 persons, and to cost him 
 every day 32,000 ducates. " 
 
 In addition to the Armada, the Duke of 
 
World's History. 195 
 
 Parma collected a vast flotilla and a squad- 
 ron of warships at Dunkirk, to transport 
 his army to England, where, under the pro- 
 tection of the Armada the troops were to be 
 landed which were to bring that country 
 under the yoke of Spain. 
 
 The English fleet consisted chiefly of 
 merchant vessels gathered from all the 
 ports of the kingdom, while in every part 
 of the country the people armed themselves, 
 and prepared by drilling and soldierly ex- 
 ercises to resist the invaders. The ships of 
 the royal navy numbered thirty-six, but the 
 total number of vessels collected to defend 
 the realm was 191, with 17,472 seamen. 
 The Hollanders came to the assistance of 
 the English with three-score sail, "brave 
 ships of war. ' ' Scotland, sore on account 
 of the recent execution of Queen Mary, re- 
 mained neutral and divided in sympathy, 
 although it was a Scottish mariner named 
 Fleming that gave notice to High Admiral 
 Lord Howard, of the approach of the Ar- 
 mada. 
 
 The Armada lay off Calais, the largest 
 ships ranged outside, when the English be- 
 gan the attack, on the night of the twenty- 
 ninth of July, 1588. Eight fire-ships were 
 sent among the Spaniards, causing great 
 confusion, and forcing the Spanish admiral 
 to put to sea. When morning broke the 
 Spaniards ranged themselves near Grave- 
 
196 Turning Points in the 
 
 lines. Here the English, with Drake and 
 Fenner in the lead, made a daring and de- 
 cisive attack on their foes. Says a writer 
 of that day : 
 
 "Upon the 29 of July in the morning, 
 the Spanish fleet after the forsayd tumult, 
 having arranged themselues againe into 
 order, were, within sight of Greveling, 
 most bravely and furiously encountered by 
 the English, where they once again got the 
 wind of the Spaniards, who suffered them- 
 selues to be deprived of the commodity of 
 the place in Caleis Road, and of the ad- 
 vantage of the wind neer unto Dunkerk, 
 rather than they would change their array 
 or separate their forces now conjoyned and 
 united together standing only upon their 
 defense. 
 
 1 ' And albeit there were many excellent 
 and warlike shippes in the English fleet, yet 
 scarce were there 22 or 23 among them all, 
 which matched 90 of the Spanish shippes in 
 the bigness, or could conveniently assault 
 them. Wherefore the English shippes 
 using their prerogative of nimble steerage, 
 whereby they could turn and wield them- 
 selues with the wind which way they listed, 
 came often times very near upon the Span- 
 iards, and charged them so sore, that now 
 and then they were but a pike's length 
 asunder ; and so continually giving them 
 one broad side after another, they dis- 
 
World's History. 197 
 
 charged all their shot, both great and small, 
 upon them, spending one whole day, from 
 morning till night, in that violent kind of 
 conflict, untill such time as powder and 
 bullets failed them. In regard of which 
 want they thought it convenient not to pur- 
 sue the Spaniards any longer, because they 
 had many great vantages of the English, 
 namely, for the extraordinary bigness of 
 their shippes, and also for that they were so 
 neerely conjoyned, and kept together in so 
 good array, that they could by no meanes 
 be foUgt withall one to one. The English 
 thought, therefore, that they had right 
 well acquitted themselues in chasing the 
 Spaniards first from Caleis, and then from 
 Dunkerk, and by that means to have hin- 
 dered them from joyning with the Duke of 
 Parma his forces, and getting the wind of 
 them, to have driven them from their own 
 coasts. 
 
 "The Spaniards that day sustained great 
 loss and damage, having many of their 
 shippes shot thorow and thorow, and they 
 discharged likewise great store of ordnance 
 against the English, who, indeed, sustained 
 some hinderance, but not comparable to the 
 Spaniard's loss; for they lost not any one 
 ship or person of account; for very diligent 
 inquisition being made, the Englishmen all 
 that time wherein the Spanish navy sayled 
 upon their seas, are not found to haue 
 
198 Turning Points in the 
 
 wanted aboue one hundred of their people ; 
 albeit Sir Francis Drake's ship was pierced 
 with shot aboue forty times, and his very 
 cabben was twice shot thorow, and about 
 the conclusion of the fight, the bed of a cer- 
 taine gentleman lying weary thereupon, 
 was taken quite from under him with the 
 force of a bullet. Likewise, as the Earle 
 of Northumberland and Sir Charles Blunt 
 were at dinner upon a time, the bullet of a 
 demy-culvering brake thorow the middest 
 of their cabben, touched their feet, and 
 strooke downe two of the standers-by, with 
 many such accidents befalling the English 
 shippes, which it were tedious to rehearse." 
 The remainder of the defeated Armada, 
 wrote Vice- Admiral Drake, "driven with 
 squibs from their anchors, were chased out 
 of the sight of England, round about Scot- 
 land and Ireland ; where, for the sympathy 
 of their religion, hoping to find succor and 
 assistance, a great part of them were crushed 
 against the rocks, and those others that 
 landed, being very many in number, were, 
 notwithstanding, broken, slain, and taken, 
 and so sent from village to village, coupled 
 in halters to be shipped into England, 
 where her majesty, of her princely and in- 
 vincible disposition, disdaining to put them 
 to death, and scorning either to retain or 
 to entertain them, they were all sent back 
 again to their countries, to witness and 
 
World's History. 199 
 
 recount the worthy achievement of their in- 
 vincible and dreadful navy. Of which the 
 number of soldiers, the fearful burden of 
 their ships, the commanders' names of 
 every squadron, with all others, their mag- 
 azines of provision, were put in print, as 
 an army and navy irresistible and disdain- 
 ing prevention ; with all which their great 
 and terrible ostentation, they did not in all 
 their sailing round about England so much 
 as sink or take one ship, barque, pinnace, 
 or cock-boat of ours, or even burn so much 
 as one sheep-cote on this land. ' ' 
 
 Of the Spaniards wrecked on the Irish 
 coast one has handed down a vivid descrip- 
 tion of his lamentable treatment by those 
 whom he calls ''savages." In Scotland 
 the Catholic nobles used their influence in 
 behalf of the fugitives, and secured the safe 
 return of some of them to their native land, 
 instead of being delivered up to the Eng- 
 lish. The power of Spain was thoroughly 
 humbled, and English adventurers every- 
 where preyed on her merchantmen and her 
 colonies. English maritime supremac}^ had 
 its origin in the defeat of the Spanish Ar- 
 mada. The friends of the Reformation 
 everywhere were encouraged to stand firmly 
 for the faith that was in them, and the 
 Dutch were animated also in their glorious 
 struggle for liberty. 
 
200 Turning Points in the 
 
 PULTOWA. 
 
 The Swedish empire, founded by Gus- 
 tavus Vasa, and extended by his successors 
 over a considerable portion of Europe below 
 the Baltic, was difficult to maintain, and 
 impossible to perpetuate. The Swedes 
 themselves were too few in number to act 
 the part of Romans in vast and subject 
 provinces, separated by a wide sea from the 
 ruling power, and bordered by jealous, 
 hostile and aggressive States. It is one of 
 the plainest lessons of history that con- 
 tiguous extension is the only extension of 
 empire likel}^ to prove lasting and secure. 
 The annexed provinces grow attached by 
 degrees to their new masters, and distinc- 
 tions of nationality are gradually effaced 
 and ancient prejudices forgotten. Thus 
 rival kingdoms of the Spanish peninsula 
 were merged in one Spanish monarchy com- 
 manding the allegiance alike of Castilian 
 and Andalusian. Thus England, Wales and 
 Scotland became one people, to the common 
 advantage of all. Thus the name of Prus- 
 sia has become in effect synonymous with 
 that of Germany, or at least of Northern 
 Germany. Thus Russia has spread from 
 the Niemen to the Amoor, and even Aus- 
 tria has held together for centuries its 
 strange mosaic of discordant races. 
 
World's History. 201 
 
 England, on the other hand, long ago 
 lost her French dominions, on whose con- 
 quest and defence so much of English treas- 
 ure and blood were expended. Spain found 
 the Low Countries only a grave for her 
 armies, and Sweden sacrificed peace and 
 wealth, and the flower of her manhood in a 
 vain effort to keep Germany and Prussia 
 and Poland at her feet. 
 
 The ideal, the heroic period of Sweden's 
 military power was when Gustavus Adol- 
 phus championed the cause of the suffering 
 Protestants of Germany, and gave up his 
 life on the field of IyUtzen in battling for 
 the reformed religion. Germany has never 
 forgotten the great commander who swept 
 down from the North on the hordes of Wal- 
 lenstein, and died in the hour of victory. 
 Lutzen saved Northern Germany to the 
 Reformation, as the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada saved England. 
 
 "God is my cuirass," said Gustavus 
 Adolphus on the morning of the battle, 
 when his generals urged him to put on 
 armor. At the head of his army he led the 
 charge. The imperial troops fought reso- 
 lutely, desperately. Sometimes it seemed 
 that the Swedes and their allies would be 
 overwhelmed, but Gustavus, always in the 
 thick of the fight, gaye invincible ardor to 
 his followers. Suddenly, in the height of 
 the conflict, as yet undecided, the Swedish 
 
202 Turning Points in the 
 
 king falls, and his riderless horse dashes 
 back into the ranks of the Norsemen. 
 
 Not consternation, but a terrible, irre- 
 sistible determination to save the body of 
 their beloved leader possessed every Swede 
 in that host. With a furious courage that 
 mercenaries could never know, the children 
 of the Vikings swept upon their foes. The 
 host of Wallenstein wavered, then fell back 
 before the almost supernatural onset. The 
 body of the king was rescued, but not be- 
 fore it had been cruelly disfigured with 
 wounds and plundered by the savage Croats. 
 Ten thousand dead and wounded lay on the 
 field, and the artillery of the imperialists 
 fell into the hands of the Swedes and their 
 allies. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus was dead, but able 
 statesmen and gallant soldiers upheld the 
 standard which he had raised, and bore it 
 even to the gates of Vienna. The Peace of 
 Westphalia in 1648, sixteen years after 
 Lutzen, forbade religious persecution, and 
 laid the foundations of modern Germany. 
 ****** 
 
 The battle of Pultowa, about fifty years 
 after the Peace of Westphalia, brought 
 down the always fragile fabric of Swedish 
 empire on the mainland of Europe, and 
 established the power of the Czars. Charles 
 XII., of Sweden, has been called the Mad- 
 man of the North, but if he had succeded at 
 
World's History. 203 
 
 Pultowa he would not have been called a 
 madman, and there was even more excuse 
 for his invasion of Russia than for the sub- 
 sequent enterprise of Napoleon, who had 
 the experience of Charles XII. as a warn- 
 ing. Charles was one of the great com- 
 manders of his age, and of all ages. He 
 had military genius of the highest order; 
 he loved war; it was his element, and the 
 completion of one conquest only inspired 
 him to think of another. He was dictator 
 of Europe from the Rhine to the Vistula, 
 with a splendidly equipped army, a country 
 proud of his conquests, and not yet impov- 
 erished by his losses, and was courted and 
 feared by every ruler, from Queen Anne to 
 Peter the Czar, when he resolved to invade 
 Muscovy, and dictate terms to the House of 
 Romanoff. Charles was probably actuated 
 in a large degree by desire to punish Peter 
 for his share in the coalition of 1698 against 
 the Swedes, and especially his hypocritical 
 expressions of goodwill while preparing to 
 rob Sweden of its Baltic possessions. Charles 
 would never forgive duplicity. It is cer- 
 tain, whatsoever the underlying motive, 
 that Charles XII. designed to conquer Rus- 
 sia, as he had conquered Poland. There 
 was good reason for his expectation of 
 victory, for he had never failed to defeat 
 the Russians easily in all previous encoun- 
 ters. 
 
204 Turning Points in the 
 
 King Charles set out from his camp at 
 Aldstadt, near Leipsic, in September, 1707, 
 at the head of 45,000 men, and traversed 
 Poland; 20,000 men, under Count Lewen- 
 haupt, disembarked at Riga and 15,000 
 were in Finland. "He was therefore in 
 condition to have brought together 80,000 
 of the best troops in the world. He left 
 10,000 men at Warsaw to guard King Stan- 
 islaus, and in January, 1708, arrived at 
 Grodno, where he wintered. In June, he 
 crossed the forest of Minsk, and presented 
 himself before Borisov; forced the Russian 
 army, which occupied the left bank of the 
 Beresina; defeated 20,000 Russians who 
 were strongly intrenched behind marshes; 
 passed the Borysthenes at Mohilov, and 
 vanquished a corps of 16,000 Muscovites 
 near Smolensko on the 22d of September. 
 He was now advanced to the confines of 
 Lithuania, and was about to enter Russia 
 proper; the Czar, alarmed at his approach, 
 made him proposals of peace. Up to this 
 time all his movements were conformable to 
 rule, and his communications were well 
 secured. He was master of Poland and 
 Riga, and only ten days' march distant from 
 Moscow ; and it is probable that he would 
 have reached that capital, had he not 
 quitted the high road thither, and directed 
 his steps toward the Ukraine, in order to 
 form a junction with Mazeppa, who brought 
 
World' s History. 205 
 
 him only 6000 men. By this movement, 
 his line of operations, beginning at Sweden, 
 exposed his flank to Russia for a distance 
 of four hundred leagues, and he was unable 
 to protect it, or to receive either reinforce- 
 ments or assistance. "* 
 
 The Czar had collected an army of about 
 100,000 effective men; and though the 
 Swedes, in the beginning of the invasion, 
 were successful in every encounter, the 
 Russian troops were gradually acquiring 
 discipline ; and Peter and his officers were 
 learning generalship from their victors, as 
 the Thebans of old learned it from the 
 Spartans. When Lewenhaupt, in the Oc- 
 tober of 1708, was striving to join Charles 
 in the Ukraine, the Czar suddenly attacked 
 him near the Borysthenes with an over- 
 whelming force of 50,000 Russians. Lew- 
 enhaupt fought bravely for three days, 
 and succeeded in cutting his way through 
 the enemy with about 4000 of his men to 
 where Charles awaited him near the River 
 Desna; but upwards of 8000 Swedes fell in 
 these battles; Lewenhaupt's cannon and 
 ammunition were abandoned; and the 
 whole of his important convoy of provisions, 
 on which Charles and his half-starved 
 troops were relying, fell into the enemy's 
 hands. Charles was compelled to remain 
 
 * "Napoleon the Great on Charles XII." 
 
206 Turning Points in the 
 
 in the Ukraine during the winter \ but in 
 the spring of 1709 he moved forward toward 
 Moscow, and invested the fortified town of 
 Pultowa, on the River Vorskla; a place 
 where the Czar had stored up large supplies 
 of provisions and military stores, and which 
 commanded the passes leading toward Mos- 
 cow. The possession of this place would 
 have given Charles the means of supplying 
 all the wants of his suffering army, and 
 would also have furnished him with a secure 
 base of operations for his advance against 
 the Muscovite capital. The siege was there- 
 fore hotly pressed by the Swedes ; the gar- 
 rison resisted obstinately; and the Czar, 
 feeling the importance of saving the town, 
 advanced in June to its relief, at the head 
 of an army from fifty to sixty thousand 
 strong. * 
 
 Both sovereigns now prepared for the 
 general action, which each saw to be in- 
 evitable, and which each felt would be de- 
 cisive of his own and of his country's 
 destiny. The Czar, by some masterly 
 manoeuvres, crossed the Vorskla, and posted 
 his army on the same side of that river 
 with the besiegers, but a little higher up. 
 The Vorskla falls into the Borysthenes 
 about fifteen leagues below Pultowa, and 
 the Czar arranged his forces in two lines, 
 
 *"Creasy's Fifteen Decisive Battles. 
 
World's History. 207 
 
 stretching from one river toward the other, 
 so that if the Swedes attacked him and were 
 repulsed, they would be driven backward 
 into the acute angle formed by the two 
 streams at their junction. He fortified 
 these lines with several redoubts, lined 
 with heavy artillery ; and his troops, both 
 horse and foot, were in the best possible 
 condition, and amply provided with stores 
 and ammunition. Charles' forces were 
 about 24,000 strong. But no more than 
 half of these were Swedes; so much had 
 battle, famine, fatigue and the deadly frosts 
 of Russia thinned the gallant bands which 
 the Swedish king and Lewenhaupt had led 
 to the Ukraine. The other 12,000 men, 
 under Charles, were Cossacks and Wallach- 
 ians, who had joined him in the country. 
 On hearing that the Czar was about to 
 attack him, he deemed that his dignity re- 
 quired that he himself should be the assail- 
 ant; and, leading his army out of their 
 intrenched lines before the town, he ad- 
 vanced with them against the Russian re- 
 doubts. 
 
 He had been severely wounded in the 
 foot in a skirmish a few days before, and 
 was borne in a litter along the ranks into 
 the thick of the fight. Notwithstanding 
 the fearful disparity of numbers and dis- 
 advantage of position, the Swedes never 
 showed their ancient valor more nobly than 
 
208 Turning Points in the 
 
 on that dreadful day. Nor do their Cos- 
 sack and Wallachian allies seem to have 
 been unworthy of fighting side by side with 
 Charles' veterans. Two of the Russian 
 redoubts were actually entered, and the 
 Swedish infantry began to raise the cry of 
 victory. But, on the other side, neither 
 general nor soldiers flinched in their duty. 
 The Russian cannonade and musketry were 
 kept up; fresh masses of defenders were 
 poured into the fortifications, and at length 
 the exhausted remnants of the Swedish 
 columns recoiled from the blood-stained 
 redoubts. Then the Czar led the infantry 
 and cavalry of his first line outside the 
 works, drew them up steadily and skillfully, 
 and the action was renewed along the whole 
 fronts of the two armies on the open ground. 
 Each sovereign exposed his life freely in 
 the world-winning battle, and on each side 
 the troops fought obstinately and eagerly 
 under their ruler's eyes. It was not till 
 two hours from the commencement of the 
 action that, overpowered by numbers, the 
 hitherto invincible Swedes gave way. All 
 was then hopeless disorder and irreparable 
 rout. Driven downward to where the rivers 
 join, the fugitive Swedes surrendered to 
 their victorious pursuers, or perished in the 
 waters of the Borysthenes. Only a few 
 hundreds swam that river with their king 
 and the Cossack Mazeppa, and escaped 
 
World's History. 209 
 
 into the Turkish territory. Nearty 10,000 
 lay killed and wounded in the redoubts and 
 on the field of battle. 
 
 Sweden never recovered from the blow 
 inflicted at Pultowa, and has never since 
 held rank as a first-class power. Her Bal- 
 tic provinces fell to Russia, and other an- 
 tagonists took advantage of Sweden's 
 weakness to share in the spoliation. Sweden 
 was helpless, for about one-fourth of the 
 male population had perished in the wars, 
 and old men and boys alone remained in 
 some of the provinces to cultivate the soil. 
 Russia, on the other hand, went steadily 
 forward in her course of aggrandizement, 
 having disposed of the only enemy she 
 feared. 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 The downfall of Napoleon the Great 
 really dates from the burning of Moscow. 
 The destruction of the grand army which 
 he had led into Russia deprived him of the 
 veterans of Austerlitz and Jena, and left 
 him to fight with conscript regiments 
 against allied Europe, bent on his over- 
 throw, and pledged not to lay down arms 
 until success had been achieved. The 
 young French soldiers fought, it is said, 
 like veterans, but they had opposed to them 
 enemies who felt that Napoleon was no 
 longer invincible, and that his star of em- 
 14 
 
210 Turning Points in the 
 
 pire was on the wane. Between Moscow 
 and Elba Napoleon achieved some victories 
 worthy of his fame, but he could not regain 
 his old ascendency because he no longer 
 had the resources for war. France was 
 exhausted; her best soldiers had perished, 
 and her homes no longer yielded a suffi- 
 ciency of recruits for the battlefield. Na- 
 poleon did not capitulate, however, until 
 his cause was utterly hopeless, and his cap- 
 ital was in the hands of the enemy. 
 
