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In the first place, the settlers whose children were to control North America were all of one stock, and had one general set of institutions which they brought with them from Britain. Some expanded one side of these institutions, and some another: but they were substantially the same people, having always much more in common than any of them had with any other people. As the English race grew and developed, Britain and the Colonies both diverged from one another and from the original type, the colonies perhaps less than the mother country but to this day the two nations have substantially the same system of law and the same political traditions.

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In the second place the significant part of America has never ceased growing since the beginning. The colonies stretched inland; the United States spread its boundaries wider and wider ; new communities have continually been forming, widening and throwing off swarms to found other communities. The formation of the states west of the Alleghanies was in reality colonization of a new type, settlement of adjacent regions; and the result has been the most successful relation between mother country and dependent communities: for the outlyers were from the first promised statehood. The basis of the nation has continually been widening, and hence unexpected changes have succeeded each other in the make-up of the general government. In this respect this nation has had a different set of social and economic problems from those of the older world.

In the third place a sectional divergence between North and South began to appear, and was much accentuated by the early throwing off of slavery by the Northern states. Slavery, therefore, harmful in itself to the section in which it persisted, became a rock of division within the Union, and no permanent peace was possible while it existed.

In the fourth place the people of the United States have shown a decided desire to come closer together, a tendency which triumphed over the disjointed condition of the country in the years immediately following the Revolution, and over the separatist tendencies of the slavery conflict. In one sentence, - the history of America is substantially a history of the development

§ 7 a.]

Historical Basis.

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of English traditions in a new and rich country, and among a people who in the last few decades have gradually developed a strong sense of their own common interests.

§ 7. Convenient Subdivisions.

Keeping in mind that the growth of America has been steady and advancing from beginning to end on natural lines, no great crises appear dividing American history into separate periods: colonization grew out of the conditions of Europe; colonial institutions expanded out of English institutions; the Revolution was probably an inevitable result of divergence in the institutions of the two branches of the English stock; the Constitution was an adaptation of what the people had learned in the experience of their own colonial and state governments, in the Revolution and the trying time which followed it; the peaceful revolutions of Jefferson's and Jackson's elections were what might have been expected from the growth of the democratic spirit, the opening up of the West, and the extension of the suffrage; the Civil War was the final array of forces long opposed to each other.

The memory is, however, aided and the succession of the history made more clear by suggesting the principal groups into which the events of American history arrange themselves. Suggestions as to the subdivisions of topics in American history may be found in W. F. Allen's History Topics; in the tables of contents of standard histories, especially those of Hildreth and McMaster; in the analyses of such school histories as Scudder's United States, and Fiske's School History; and in the various topical outlines noted futher on. The following series of such suggestions are meant to serve as a basis for courses of lectures or lessons, and can be used in connection with the general readings (§ 56) or topical readings (Parts II and III).

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I.

2.

3.

The Physiography of the United States.

Discovery and Exploration.

Southern Colonization.

4. Northern Colonization. 5. Southern Institutions.

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IO.

II.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Formation of the Constitution.

Organization under the New Constitution.

The Federalist System of Government.

The Democratic-Republican System of Government.
The Development of National Consciousness.
Political Development.

16. Slavery Questions.

17.

18.

19.

20.

I.

Territorial Slavery.

The Irrepressible Conflict.

The Civil War.

Reconstruction.

§ 7 c. Fifty Topics.

1492-1760. Exploration and Settlement.

Physiography of North America.

2. 1492-1540. The Epoch of Discovery.

3. 1492-1700. Spanish, French, and English Claims to the

soil of North America.

$7c.]

Lists of Topics.

4. 1513-1700. Spanish and French Colonization.

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6.

7.

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1606-1760. Settlement of the Southern English Colonies. 1614-1760. Settlement of the Middle Colonies. 1606-1760. Settlement of New England.

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1606-1776. The Causes of the Revolution.

14. 1689-1763. Decline of the French and Spanish Colonies. 15. 1760-1767. The English Colonies and the British Gov

ernment.

16. 1765-1775. Growth toward Union and Independence.

17. 1776.

1775-1783. The American Revolution.

The Great Declaration and American Political Theories.

18. 1774-1781. The Continental Congress and its Relations

19. 1775-1777.

20.

21.

22.

with the States.

The War in the North.

1776-1781. The War in the South.

1776-1783. The Diplomacy of the Revolution.
1775-1783. The Finances of the Revolution.

1776-1789. Formation of the Constitution.

23. 1776-1781. The States and the Public Lands. 24. 1776-1781. The Articles of Confederation.

25. 1781-1787. The Critical Period.

26. 1787-1789.

Formation of the Constitution.

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30. 1807-1815.

31.

Party.

Elements of the War of 1812.

1818-1821. The Missouri Compromise.

32. 1809-1826. The Monroe Doctrine and the Panama Con

gress.

33. 1824-1829. The Triumph of Jacksonian Democracy.

1829-1850. The Slavery Contest.

34. 1829-1837. Personal Elements of Jackson's Administra

35. 1789-1893.

36. 1829-1839.

37. 1816-1840.

tion.

Principles of Appointment and Removal.
Jackson's War on the Bank.

Tariff Legislation and Nullification.

38. 1829-1842. The Indians and the Public Lands.

39. 1831-1841. The Abolition Movement.

40. 1836-1848. Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. 41. 1846-1850. The Compromise of 1850.

1850-1862. Preliminaries of the Civil War.

42. 1850-1860. The Question of Fugitive Slaves.

43. 1854-1858. The Kansas Struggle.

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