Treasures of every zone:

Fur of all beasts that tread the Polar snow;

Sheaves from all harvests sown;

Gems, spices, gums—all plants, all fruits that grow In gardens cradled on the Tropic sea.

VIII.

And dearer than all wealth, or proud device

From Labor's tireless hand

Bought with the price

Of precious blood

Freedom in all the land!

Lighting the hills of Time,

Onward the morning glow of Freedom runs,

Onward from clime to clime;

Lo! Afric's sons reaching to Afric's sons

A helping hand across the briny flood!

IX.

And though the evil hosts that round Thee stood

On that momentous day

Of Motherhood,

That gave Thee life,

Dare still Thy children slay;

Aye!-though must be again,

And yet again, Thy battle fought and won,

Must be Thy patriots slain,

O Liberty! as they of Lexington,

And they that fell in Gettysburg's wild strife;

X.

Though too-O shame!-Thy sons against Thee turn,

Schooled in all low desires;

With hearts that burn

With greed of gold,

Or lusts that power inspires;

Yet will we not despair:

The God of Nations shall all gods dethrone,

All realms dissolve in air,

Save that wherein each soul shall have its own,

The Key to its own Destiny shall hold.

XI.

We hark the chimes that ring Thy natal year:

A far-off minstrelsy

We seem to hear;

And sweeter than

The bells' "Sweet bye and bye,"

Is the low-heard refrain

A music that our ears have waited long,
Erewhile to swell amain-

The prelude to the glad millennial song

Of-"Peace on earth-peace and good will to Man!"

XII.

Although in Freedom all alike are fair

Are one bright Sisterhood;

Though all do bear

Unto one shrine

An offering meet and good-
Worthy of praise; yet I

Behold with pride one Banner, brighter than

An Autumn sunset-sky,

Where Thy name radiant glows, O MICHIGAN!
Thy ensigns gleam and Thy escutcheons shine.

XIII.

And though Thou art one of the later born,

And was Thy wide domain

On Freedom's natal morn

A wilderness ;

Here, of Thy fruits and grain,

All products of Thy soil,

Thy forests and Thy mines-all that is wrought

By patient thought and toil,

Thou to the Nation's Carnival hast brought,

And in Her greatness shalt Thy part possess.

XIV.

And when another hundred years have fled,

These Pages shall again,

As from the dead,

The story tell;

Who were Thy sturdy men,

Thy women brave, of old

Who made a love-led pilgrimage, and free

Did give of toil or gold

To honor well the birth of Liberty

Make glorious Her first Centennial.

PHILADELPHIA, October, 1876.

PART I.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS.

I.—THE AMERICAN COLONIES, AND THEIR SEPARATION FROM GREAT BRITAIN.

A

LL intelligent adult persons know what our National Centennial means, but younger persons, and those who may read of it in the future, will the better comprehend its significance if we go back a hundred years, and review briefly the events which in 1876 the people of the United States are commemorating so earnestly, so grandly, and so universally. Besides, it seems every way fitting, at a time when we are rejoicing over the successful completion of a hundred years of national existence, to consider the causes which gave our country a being the elements of character and the developments of history which resulted in the Declaration of Independence, the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain, and the genesis, not only of a new nation, but of republican government in a new world.

American independence had its origin and beginning in the character of the earliest American colonists. The spirit which led the pilgrim fathers across the Atlantic, to find in a bleak and savage wilderness the "freedom to worship God" which they were denied at home, was the spirit which, a century and a half later, inspired the resistance to the stamp act, and to all taxation without representation, which resulted in the war of independence. The demand for civil liberty was the logical result of the demand for religious liberty. The seeds of Freedom were the first planted by the American immigrants, and they grew with the growth of the colonies. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the desire for freedom was the very life-germ of the Anglo-Saxon colonization of America, without which growth and health would have been impossible. The history of American independence properly begins with the settlement of North America by English colonists.