 The Bourbons were responsible for the 
 Hundred Days. Neither guillotine nor 
 exile could teach a Bourbon that the world 
 was moving, and that the France which had 
 witnessed the Revolution and the Empire 
 was not the France of Louis XV. The 
 people, it is true, were no longer offended 
 by the gross excesses of Versailles and the 
 Trianon, but Louis XVIII. was a Bourbon 
 in every fibre. Every day of his reign was 
 an argument by contrast in favor of the 
 past with its glories and its sacrifices — and 
 what will Frenchmen not sacrifice for glory ? 
 The very faults of the absent emperor seemed 
 brilliant compared with the stolid and worth- 
 less respectability of a king who ruled only 
 by virtue of bayonets steeped in the blood 
 of France. The French people keenly felt 
 their degrading position under a sovereign 
 who was the protege of the very nations 
 whom French arms had humbled at Auster- 
 
World's History. 211 
 
 litz, Jena and Friedland. It was a relief to 
 turn their eyes and thoughts to Elba, where 
 sat the idol and the hero of their race. 
 
 Napoleon's return found the French peo- 
 ple ripe for revolt from their emigre king. 
 The empire was restored far more quickly 
 than it had been overturned, and Napoleon 
 never showed his wonderful genius more 
 signally than in the speed and thoroughness 
 with which he prepared the country to 
 resist the hostile armies which poured to- 
 ward the frontier with Paris as their goal. 
 Could he have called to life the dry bones 
 of that multitude that had followed him to 
 Russia, of the thousands who had fallen in 
 Germany, on the plains of Lombardy and 
 the hills of Spain, embattled Europe might 
 have met more than its match on the Rhine 
 and in Belgium. But the dead of the 
 Grand Armee could answer the trump no 
 more. The memory of their loyalty, their 
 courage and their sufferings remained a 
 precious legacy to France, but the once in- 
 vincible battalions would never again align 
 for the charge under the eye of their adored 
 commander. The Old Guard survived, a 
 remnant of the past; but only a remnant. 
 
 Napoleon, however, succeeded in gather- 
 ing an army of about 120,000 men, with a 
 formidable array of artillery, and about 
 25,000 excellent cavalry. "The whole 
 army was full of ardor, ' ' says Count Eabe- 
 
212 Turning Points in the 
 
 doyere, "but the emperor, more a slave than 
 could have been credited to recollections and 
 old habits, committed the great fault of re- 
 placing his army under the command of its 
 former chiefs, most of whom, notwithstand- 
 ing their previous addresses to the king, 
 did not cease to pray for the triumph of the 
 imperial cause; yet were not disposed to 
 serve it with that ardor and devotion de- 
 manded by imperious circumstances. They 
 were no longer men full of youth and am- 
 bition, generously prodigal of their lives to 
 acquire rank and fame ; but veterans weary 
 of warfare, who, having attained the sum- 
 mit of promotion, and being enriched by 
 the spoils of the enemy, or the bounty of 
 Napoleon, indulged no other wish than the 
 peaceable enjoyment of their good fortune 
 under the shade of those laurels they had so 
 dearly acquired." The emperor was 
 solemnly warned by Marshal Soult, in be- 
 half of a convention of general officers, 
 against the bestowal on Grouchy of the 
 command of the corps which was to consti- 
 tute the right flank of Napoleon's army. 
 The emperor did not act on the warning, 
 and Grouchy 's failure to support him at 
 Waterloo fully justified the misgivings to 
 which Soult had given expression. 
 
 Marshal Blucher had about 116,000 Prus- 
 sians in Belgium, and the Duke of Welling- 
 ton commanded about 100,000 men, of 
 
World' s History. 213 
 
 whom but a small proportion were British. 
 Napoleon resolved to take his enemies in 
 detail. He defeated the Prussians at Ligny, 
 June 16, 18 1 5, but it was not a crushing 
 defeat. Blucher quickly recovered from 
 the blow, and, reinforced by troops that had 
 not been in the battle, he was prepared to 
 give timely aid to Wellington at Waterloo. 
 Grouchy, detached with 30,000 men by Na- 
 poleon to keep the Prussians in check, 
 failed in that object, not through treachery, 
 but incapacity, and spent the remainder of 
 his life explaining why he failed. 
 
 The French army at Waterloo amounted 
 to 72,000 men, including about 16,000 cav- 
 alry. This did not include the corps under 
 Grouchy, which was detached to observe 
 the Prussians at Wavre. The French artil- 
 lery numbered 210 pieces. The French in- 
 fantry was largely composed of ! 'small young 
 men," showing the exhaustion to which 
 incessant conscription had reduced their 
 country. The "Old Guard" were of good 
 physique, and all the French fought well. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington had under his 
 command 50,300 infantry, 6950 cavalry and 
 120 guns. Of the infantry only 17,500 
 were British, the total effective force of in- 
 fantry being as follows: British, 17,500; 
 German Legion, 5600; Nassau, 2400; 
 Brunswick, 6400; total, 31,900. 
 
 The remainder, composed of Dutch Line 
 
214 Turning Points hi the 
 
 regiments, Pay Bas Line regiments and 
 Dutch militia, were worse than worthless, 
 partly owing to cowardice, and largely, no 
 doubt, to lukewarmness, and secret good- 
 will toward Napoleon. "They (the Bel- 
 gians) certainly did not behave well," says 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Tomkinson in his 
 Diary, "and though placed in the second 
 line, and in many instances under cover of 
 the hill, it was difficult to keep them even 
 in that position. When a man was wounded 
 two or three went away with him to the 
 rear. They took great care of their com- 
 rades in going off the field, and then com- 
 menced plundering in the rear. ' ' . 
 "There was a regiment of the Pay Bas in 
 square. They were not engaged, nor suf- 
 fering much from fire, I may say, not in 
 the least cut up whilst I saw them. They 
 were immediately in our front, and fancying 
 the affair rather serious, and that if the 
 enemy advanced an}^ faster (as their fears 
 apprehended) they would have to oppose 
 them, they began firing their muskets in 
 the air, and their rear moved a little, in- 
 tending under the confusion of their fire 
 and smoke to move off. Major Childers, 
 Eleventh Light Dragoons, and I rode up to 
 them, encouraged them, stopped those who 
 had moved the farthest (ten yards perhaps) 
 out of their ranks, and whilst they were 
 hesitating whether to retreat or continue 
 
World's History. 215 
 
 with their column the Duke rode up and en- 
 couraged them. He said to us, 'That is 
 right, that is right; keep them up.' Chil- 
 ders then brought up his squadron, and by- 
 placing it in their rear, they continued 
 steady. Had this one battalion run away 
 at that moment the consequences might 
 have been fatal." This extraordinary in- 
 cident is in itself enough to show the worse 
 than worthless character of the Dutch and 
 Belgian troops at Waterloo. They num- 
 bered 18,400 men, and can be counted out 
 altogether as part of the British strength on 
 that day, leaving 31,900 British and Ger- 
 man infantry and 6950 British and German 
 cavalry, and 5645 artillerymen, with 156 
 guns, to oppose Napoleon's army of 48,950 
 infantry, 15,765 cavalry, 7232 artillerymen 
 and 246 guns. All of Napoleon's troops 
 were animated by one national spirit, they 
 had the bravery common to Frenchmen, 
 and many of them were veterans of his 
 former wars. 
 
 The morning of June 18 followed a night 
 of unceasing rain. The British had no 
 tents, and neither officers nor men had a dry 
 garment left to them. Most of them had 
 passed the night without even a fire, and 
 attempts to dry clothing in the morning 
 were made vain by occasional showers. It 
 was a gloomy sky that lowered over the 
 most fateful battlefield of history. "Per- 
 
216 Turning Points in the 
 
 haps those," says Creas}^, "who have not 
 seen the field of battle at Waterloo, or the 
 admirable model of the ground and of the 
 conflicting armies which was executed by 
 Captain Siborne, may gain a generally ac- 
 curate idea of the localities by picturing to 
 themselves a valley, between two or three 
 miles long, of various breadths at different 
 points, but generally not exceeding half a 
 mile. On each side of the valley there is a 
 winding chain of low hills, running some- 
 what parallel with each other. The declivity 
 from each of these ranges of hills to the in- 
 tervening valley is gentle but not uniform, 
 the undulations of the ground being fre- 
 quent and considerable. The English 
 army was posted on the northern, and the 
 French army occupied the southern ridge. 
 The artillery of each side thundered at the 
 other from their respective heights through- 
 out the day, and the charges of horse and 
 foot were made across the valley that has 
 been described. The village of Mont St. 
 Jean is situate a little behind the centre of 
 the northern chain of hills, and the village 
 of La Belle Alliance is close behind the 
 centre of the southern ridge. The high 
 road from Charleroi to Brussels runs through 
 both these villages, and bisects, therefore, 
 both the English and the French positions. 
 The line of this road was the line of Na- 
 poleon's intended advance on Brussels. 
 
World' s History. 2 1 7 
 
 "The strength of the British position did 
 not consist merely in the occupation of a 
 ridge of high ground. A village and ravine, 
 called Merk Braine, on the Duke of Welling- 
 ton's extreme right, secured him from his 
 flank being turned on that side; and on his 
 extreme left, two little hamlets, called La 
 Haye and Papillote, gave a similar though 
 a slighter protection. It was, however, less 
 necessary to provide for this extremity of 
 the position, as it was on this (the eastern) 
 side that the Prussians were coming up. 
 Behind the whole British position is the 
 great and extensive forest of Soignies. As 
 no attempt was made by the French to turn 
 either of the English flanks, and the battle 
 was a day of straightforward fighting, it is 
 chiefly important to see what posts there 
 were in front of the British line of hills of 
 which advantage could be taken either to 
 repel or facilitate an attack ; and it will be 
 seen that there were two, and that each was 
 of very great importance in the action. In 
 front of the British right, that is to say, on 
 the northern slope of the valley toward its 
 western end, there stood an old-fashioned 
 Flemish farmhouse called Goumont or 
 Hougoumont, with out-buildings and a gar- 
 den, and with a copse of beech-trees of 
 about two acres in extent around it. This 
 was strongly garrisoned by the allied troops ; 
 and while it was in their possession, it was 
 
218 Turning Points in the 
 
 difficult for the enemy to press on and force 
 the British right wing. On the other hand, 
 if the enemy could occupy it, it would be 
 difficult for that wing to keep its ground on 
 the heights with a strong post held ad- 
 versely in its immediate front, being one 
 that would give much shelter to the enemy's 
 marksmen, and great facilities for the sud- 
 den concentration of attacking columns. 
 Almost immediately in front of the British 
 centre, and not so far down the slope as 
 Hougoumont, there was another farmhouse, 
 of a smaller size, called L,a Haye Sainte, 
 which was also held by the British troops, 
 and the occupation of which was found to 
 be of very serious consequence. 
 
 "With respect to the French position, the 
 principal feature to be noticed is the village 
 of Planchenoit, which lay a little in the rear 
 of their right (i. e., on the eastern side), 
 and which proved to be of great importance 
 in aiding them to check the advance of the 
 Prussians, The Prussians, on the morning 
 of the 1 8th, were at Wavre, about twelve 
 miles to the east of the field of battle at 
 Waterloo. The junction of Bulow's divi- 
 sion had more than made up for the loss 
 sustained at Ligny; and leaving Thielman, 
 with about 17,000 men, to hold his ground 
 as he best could against the attack which 
 Grouchy was about to make on Wavre, 
 Bulow and Blucher moved with the rest of 
 
World' s History . 219 
 
 the Prussians upon Waterloo. It was cal- 
 culated that they would be there by three 
 o'clock; but the extremely difficult nature 
 of the ground which they had to traverse, 
 rendered worse by the torrents of rain that 
 had just fallen, delayed them long on their 
 twelve miles' march. 
 
 "The Duke of Wellington drew up his 
 infantry in two lines, the second line being 
 composed principally of Dutch and Belgian 
 troops, and of those regiments of other 
 nations which had suffered most severely at 
 Quatre Bras on the 16th. The second line 
 was posted on the northern declivity of the 
 hills, so as to be sheltered from the French 
 cannonade. The cavalry was stationed at 
 intervals along the line in the rear, the 
 largest force of horse being collected on the 
 left of the centre, to the east of the Charleroi 
 road. On the opposite heights the French 
 army was drawn up in two general lines, 
 with the entire force of the Imperial Guards, 
 cavalry as well as infantry, in rear of the 
 centre, as a reserve. English military 
 critics have highly eulogized the admirable 
 arrangement which Napoleon made of his 
 forces of each arm, so as to give him the 
 most ample means of sustaining, by an im- 
 mediate and sufficient support, any attack, 
 from whatever point he might direct it, and 
 of drawing promptly together a strong 
 force, to resist any attack that might be 
 
220 Turning Points in the 
 
 made on himself in any part of the field. 
 When his troops were all arra3 r ed, he rode 
 along the lines, receiving everywhere the 
 most enthusiastic cheers from his men, of 
 whose entire devotion to him his assurance 
 was now doubly sure. On the southern 
 side of the valley the duke's army was also 
 arrayed, and ready to meet the menaced 
 attack.* 
 
 "It was approaching noon before the 
 action commenced. Napoleon, in his 
 memoirs, gives as the reason for this delay, 
 the miry state of the ground through the 
 heavy rain of the preceding night and day, 
 which rendered it impossible for cavalry or 
 artillery to manoeuvre on it till a few hours 
 of dry weather had given it its natural con- 
 sistency. It has been supposed, also, that 
 he trusted to the effect which the sight of 
 the imposing array of his own forces was 
 likely to produce on the part of the allied 
 army. The Belgian regiments had been 
 tampered with; and Napoleon had well- 
 founded hopes of seeing them quit the Duke 
 of Wellington in a body, and range them- 
 selves under his own eagles. The duke, 
 however, who knew and did not trust them, 
 had guarded against the risk of this by 
 breaking up the corps of Belgians, and dis- 
 tributing them in separate regiments among 
 troops on whom he could rely. 
 
 *Siborne, quoted by Creasy. 
 
World s History. 221 
 
 ' 'At last, at about half-past eleven o'clock, 
 Napoleon began the battle by directing a 
 powerful force from his left wing under his 
 brother, Prince Jerome, to attack Hougou- 
 mont. Column after column of the French 
 now descended from the west of the southern 
 heights, and assailed that post with fiery 
 valor, which was encountered with the most 
 determined bravery. The French won the 
 copse round the house, but a party of the 
 British Guards held the house itself through- 
 out the day. Amid shell and shot, and the 
 blazing fragments of part of the buildings, 
 this obstinate contest was continued. But 
 still the English held Hougoumont, though 
 the French occasionally moved forward in 
 such numbers as enabled them to surround 
 and mask this post with part of their troops 
 from their left wing, while others pressed 
 onward up the slope and assailed the British 
 right. 
 
 "The cannonade, which commenced at 
 first between the British right and the 
 French left, in consequence of the attack on 
 Hougoumont, soon became general along 
 both lines; and about one o'clock Napo- 
 leon directed a grand attack to be made 
 under Marshal Ney upon the centre and left 
 wing of the allied army. For this purpose 
 four columns of infantry, amounting to 
 about 18,000 men, were collected, supported 
 by a strong division of cavalry under the 
 
222 Turning Points in the 
 
 celebrated Kellerman, and seventy-four 
 guns were brought forward ready to be 
 posted on the ridge of a little undulation of 
 the ground in the interval between the two 
 main ranges of heights, so as to bring their 
 fire to bear on the British line at a range of 
 about seven hundred yards. 
 
 1 'The columns under Ney descended from 
 the French range of hills, and gained the 
 ridge of the intervening eminence, on which 
 the batteries that supported them were now 
 ranged. As the columns descended again 
 from this eminence, the seventy-four guns 
 opened over their heads with terrible effect 
 upon the troops of the allies that were 
 stationed on the heights to the left of the 
 Charleroi road. One of the French columns 
 kept to the east, and attacked the extreme 
 left of the allies; the other three continued 
 to move rapidly forward upon the left centre 
 of the allied position. The front line of the 
 allies here was composed of Bylant's brigade 
 of Dutch and Belgians. As the French col- 
 umns moved up the southward slope of the 
 height on which the Dutch and Belgians 
 stood, and the skirmishers in advance began 
 to open their fire, Bylant's entire brigade 
 turned and fled in disgraceful and disorderly 
 panic; but there were men more worthy of 
 the name behind. 
 
 "The second line of the allies here con- 
 sisted of two brigades of English infantry, 
 
World's History. 223 
 
 which had suffered severely at Quatre Bras. 
 But they were under Picton, and not even 
 Ney himself surpassed in resolute bravery 
 that stern and fiery spirit. Picton brought 
 his two brigades forward, side by side, 
 in a thin two-deep line. Thus joined 
 together, they were not 3,000 strong. 
 With these Picton had to make 
 head against the three victorious French 
 columns, upward of four times that 
 strength, and who, encouraged by the 
 easy rout of the Dutch and Belgians, now 
 came confidently over the ridge of the hill. 
 The British infantry stood firm; and as the 
 French halted and began to deploy into line, 
 Picton seized the critical moment: a close 
 and deadly volley was thrown in upon them, 
 and then with a fierce hurrah the British 
 dashed in with the bayonet. The French 
 reeled back in confusion ; and as they stag- 
 gered down the hill, a brigade of the Eng- 
 lish cavalry rode in on them, cutting them 
 down by whole battalions, and taking 2000 
 prisoners. The British cavalry galloped 
 forward and sabred the artillerymen of 
 Ney's seventy-four advanced guns; and 
 then cutting the traces and the throats of 
 the horses, rendered these guns totally use- 
 less to the French throughout the remainder 
 of the day." Lieutenant- Colonel Tomkins 
 says of this charge: "It was one of the 
 finest ever seen. On going over the 
 
224 Turning Poi?its in the 
 
 ground the following morning I saw where 
 two lines of infantry had laid down their 
 arms; their position was accurately marked 
 from the regularity the muskets were placed 
 in. After their success they continued to 
 advance, and moved forward in scattered 
 parties up to the reserve of the enemy, and 
 to the top nearly of the heights held by 
 them. In this scattered state they were 
 attacked by a heavy brigade of cavalry. 
 
 They were obliged to retreat 
 
 The loss of the second brigade was immense, 
 and the more to be regretted, for had they 
 halted after completely routing the enemy's 
 troops their loss would have been trifling, 
 and the brigade remained efficient for the 
 rest of the day." In this charge Sir 
 Thomas Picton was killed at the head of 
 his squadron, and Sir William Ponsonby at 
 the head of his brigade. 
 
 The French continued to charge in vain 
 the stubborn ranks of the British, and while 
 the losses of the latter were terrible, those 
 of the French were greater. "Whenever 
 the enemy made an attack, ' ' says Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Tomkinson, "they covered it 
 with all the artillery they could thunder at 
 us, and we again worked their columns in 
 advancing with every gun we could bring 
 against them. One brigade of guns was 
 firing at a brigade of the enemy's which 
 had got their range and annoyed them. 
 
