the vessel owners, mostly Federalists and opposed to the Republicans, wanted protection for their shipping, but did not want war. The thing that bit most deeply into the minds of the Americans was the impress ments. A group of young and lively statesmen from the south and west, headed by Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, were tired of these difficulties that had been going on nearly twenty years; and thought that the time had come to bring the British to terms by attacking their colony of Canada. In 1812 they convinced Congress that there was reason to declare war. At the last moment the British agreed to stop the illegal capture of vessels, but would yield nothing on impressment, which was the chief cause of the war, and was quite sufficient to justify war. Hostilities broke out by land and sea. Things looked unfavorable for the United States, which had only two or three thousand regular soldiers and only sixteen ships of war. Great Britain had about a thousand armed vessels and was handling large armies in European conflicts. Just as the war broke out, Napoleon was defeated in Russia, and by 1814 English troops were set free to send to America. The United States lacked preparation, lacked a capable War Department, lacked trained officers, lacked experience in transporting and supplying armies: it is no wonder that attempts to invade Canada failed. Leading Federalist statesmen in New England held a convention at Hartford and demanded great which in which British regular troops con changes in the Constitution The Navy and Peace At sea, the success of the American naval vessels and privateers was wonderful. The British succeeded in capturing 1700 American merchant ships, but the Americans captured 2500 British merchantmen.. There were fourteen duels between ships of about equal size; and in eleven of them the Americans were victorious. The only important fleet engagement was the Battle of Lake Erie, where Commodore Perry reported his victory as follows: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Just at the end of the war came the Battle of New Orleans, the only fight fronted an army of American frontiersmen. General Andrew Jackson, at the head of hastily levied mi'itia, beat off the British-a brilliant victory which later made him President. Peace was made at the end of 1814, and was very favorable to the United States. The British gave up the territory that they had captured in Maine and Oregon. The European wars were about over, and there was no longer any question of capturing neutral ships. From that time to this the English have never impressed their own sailors and still less those of the United States. Above all. the war ended with a strong feeling among the British that it was worth while to seek the friendship of a nation which could put forth such brave and successful sailors and fighters. Thomas Jefferson, Apostle of Popular Government The man who comes nearest to being the typical American during the period from 1801 to 1815 is Thomas Jefferson, though his national service began with his draft of the Declaration in 1776. Jefferson, like Washington, was one of the Virginian aristocrats and at the same time held the broadest views on human rights and liberty of all the statesmen of his time. He was born in 1743; was a member of the Continental Congress; Governor of Virginia; member of the Congress of the Confederation. He was minister to France; Secretary of State under Washington; Vice-President; and from 1801-1809 he was PresiIdent of the United States. Jefferson was a student of the College of William and Mary. He was a reformer and an improver by nature. He had more than any other man to do with the Declaration of Rights of Virginia and the first constitution of that State and the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church. In Congress he was greatly interested in western lands and put through that body the method of mile-square survey of public lands and a plan of territorial government for the west. His greatest service to mankind was his belief in the average man. He held that the people at large were "the best though not the wisest depository of power." He urged Americans "to cher ish, therefore, the spirit of our people and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them." And again, "the cement of the Union is in the heartblood of every American." He was in favor of an enlargement of the suffrage, which was still confined to landowners and taxpayers. He held that the right way to keep the voters straight was to keep them informed of what was going on. These ideas took root. They spread throughout the Union. They account for our present universal suffrage, for they were as strong when applied to woman suffrage. Jefferson was a great President, the first man in the country to see that the Union must extend to the Pacific coast. He was in favor of canals and other improvements made by the states, or if necessary by the national government. Jefferson was a man of education and his beautiful house at Monticello was a resort for scientific and literary and public men. He was the father of the University of Virginia and the first man in America to think of a University as a place where students ought to have a choice among a variety of studies. Before he became President he was afraid that the Federal Government would be too strong, but when he Listen to the words of wisdom that flow from his pen: "I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but THOMAS JEFFERSON was at the head of the nation he took all the power that came his way. His whole thought was that the United States belonged to all the people; and that if you gave these people a fair chance they would make a proper use of their wonderful advantages. to inform their discretion by education. "The people are the censors of their governments; and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty." He summed up his ideal of popular government as follows: "With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellowcitizens-a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." Questions and Problems, Chapter VI, see page 308 So rapidly was the Western country settled by pioneers that from 1812 to 1820 five new Western and Southwestern states came into the Union Popular Government, 1815-1829 The Changes Due to the Invention and Use of Machinery (1789-1819) were almost as Important as the Federal Constitution T HE end of the War of 1812 marks a change in the ways of the Americans. They were justified in thinking that their little country was of some account in the world. They forgot the defeats and the weariness of the war; they remembered the victory of New Orleans and the splendid successes at sea. Likewise they learned from the breakdown of army transportation during the war that they must have later Nicholas Roosevelt built a steamer on the Ohio River. Before long all the navigable rivers on the Atlantic coast and most of the western rivers and the Great Lakes were plowed by these new craft, that paid no attention to head winds and currents. Of Greatest Interest WHAT were the American people The chain of great lakes when placed end to end with the Erie Canal made an excellent waterway from the ocean to the farthest point on Lake Michigan, where before long the city of Chicago started up. The Ohio River travel tended downstream to the Mississippi and reached the sea at New Orleans. The steamboat was a means of transit, cheap, quick and regular, beyond all the previous experience of the Americans. It rapidly extended to coasting trips and to foreign commerce. The first steamer to most interested in during crossing the moun- At the same time a new thing came paddling into river navigation. In 1807 the great inventor, Robert Fulton, made the first successful steamboat trip in the cross the Atlantic was the Savannah, which arrived in 1819. Good Roads This was also the beginning of what we now call the Good Roads Movement. Before 1800 there was hardly a road in the whole country that was good when it rained or in the winter. Travel was increasing and people began to build stone roads, commonly called turnpikes, |