The first permanent settlement within the limits of the United States was made in 1607, at Jamestown, Virginia, near the mouth of the James river, by an English colony under Captain Christopher Newport, under the auspices of the London Company, which had a charter for the southern portion of the English possessions in America. In 1621 a written constitution was granted to the colony, which had been named VIRGINIA, after the virgin Queen, Elizabeth, under which its governor and council were appointed by the London Company, while the house of burgesses were elected by the people. In 1684 the previous charters and grants were recalled, and Virginia became a royal province, its governor being appointed directly by the crown, and its burgesses, or representatives, elected by the people.

The germ of the Declaration of Independence was brought to America by the Mayflower, which landed the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth on the 22d of December, 1620. Denied liberty of worship in England, these Puritans first sought temporary shelter in Holland, in 1608, but, not satisfied with living under an alien form of government, determined to seek a home in the new continent, where they could remain Englishmen and yet be free to obey their consciences. The colony established at Plymouth in 1620 was followed by that of Massachusetts Bay in 1628, and by others soon after. In 1634 the colony of MASSACHUSETTS was formed, and the government, which had heretofore been a pure democracy, became that of a representative republic, the powers of legislation being entrusted to deputies chosen by the people. This form of government was taken away in 1686 by an act of King James II, but when that monarch was driven from England a new charter was granted by his successor, under which the governor was appointed by the King, the assembly, or legislature, elected by the people, and the council chosen by the assembly.

The colony of NEW HAMPSHIRE, first settled in 1622, was in the beginning a part of Massachusetts, but was separated from it in 1680 by a royal commission, and made a royal province. The government of the province consisted of a president and council, appointed by the King, and a legislature chosen by the people. The first act of this legislature was the adoption of a code of laws, the first clause of which declared: "That no act, imposition, law or ordinance should be made or imposed upon them but such as should be made by the assembly and approved by the president and council." Thus early was the right of self-government not merely asserted but enacted into law by the sturdy New England colonists. In 1699 New Hampshire was re-united with Massachusetts, but in 1741 again and finally separated from it.

The province of CONNECTICUT was settled in 1635 by emigrants from the Massa

chusetts Bay colony. In 1639 the inhabitants of the three towns on the Connecticut river which had Hartford for their center, formed a separate government, and adopted a constitution providing for the election of a governor and legislature by the people, who were to take an oath of allegiance to the commonwealth instead of to the English monarch; while in the "general court" alone was vested the power of making and repealing laws. This remarkable constitution, one of the most democratic ever framed up to that time, was subsequently confirmed to the whole province of Connecticut by the royal charter issued in 1662 by Charles II.

RHODE ISLAND Was colonized in 1636 by Roger Williams, the New England radical of the seventeenth century, banished from Massachusetts for preaching a gospel of liberty and independence of human authority which was far in advance of the tenets of the Puritans. In 1644 he secured a charter from Parliament, then waging war with the first Charles, under which a democratic government was organized, with a president and legislature. A code of laws was adopted which declared the government to be a democracy, and which closed with the enactment that "all men might walk as their consciences persuaded them, without molestation, every one in the name of his God."

NEW YORK, which was first permanently settled by the Dutch, in 1623, passed into English possession in 1664, being seized by an expedition fitted out by the Duke of York, under a grant from the King of England. The rule of the proprietor was at first arbitrary, but in 1683 a "charter of liberties" was estab lished by the assembly of the province, which provided for a general assembly, elected by all the freemen, and that no tax should be assessed, on any pretense whatever, without the consent of the assembly. It was also enacted that no seaman or soldier should be quartered on the inhabitants against their will.

The province of NEW JERSEY was part of New York until 1664, when the latter passed into English control, and the Duke of York conveyed the former to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Its proprietaries granted a constitution promising freedom from taxation, except by the act of the colonial assembly, and freedom of conscience and equal privileges to all. In 1702 it was again united with New York, but in 1738 was made an independent royal province.

MARYLAND was settled in 1632, under a grant from the King of England. Lord Baltimore, the humane proprietor, a century in advance of the thought of his age, granted, by the charter, equality in religious rights, and civil freedom, to all the colonists, and it was expressly stipulated that no tax should ever be imposed by the crown upon the inhabitants of the province. The first legisla