World's History. 225 
 
 They were ordered by the duke not to fire 
 at the enemy's guns, but to direct all shot 
 against their columns. We might run a 
 chance of losing the position from a severe 
 attack of one of their columns, but could 
 not by their cannonade. The manner their 
 columns were cut up in making the attack 
 was extraordinary, and the excellence of 
 practice in artillery was never exceeded. 
 The enemy fired a great deal, yet at times 
 I thought rather wildly. ' ' 
 
 Meantime Napoleon knew that over his 
 army hung the dark shadow of the forces 
 under Blucher and Bulow. These forces 
 attacked the rear of the French right about 
 half-past four in the afternoon, but were 
 driven back and kept at bay after fierce 
 fighting, in which thousands fell. Never- 
 theless, they kept a corps of the French 
 army engaged; other Prussians were ap- 
 proaching, and Napoleon saw that he must 
 crush Wellington quickly, or his cause was 
 lost. Night was approaching when the 
 final charge was made — that charge upon 
 the result of which depended the fate of 
 Europe. The infantry of the Old Guard 
 was formed in two columns, and Ney led 
 the advance, while a fearful fire of artillery 
 sent shell and round shot and grapeshot 
 swept from the French batteries through the 
 British and Anglo-German ranks. These 
 stood the blast of death with a heroism 
 15 
 
226 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 never surpassed on the battlefield, the Duke 
 of Wellington himself being foremost in 
 leading and urging his men. For a brief 
 time the issue seemed doubtful ; the French 
 gained some ground, and thought they were 
 dashing on to certain victory, when sud- 
 denly, with the enemy within fifty yards, 
 the Duke of Wellington called: "Up 
 Guards, and at them!" 
 
 Four feet deep uprose the British line, 
 and poured a deadly volley into the French. 
 Hundreds of Napoleon's veterans fell dead 
 and wounded, and the rest were thrown 
 into disorder. Volley followed volley, and 
 then came the bayonet charge. The 
 French fled. Waterloo was won. The 
 Prussian share of the battle was that of 
 wolves on the wounded lion. Germans did 
 glorious work at Waterloo, but they were 
 the Germans who served under Wellington. 
 The credit of winning the battle of Water- 
 loo is due to British pluck and endurance. 
 The French found the British very differ- 
 ent from the enemies they had been accus- 
 tomed to meet. Lieutenant-Colonel Tom- 
 kinson says on this subject: "This is the 
 system the}- have gone upon with every 
 other nation, and have succeeded. They 
 move an overawing column or two to one 
 point. It comes up with the greatest regu- 
 larity, and on arriving at close quarters 
 with their opponents thej T carry so steady 
 
World's History. 227 
 
 and determined an appearance that those 
 hitherto opposed to them have generally 
 abandoned their positions without being 
 beaten out of them." The French found 
 that the British were made of sterner stuff, 
 as indeed they ought to have known from 
 experience in the Peninsula. 
 
 In the battle of Waterloo the troops under 
 the Duke of Wellington lost 16, 186 men, and 
 the Prussians 6999, making a total loss for 
 the allies of 23,185 men. The French lost 
 18,500 killed and wounded, and 7800 cap- 
 tured. It is worthy of note that the losses 
 might have been much heavier but for the 
 rain of the previous night. The effect of 
 the rain was to make the ground so wet 
 that shells often sank into the soil where 
 they fell, and did little or no injury, and 
 the same was the case with round-shot. 
 
 KONIGGRATZ. 
 
 Koniggratz was made inevitable by the 
 growth of the Prussian monarchy, and the 
 consequent rivalry between Prussia and 
 Austria for predominance in Germany. The 
 Schleswig-Holstein difficulty was merely 
 the occasion, the incident, the match that 
 in the hand of Prince Bismarck lighted 
 the fire of war. "One single encounter, 
 one decisive battle, ' ' said Bismarck in 1865, 
 "and Prussia will have it in her power to 
 dictate conditions." The Convention of 
 
228 Turning Points in the 
 
 Gastein postponed the struggle for a few 
 months, although King William of Prussia 
 had hoped that it would lead to permanent 
 peace. Bismarck knew better. He con- 
 tinued his plans for war, and artfully in- 
 duced Louis Napoleon to remain passive in 
 the approaching conflict by playing upon 
 his dream of Italy's liberation — the one 
 redeeming feature in Louis Napoleon's 
 character and reign. The Schleswig-Hol- 
 stein difference was fostered; the relations 
 between Prussia and Austria became more 
 and more embittered, and at length the two 
 powers began advancing troops toward the 
 frontier. Italy, too, began to arm as an 
 ally of Prussia, and Austria was confronted 
 by two enemies instead of one. For Italy 
 the Austrians had only contempt, in some 
 degree justified by subsequent events, but 
 hostilities in the South made more serious 
 and difficult the problem in the North. 
 
 Prussia also had foes on her flanks. 
 Hanover, Saxony and Hesse-Cassel still 
 dared to dispute the supremacy of Berlin, 
 and were in avowed sympathy with Austria. 
 Bismarck did not hesitate in dealing with 
 these lesser antagonists. Prussian troops 
 occupied the capitals of the States named, 
 and started in pursuit of their armies. The 
 Hanoverians fought gallantly at Laugen- 
 salza, but were compelled to surrender to 
 King William. The Hessian army has- 
 
World 's History. 229 
 
 tened to make junction with the "army 
 of the South," a Bavarian corps 40,000 
 strong, and another corps of 46,000 drawn 
 from Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt 
 and Nassau. These troops, poorly organ- 
 ized, and ill-prepared to meet the thor- 
 oughly trained forces of King William, 
 were beaten in detail by Generals Vogel von 
 Falckenstein and Manteuffel, with numbers 
 about half as strong as their opponents. 
 The Saxon army of 30, 000 took the only 
 effective course by marching into Bohemia 
 and joining the Austrians under Benedek. 
 
 King William was in supreme command 
 of the Prussian forces, which consisted of 
 three separate armies; the first in the cen- 
 tre, of about 100,000 men, led by Prince 
 Frederick Charles, the king's nephew, and 
 called the ' 'Army of Bohemia;" the second, 
 on the left, called the "Army of Silesia," 
 and numbering 116,000 men, under the 
 Crown Prince, afterward Emperor Frederick, 
 and the third or "Army of the Elbe," on 
 the right, composed of 40,000 men, com- 
 manded by Herwarth von Bittenfeld. 
 
 It was the shortest great war in history. 
 Although the Austrians had been preparing, 
 the Prussians virtually took them by sur- 
 prise, and assailed them with far superior 
 forces. Battle after battle was won by the 
 Prussians, and at length the two great 
 armies confronted each other, July 2, 1866, 
 
230 Turning Points in the 
 
 near the town of Koniggratz. The king 
 held a council of war, and it was resolved 
 to let the troops rest on the following day, 
 and get ready to strike a crushing blow. 
 Meantime, however, it was learned that the 
 Austrians were arranging to attack, and at 
 midnight the old king called another coun- 
 cil, and it was determined not to wait for 
 the enemy, but to strike at dawn of day. 
 
 Prince Frederick Charles, with his three 
 corps, was to assail Benedek with his five 
 corps, while Herwarth von Bittenfeld should 
 fall upon the left flank of the Austrians, 
 and the Crown Prince attack their right. 
 When this plan was decided upon the 
 Crown Prince was more than twenty miles 
 away, and it was four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing when the courier arrived at his quarters 
 with the order from the king. He pledged 
 himself to do his part in the battle, and his 
 royal father felt full confidence that the son 
 would keep his word. The battle did not 
 begin, how r ever, until about eight o'clock, 
 when Frederick Charles, amid a pouring 
 rain, opened his guns on the Austrians. 
 
 The king, with Bismarck and his staff 
 appeared among the troops, and the thun- 
 derous cheers which greeted them showed 
 the loyal and confident spirit of the soldiers. 
 Through long hours of that gloomy day the 
 cannon thundered, and the Prussian needle- 
 gun sent rapid death among Austria's bat- 
 
World's History. 231 
 
 talions, but the latter remained unbroken, 
 and the struggle so far indecisive, while the 
 king and his generals looked anxiously for 
 the coming of the Crown Prince. ''Sud- 
 denly Bismarck lowered his glass, and drew 
 the attention of his neighbors to certain 
 lines in the far distance. All telescopes 
 were pointed thither, but the lines were 
 pronounced to be furrows. ' These are not 
 furrows,' said Bismarck, after another 
 scrutinizing look; 'the spaces are not 
 equal ; they are advancing lines. ' And so 
 they were ; and soon thereafter the cannon- 
 thunder of 'Unser Fritz,' with the irresis- 
 tible rush of the Guards up the heights of 
 Chlune and Kosberitz brought relief and 
 joy to the minds of all."* 
 
 Attacked now on both flanks, and the 
 centre unable to hold its own against re- 
 newed and overwhelming assault, the Aus- 
 trians gave way, and retreat soon became a 
 disordered rout. King William led forward 
 the cavalry reserve of the first army, which 
 met and scattered the Austrian cavalry re- 
 serve. From the opening to the close of 
 the battle which he thus brought to a tri- 
 umphant ending, King William never 
 avoided danger. Shells shrieked by his 
 head, men were struck down around him, 
 but he remained as exposed and indifferent 
 
 *L,ove's "Prince Bismarck." 
 
232 Turning Points in the 
 
 to the perils of battle as the bravest of his 
 troopers. "To my repeated request," says 
 Bismarck, "that His Majesty might not so 
 carelessly expose himself to so murderous a 
 fire he only answered, 'The commander-in- 
 chief must be where he ought to be. ' " 
 
 The number of men engaged at Konig- 
 gratz was, according to Captain Otto 
 Benndt's recent work on "Warfare in 
 Figures," 436,000, of whom about 230,000 
 were Prussians. The Austrian force in- 
 cluded 30,000 Saxons. The Prussians had 
 800 guns and the Austrians nearly the same 
 number. The Prussians lost about 10,000 
 killed and wounded, and the Austrians 
 40,000, of whom 18,000 were prisoners, to- 
 gether with 11 standards and 174 guns. 
 Even Bismarck was touched by the awful 
 spectacle of the battlefield, with its 32,000 
 of dead and dying and wounded. "I have 
 lost all except, alas, my life," exclaimed 
 Marshal Benedek, the Austrian commander. 
 
 Austria, 03' the Treaty of Prague, agreed 
 to a Prussian annexation of Schleswig-Hol- 
 stein, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel and Nassau, 
 and the free city of Frankfort. Bismarck, 
 upon an earnest appeal from France, con- 
 sented to forego the annexation of Saxony, 
 that kingdom agreeing to join the Confed- 
 eration of the North. Prussia, without 
 Saxony, acquired territories which added 
 four and a half millions to her population, 
 
World's History. 233 
 
 and increased her area by about a fourth of 
 its previous extent. Bavaria and Hesse 
 were required to pay an indemnity of thirty 
 and three millions of gulden respectively, 
 and Wurtemberg and Baden were severally 
 fined eight and six millions of gulden for 
 their share in the hostilities against Prus- 
 sia.* These easy terms for the South Ger- 
 man States are in part accounted for by 
 their agreement to sign secret treaties con- 
 ferring the command of their several armies 
 on the King of Prussia in the event of a 
 foreign attack upon Germany. Bismarck 
 also weighed the fact that the annexation 
 of the South German States to Prussia 
 would bring in an element not easily assim- 
 ilated, and likel}' to prove a source of weak- 
 ness instead of strength, whereas, permitted 
 to retain independence, the South Germans 
 would be useful and valuable allies in the 
 next movement toward German unification. 
 The Treaty of Prague made Austria a 
 power alien to Germany, although the 
 dominant element in Austria is German. 
 From the day of the Koniggratz defeat 
 Austria turned her gaze more than ever to- 
 ward the Balkans, and she has made up to 
 some extent by gains in that direction for 
 losses in Germany and Italy. 
 
 *The gulden of the South German States at the time of 
 the treaty of Prague was worth about 35 cents. 
 
234 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 The Italians were rewarded for good in- 
 tentions and poor performance by the ces- 
 sion of Venetia. Not until 1870, however, 
 after Sedan, was the unity of Italy made 
 complete by the surrender of Rome. 
 
 SEDAN. 
 
 Prussia did not provoke the Franco-Ger- 
 man war, but she was ready for it, and she 
 welcomed it. Bismarck had long foreseen 
 that only war with France could rivet that 
 German unity upon which he had set his 
 heart, and to the accomplishment of which 
 he devoted his existence. France still 
 affected to treat Prussia as an inferior in- 
 stead of an equal, and neither France nor 
 Germany had forgotten that Ligny was 
 the final victory of the First Napoleon, and 
 that Prussia had no triumph to her credit 
 to offset that memorable defeat. Even the 
 success of Prussia in her war with Austria 
 had not diminished the arrogance of France, 
 although it had made the French emperor 
 more cautious for the time being in his 
 attitude toward his German neighbors. 
 
 In 1870, Louis Napoleon believed that 
 his armies were in a condition to repeat his 
 uncle's march to Berlin, but, unlike the 
 great Napoleon, he acted on the information 
 of others, and was thoroughly deceived. 
 He did not have half the force at his com- 
 
World's History. 235 
 
 mand that he supposed, and when it came 
 to actual warfare the Germans were able to 
 present two soldiers for every Frenchman 
 in the field. The German military system 
 was a perfect machine, and its commissariat 
 in admirable order; whereas the French 
 was dry-rotted with corruption, and inef- 
 ficient in every department. But for the 
 courage of which the French gave heroic 
 illustration amid the most depressing cir- 
 cumstances, the French side of the Franco- 
 German war would have been the most 
 disgraceful exhibition of military incom- 
 petency on the part of a great nation within 
 the present century. 
 
 War was declared by France July 19, 
 1870. Within two weeks Germany had 
 over one million of men read} 7 for the con- 
 flict, and half a million or more on the 
 march for the Rhine. At their head was 
 King William, venerable in years but as 
 brave and ready for the field as the youngest 
 man in his host. With him went Bismarck, 
 the statesman, and Von Moltke, the greatest 
 warrior of them all, a master of military 
 tactics, the Grant and the Lee of Europe. 
 "March separately — strike combined" — is 
 said to have been Von Moltke's motto, and 
 he carried it out thoroughly in the swift 
 and terrific campaign of 1870. Moving 
 vast armies along separate routes — thus 
 facilitating their march, and making their 
 
236 Turning Points in the 
 
 sustenance the easier, the German com- 
 manders always presented a largely superior 
 force in actual conflict, and although in 
 almost every battle their losses consider- 
 ably exceeded those of the French, they 
 could readily replenish the vacant ranks, 
 and still have the advantage of superior 
 numbers. 
 
 The Franco-German war was an advance 
 on the part of the Germans from one field 
 of slaughter to another. Every stand which 
 the French made marked a German victory, 
 usually won at a far greater cost of life to 
 the victors than to the vanquished. But 
 for one German that fell in battle, ten 
 poured across the frontier. 
 
 The first serious conflict of the war took 
 place on August 4, at Weissenburg, where 
 the German advance-guard was attacked by 
 the French under General Douay. The 
 French commander was killed, and his 
 troops driven back in disorder. On August 
 6, General Steinmetz, with 120,000 Ger- 
 mans, fought a bloody battle at Spicheren 
 with 60,000 French, led by General Fros- 
 sard. The French were defeated, with a 
 loss of about 4000 dead and wounded, and 
 2500 prisoners. The German loss in dead 
 and wounded was also about 4000. On the 
 same day the Crown Prince Frederick de- 
 feated MacMahon at Woerth, taking 6000 
 prisoners, 6 mitrailleuses and 35 cannon. 
 
World's History. 237 
 
 Both wings of the French army having met 
 with disaster, the original position could no 
 longer be held, and the different corps 
 gathered into two large masses to retreat 
 along the line of the Moselle. Two differ- 
 ent armies were thus formed — the Army of 
 Metz, commanded by Marshal Bazaine, and 
 the Army of Chalons, commanded by Mar- 
 shal MacMahon. 
 
 On August 14, the Germans, 80,000 
 strong, attacked the French, 60,000 in 
 number, near Metz, and after a sanguinary 
 struggle, in which the Germans lost be- 
 tween 4000 and 5000 killed and wounded, 
 the French were compelled to retire into the 
 fortifications. On August 16, the battle of 
 Mars-la-Tour was fought at which the en- 
 tire French army of the Rhine w T as repulsed 
 by Prince Frederick Charles, and driven 
 back on Gravelotte, the Germans, however, 
 suffering immense loss. At Gravelotte, on 
 August 18, occurred the greatest battle of 
 the war, in which 280,000 Germans were 
 arrayed against 160,000 Frenchmen. The 
 French army occupied a very strong posi- 
 tion to the west of Metz, but after nine 
 hours of a fiercely contested conflict, with 
 terrible slaughter on both sides, the French 
 were completely routed, cut off from their 
 communications with Paris and forced back 
 toward Metz. The French lost 609 officers 
 and 11,605 men; the Germans, 904 officers 
 
238 Turning Points in the 
 
 and 19,658 men. The French army, under 
 Bazaine, was now shut up in the fortress 
 of Metz. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 30th of August, the 
 army of the Crown Prince overtook Mac- 
 Mahon's corps a short distance north of 
 Rheims; and after a fierce battle, of enor- 
 mous slaughter on each side, the Prussians 
 drove the shattered army of the French in 
 utter rout towards Sedan. During all the 
 hours of the 31st, the battle raged in an 
 incessant series of bloody skirmishes, as the 
 French troops, about a hundred thousand 
 in number, pressed on every side, fell back, 
 bleeding, exhausted, despairing, into 
 Sedan. 
 
 The dawn of the morning of the 1st of 
 September found the French so surrounded 
 as to be cut off from all possibility of re- 
 treat. They were crowded together in a 
 narrow space, while five hundred pieces of 
 artillery were opening fire upon them. At 
 five o'clock in the morning, the terrific 
 storm of battle opened its thunders. It 
 was an awful day. In the first hour of the 
 battle, General MacMahon was struck by 
 the splinter of a shell, and was carried 
 back, severely wounded, into Sedan. The 
 command passed to General Wimpffen. 
 Nearly three hundred thousand men were 
 now hurling a storm of bullets, shot and 
 shell into the crowded ranks of the French. 
 
World's History. 239 
 
 It was an indescribable scene of tumult 
 and carnage. A correspondent of one of 
 the London papers writes: 
 
 "All describe the conduct of the emperor 
 as that of one who either cared not for 
 death, or actuall} 7 threw himself in its way. 
 In the midst of the scene of confusion 
 which ensued upon the irruption of the 
 panic-stricken French into Sedan, the em- 
 peror, riding slowly through a wide street 
 swept by the German artillery and choked 
 by the disordered soldiery, paused a 
 moment to address a question to a colonel 
 of his staff. 
 
 "At the same instant a shell exploded a 
 few feet in front of Napoleon, leaving him 
 unharmed; though it was evident to all 
 around that he had escaped by a miracle. 
 The emperor continued on his way without 
 manifesting the slightest emotion, greeted 
 by the enthusiastic vivats of the troops. 
 Later, while sitting at a window inditing 
 his celebrated letter to the King of Prussia, 
 a shell struck the wall just outside, and 
 burst only a few feet from the emperor's 
 chair, again leaving him unscathed and un- 
 moved. " 
 
 For five hours the emperor had been ex- 
 posed to a fire which filled the air with 
 bullets, ploughed up the ground at his feet, 
 and covered the field with the mutilated and 
 the dead. At half -past three o'clock in the 
 
240 Turning Points in the 
 
 afternoon, General Wimpffen sent an officer 
 to propose that the emperor should place 
 himself in the middle of a column of men 
 who should endeavor to cut their way 
 through the enemy. The emperor replied 
 that he could not consent to save himself at 
 the sacrifice of so many men ; that he had 
 determined to share the fate of the army. 
 Though a large portion of the army was 
 still fighting valiantly upon the heights 
 around the walls, the streets of Sedan .were 
 choked with the debris of all the corps, and 
 were fiercely bombarded from all sides. 
 
