LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. Medallion of Washington and Lincoln. 2. Extract from the "Body of Liberties" of 1641 3. Advertisement of the "Flying Machine" 4. The Pennsylvania "Gazette" on the Stamp Act 5. Franklin's Letter to Strahan 6. Signatures to the Declaration of Independence. 7. Signatures to the Treaty of Peace of 1783 8. Abstract of Constitutional Decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States, 1790-1835; with portrait of Chief Justice Marshall 244 272 318 12. Letter of John Brown 13. Secession Bulletin 344 390 14. Letter of Secretary Dix on the Flag 15. Grant's "Unconditional Surrender" Despatch 16. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation 17. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address . . 18. Admiral Farragut's Letter from Mobile 19. Lee's Letter of Surrender 394 396 418 430 438 456 20. Vote on the Impeachment Trial of President Johnson 460 cially Iron and Steel, with Imports and Exports. 21. Diagram and Statistics showing Increase of Manufactures, espe 476 526 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY. For Authorities for this Chapter, see Appendix, page xxiv. The small figures in the text refer to Authorities cited on page xxx of the Appendix. Be 1. The discovery of America by the Northmen; "Vinland the Good." The Scandinavians, or Northmen, were the most skillful and daring sailors of the middle ages. For them the Atlantic "the Sea of Darkness" had no terrors. fore the mariner's compass had come into use in Europe they made distant voyages in vessels often not so large as modern pleasure yachts. Their only guides on those perilous expeditions were the sun, the stars, and the flight of birds. In the ninth century (875) the Northmen planted a colony in Iceland. Their sagas or traditions inform us that, late in the next century (981), Eric the Red set sail from Iceland in search of a strange land which a Norse sailor, blown out of his course, had sighted in the far west.' He found it, and giving it the tempting name of Greenland, lured a band of colonists to those desolate shores. In the year 1000 Leif Ericson, later known as "Leif the Lucky," -a son of Eric the Red, set out from Greenland in quest of a land which a storm-driven mariner had seen in the southwest. He discovered a beautiful country which abounded in wild grapes. "From its products, Leif gave the land a name, and called it Vinland."2 Here the Northmen planted a colony, and carried on trade with Greenland. In 1347 the Norse records mention a ship's going to this southern colony after a load of timber. That is the last that we hear of the settlement. The Northmen ceased to make voyages to the west, the colonies they had planted died out, all records of them were forgotten, and we have no evidence that Columbus ever heard of the discovery of Vinland.3 2. The locality of "Vinland"; the Northmen and American history. In recent years repeated attempts have been made to determine the locality of Vinland, but without acknowledged success. Many have supposed that Leif Ericson landed on some part of the New England coast. The descriptions of the country given by the records fail to throw any decisive light on this point, and no Norse graves, inscriptions, or ruins have been found on the mainland of America, although the ruins of buildings erected by the Northmen are still standing in Greenland. The conclusion of most eminent scholars respecting the settlements of the Northmen is that "the soil of the United States has not one vestige of their presence." Granting that those bold sailors did establish colonies on the mainland of America, as it is certain they did on the coast of Greenland, still their work had no permanent results, and no direct connection with American history. It was simply a match struck in the dark, sending out a momentflash of light, but nothing more. Later, however, after Columbus had made his great voyage, the English descendants of the Northmen of the Scandinavian peninsula came to the front. As colonists of the New World, they set their lasting mark on this continent. Hence we may say that the old Norse daring, which braved the tempests of the Northern Atlantic centuries before Columbus was born, and which conquered and settled a large part of Britain, stands forth a powerful and permanent factor in the making of America." 3. A new search for lands beyond the Atlantic; European trade with the Indies. — Nearly five hundred years after Leif Ericson feasted on wild grapes in Vinland, the project of crossing the Atlantic in quest of distant lands again came up. This time it was not a Northman, but an Italian, who was to make the attempt. His venture was suggested by the demands of commerce. In the latter part of the fifteenth century Venice had gained control of the lucrative trade between Europe and the Indies. That trade, however, was seriously hampered by the fact that it could not follow a direct and continuous water route. The Isthmus of Suez barred the way. For this reason, the spices, silks, and drugs brought from the far East up the Red Sea had to be unloaded, transported across the desert to the Nile, |