 After twelve hours of so unequal a con- 
 flict, the commanders of the corps d? arrnie 
 reported to the emperor that they could no 
 longer offer any serious resistance. The 
 emperor ordered the white flag to be raised 
 upon the citadel, and sent the following 
 letter to his Prussian Majesty, who was 
 with the conquering army : — 
 
 "Sire, my brother, not having been able 
 to die in the midst of my troops, it only re- 
 mains for me to place my sword in the 
 hands of your Majesty. 
 
 " I am of your Majesty the good brother, 
 "Napoleon." 
 
 William immediately replied, "Sire, my 
 brother, regretting the circumstances under 
 which we meet, I accept this word of your 
 Majesty; and I pray you to name one of 
 your officers provided with full powers to 
 
World's History. 241 
 
 treat for the capitulation of the army which 
 has so bravely fought under your command. 
 On my side, I have named General Moltke 
 for this purpose. 
 
 "I am of your Majesty the good brother, 
 
 ''William." 
 
 General Wimpffen was sent to the Prus- 
 sian headquarters. " Your army," said Gen- 
 eral Moltke, "does not number more than 
 eighty thousand men. We have two hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand, who completely 
 surround you. Our artillery is everywhere 
 in position, and can destroy the place in 
 two hours. You have provisions for only 
 one day, and scarcely any more ammuni- 
 tion. The prolongation of your defence 
 would be only a useless massacre. " 
 
 General Wimpffen returned to Sedan. A 
 council of thirty-two generals was called. 
 With but two dissentient voices, it was de- 
 cided to be useless to sacrifice any more 
 lives. The capitulation was signed. 
 
 King William, in a letter which he wrote 
 to Queen Augusta, speaks as follows of his 
 fallen foes: — 
 
 "You already know, through my three 
 telegrams, the extent of the great historical 
 event which has just happened. It is like 
 a dream, though one has seen it unroll itself 
 hour after hour. On the morning of the 
 2d I drove to the battlefield, and met Moltke, 
 
 who was coming to obtain my consent to 
 
 16 
 
242 Turning Points in the 
 
 the capitulation. He told me that the em- 
 peror had left Sedan at five o'clock, and 
 had come to Donchery. As he wished to 
 speak to me, and there was a chateau in 
 the neighborhood, I chose this for our meet- 
 ing. At one o'clock I started with Fritz, 
 escorted by the cavalry staff. I alighted 
 before the chateau, where the emperor came 
 to meet me. We were both much moved 
 at meeting again under such circumstances. 
 What my feelings were, considering that I 
 had seen Napoleon only three years before 
 at the summit of his power, is more than I 
 can describe."' 
 
 The illustrious captive was assigned to 
 the Castle of Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel, 
 one of the most attractive castles in Ger- 
 many. Accompanied by his friends, sup- 
 plied with every comfort, and surrounded 
 by a guard of honor, the chains which held 
 the prisoner of war were invisible. 
 
 The tidings of this great calamity soon 
 reached Paris, and created intense excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The second French empire was at an end, 
 and the proclamation of King William of 
 Prussia as German emperor, at Versailles, in 
 December, 1870, crowned the great task of 
 Bismarck's life. In France a real republic 
 arose from the ruins of the empire and the 
 ashes of the Commune, and the French na- 
 tion is now in a more prosperous condition, 
 
World s s History. 243 
 
 and better provided with all the elements 
 that contribute to it, than at any time in 
 its past history. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 DUQUKSNE. 
 
 The closing years of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury witnessed the beginning of the struggle 
 between France and England for empire in 
 North America. Marquette, Joliet and La 
 Salle won for France by daring exploration 
 a nominal title to the Mississippi Valley, 
 and La Salle assumed possession of the great 
 river and its country in the name of Louis 
 XIV., after whom he called the region 
 Louisiana. It was a vast dominion indeed 
 that was thus claimed for the House of 
 Bourbon without a settlement and with 
 hardly an outpost to make any real show of 
 sovereignty. Even had the expulsion of 
 James II. from the English throne not 
 hastened an outbreak between England and 
 France, the conflict would have been in- 
 evitable. The war began in 1689, and with 
 intervals of peace and sometimes in spite of 
 peace the contest continued, until 1763, 
 with varying fortunes, but ultimately re- 
 
244 Turning Points in the 
 
 suiting in the complete overthrow of the 
 French. 
 
 The point of land where the Allegheny 
 and Monongahela meet in turbulent eddies 
 and form the Beautiful River, early engaged 
 the attention of the two nations, rivals for 
 the dominion of the northern continent, 
 while between two of the leading British 
 colonies grave difference existed as to own- 
 ership of the coveted territory. Pennsyl- 
 vania, held in leading strings by a Quaker 
 policy which endeavored to reconcile the 
 savage realities of an age of iron with the- 
 ories of a golden millennium, failed to sus- 
 tain her assertion of right with the 
 energies that her population and resources 
 might well have commanded, and Virginia, 
 more ambitious and militant, boldly pushed 
 an armed expedition into the very heart of 
 the border wilderness, and began with the 
 attack on Jumonville and his party the war 
 that ended on the Plains of Abraham. 
 
 In 1750 the Ohio Company, formed for 
 the purpose of colonizing the country on 
 the river of that name, surveyed its banks 
 as far as the site of Louisville. The 
 French, resolved to defend their title to the 
 region west of the mountains, crossed Lake 
 Erie, and established posts at Presque Isle, 
 at Le Boeuf, and at Venango on the Alle- 
 
World's History. 245 
 
 gheny River. Governor Dinwiddie, of 
 Virginia, sent a messenger to warn the 
 French not to advance. He selected for this 
 task a young man named George Washing- 
 ton, a land surveyor, who, notwithstanding 
 his youth, had made a good impression as 
 a person of capacity and courage, well-fitted 
 for the arduous and delicate undertaking. 
 Washington well performed his task, 
 although the French, as might have been 
 expected, paid no heed to his warning. 
 In the spring of 1754, a party of English 
 began to build a fort where Pittsburg now 
 stands. The French drove them off and 
 erected Fort Duquesne. A regiment of 
 Virginia troops was already marching to- 
 ward the place. Upon the death of its 
 leading officer, George Washington, the 
 lieutenant-colonel, took command. Wash- 
 ington, overwhelmed by the superior 
 numbers of the French, was compelled to 
 surrender, and the French, for the first time, 
 were masters of the Ohio. 
 
 This reverse did not diminish the esteem 
 in which Washington was held by the Vir- 
 ginians, and by those of the mother coun- 
 try who came in contact with him. When 
 General Edward Braddock, in 1755, started 
 on his ill-fated expedition for the capture 
 of Duquesne with a force of about two 
 thousand men, including the British regu- 
 lars and the colonial militia, Washington 
 
246 Turning Points in the 
 
 accompanied the British general as one of 
 his staff. Braddock was a gallant soldier, 
 but imperious and self-willed, and he looked 
 almost with contempt upon the American 
 troops. He made a forced march with 
 twelve hundred men in order to surprise 
 the French at Duquesne before they could 
 receive reinforcements. Colonel Dunbar 
 followed with the remainder of the army 
 and the wagon train. 
 
 It was a delightful July morning when 
 the British soldiers and colonists crossed a 
 ford of the Monongahela, and advanced in 
 solid platoons along the southern bank of 
 the stream in the direction of the fort. 
 Washington advised a disposition of the 
 troops more in accordance with forest war- 
 fare, but Braddock haughtily rejected the 
 advice of the "provincial colonel," as he 
 called Washington. The army moved on, 
 recrossed the river to the north side, and 
 continued the march to Duquesne. The 
 news of the British advance had been car- 
 ried to the fort by Indian scouts. The 
 French at first thought of abandoning the 
 post, but they decided to attack the British 
 with the aid of Indian allies. De Beaujeu 
 led the French and Indians. The British 
 were proceeding in fancied security when 
 the forest rang w'ith Indian yells, and a 
 volley of bullets and flying arrows dealt 
 death in their ranks. The regular troops 
 
World's History. 247 
 
 were thrown into confusion, and Braddock 
 tried courageously to rally them. Wash- 
 ington showed the admirable qualities 
 which afterward made him victor in the 
 Revolution. Cool and fearless amid the 
 frantic shouts of the foe and the panic of 
 the British soldiery, he gave Braddock in- 
 valuable assistance in endeavoring to re- 
 trieve the fortunes of the day. The pro- 
 vincials fought frontier fashion, nearly all 
 losing their lives, but not without picking 
 off many of their enemies. Beaujeu, the 
 French commander, was killed in the open- 
 ing of the engagement. 
 
 Of eighty-six English officers sixty-three 
 were killed or wounded; and about one- 
 half the private soldiers fell, while a num- 
 ber were made prisoners. For two hours 
 the battle raged, until Braddock, having 
 had five horses shot under him, went down 
 himself, mortally wounded. Then the reg- 
 ulars that remained took flight, and Wash- 
 ington, left in command, ordered a retreat, 
 carrying with him his dying general. 
 Braddock. died three days after the battle, 
 expressing regret that he had not followed 
 the counsel of Washington. The British 
 prisoners were taken to Duquesne, and that 
 evening the Indians lighted fires on the 
 banks of the Allegheny River, near the fort, 
 and tortured the captives to death. An 
 English boy who was a prisoner at Du- 
 
248 Turning Points in the 
 
 quesne, having been previously captured, 
 and who afterward related his experience 
 in a narrative, a copy of which the writer 
 has examined, says that the cries of the 
 victims could be heard in the fort. The 
 boy himself was subjected to closer confine- 
 ment than usual, apparently for fear that 
 the savages might demand that he be given 
 up to them. 
 
 The French continued to win battles, 
 until a master hand seized the helm in 
 Great Britain. William Pitt, the "Great 
 Commoner," determined upon a vigorous 
 prosecution of the war in America. Gen- 
 eral John Forbes was sent in 1758, with 
 about nine thousand men to reduce Fort 
 Duquesne. The illness which caused his 
 death in the following year .may be fairly 
 accepted in excuse and explanation of the 
 incompetent management of the expedition, 
 and its almost fatal delays. Fortunately 
 the French appeared to have lost the vigor 
 and daring which they had displayed in 
 the defeat of Braddock, and the sullen roar 
 of an explosion, when the British troops 
 were within a few miles of Duquesne, gave 
 notice that it had been abandoned without 
 a blow. General Forbes changed the name 
 of the place to Fort Pitt, in honor of that 
 illustrious minister to whose energetic direc- 
 tion of affairs was largely due the expulsion 
 of the French arms from North America. 
 
World's History. 249 
 
 When Westminster Abbey shall have crum- 
 bled over the tombs of Britain's heroes, and 
 the House of Hanover shall have joined the 
 misty dynasties of the past, Pittsburg will 
 remain a monument, growing in grandeur 
 with the progress of ages, to England's 
 great statesman of the eighteenth century. 
 The French never returned to the forks 
 of the Ohio. From the hour of their retreat 
 from Duquesne they gave up step by step 
 to the British, until the battle of the Plains 
 of Abraham put an end to the once mag- 
 nificent dream of a greater France in the 
 New World. 
 
 SARATOGA. 
 
 The disastrous campaign of General Sir 
 John Burgoyne in the summer of 1777 
 against Northern New York was the turn- 
 ing-point of the American Revolution. 
 The object of the invasion was to seize the 
 Hudson River, and divide the colonies by 
 a continuous British line from Canada to 
 the city of New York. Had the plan suc- 
 ceeded it would have been an almost fatal 
 blow to the cause of independence. Its 
 failure was not due to the courage or skill 
 of any one American commander, but to 
 the indomitable resolution with which 
 every step of the invading army was re- 
 sisted by Americans of every rank. The 
 whole country rose as one man to oppose 
 
250 Turning Points in the 
 
 and harass the enemy, and it seemed as if 
 every militiaman understood that the fate 
 of his country depended on the repulse or 
 destruction of the foe. 
 
 Burgoyne' s plan of campaign, as con- 
 certed with the British ministry, was to 
 march to Albany with a large force by way 
 of Lakes Champlain and George, while 
 another force under Sir Henry Clinton ad- 
 vanced up the Hudson. At the same time 
 Colonel Barry St. Leger was to make a 
 diversion by way of Oswego, on the Mo- 
 hawk River. Burgoyne began his advance 
 in June, with about eight thousand men. 
 Proceeding up Lake Champlain he com- 
 pelled the Americans to evacuate Crown 
 Point, Ticonderoga and Fort Anne. His 
 first blunder was in failing to avail himself 
 of the water carriage of Lake George, at 
 the head of which there was a direct road 
 to Fort Edward. Instead of taking this 
 course he spent three weeks in cutting a 
 road through the woods, and building 
 bridges over swamps. This gave time for 
 General Schuyler to gather the yeomanry 
 in arms, and for Washington to send troops 
 from the southern department to reinforce 
 Schuyler. Burgoyne also lost valuable 
 time in a disastrous attack on Bennington. 
 
 Burgoyne issued a proclamation in most 
 bombastic style. In the preamble he stated, 
 besides his military and other distinctions, 
 
World's History. 251 
 
 that he was ' ' author of a celebrated tragic 
 comedy called the 'Blockade of Boston.' " 
 He accused the patriots of enormities "un- 
 precedented in the inquisitions of the 
 Romish Church," and offered to give en- 
 couragement, employment and assistance 
 to all who would aid the side of the king. 
 "I have but to give stretch," he concluded, 
 "to the Indian forces under my direction — 
 and they amount to thousands — to overtake 
 the hardened enemies of Great Britain and 
 America. I consider them the same wher- 
 ever they lurk. If notwithstanding these 
 endeavors and sincere inclination to assist 
 them the frenzy of hostility should remain, 
 I trust I shall stand acquitted in the eyes 
 of God and of men in denouncing and ex- 
 ecuting the vengeance of the State against 
 the willful outcasts. The messengers of 
 justice and of wrath await them in the field, 
 and devastation, famine and every concomi- 
 tant horror that a reluctant but indispen- 
 sable prosecution of military duty must 
 occasion will bar the way to their return." 
 While Burgoyne's army was lying near 
 Fort Edward occurred the tragic death of 
 Jane McCrea, celebrated in song and story. 
 Jane was the second daughter of the Rev- 
 erend James McCrea, a Presbyterian clerg}^- 
 man of Scottish descent, and she made her 
 home with her brother, John, at Fort Ed- 
 ward, New York. John McCrea was a 
 
252 Turning Points in the 
 
 patriot, but Jane had for her lover an officer 
 in Burgoyne's army named David Jones, 
 to whom she was betrothed. Between John 
 McCrea and David Jones an estrangement 
 had arisen on account of their opposite 
 political sympathies, but Jane clung to her 
 affianced. ' ' My dear Jenny, ' ' wrote Jones, 
 under date of July n, 1777, "these are sad 
 times, but I think the war will end this 
 year, as the rebels cannot hold out, and will 
 see their error. By the blessing of Provi- 
 dence I trust we shall yet pass many years 
 
 together in peace No more at 
 
 present, but believe me yours affectionately 
 till death." How faithfully he kept that 
 promise ! 
 
 Jane McCrea well deserved her lover's 
 devotion. She is described as a young 
 woman of rare accomplishments, great per- 
 sonal attractions, and of a remarkable 
 sweetness of disposition.* She was of 
 medium stature, finely formed, of a delicate 
 blonde complexion. Her hair was of a 
 golden brown and silken lustre, and when 
 unbound trailed upon the ground. Her 
 father was devoted to literary pursuits, and 
 she thus had acquired a taste for reading, 
 unusual in one of her age — about twenty - 
 four years — in those early times. 
 
 ♦See "The Burgoyne Ballads." by William I,. Stone, 
 from whose narrative this sketch is taken. 
 
World's History. 253 
 
 When Burgoyne's army was about four 
 miles from Fort Edward, David Jones sent 
 a party of Indians, under Duluth, a half- 
 breed, to escort his betrothed to the British 
 camp, where they were to be married at 
 once by Chaplain Brudenell, Lady Harriet 
 Acland and Madame Riedesel, wife of Gen- 
 eral Riedesel, in command of the Brunswick 
 contingent, having consented to be present 
 at the wedding. It had been arranged that 
 Duluth should halt in the woods about a 
 quarter of a mile from the house of a Mrs. 
 McNeil where Jane was waiting to join him 
 at the appointed time. Meanwhile it hap- 
 pened that a fierce Wyandotte chief named 
 Le Loup, with a band of marauding Indians 
 from the British camp, drove in a scouting 
 party of Americans, and stopping on their 
 return from the pursuit at Mrs. McNeil's 
 house, took her and Jane captive, with the 
 intention of taking them to the British 
 camp. On their way back Le Loup and 
 his followers encountered Duluth and his 
 party. The half-breed stated his errand 
 and demanded that Jane be given up to> 
 him. Le Loup insisted on escorting her. 
 Angry words followed and Le Loup, in 
 violent passion, shot Jane through the 
 heart. Then the savage tore the scalp from 
 his victim and carried it to the British 
 camp. Mrs. McNeil had arrived at the 
 camp a little in advance, having been sep- 
 
254 Turning Poi?its in the 
 
 arated from Jane before the tragedy. She 
 at once recognized the beautiful tresses. 
 David Jones never recovered from the shock. 
 It is said that he was so crushed by the ter- 
 rible blow, and disgusted with the apathy 
 of Burgoyne in refusing to punish the mis- 
 creant who brought the scalp of Jane 
 McCrea to the camp as a trophy, claiming 
 the bount}' offered for such prizes by the 
 British, that he asked for a discharge and 
 upon this being refused deserted, having 
 first rescued the precious relic of his beloved 
 from the savages. Jones retired to the 
 Canadian wilderness, and spent the remain- 
 der of his life unmarried, a silent and mel- 
 ancholy man. 
 
 The murder of Jane McCrea fired New 
 York. From every farm, from every vil- 
 lage, from every cabin in the woods the 
 men of America thronged to avenge her 
 death. Her name was a rallying cry along 
 the banks of the Hudson and in the moun- 
 tains of Vermont, and ''her death con- 
 tributed in no slight degree to Burgoyne 's 
 defeat, which became a precursor and prin- 
 cipal cause of American independence."* 
 
 The force of about two thousand men, 
 whom Colonel Barry St. Leger led into the 
 forests of what is now Oneida County, met 
 stout resistance, and but for the Indian 
 allies of the British, led by the great Mo- 
 
 * Stone, " The Burgoyne Ballads." 
 
World's History. 255 
 
 hawk chief, Joseph Brant, St. Leger's 
 troops would probably have been destroyed 
 or made captive. The fierce battle of Oris- 
 kany, in which the brave General Herkimer 
 received a fatal wound, was a patriot vic- 
 tory, but it gave St. I,eger a respite. When 
 he heard that Benedict Arnold was ap- 
 proaching with troops sent by General 
 Schuyler, to give him battle, he retreated 
 to Lake Ontario, shattering Burgoyne's 
 hopes of aid from the Tories of the Mo- 
 hawk Valley. Meanwhile Congress had 
 relieved General Schuyler from command 
 in the North, and appointed Horatio Gates 
 in his place. Gates was not a man of 
 ability, but he was ably seconded in his 
 operations against Burgoyne by Benedict 
 Arnold. 
 
 General Howe had intended to take 
 Philadelphia and then co-operate with Bur- 
 goyne in inflicting a final and crushing 
 blow on the Americans, but the Fabian 
 strategy of Washington again proved too 
 much for the British. Howe being pre- 
 vented by Washington from crossing New 
 Jersey with his army, undertook an expe- 
 dition by sea. He sailed up Chesapeake 
 Bay, marched northward with 18,000 men 
 to Brandywine Creek, and there met Wash- 
 ington with 11,000, on the eleventh of Sep- 
 tember. The British held the field, but 
 Washington retreated slowly, disputing 
 
256 Turning Points in the 
 
 every foot of ground, and it was not until 
 the twenty-sixth of September that Howe 
 entered Philadelphia. Washington attacked 
 the British encampment at Germantown at 
 daybreak on the fourth of October, and 
 attempted to drive the British into the 
 Schu3 T lkill River. One American battalion 
 fired into another by mistake, and this un- 
 happy accident probably saved the British 
 from another Trenton on a larger scale. 
 Howe was unable to send any assistance to 
 Burgoyne until it was too late to save that 
 commander. 
 
 Burgoyne found his progress stopped by 
 the intrenchments of the Americans under 
 General Gates, at Bemis Heights, nine 
 miles south of Saratoga, and he endeavored 
 to extricate himself from his perilous posi- 
 tion by fighting. 
 
 On September 19, Burgoyne attacked the 
 American lines. The patriots were well 
 prepared to receive him. General Benedict 
 Arnold, who commanded the American left, 
 did not wait for the enemy to come, but 
 having approached under cover of the 
 woods, charged furiously on Burgoyne' s 
 centre. The battle raged fiercely for about 
 four hours, Arnold displaying the most 
 reckless bravery, in marked contrast to the 
 cautious policy of his superior, General 
 Gates. The American troops were ani- 
 mated by their leader's example, and 
 
World's History. . 257 
 
 astonished the British 03' the desperate 
 courage with which they disputed the 
 ground. At length, under cover of dark- 
 ness, the Americans drew off, after killing 
 and wounding 600 of the 3500 British. 
 The American loss was much less, and 
 although Burgoyne held the field he realized 
 that another conflict with similar havoc 
 would be the ruin of himself and his army. 
 He looked anxiously for the reinforcements 
 which did not come. 
 
 On the seventh of October the British, 
 with their Tory and Indian allies, moved 
 forward to another attack. This time the 
 Americans were better prepared, and made 
 stronger than on the first day's battle. 
 They rushed upon Burgoyne' s lines, and 
 the Germans and the grenadiers gave way 
 before the impetuous charge. General 
 Simon Fraser, the best, and one of the 
 bravest of Burgoyne' s officers, was shot dead 
 while attempting to cover the retreat. 
 Fearing danger to his own lines Burgoyne 
 abandoned the field, leaving six cannon to 
 the victors, and many dead and wounded. 
 Benedict Arnold followed in a headlong 
 charge upon the British intrenchments. 
 His horse was shot under him, and he was 
 wounded in the leg; but he broke through 
 the British lines, and held out against all 
 attacks. Burgoyne abandoned his lines 
 that night, and occupied a new position. 
 
258 Turning Points in the 
 
 The fate of his army was now sealed. He 
 was cut off from assistance, and at the 
 mercy of Gates. The funeral of General 
 Fraser, under these melancholy circum- 
 stances, was a peculiarly sad celebration. 
 
 On October 16, a convention was signed 
 by the terms of which Burgoyne surrendered 
 his entire army to the Americans. The 
 force surrendered numbered 5763 men, and 
 included two lieutenant-generals, two major- 
 generals and three brigadier-generals. The 
 ordnance, part of which had previously 
 been taken in battle by the Americans, con- 
 sisted of thirty-eight pieces of light artil- 
 lery attached to columns, six twenty-four 
 pounders, six twelve-pounders and four 
 howitzers. 
 
 The surrender of Burgoyne gave to the 
 American cause a status which it had 
 lacked abroad, and it brought into full and 
 effectual exercise the diplomatic side of the 
 struggle for independence. It was then 
 that Franklin showed himself another 
 Washington. "On the great question of 
 the foreign relations of the United States," 
 says Wharton, "it made no matter whether 
 he was alone or surrounded by unfriendly 
 colleagues; it was only through him that 
 negotiations could be carried on with 
 France, for to him alone could the French 
 government commit itself with the con- 
 sciousness that the enormous confidences 
 
World* s History, 259 
 
 reposed in him would be honorably 
 guarded." France, chiefly through the in- 
 fluence of Franklin, had given covert as- 
 sistance to the colonies from the beginning 
 of the struggle, but the French ministry 
 hesitated to take a decisive step. Fear 
 that the Americans would succumb, and 
 leave France to bear the weight of British 
 nostility, and apprehension that England 
 might grant the demands of the colonists 
 and then turn her forces against European 
 foes, deterred the French government from 
 avowed support of the American cause. 
 The news from Saratoga gave assurance 
 that America would prove a steadfast as well 
 as a powerful ally, and that with the aid of 
 the United States the British empire might 
 be dismembered, and France avenged for 
 her losses and humiliations on the Ameri- 
 can continent. Nor was revenge the only 
 motive which led France to cast her lot 
 with the revolted colonies. England was 
 already stretching forth to establish her 
 power in India, and France felt that with 
 North America and India both subject to 
 the British, the maritime and commercial 
 superiority of England would be a menace 
 to other powers. 
 
 France did not act without long and 
 careful premeditation on the part of the 
 French crown and its ministers, for the re- 
 lations between England and her American 
 
260 Turning Points in the 
 
 colonies had been carefully and acutely 
 considered by the statesmen of Versailles 
 long before the point of open revolt was 
 reached. Even when France concluded to 
 throw her resources into the scale on the 
 side of the United States she did not alto- 
 gether abandon her cautious attitude. The 
 French government acknowledged the 
 United States as a sovereign and treat} T - 
 making power; but while the treaty of 
 commerce of February 6, 1778, was abso- 
 lute and immediate in its effects, the treaty 
 of alliance of the same date was contingent 
 on war taking place between Great Britain 
 and France. 
 
 Upon receiving formal notice of the treat- 
 ies Lord North immediately recalled the 
 British ambassador from Paris, and George 
 III. stated, in bad English, to Lord North 
 (the king spelled "Pennsylvania" "Pen- 
 silvania," and "wharfs" "warfs") that a 
 corps must be drawn from the army in 
 America sufficient to attack the French 
 islands. There was a state of partial war 
 without a declaration of war. The naval 
 forces of England and France came into un- 
 authorized collision, and war was the result. 
 
 LAKE ERIK. 
 
 Upon the struggle for the control of Lake 
 Erie during the War of 181 2 depended 
 whether England should succeed in pre- 
 
World's History. 261 
 
 venting the western growth of the United 
 States, or be driven forever from the soil 
 which Americans claimed as their own. 
 Master-Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry 
 was but twenty-six years of age when the 
 Navy Department called him from his 
 pleasant home at Newport and sent him 
 to command a navy summoned from the 
 primeval forests of the Northwest. Young 
 as he was Perry had seen service in the 
 wars with France and Tripoli, and he had 
 requested the Navy Department at the com- 
 mencement of the conflict with England to 
 send him where he could meet the enemies 
 of his country. Perry arrived at Erie, then 
 known as Presque Isle, in March, 18 13. 
 Sailing-Master Daniel Dobbins and Noah 
 Brown, a shipwright from New York, were 
 busily at work on the new fleet. Two 
 brigs, the Niagara and the Lawrence, were 
 built with white and black oak and chestnut 
 frames, the outside planking being of oak 
 and the decks of pine. Two gunboats 
 were newly planked up, and work on a 
 schooner was just begun. The vessels had 
 to be vigilantly guarded against attack by 
 the British, who were fully aware of the 
 work being done. The capture of Fort 
 George left the Niagara River open, and 
 several American vessels which had been 
 unable before to pass the Canadian batter- 
 ies were now, with great exertion, drawn 
 
262 Turning Points in the 
 
 into the lake. These were the brig Cale- 
 donia, the schooners Somers, Tigress and 
 Ohio, and the sloop Trippe. An English 
 squadron set out to intercept the new arri- 
 vals, but Perry succeeded in gaining the 
 harbor of Erie before the enemy made their 
 appearance. 
 
 The American ships were ready for sea 
 on July 10, but officers and sailors were 
 lacking, and it was not until about the 
 close of the month that Perry had three 
 hundred men to man his ten vessels. 
 While the British squadron, under Captain 
 Robert Heriot Barclay maintained a vigor- 
 ous blockade, Perry found that his new 
 brigs could not cross the bar without landing 
 their guns and being blocked up on scows. 
 Commander Barclay, thinking that Perry 
 could not move, made a visit of ceremony 
 with his squadron to Port Dover, on the 
 Canadian side. During Barclay's absence 
 Perry got the Lawrence and Niagara over 
 the bar, and the British commander was 
 astonished when he returned on the morn- 
 ing of August 5, to see the American fleet 
 riding at anchor, and ready for battle. 
 Barclay wished to delay the naval combat 
 until after the completion at Maiden of a 
 ten-gun ship called the Detroit, which was 
 to be added to his force, and he therefore 
 put into that harbor.* Perry improved the 
 
 * Maiden, on the Detroit River, eighteen miles below the 
 city of Detroit, is now known as Amherstburg. 
 
World's History. 263 
 
 delay to exercise his crews, largely made 
 up of soldiers, in seamanship. 
 
 It was not until September 10 that the 
 British squadron came out to give battle. 
 Master-Commandant Perry had nine vessels 
 mounting fifty-four guns, with 1536 pounds 
 of metal. The British squadron consisted 
 of six vessels, mounting sixty-three guns, 
 with a total weight of 852 pounds. The 
 American vessels were manned by 400 men 
 and the British by 502 men and boys. In 
 discipline, training and physical condition, 
 however, the difference of crews was much 
 more in favor of the British than the num- 
 bers indicate. The brig Lawrence was 
 Perry's flagship; Barclay's pennant flew on 
 the Detroit. As the American vessels stood 
 out to sea Perry hoisted a large blue flag 
 with the words of the dying Lawrence in 
 white muslin — " Don't give up the ship!" 
 He prepared for defeat as well as for vic- 
 tory, by gathering all his important papers 
 in a package weighted and ready to be 
 thrown overboard in the event of disaster. 
 It may be said that Perry fought the earlier 
 part of the battle almost alone, a slow-sail- 
 ing brig, the Caledonia, being in line ahead 
 of the Niagara, and Perry, having given 
 orders that the vessels should preserve their 
 stations. 
 
 In the duel of long guns the British had a 
 decided advantage and their fire being con- 
 
264 Turning Poi?ifs in the 
 
 centrated on the Lawrence that vessel soon 
 became a wreck. Of one hundred and 
 three men fit for dut}^ on board the Ameri- 
 can flagship, eighty -three* were killed or 
 wounded. These figures sufficiently in- 
 dicate the carnage; but Perry fought on. 
 "Can any of the wounded pull a rope?" 
 cried Perry, and mangled men crawled out 
 to help in training the guns. For nearly 
 three hours the Lawrence with the schooners 
 Ariel and Scorpion fought the British fleet. 
 Then Master-Commandant Elliott, of the 
 Niagara, fearing Perry had been killed, 
 undertook, notwithstanding Perry's pre- 
 vious orders, to go out of line to the help of 
 the Lawrence. Perry then changed his flag 
 to the Niagara, leaving orders with First 
 Lieutenant John J. Yarnall, of the Law- 
 rence, to hold out to the last. Perry at 
 once sent Master-Commandant Elliott in a 
 boat to bring up the schooners, and mean- 
 time Lieutenant Yarnall, deciding that fur- 
 ther resistance would mean the destruction 
 of all on board, lowered the flag of the 
 Lawrence. The English thought they were 
 already victors, and gave three cheers, but 
 the Lawrence drifted out of range before 
 they could take possession of her, and the 
 Stars and Stripes were raised again over 
 her blood-stained decks. 
 
 The battle had in truth only begun, but 
 was soon to end. The remainder of the 
 
World's History. 265 
 
 American squadron closed in on the Eng- 
 lish vessels, raking them fore and aft. 
 The English officers and men were swept 
 from their decks by the hurricane of iron. 
 It was the United States and the Macedon- 
 ian 011 a smaller scale. The American 
 cannonade at close quarters was so fast and 
 furious that the British ships were soon in 
 a condition that left no choice save between 
 sinking or surrender. In fifteen minutes 
 after the Americans closed in a British 
 officer waved a white handkerchief. The 
 enemy had struck. Two of the English 
 vessels, the Chippewa and the Little Belt, 
 sought to escape to Maiden, but were pur- 
 sued and captured by the sloop Trippe and 
 the Scorpion.* Perry proceeded to the 
 Lawrence, and on the decks of his flagship, 
 still slippery with blood, he received the 
 surrender of the English officers. Perry 
 wrote with a pencil on the back of an old 
 
 * "At half-past two, the wind springing up, Captain Elliott 
 was enabled to bring his vessel, the Niagara, into close ac- 
 tion. I immediately went on board of her, when he antici- 
 pated my wish by volunteering to bring the schooners, 
 which had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind, 
 into close action. At forty-five minutes past two the signal 
 was made for close action. The Niagara being very little 
 injured I determined to pass through the enemy's line, bore 
 up aud passed ahead of their two ships and a brig, large 
 schooner and sloop from the larboard side, at half pistol 
 shot distance. The smaller vessels at this time having got- 
 ten within grape and canister distance, under the direction 
 of Captain E)lliott, and keeping up a well-directed fire, the 
 two ships, a brig and a schooner, surrendered, a schooner 
 and a sloop making a vain attempt to escape."— Perry's ac- 
 count of the battle. 
 
266 Turning Pomts in the 
 
 letter his famous dispatch: "We have met 
 the enemy, and they are ours — two ships, 
 two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. ' ' 
 The Americans lost in the battle twenty- 
 seven killed and ninety-six wounded, of 
 whom twenty-two were killed and sixty-one 
 wounded on board the Lawrence. Twelve 
 of the American quarter-deck officers were 
 killed. The British lost forty-one killed 
 and ninety-four wounded, making a total 
 of one hundred and thirty-five. Comman- 
 der Barclay, one of Nelson's veterans, had 
 lost an arm in a previous naval engagement. 
 He gave his men an admirable example of 
 courage, being twice wounded, once in the 
 thigh and once in the shoulder, thus being 
 deprived of the use of his remaining arm. 
 Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, 
 was mortally wounded, and died on the same 
 evening. 
 
 Thousands on the American and British 
 shores witnessed or listened to the conflict, 
 conscious that upon the result depended the 
 future of the Northwest. None listened 
 with more patriotic eagerness than John 
 Kinzie, already mentioned as the first resi- 
 dent of Chicago, then a prisoner at Maiden, 
 having been removed from Detroit on sus- 
 picion that he was in correspondence with 
 General Harrison. Kinzie was taking a 
 promenade under guard, when he heard the 
 guns on Lake Erie. The time allotted to 
 
World's History. 267 
 
 the prisoner for his daily walk expired, but 
 neither he nor his guard observed the fact, 
 so anxiously were they catching every sound 
 from what they now felt sure was an en- 
 gagement between ships of war. At length 
 Mr. Kinzie was reminded that the hour for 
 his return to confinement had arrived. He 
 pleaded for another half hour. 
 
 "Let me stay," said he, "till we can 
 learn how the battle has gone." 
 
 Very soon a sloop appeared under press 
 of sail, rounding the point, and presently 
 two vessels in chase of her. 
 
 "She is running — she bears the British 
 colors," cried Kinzie — "yes, yes, they are 
 lowering — they are striking her flag ! Now' ' 
 — turning to the soldiers, "I will go back 
 to prison contented. I know how the bat- 
 tle has gone. ' ' 
 
 The sloop was the Little Belt, the last of 
 the British fleet to surrender, after a vain 
 attempt to escape. The Father of Chicago 
 had seen the end of the battle which made 
 possible the Chicago of to-day. 
 
 Perry's victory compelled the enemy to 
 evacuate Detroit, and all their posts in 
 American territory except Michilimacinac, 
 which place remained in the possession of 
 the British until the close of the war. Soon 
 after the battle of Lake Erie, General Har- 
 rison crossed to the Canadian shore, entered 
 Maiden, and then passed on in pursuit of 
 
268 Turning Points in the 
 
 Proctor and Tecumseh, who were in full 
 retreat up the valley of the Thames. In 
 the battle of the Thames, which followed, 
 the British were completely routed, and 
 Tecumseh was slain. The Northwest was 
 now secure. The British had been driven 
 back and their Indian alty, Tecumseh, with 
 his great scheme of an independent Indian 
 power, had passed away. 
 
 CERRO GORDO. 
 
 While the annexation of Texas was the 
 immediate provocation of war between the 
 United States and Mexico, yet the question 
 whether North America should be domi- 
 nated by men of the British or the Spanish- 
 American race was, like slavery, to be settled 
 only on the battlefield. Up to that decision 
 Mexico believed herself to be in power and 
 prowess, as she was almost in territor}^, the 
 equal of the United States. The armies of 
 Scott and Taylor proved in some of the 
 best-fought battles of history that the North 
 American Republic was the leading power 
 of the continent. 
 
 The American Government and people 
 were not unprepared for a challenge from 
 Mexico, and rather welcomed it, as, apart 
 from the Texas issue, Mexico had, from 
 the time of her independence, treated the 
 United States in a manner far from neigh- 
 
World's History. 269 
 
 borly, and inflicted many injuries on 
 American citizens. In the West and South 
 especially it was deemed necessary to give 
 Mexico a lesson ; in New England the war 
 was not popular. Hostilities began, and 
 two sharp battles were fought, before war 
 was actually declared. General Zachary 
 Taylor, with a force much inferior to that 
 of the enemy, defeated the Mexicans at 
 Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and 
 drove them out of Texas. At Resaca the 
 American dragoons under Captain May 
 charged straight upon a Mexican battery, 
 killing the gunners and capturing the Mex- 
 ican general La Vega just as he was about 
 to apply a match to one of the pieces. The 
 Mexican army was so completely scattered 
 that their commander Arista fled unaccom- 
 panied across the Rio Grande. At Buena 
 Vista Generals Taylor and Wool, with 5000 
 men, of whom only 500 were regular troops, 
 confronted Santa Anna with 20,000, Feb- 
 ruary 23, 1847. The Mexican chieftain 
 expected an easy victory, and his army, in- 
 spired with his confidence, rushed from 
 their mountains upon the small force of 
 Americans drawn up in battle array on the 
 plain of Angostura. 
 
 "Like the fierce Northern hurricane 
 That sweeps his great plateau, 
 Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, 
 Came down the serried foe. 
 
270 Turning Points in the 
 
 Who heard the thunder of the fray 
 Break o'er the field beneath, 
 Well knew the watchword of that day- 
 Was victory or death." 
 
 The battle lasted all day, the American 
 artillery being splendidly handled, and 
 mowing down the Mexicans at every charge. 
 "Give 'em a little more grape, Captain 
 Bragg!" said Taylor, quietly, as he saw 
 Santa Anna's lines wavering. The grape 
 was given, and the Mexicans fled, leaving 
 500 of their number dead or dying on the 
 field. The total Mexican loss, including 
 wounded and prisoners was about 2000 ; that 
 of the Americans in killed, wounded and 
 missing, 746. This victory and the success 
 of Fremont and Kearney in California, 
 completed the conquest of Northern Mexico. 
 
 General W infield Scott, who was in su- 
 preme command of all the American forces, 
 conducted a brilliant campaign from the 
 coast. After taking Vera Cruz and the 
 castle of San Juan de Ulloa, General Scott 
 advanced toward the City of Mexico with 
 about 10,000 men. At Cerro Gordo, a 
 difficult pass in the mountains, the Ameri- 
 can army encountered 12,000 Mexicans 
 under command of Santa Anna, who had, 
 by extraordinary efforts, collected this force 
 after his defeat at Buena Vista. The battle 
 was fought on April 18, every movement of 
 the American troops being directed, accord- 
 
World's History. 271 
 
 ing to a carefully prepared plan, by General 
 Scott. Colonel Harvey led the storming 
 party into the pass, with a deep river on 
 one side, and batteries belching death from 
 lofty rocks on the other side. The Ameri- 
 cans rushed forward with irresistible cour- 
 age. They knew their enemy. The 
 Alamo had not been forgotten. 
 
 Cerro Gordo fell, and the flight of the 
 Mexicans may best be described in the 
 language of one of their own historians: 
 "General Santa Anna accompanied by 
 some of his adjutants, was passing along 
 the road to the left of the batter} 7 , when the 
 enemy's column, now out of the woods, 
 appeared on his line of retreat and fired 
 upon him, forcing him back. The carriage 
 in which he had left Jalapa was riddled 
 with shot, the mules killed and taken by 
 the enemy, as well as a wagon containing 
 $16,000 received the day before for the pay 
 of the soldiers. Every tie of command and 
 obedience now being broken among our 
 troops, safety alone being the object, and 
 all being involved in a frightful confusion, 
 they rushed desperately to the narrow pass 
 of the defile that descended to the Plan del 
 Rio, where the general- in-chief had pro- 
 ceeded, with the chiefs and officers accom- 
 panying him. Horrid indeed was the 
 descent by that narrow and rocky path 
 where thousands rushed, disputing the pass- 
 
272 Turning Points in the 
 
 age with desperation, and leaving a track 
 of blood upon the road. All classes being 
 confounded military distinction and respect 
 were lost; and badges of rank became 
 marks of sarcasm. The enemy, now masters 
 of our camp, turned their guns upon the 
 fugitives, thus augmenting the terror of the 
 multitude that crowded through the defile 
 and pressed forward every instant by a new 
 impulse, which increased the confusion and 
 disgrace of that ill-fated day." Of the 
 12,000 Mexicans engaged in this battle 
 about I200w 7 ere killed and wounded, and 
 3000 were made prisoners. The captives 
 w 7 ere all paroled, and the sick and wounded 
 sent to Jalapa, where they were well cared 
 for. The Castle of Perote, the strongest 
 fortress in Mexico, surrendered without re- 
 sistance, and the American flag was un- 
 furled on the summit of the eastern Cor- 
 dilleras. 
 
 Cerro Gordo was the decisive engagement, 
 but more fierce conflicts occurred before 
 General Scott planted the American flag, 
 on September 14, 1847, in the City of 
 Mexico. From the National Palace of that 
 Republic General Scott issued a general 
 order in which, with justifiable pride, he 
 declared: "Beginning with August 10 and 
 ending the fourteenth instant, this army 
 has gallantly fought its way through the 
 fields and forts of Contreras, San Antonio, 
 
World's History. 273 
 
 Chnrnbusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec 
 and the gates of San Cosme and Tacubaya 
 into the capital of Mexico. When the very 
 limited number who have performed these 
 brilliant deeds shall have become known, 
 the world will be astonished and our own 
 countrymen filled with joy and admiration. ' ' 
 The triumphs of Scott and Taylor added 
 luster to American arms which time will 
 not efface. They recall the exploits of 
 Cortes and Pizarro, save in the scrupulous 
 honor and humanity which guided every 
 step of the American invasion. No vic- 
 tors were ever more generous in their treat- 
 ment of the conquered. ' ' The soldiers of 
 Vera Cruz," says a Mexican historian, 
 "received the honor due to their valor and 
 misfortunes. Not even a look was given 
 them by the enemy's soldiers which could 
 be interpreted into an insult. ' ' The Duke 
 of Wellington, the conqueror of Napoleon, 
 followed Scott's campaign with deep inter- 
 est and caused its movements to be marked 
 on a map daily, as information was received. 
 Admiring its triumphs up to the basin of 
 Mexico, Wellington then said: ' 'Scott is 
 lost. He has been carried away by success. 
 He can't take the city, and he can't fall 
 back on his base. ' ' Wellington proved to be 
 wrong. He had never met American troops. 
 The treaty of Guadalupe- Hidalgo, con- 
 cluded February 2, 1848, established the 
 
274 Turning Points in the 
 
 Rio Grande as the boundary between the 
 United States and Mexico, and California 
 and New Mexico, including what is now 
 Arizona, were ceded to the United States 
 for $15,000,000. The United States also 
 assumed the payment of obligations due by 
 Mexico to American citizens to the amount 
 of $3,250,000, and discharged Mexico 
 from all claims of citizens of the United 
 States against that Republic. Strict pro- 
 vision was made for the preservation of the 
 rights of the inhabitants of the ceded terri- 
 tory. The Gadsden Purchase, in 1S53— so 
 called from General James Gadsden, who 
 conducted the negotiations in behalf of the 
 United States — added 45,535 square miles 
 of Mexican territory to the United States, 
 for which this country paid $10,000,000, 
 Mexico at the same time relinquishing 
 claims against the United States for Indian 
 depredations amounting to from $15,000,- 
 000 to $30,000,000. The American Re- 
 public thus received in all, as a consequence 
 of the Mexican War, 591,398 square miles, 
 and the Union acquired its present bound- 
 aries, exclusive of Alaska. 
 
 The Mexican War gave to the United 
 States the Pacific as well as the Atlantic sea- 
 board, and completed the w r estern movement 
 which had begun with the very birth of the 
 Republic. It made the United States the 
 great power of the American continent, 
 
 
World's History. 275 
 
 seated between the two oceans, with a 
 domain unequaled in natural resources by 
 any other region of the world. 
 
 GETTYSBURG. 
 
 Gettysburg is universally regarded as the 
 decisive conflict of the Rebellion. In the 
 beginning of the war the North was at a 
 disadvantage. Mr. Lincoln found the little 
 army of the United States scattered and 
 disorganized, the navy sent to distant quar- 
 ters of the globe, the treasury bankrupt 
 and the public service demoralized, 
 
 Floyd and his fellow-conspirators had done 
 their work thoroughly. It did not take 
 long for the people of the North to rally to 
 the defence of the government, and for an 
 army to be formed capable not only of de- 
 fending the loyal States, but of striking a 
 blow at the Confederacy. With the Na- 
 tional credit restored, an abundance of cur- 
 rency provided for national needs, and the 
 public departments cleared of Southern 
 sympathizers, the North entered upon a 
 conflict which could have but one ending 
 should the Northern States remain stead- 
 fast. 
 
 The weakness of the South, from a mili- 
 tary standpoint, was in the fact that men 
 lost could not be replaced. 
 
 The North could replenish its depleted 
 
276 Turning Points in the 
 
 armies; the South could not. With men 
 therefore of the same race and equal in sol- 
 dierly qualities arrayed against each other, 
 one side within measurable distance of ex- 
 haustion and the other with inexhaustible 
 human resources to draw upon, the war be- 
 came an easy sum in arithmetic, provided 
 the stronger party should not cry "enough" 
 before the weaker had reached the exhaus- 
 tion point. The battles on comparatively 
 equal terms were fought, therefore, in the 
 early part of the war, the decisive battles 
 in 1863, and the closing struggle between 
 the gasping Confederacy and the Union 
 stronger than ever, in the last fifteen 
 months of the conflict. 
 
 While, under the able generalship of 
 Grant and Sherman, the Union forces in the 
 West made steady progress, almost from 
 the beginning of the war, in the East the 
 record of our armies was for nearly two 
 years one of almost monotonous defeat. 
 The tide turned at Gettysburg. General 
 George Gordon Meade succeeded General 
 Joseph Hooker in command of the Army of 
 the Potomac. Meade was not a brilliant 
 man, but he was a thorough soldier, and 
 eminently free from that spirit of envy 
 which was the bane of our armies, which 
 had nearly driven Grant from the service, 
 and which was responsible for the loss of 
 more than one battle. Elated by Chancel- 
 
World's History. 277 
 
 lorsville, Lee determined to invade the 
 North. The Sonth made an extreme effort 
 to replenish its armies, and that of North- 
 ern Virginia was raised to about 100,000 
 men. With the greater part of this mag- 
 nificent host, including 15,000 cavalry and 
 280 guns, Lee marched down the Shenan- 
 doah Valley, crossed the Potomac on the 
 twenty-fifth of June, and headed for Cham- 
 bersburg. Meade drew near with the Army 
 of the Potomac, and such reinforcements as 
 had been hastily collected in Pennsylvania 
 on the news of the invasion. 
 
 At Gettysburg the two armies met for the 
 decisive battle of the war. Meade had on 
 the field 83,000 men and 300 guns; Lee, 
 69,000 men and 250 guns. For three days 
 the two armies contended with frightful 
 losses, and with a courage not surpassed in 
 ancient or modern warfare. The brave 
 General John F. Reynolds lost his life in 
 the first encounter, and General Winfield 
 Scott Hancock was sent by Meade to take 
 charge of the field. On the second day oc- 
 curred the desperate conflict for Little 
 Round Top, which resulted in that key to 
 the Union line being seized and held by 
 the Union troops. Neither side, however, 
 gained any decided advantage. On the 
 third day Lee prepared for the grand move- 
 ment known in history as "Pickett's 
 Charge. ' ' Fourteen thousand men were 
 
278 Turning Points hi the 
 
 selected as the forlorn hope of the Confed- 
 eracy. For two hours before the charge 
 120 guns kept up a fearful cannonade upon 
 the Union lines. Meade answered with 
 eighty guns. About three o'clock in the 
 afternoon Meade ceased firing. Lee thought 
 the Northern gunners were silenced. He 
 was mistaken; they knew what was coming. 
 On moved the charging column, as the 
 smoke of battle lifted, and the "tattered 
 uniforms and bright muskets" came plainly 
 into view. At an average distance of about 
 eleven hundred yards the Union batteries 
 opened. Shot and shell tore through the 
 Confederate ranks. Still they marched on 
 over wounded and dying and dead. Canis- 
 ter now rained on their ranks, and as they 
 came within closer range a hurricane of 
 bullets burst upon them, and men dropped 
 on every side like leaves in the winds of 
 autumn. The strength of the charging 
 column melted before the gale of death; 
 but the survivors staggered on. When the 
 remains of the Confederate right reached 
 the Union works their three brigade com- 
 manders had fallen, ever} 7 field officer ex- 
 cept one had been killed or wounded ; but 
 still the remnant kept its face to the foe, 
 led to annihilation by the dauntless Armis- 
 tead. The four brigades on the left of 
 Pickett met a similar fate. "They moved 
 up splendidly," wrote a Union officer, 
 
World's History. 279 
 
 "deploying as they crossed the long sloping 
 interval. The front of the column was 
 nearly up the slope, and within a few 
 yards of the Second Corps' front and its 
 batteries, when suddenly a terrific fire from 
 every available gun on Cemetery Ridge 
 burst upon them. Their graceful lines 
 underwent an instantaneous transformation 
 in a dense cloud of smoke and dust; arms, 
 heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were 
 tossed in the air, and the moan from the 
 battlefield was heard amid the storm of 
 battle." 
 
 One half of the 14,000 perished in the 
 charge. Gettysburg was over, and the 
 tide of invasion from the South was rolled 
 back never to return. Meade had lost 
 about 23,000 men, and L,ee probably many 
 more than this number. His loss was 
 not officially reported. Halleck, whose 
 business as general-in-chief seemed to 
 be to annoy successful commanders, 
 and irritate them to the resignation 
 point, blamed Meade for allowing Lee to 
 retire without another battle, but public 
 opinion upheld the victor of Gettysburg, 
 and Congress honored him and Generals 
 Hancock and O. O. Howard with a resolu- 
 tion of thanks. 
 
 The writer has been told by a veteran of 
 Gettysburg that from that eventful Fourth 
 of July a new spirit seemed to animate the 
 
280 Turning Points in the 
 
 Union troops. They saw that the}' could 
 defeat the Confederates under the ablest 
 Confederate commander, and the depression 
 of former disasters was lifted from the breasts 
 of our soldiers. Besides the}' justly looked 
 upon Lee's retreat as a final retreat, and 
 went forward with fresh courage toward the 
 goal which at last appeared within reach. 
 The Confederacy never recovered from 
 Gettysburg. 
 
World's History. 281 
 
 XVIII.— GREAT RELIGIOUS MOVE- 
 MENTS OF THE CENTURY. 
 
 BY DR. B. J. FERNIE. 
 
 Looking back over the path human- 
 ity has traversed through the past 
 centuries, we see that the trend has 
 ever been upward. The new course 
 the world has taken at every turning- 
 point has been into clearer light and 
 into better conditions. The race has 
 not been traveling in a circle, and it 
 has not been obliged to retrace its 
 steps. Every point gained has been 
 the stepping-stone to a new advance. 
 Material and moral progress can be 
 traced from age to age, and the end is 
 not yet. There are heights yet to be 
 scaled and evils yet to be extirpated. 
 Religion and philanthropy, hand in 
 hand, are preparing for a new advance 
 great as those that lie behind us. 
 What has been accomplished in recent 
 times encourages us to hope for even 
 greater triumphs. The energy of ex- 
 ploration, the activity of science, and 
 the progress of invention have had 
 their parallels in new applications of 
 spiritual truth and new organizations 
 for effecting spiritual regeneration. A 
 brief survey of the past century will 
 
282 Turning Points in the 
 
 show not only the progress made, but 
 the character of the forces that are 
 gathered for a new advance. 
 
 DEFENCE ON NEW LINES. 
 
 In a period so intensely active and 
 progressive as the nineteenth century 
 has been, in politics, science and liter- 
 ature, it would have been surprising 
 if the Church had remained inert, 
 wrapped like a mummy in the cere- 
 ments of the past. At the beginning 
 of the century, there were voices on 
 all hands loudly proclaiming that it 
 was dead ; that it was antiquated and 
 obsolete ; that it had lost touch with 
 the life of the time, that it was a relic 
 of exploded superstition ; and as a 
 great writer said, had fallen into a god- 
 less mechanical condition, standing as 
 the lifeless form of a church, a mere 
 case of theories, like the carcass of a 
 once swift camel, left withering in the 
 thirst of the universal desert. That in 
 certain circles there was ground for 
 such reproach is sufficiently proved. 
 Materialism had crept into its colleges, 
 sapping away their spiritual life and 
 driving young men either into Atheism 
 or into the Roman Catholic Commun- 
 ion. Such activity as it had, was in 
 the evangelical circles only. 
 
World's History. 283 
 
 The common people still listened eagerly to 
 Wesley's successors and were intensely in 
 earnest in the Christian life and work r It 
 was at the top that the tree was dying, 
 where the currents of the philosophy of 
 Voltaire struck the branches, and where 
 Hume's scorching radicalism blighted its 
 leaves. In the universities, and the clubs, 
 not in the workshops, was religion scorned 
 and contemned. 
 
 There was soon, however, to be a quick- 
 ening of the dry bones. The spirit of the 
 time — the zeit-geist — began to move in the 
 Church. It was the spirit of investigation, 
 of scientific inquiry, of rigorous test. The 
 older preachers and religious authorities 
 still droned about the duty of defending the 
 faith "once for all" delivered to the saints. 
 In spite of their protests, the younger men 
 would go down into the crypt of the 
 Church, and examine the foundations of 
 the building. They could not be kept back 
 by authoritative assurances that the stones 
 were sound, and were well and truly laid. 
 The hysterical protests against the irrever- 
 ence of examination fell on deaf ears. The 
 answer was the simple insistance on in- 
 vestigation. The very reluctance to permit 
 it was an indication that it would not bear 
 investigation. 
 
 At the opening of the century, this idea, 
 expressed in varying forms, was rapidly 
 
284 Turning Points in the 
 
 becoming prevalent. The citadel of the 
 Church was assaulted, by some with fero- 
 city, and by others with scorn and con- 
 tempt. The defence was on the old lines 
 of denunciation of the wickedness of the 
 assailants, of vituperative epithets, and of 
 the assumption of special and divine illumi- 
 nation. The issue of the conflict would not 
 have been doubtful, had it been continued 
 with these tactics. The Church would have 
 been relegated to the limbo of superstition 
 and the hide-bound pedantry of ecclesias- 
 ticism, if new defenders on new principles 
 had not entered the lists. Reinforcement 
 came from a band of philosophic thinkers 
 of whom Wordsworth and Coleridge were 
 the pioneers. The influence of both these 
 men was underestimated at the time. They 
 appeared weak and ineffective, but the 
 ideas to which they gave expression, en- 
 tered the minds of stronger men, who ap- 
 plied them with more vigorous force. The 
 Church, Coleridge declared, as Carlyle in- 
 terprets him, was not dead, but tragically 
 asleep only. It might be aroused and 
 might again become useful, if only the 
 right paths were opened. Coleridge could 
 not open the paths, he could but vaguely 
 show the depth and volume of the forces 
 pent up in the Church ; but he insisted that 
 they were there, that eternal truth was in 
 Christianity, and that out of it must come 
 
World's History. 285 
 
 the light and life of the world. As his 
 little band of hearers listened to him, they 
 saw the first faint gleams of the light which 
 was to illumine the world and make the 
 darkness and degradation of the material- 
 istic philosophy an impossibility to the 
 devout mind. Thus he stood at the begin- 
 ning of the nineteenth century, as Erasmus 
 stood at the beginning of the sixteenth, 
 perceiving and proclaiming the existence 
 of truths which others were to apply to the 
 needs of the time. 
 
 To ascertain precisely in what form the 
 forces of Christianity existed and how they 
 might be applied to nineteenth century life, 
 became early in the nineteenth century the 
 problem on which the best thought of the 
 time was concentrated. Coleridge's un- 
 shaken conviction that it was solvable, 
 inspired many with courage. Whately, 
 Arnold, Schleiermacher, Bunsen, Ewald, 
 Newman, Hare, Milman, Thirlwall and 
 many others, approached it from different 
 directions. The spirit of scientific investi- 
 gation that was in the air was applied with 
 reverent hands, but with unsparing resolve 
 to ascertain the exact truth. The investiga- 
 tion was no longer confined to dogma; a 
 proof text from the Bible was no longer suffi- 
 cient to close a controversy. The Bible 
 itself must be subjected to investigation. 
 This was indeed going to the foundations. 
 
286 Turning Points in the 
 
 There was a wild outcry against rationalism 
 and iconoclasm, but the search for truth 
 and fact went on. As in a siege, the gar- 
 rison must sometimes destroy with their 
 own hands outworks which cannot be suc- 
 cessfully defended, and may be made a 
 vantage ground for the enemy, so the de- 
 fenders of Christianity set themselves to the 
 task of finding out how much of the current 
 theology was credible and tenable, and how 
 much might wisely be abandoned, to insure 
 the safety of the remainder. The discov- 
 eries of Geology, Astronomy and of Biology 
 could not be denied, yet their testimony 
 was contrary to Christian doctrine. "The 
 world was made in six natural days," said 
 the old Christian preacher. "The world 
 was thousands of years in the making," 
 said the geologist. The preacher appealed 
 to his Bible, the geologist appealed to the 
 rocks. The issue was fairly joined, and in 
 the early years of the century it seemed 
 as if there was no alternative but that of 
 believing the Bible and denying science, or 
 believing science and giving up the Bible; 
 it seemed impossible to believe both. 
 When the scientific theologian ventured to 
 suggest that the word "day," might mean 
 age, or period, there was another outcry 
 that the Bible was being surrendered to the 
 enemy. But it was realized that the mes- 
 sage of the Bible to the world was not 
 
World's History. 287 
 
 scientific, and that its usefulness was not 
 impaired by the suggested mode of under- 
 standing its record of creation ; and gradu- 
 ally the surrender was accepted. It is true 
 that to this day there are some who will not 
 accept it, as there is at least one preacher 
 who insists, on the authority of the Bible, 
 that "the sun do move," but the number 
 diminishes in every generation. A begin- 
 ning was made in attaining the true view 
 of the Bible which led further and has not 
 yet reached its limits. Having admitted 
 that the Bible was not given to teach 
 science the Church has to decide whether it 
 can admit the theory of evolution and 
 whether its records of history are authori- 
 tative. These questions are so fundamental 
 that the strife of Calvinism and Arminian- 
 ism and the question of the double proces- 
 sion of the Holy Spirit, which seemed vital 
 to our fathers have faded into relative in- 
 significance. 
 
 Evangelical Activity. 
 
 While these storms were agitating the 
 upper air, and the thunderous echoes re- 
 verberated through the mountains, the work 
 on the plain went rapidly forward. How- 
 ever the scholars and the theologians might 
 decide the questions at issue between them, 
 the working forces were profoundly con- 
 vinced that the Gospel was the great need 
 
288 Turning Points in the 
 
 of the world, and they put out new energy 
 and applied all the powers of the mind to 
 devising new methods for its propagation. 
 The increased facilities of travel, the im- 
 proved means of communication and, 
 above all, the power of the printing-press, 
 were all seized and harnessed to service in 
 the dissemination of the Gospel. No char- 
 acteristic of this century is so prominent as 
 this intense activity and aggressive energy. 
 From every secular movement, the Church 
 has taken suggestions for its own advance- 
 ment. Trade-unionism has suggested 
 Christian Endeavor and the Evangelical 
 Alliance ; the public school system has de- 
 veloped the International Lesson system in 
 the Sunday School ; the political convention 
 has taught the advantages of great relig- 
 ious conferences; the principles of military 
 organization have been utilized in the Salva- 
 tion Army. If in some circles religion 
 seems to have been a fight over doctrines 
 and theories, in others it has seemed a 
 ceaseless, untiring struggle for converts. 
 In no centum since the first century of the 
 Christian era has the zeal of propagation, 
 with no element of proselytism in it, taken 
 so strong a hold of the followers of Christ. 
 To translate the Bible into every tongue, 
 to carry the Gospel message to every people, 
 and to evangelize the masses at home, pro- 
 digious efforts have been put forth, and 
 
World's History. 289 
 
 enormous sums of money have been ex- 
 pended. Mental activity, uncompromising 
 veracity, indefatigable energy, have char- 
 acterized the Church through the century, 
 and its closing years show no abatement in 
 any of these characteristics. A brief sketch 
 of some of the more prominent of these 
 developments can render the fact only more 
 obvious. 
 
 Bible Revision. 
 
 One of the most important events of the 
 century to the English speaking world is 
 the Revision of the Bible. Its full effect 
 is not yet felt, as the book which was the 
 product of the Revisers' labors is but 
 slowly winning its way into use in the 
 Church and the home. Like its predecessor, 
 the Authorized Version now in general use, 
 it has to encounter the prejudice which 
 comes from long familiarity with the book 
 in use and from the veneration for the 
 phraseology in which the precious truths 
 are expressed. Yet from the beginning 
 of the century the need of an improved 
 translation was felt and several persons 
 undertook to supply it, but with very objec- 
 tionable results. The principal bases of 
 the need were serious. One was that many 
 words and phrases have in the nineteenth 
 century a meaning entirely different from 
 the one they had in the early part of the 
 
290 Turning Points in the 
 
 seventeenth century when the Authorized 
 Version was issued. One case in point is 
 Mark vi. 25, in which Salome asks that the 
 head of John the Baptist be given her "by 
 and by in a charger." In 161 1 the ex- 
 pression by and by meant immediately or 
 forthwith, and was a correct translation, 
 while with us it means a somewhat inde- 
 finite future and is therefore an incorrect 
 translation. With the noun, too, the mean- 
 ing has changed. Our idea of a charger is 
 of a war-horse, not of a dish, which the 
 original conveys. A second reason for the 
 revision was that there were in the libraries 
 in this century several manuscripts of the 
 original, much older than those to which 
 the translators of the Authorized Version 
 had access when they undertook their 
 work. A third reason was that a notable 
 advance had been made in scholarship in 
 the interval, and learned men were much 
 better acquainted with the Hebrew and 
 Greek idiom than were any of the scholars 
 of the King James period. For these three, 
 among other reasons, a revision was neces- 
 sary, that the unlearned reader might have, 
 as nearly as was possible, the exact equiva- 
 lent in English of the words of the Bible 
 writers. The project, after being widely 
 discussed for several years, finally took 
 shape in England in 1870, when the Con- 
 vocation of Canterbury appointed two 
 
World's History. 291 
 
 committees to undertake the work. The 
 ablest scholars in Hebrew and Greek litera- 
 ture in the country were assigned to the 
 committees, of which one was engaged on 
 the Old, and the other on the New Testament. 
 They were empowered to call to their aid 
 similar committees in America, who might 
 work simultaneously with them. Stringent 
 instructions were given to them to avoid 
 making changes where they were not clearly 
 needed for the accuracy of translation, and 
 to preserve the idiom of the Authorized 
 Version. Only with these safeguards and 
 with not a little reluctance, the commission 
 was issued. One hundred and one scholars 
 on both sides of the Atlantic took part in 
 the work. The committees commenced 
 their labors early in 187 1. On May 17, 
 188 1, the Revised New Testament was 
 issued, and on May 21, 1885, the Revised 
 Old Testament was in the hands of the 
 public. All that scholarship, strenuous 
 labor and exhaustive research could do to 
 give a faithful translation had been done 
 within the somewhat narrow and conserva- 
 tive limits under which the revisers were 
 commissioned. 
 
 Bibles by the Miujon. 
 
 With this improvement, there was at the 
 same time a marked impetus in Bible cir- 
 culation. The nineteenth century has been 
 
292 Turning Points in the 
 
 eminently a Bible-reading and a Bible- 
 studying period. In no previous century 
 have efforts on so gigantic a scale been 
 made to put the Book in the hands of every 
 one who could read it. The price was 
 brought so low by the decrease in the cost 
 of production, that the very poorest could 
 possess a copy. The British and Foreign 
 Bible Society, founded in 1804, and the 
 American Bible Society, founded in 18 16, 
 have largely contributed to this result. 
 Both societies were organized to issue the 
 Bible without note or comment, and both 
 have faithfully labored to promote its cir- 
 culation. In spite of all that has been said 
 against the Book and in spite of the fact 
 that so large a number of persons must have 
 been supplied, the circulation has increased 
 from year to year. In the year ending 
 March, 1896, the American Society alone 
 issued 1,750,000 copies, and the British 
 two and a half million. During its exist- 
 ence the American Society has sent out 
 over sixty-one million copies and the British 
 Society over one hundred and forty mil- 
 lions. The work of translation has kept 
 pace with the demand. At the beginning 
 of the century the Bible had been trans- 
 lated, in whole or in part, into thirty-eight 
 languages. It is now translated into three 
 hundred and eighty-one, and translators are 
 engaged on nearly a hundred others. Nor 
 
World's History. 293 
 
 must it be supposed that the supply was in 
 excess of the demand. There is abundant 
 evidence of the desire of the public to 
 possess the Word of God. One fact alone 
 is a conspicuous proof of this demand. In 
 1892 the proprietor of the Christian Herald 
 of New York offered an Oxford Teacher's 
 Bible as a premium with his journal. The 
 offer was accepted with such avidity that 
 edition after edition was exhausted, and it 
 has been renewed every year since with in- 
 creased demand. Through this journal 
 alone, by this means, over three hundred 
 and two thousand copies have been put into 
 the hands of the people during the past five 
 years. 
 
 With the increase in the circulation of 
 the Word of God there has been a costly 
 and thorough effort to gain new light on its 
 pages. Never before have labor and money 
 been expended so lavishly in endeavors to 
 learn from exploration and research, his- 
 torical facts which would contribute to an 
 intelligent understanding of its history and 
 literature. In 1865 a society called the 
 Palestine Exploration Society was organ- 
 ized for the special purpose of thoroughly 
 examining the Holy Land, investigating 
 and identifying ancient sites and making 
 exact maps of the country. In twenty- 
 seven years the society, though working 
 with the utmost economy, expended 
 
294 Turning Points in the 
 
 $425,000. The result of its labors has been 
 to let a flood of light on the ancient places 
 and the ancient customs of its people, 
 explaining many allusions in the sacred 
 history, poetry and prophecy that were 
 previously dark. The Egypt Exploration 
 Fund has also added materially to our 
 knowledge of that country which is asso- 
 ciated with the early history of the Chosen 
 People. But the most valuable aid to Bible 
 study came from the discovery of the 
 Assyrian Royal Library, a series of clay 
 tablets and cylinders covered with cunei- 
 form inscriptions which were deciphered by 
 Mr. George Smith of the British Museum. 
 From these and from the records on the 
 monuments of Egypt historical information 
 has been derived of inestimable value in 
 the study of the Bible. 
 
 A Great Missionary Era. 
 
 One of the most prominent characteristics 
 of the Church of Christ in this century has 
 been its phenomenal missionary activity. 
 Its zeal in this cause, the devotion and 
 courage of its missionaries and the amount 
 of money expended have had no parallel in 
 the previous history of the Church. Al- 
 ready a beginning had been made when the 
 century dawned. In 1701 King William 
 III. of England had granted a charter to 
 the Society for the Propagation of the 
 
World's History. 295 
 
 Gospel in Foreign Parts. In 17 14 Fred- 
 erick IV. of Denmark established a College 
 of Missions and two Danish missionaries 
 were laboring in India. In 1721 the famous 
 Danish missionary, Hans Egede, began a 
 work in Greenland. In 1732 the Moravian 
 missionaries, Dober and Nitschmann, went 
 to St. Thomas, and in the following year 
 the Moravian Church sent missionaries to 
 Labrador, the West Indies, South America, 
 South Africa and India. But it was not 
 until the last decade of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury that the spirit which was to distinguish 
 the next century really manifested itself. 
 In 1792 the devotion and consecration of 
 William Carey led to the formation of the 
 Baptist Missionary Society, and in the fol- 
 lowing year he sailed for India as its first 
 missionary. 
 
 In 1795 the London Missionary Society 
 was organized, a missionary ship was pur- 
 chased and the first band of missionaries 
 sailed for the South Sea Islands. Two 
 years later, another party sailed for South 
 Africa, among whom were the veterans, 
 Vanderkemp and Kitchener. Two Scottish 
 societies were founded in 1796 and a Dutch 
 Society in 1797. In the closing year of the 
 century the famous Church Missionary So- 
 ciety was formed in the Church of England. 
 Thus the nineteenth century opened with 
 organizations for work in existence and 
 
296 Turning Points in the 
 
 pioneers, few in number but intensely in 
 earnest in several fields of labor. 
 
 The first quarter of the century witnessed 
 the advent of new agencies, as well as a 
 multiplication of forces. The American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions was organized in 18 10, the English 
 Wesleyan Missionary Society in 18 14, the 
 American Baptist in 18 14, the American 
 Methodist in 18 19, the American Protestant 
 Episcopal in 1820, and the Berlin and Paris 
 Missionary Societies in 1824. Thus, in the 
 comparatively short space of thirty-two 
 years, thirteen societies had been organized 
 by the various denominations here and in 
 Europe, each of which was destined to 
 grow to proportions little contemplated by 
 their founders. Since that time the great 
 China Inland Mission and other undenomi- 
 national societies have been founded and 
 are sending out men and women in large 
 numbers to the heathen world. Besides 
 these, there have been societies of special 
 workers which have done valuable service 
 in aiding the missionary societies, such as 
 the medical missionaries, the Zenana Mis- 
 sionaries and the university and students' 
 volunteer movements. Statistics recently 
 compiled show that the number of central 
 stations in heathen lands occupied by Pro- 
 testant missionaries in 1896 was 5055, with 
 out-stations to the number of 1 7, 8 1 3. There 
 
World's History. 297 
 
 are now thirty-seven missionary societies in 
 this country alone which have sent out 3512 
 missionaries. A library of volumes would be 
 needed to give even a sketch of the results of 
 the labors of these devoted men and women. 
 The Church holds their names in holy 
 reverence. Many of them have attained 
 the crown of martyrdom, and a still greater 
 number have fallen victims to the severities 
 of uncongenial climates. Every heathen 
 land has now associated with it the name 
 of valiant soldiers of the Cross, who have 
 given their lives to add it to their Master's 
 kingdom. In India among many others 
 there have been Carey, Duff, Marty n, 
 Marshman and Ward. In China, Morrison, 
 Milne, Taylor, John Talmage and Griffith 
 John. In Africa, Moffat, Livingstone, 
 Hannington and Vanderkemp. In the 
 South Seas, Williams, Logan and Paton, 
 while Judson of Burmah and a host of noble 
 men and women in every clime, have toiled 
 and suffered, not counting their lives dear 
 unto them, that they might preach to the 
 heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
 Preaching to Heathen at Home. 
 
 The zeal for the propagation of the Gospel 
 among the heathen, has been paralleled by 
 the efforts put forth for the evangelization 
 of the people in nominally Christian lands. 
 In this enterprise the front rank on both 
 
298 Turning Points in the 
 
 sides of the Atlantic has been occupied by 
 the Methodist Church. Its system of itin- 
 erary, relieving its ministers in part from 
 exhausting study, and so giving them time 
 and opportunity for pastoral work and ag- 
 gressive evangelistic effort, its welcome of 
 lay assistance in pulpit service and its S3'S- 
 tem of drill and inspection in the class- 
 meeting, have all combined to develop its 
 working resources and increase its aggres- 
 sive power. The fact that there are now 
 in the world over thirty million Methodists 
 of various kinds, makes it difficult to realize 
 that when the century began, John Wesley 
 had been dead only nine years. This cen- 
 tury consequently has witnessed the growth 
 and development of that mighty organiza- 
 tion from the seed sown by that one con- 
 secrated man and his helpers. It is doubtful 
 whether in politics or society there is any 
 fact of the century so remarkable as this. 
 The Church Wesley founded has split into 
 sections in this land and in England, but 
 the divisions are one at heart, and the 
 name of Methodist is the common precious 
 possession of them all. A great writer has 
 contended with much force that the world 
 at this day knows no such unifier of nation- 
 alities and societies as the Methodist 
 Church. When the young man leaves the 
 parental roof of a Methodist family for 
 some distant city, or some foreign land, the 
 
World's History. 299 
 
 pangs cf anxiety are alleviated by the 
 knowledge that wherever he may be, there 
 will be some Methodist Church where he 
 will find friends, and some Methodist class- 
 leader who will look after his most impor- 
 tant interests. The magnificent Methodist 
 organization, unequalled outside the Roman 
 Catholic Church, has developed within the 
 century, and its aggressive forces have been 
 felt throughout Christendom. All the de- 
 nominations have received an impetus from 
 its abundant energy and each in its measure 
 has caught the contagion of its activities. 
 In country districts, in the great cities and 
 in foreign lands, its representatives, loyal 
 to their Church and the principles of its 
 founder, are pressing forward in self-denial 
 and apostolic fervor foremost everywhere in 
 the van of the Christian army. 
 
 Kindred with the Methodist in its en- 
 thusiasm and still more highly organized, 
 is the youngest of all the religious organ- 
 izations — the Salvation Army. In its 
 origin, a daughter of the Methodist Church, 
 with a strong resemblance in spirit and 
 purpose and methods to its mother, the Sal- 
 vation Army has a mission peculiarly its 
 own. It too has grown with a rapidity un- 
 exampled in the religious history of other 
 centuries. More than one quarter of the 
 century had passed when William Booth 
 first saw the light, more than half the 
 
Turning Poi?its in the 
 
 century had passed before he had begun to 
 give his life to his Master's service. From 
 1857 to 1859 ne was simply a Methodist 
 minister, at an unimportant town, appointed 
 by his conference, poorly paid, and certain 
 to be removed to another sphere at the end of 
 his term. In 1865, he and his devoted wife 
 resigned home and income and dependence 
 on conference for support, and went to 
 London. They settled in the poorest and 
 most degraded district of the city, and 
 began to preach in tents, in cellars, in de- 
 serted saloons, under railroad arches, in 
 factories and in any place which could be 
 had for nothing, or at a low rental. The 
 people gathered in multitudes wherever Mr. 
 Booth and his wife preached, veritable 
 heathen, many of them, who knew nothing 
 of the Bible and had never attended a reli- 
 gious service in their lives. Converts were 
 numerous and they were required to testify 
 to the change in their souls and their lives 
 and to become missionaries in their turn. 
 In 1870 an old market was purchased in 
 the densest centre of poverty in London 
 and was made the headquarters of the Mis- 
 sion. Bands of men and women were sent 
 out to hold meetings, sing hymns and "give 
 their testimony' ' in the open-air, in saloons, 
 or any resort where an audience could be 
 gathered. These bands were busy every 
 night in a hundred wretched districts of 
 
World's History. 301 
 
 the great city, and at every stand, some 
 poor forlorn creatures would be gathered in 
 and encouraged to begin a new life of faith 
 in Christ. Some method of organization be- 
 came necessary, and was eventually devised. 
 The perfect obedience and confidence mani- 
 fested everywhere to the man who directed 
 the movement, and the entire dependence of 
 every worker on him for guidance and sup- 
 port, may ha; r e suggested the military 
 system. However that may be, the mili- 
 tary organization was adopted, and a perfect- 
 system framed with the aid of Railton, 
 Smith, and a few other clever organizers 
 who were attracted to Mr. Booth's side by 
 the novelty of his methods, and his marvel- 
 ous success. In the spring of 1878, the 
 plans were all matured and the new move- 
 ment became a compact and powerful reli- 
 gious force. Since that time it has spread 
 throughout England, into several European 
 lands, to the United States, and Canada, to 
 India, Australia and South Africa. Its 
 autocratic character has been steadfastly 
 maintained. General Booth has retained 
 absolute control of every officer in his 
 service and has the management of the 
 enormous income of the army. Occasion- 
 ally there has been mutiny which has 
 been overcome by tact or prompt discipline, 
 and not until this year (1896), when Gen- 
 eral Booth's son, Ballington, who was his 
 
302 Turning Points in the 
 
 representative in the United States, resigned 
 rather than be removed from his command, 
 has there been any formidable defiance of 
 the supreme and despotic government of 
 the world-wide organization. The methods 
 of the Army are unconventional and are 
 shocking to staid, respectable members of 
 churches, but criticism is out of place in 
 any method which will redeem the masses 
 in the numbers won by the Salvation Army. 
 
 Churches Drawing Together. 
 
 A notable characteristic of the religious 
 life of the century, especially in the latter 
 half of it, has been a desire manifested in 
 various quarters, and in different ways, for 
 union among the denominations. That 
 organic union could be attained, no prac- 
 tical man could hope. Uniformity could 
 not be expected, even if it could be proved 
 to be desirable, but friendly association was 
 possible, and there were many who con- 
 tended that there ought to be a recognition 
 of brotherhood and comradeship, which 
 might issue in some attempt at co-opera- 
 tion. This was the conviction of many 
 prominent preachers and laymen on both 
 sides of the Atlantic, early in the century. 
 And truly the condition of the world and of 
 society was of a character to force such a 
 conviction on the minds of intelligent men. 
 Infidelity was rampant, and intemperance, 
 
World's History. 303 
 
 gambling, unchastity, and other forms of 
 vice were practiced with unblushing effron- 
 tery. On the other side, the churches, 
 which should have been waging war on all 
 ungodliness, were fighting each other, con- 
 tending about the questions on which they 
 differed, and exhausting their strength in 
 internecine conflict. Was it not time, men 
 were asking, that the forces that were on 
 the side of godliness united in opposition to 
 evil? After long discussion, and some 
 opposition, this feeling took practical shape 
 in the Evangelical Alliance. At a meeting 
 held in London in 1846 eight hundred rep- 
 resentatives of fifty denominations were 
 assembled. It was found that however 
 widely they differed on questions of doc- 
 trine and church government, there was 
 practical agreement on a large number of 
 vital subjects, such as the need of religious 
 education, the observance of the Lord's 
 Day, and the evil influence of infidelity. 
 An organization was effected, on the prin- 
 ciples of federation, to secure united action 
 on subjects on which all were agreed, and 
 this organization has been maintained to 
 the present time. Branches have been 
 formed in twenty-seven different lands, 
 each dealing with matters peculiarly affect- 
 ing the community in which it operates, 
 and by correspondence, and periodical in- 
 ternational conferences, keeping in touch 
 
304 Turning Points in t/ie 
 
 with each other. Its usefulness has been 
 proved in the success of its efforts to secure 
 tolerance in several lands, where men were 
 being persecuted for conscience' sake, though 
 much still remains to be done on this line. 
 Perhaps the most conspicuous result of its 
 work is the general observance throughout 
 Christendom of the first complete week of 
 every year as a week of prayer. The pro- 
 posal for such an observance was made in 
 1858. Since that time the Alliance has 
 issued every year a list of subjects which 
 are common objects of desire to all Evan- 
 gelical Christians. On each day of the 
 week, prayer is now offered in every land 
 for the special blessing which is suggested 
 as the topic for the da}^ 
 
 From the same spirit of Christian brother- 
 hood which took shape in the Evangelical 
 Alliance, came at later dates other move- 
 ments which are yet in their infancy. One 
 of these is the Reunion Conference which 
 meets annually at Grindelwald in Switzer- 
 land. Its object is to find a basis for 
 organic union of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church with Congregationalists, Presby- 
 terians, Methodists and other evangelical 
 denominations. The meetings have been 
 hitherto remarkably harmonious, and sug- 
 gestions of mutual concessions have been 
 made which have been favorably considered. 
 A less ambitious, and therefore more hopeful 
 
World's History. 305 
 
 movement of like spirit, is that of the 
 Municipal or Civic Church. Its aim is the 
 organization of a federative council of the 
 churches of a city, or of sections of a city, 
 for united effort in social reform, benevo- 
 lent enterprise and Christian government. 
 It proposes to substitute local co-operation 
 for the existing union on denominational 
 lines, or to add the one to the other. It 
 would unite the Methodist, Baptist, Con- 
 gregational and other churches in a city, 
 or district, in a movement to restrict the 
 increase of saloons, to insist on the enforce- 
 ment of laws against immorality and to 
 promote the moral and spiritual welfare of 
 the community. The united voice of the 
 Christians of a city uttered by a council, in 
 which all are represented, would unques- 
 tionably exercise an influence more potent 
 than is now exerted by separate action. To 
 these movements must be added another 
 which has been launched under the name 
 of the Brotherhood of Christian Unity. 
 This is a fraternity of members of churches 
 and members of no church, who yet accept 
 Christ as their leader and obey the two 
 cardinal precepts of Christianity — love to 
 God and love to man. Its object is to pro- 
 mote brotherly feeling among Christians 
 and a sense of comradeship among men of 
 different creeds. All these movements are 
 an indication of the spirit of the time. As 
 
o6 Turning Points i?i the 
 
 one of the leaders bas said, their aim is 
 not so much to remove the fences which 
 divide the denominations, as to lower them 
 sufficiently to enable those who are within 
 them to shake hands over them. In no pre- 
 vious century since the disintegrating ten- 
 dency began to manifest itself, has this 
 spirit of brotherly recognition of essential 
 unity been so general, or has taken a shape 
 so hopeful of practical beneficence. 
 
 Organized Activities. 
 
 Effective influence to the same end has 
 been set in motion, incidentally, by an 
 organization which was originated for a 
 different purpose. This is the Christian 
 Endeavor Society, which is one of the latest 
 of the important religious movements of 
 the century. It was primarily designed to 
 promote spiritual development among young 
 people. It had its birth in 1881 in a Con- 
 gregational Church at Portland, Me. Dr. 
 Francis E. Clark, the pastor of the church, 
 had a number of young people around him 
 who had recently made public profession of 
 faith in Christ and pledged themselves to 
 His service. Precisely what that implied, 
 may not have been definitely understood by 
 any of them. As every pastor is aware, 
 the period immediately following such a 
 profession is a critical time in the life of 
 every young convert. In the college or the 
 
World's History. 307 
 
 office, or the store, the youth comes in con- 
 tact with people who have made no profes- 
 sion of the kind, and he is apt to ask 
 himself, and to be asked, in what way he 
 differs from them. The early enthusiasm 
 of his new relation to the Church is liable 
 to decline, and he may become doubtful 
 whether any radical change has taken place 
 in him. He does not realize that he is at 
 the beginning of a period of growth, a 
 gradual process, which is to be lifelong. 
 Taking his conception of personal religion 
 from the sermons he has heard and the ap- 
 peals that have been made to him, he has a 
 tendency to regard conversion as an experi- 
 ence complete and final, an occult mysterious 
 transformation, effected in a moment and 
 concluded. Disappointment is inevitable, 
 and when non-Christian influences are 
 strong, there is a probability of his drifting 
 into indifference. Dr. Clark was aware of 
 this fact, as other pastors were, by sad ex- 
 perience, and he sought means to remedy 
 it. Some plan was needed which would 
 help the young convert and teach him how 
 to apply his religion to his daily life, to 
 make it an active influence, instead of a 
 past experience. The plan Dr. Clark 
 adopted was of an association of young 
 people in his Church, who should meet 
 weekly for prayer and mutual encourage- 
 ment and helpfulness, with so much of an 
 
308 Turning Points in the 
 
 aggressive quality as to exert an influence 
 over young people outside its membership. 
 The plan succeeded. The religious force in 
 the soul, so liable to become latent, became 
 active, and the young converts made rapid 
 progress. Dr. Clark explained his experi- 
 ment to other pastors, who tried it with 
 like results. The remedy for a widespread 
 defect was found. It was adopted on all 
 hands and by ail evangelical denominations. 
 It spread from church to church, from 
 town to town and into foreign lands. An- 
 nual conventions of these Christian En- 
 deavor Societies w r ere held, at which forty 
 or fifty thousand young people, representing 
 societies in all sections of the country with 
 an aggregate membership of about two 
 million souls, were present to recount their 
 experience and pledge themselves anew to 
 the service. The basis of their association 
 was made so broad that Christians of every 
 denomination could heartily unite in its 
 profession of faith. Thus, in addition to 
 the primary design, a basis of Christian 
 inter-denominational union was incidentally 
 discovered, and the Methodist and the Pres- 
 byterian, the Congregationalist and Episco- 
 palian found themselves united in a common 
 bond for a common purpose. The move- 
 ment in these present years shows no signs 
 of decrease, but is still growing in numbers, 
 power and influence, and promises to be 
 
World's History. 3^9 
 
 one of the most potent factors of religious 
 life which springing up in this century will 
 go on to influence the next. 
 
 The idea of association and combination 
 in religious life, of which Christian En- 
 deavor is the most extensive illustration, 
 has been embodied during the century in 
 other forms. Springing directly from the 
 Christian Endeavor Society, are the Ep- 
 worth League in the Methodist Church, 
 and the Baptist Young People's Union in 
 the Baptist communion. The two organ- 
 izations are practically identical in prin- 
 ciple and purpose with the Christian 
 Endeavor Society and differ from it only in 
 the absence of the inter-denominational char- 
 acter. The heads of the Methodist Church 
 apprehended danger to their young people 
 in their being members of a society not under 
 direct Methodist control and feared that 
 they might eventually be lost to Methodism. 
 The Baptists, on the other hand, were not 
 concerned on the question of control, but 
 feared that the association of their young 
 people with the young people of other 
 churches might lead them to think lightly 
 of the peculiar rite which separates them 
 from other denominations, and to diminish 
 its importance in their esteem. Both de- 
 nominations therefore organized societies of 
 the same kind, to keep their young people 
 within the denominational fold. 
 
310 Turning Points in the 
 
 Another organization which has attained 
 large membership and has become inter- 
 national, is that of the King's Daughters. 
 As its name indicates, it was primarily 
 intended for women, though as it extended, 
 it added as an adjunct a membership for 
 men as King's Sons. It also was inter- 
 denominational in character, and its objects 
 were more directly identified with the 
 philanthropic side of the religious life than 
 were those of the societies previously men- 
 tioned. It originated in a meeting of ten 
 ladies, held in New York, in 1886, at which 
 plans were discussed for aiding the poor, 
 the unfortunate and the distressed in mind, 
 body or soul. They were all Christian 
 ladies who recognized the duty of minister- 
 ing in Christ's name to those who were in 
 need and so fulfilling His injunction of 
 kindly service. The plan finally adopted 
 was to organize circles of ten members 
 each, who should be pledged to use their 
 opportunities, as far as they were able, 
 for Christian ministration. Each member 
 agreed to wear, as a badge of the Order, a 
 small silver Maltese Cross, bearing the 
 initials, I. H. N., representing the motto, 
 4 'In His Name." Every circle was to be 
 left free to apply the principle of service as 
 it saw fit, or as special circumstances might 
 suggest, and all the circles to be under the 
 direction and limited control of a central 
 
World's History. 311 
 
 council. The plan, subsequently modified 
 as experience suggested, was widely- 
 adopted. The circles have worked in a 
 variety of ways, visiting hospitals and 
 prisons, making garments for the poor, 
 raising funds for the needy, aiding the 
 churches and rendering service in various 
 ways in which kindly Christian women are 
 so effective. 
 
 Still another form of combination in Chris- 
 tian work has distinguished this century. 
 In 1844 George Williams, a London dry- 
 goods merchant employing a large number 
 of young men, made an effort to provide 
 them with a species of Christian club. His 
 own experience as a young man fresh from 
 a country home, suddenly inducted into the 
 temptations of. city life, suggested to him 
 the kind of help such young men needed. 
 A Christian friend in a great city to help a 
 new-comer, to find him wholesome amuse- 
 ment in the evenings, and to put him on 
 his guard against the pitfalls that were set 
 for his unwary feet, might, Mr. Williams 
 was convinced, save many a young man 
 from ruin. To provide them with such 
 friends and to furnish a place of meeting 
 for reading, converse and amusement, was 
 the problem the kindly Christian man at- 
 tempted to solve. Out of his effort grew 
 the institution we know as the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, which has its 
 
312 Turning Points hi the 
 
 mission in nearly every large town in this 
 country and in England. The 3^oung man 
 of this century can go into no considerable 
 town without finding a commodious hall, 
 with well-equipped library and reading- 
 room, generally with a gymnasium attached, 
 and with a host of young men ready to 
 make his acquaintance and surround him 
 with Christian influences. In many towns, 
 the institution has developed from the 
 purely religious enterprise into a many- 
 sided effort to give practical educational 
 training and to attract young men to it by 
 the help it renders them in secular pursuits. 
 The institution as it now exists, must be 
 counted as one of the most beneficent in its 
 far-reaching influence that the century has 
 produced. 
 
 Humanitarian Work. 
 
 Kindred in spirit, but differing essenti- 
 ally in operation, is the institution, peculi- 
 arly a product of nineteenth century 
 religion, which we know as the Social or 
 College Settlement. Though it does not 
 claim a distinctively religious character, its 
 principles are so thoroughly identical with 
 Christianity, that no survey of the religious 
 life of the century would be complete with- 
 out a recognition of it. It is the spirit that 
 brought the Founder of Christianity to the 
 earth, to live a lowly life among men, 
 
World's History. 3i3 
 
 which inspires the Social Settlement. It 
 is generally an unostentatious house in 
 some crowded neighborhood, where the 
 people are poor and life is hard. In the 
 house are a number of college-bred men, or 
 women, who come in relays and live there 
 for a week or a month or longer. They do 
 no missionary work, do not preach, or de- 
 nounce, or instruct their neighbors, but 
 they live among them a cleanly, helpful, 
 friendly life, welcoming them cordially as 
 visitors, advising them if advice is sought, 
 rendering help in difficulties and being 
 neighborly in the best sense of the word. 
 There are concerts in the house, exhibitions 
 of pictures, children's parties and amuse- 
 ments of various kinds to which all the 
 neighbors are welcome. Charity is no part 
 of the Settlement's programme. It does not 
 give, but it extends a brotherly hand, and 
 in a spirit of friendship and equality seeks 
 to do a brother's part in brightening lowly 
 lives. Hundreds of such institutions are 
 in operation on both sides the Atlantic. 
 To the credit of this century be it said that 
 it has seen in these institutions the Parable 
 of the Good Samaritan made a living fact 
 in intelligent organization. 
 
 Tending directly toward the same object, 
 is the religious enterprise now commonly 
 known as the Institutional Church. It is 
 a distinct gain to the Church if the people 
 
314 Turning Points in the 
 
 in its vicinity discover that it is anxious to 
 help them to a better and happier life in 
 this world, as well as guiding them to hap- 
 piness in the next. The Divine Founder 
 of Christianity never ignored the fact that 
 men have bodies which need saving, as 
 well as souls, and some of His followers are 
 following His example. Their churches 
 do not stand closed and silent from Sunday 
 to Sunday, but are open every day and 
 evening, busy with some form of practical 
 helpfulness. Temperance societies, coal 
 clubs, sewing meetings, dime savings 
 banks, gymnasiums, boys' clubs, and a 
 host of helpful associations tending to the 
 betterment of life, find their home under 
 the roof of the church, and the pastor and 
 his helpers are finding out the social and 
 economical needs of the people by actual 
 contact with them and devising means to 
 supply them. The critics say this is not 
 the business of the Church, but they are not 
 found among the people who derive benefit 
 from this form of thoughtful interest in 
 their welfare. 
 
 The Sunday School. 
 
 Of all the products of this prolific nine- 
 teenth century, the one most extensive and 
 most profitable to the Church still remains 
 to be mentioned. Though this century did 
 not see the birth of the Sunday School, it 
 
World's History. 315 
 
 has witnessed its wonderful development. 
 In June, 1784, Robert Raikes published his 
 famous letter outlining his plan for the 
 religious instruction of children on the 
 Lord's Day, and before the close of the 
 year, John Wesley wrote that he found Sun- 
 day Schools springing up wherever he went, 
 and added with prophetic insight: "Per- 
 haps God may have a deeper end therein 
 than men are aware of. Who knows but 
 some of these schools may become nurseries 
 for Christians?" Within five years, a 
 quarter of a million children were gathered 
 into the Sunday Schools. So much had 
 already been done before the beginning of 
 the century. But even then men did not 
 realize whereunto the movement was des- 
 tined to grow. Probably no enterprise has 
 really exerted a deeper and stronger influ- 
 ence on the religious life of the time. Chil- 
 dren have entered the schools, passed 
 through their grades, have become teachers 
 in their turn, and their descendants have 
 followed in their footsteps, until now we 
 can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that 
 a little more than a hundred years ago the 
 Sunday School was unknown. The organ- 
 ization of Sunday School Unions, the intro- 
 duction of the International Lesson System, 
 and the City, State and National Conven- 
 tions are all the developments of this 
 century. The thought that a million and 
 
316 Turning Points in the 
 
 a half of Sunday School teachers are now 
 engaged in every clime, Sunday by Sun- 
 day, in teaching the children and young 
 people the truths of Christianity is enough 
 to fill the mind of the Christian with thank - 
 fulness and hope. 
 
 Pulpit and Press. 
 
 It would be beyond the scope of an article 
 of this character to attempt to recall the 
 names of the eminent preachers of the cen- 
 tmy. It has been singularly rich in men 
 of eloquence, depth of thought and high 
 culture. A few, however, are distinguished 
 among the noble army by the phenomenal 
 character of their work. Of these probably 
 no name is so widely known as that of Rev. 
 T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D. One of the 
 most remarkable phenomena of the relig- 
 ious world in this century, is the fact that 
 even' week one preacher should address an 
 audience numbered by millions. The fact 
 is unprecedented. Of all classes of readers, 
 the number of those who read sermons is 
 considered the smallest, yet this century 
 has produced a preacher whose sermons 
 command a public larger than that of a 
 fascinating novelist. For thirty years the 
 newspapers have been publishing Dr. Tal- 
 mage 's sermons in every city of his own 
 land, in every English-speaking land and 
 in many foreign lands where they are 
 
Worlds History. 317 
 
 translated for publication. It is a signifi- 
 cant fact, which should gratify every 
 Christian, that the man whose words reach 
 regularly and surely the largest audience 
 in the world should be a preacher of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 To no man in any walk of life, whether 
 politician, editor or author, has the op- 
 portunity of impressing his thoughts on 
 his generation that Dr. Talmage enjoys 
 been given in such fulness. Next in 
 extent of influence, and with a like faculty 
 of reaching immense and widely scattered 
 masses of people, was the late Charles 
 Haddon Spurgeon, a preacher of singularly 
 homely power, Calvinistic in theology, 
 epigrammatic in style, and with an earnest 
 evangelical spirit which had a powerful in- 
 fluence on both hearers and readers. His 
 sermons, like those of Dr. Talmage, were 
 read in every land and were instrumental 
 in conversions wherever they went. 
 Strongly resembling Mr. Spurgeon in his 
 strong evangelicalism, as well as in homely 
 eloquence, is Mr. D. L. Moody. During 
 this century probably no man has addressed 
 so large a number of people. In this 
 country and in England such audiences 
 have thronged the buildings in which he 
 preached as no other orator has ever ad- 
 dressed on religious subjects, and the influ- 
 ence of his words is demonstrated by the 
 
318 Turning Points in the World* s History. 
 
 thousands who through his appeals have 
 been led to Christ. 
 
 We are nearing the end of the century. 
 Looking back over the events in the relig- 
 ious world which have marked its history, 
 one characteristic is prominent above all 
 others. It is the operation of the force to 
 which an eminent writer has given the 
 name of "spiritual dynamics." The world 
 does not need a dogma, or a creed, so much 
 as it needs power. It needs power to live 
 right, to do right, to love God and man, to 
 pity the fallen, to relieve the needy, the 
 power of being good, of leading a spiritual 
 life. This power it finds in Christ, and the 
 whole tendency of the religious life of the 
 century is to get back to Him. Conduct 
 rather than creed, love rather than theolog}', 
 have been the watchwords of the Church. 
 The spirit of Christ, His teachings, His 
 character, His example, are the centre of 
 attraction which holds His Church together 
 and endues it with the power which shall 
 yet subdue the world. 
 
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