GUIDE TO AMERICAN HISTORY. PART I. METHODS AND MATERIALS. I. THE SUBJECT MATTER. § 1. The Standing of American History. It is only within the last few years that American history has been regarded by educators either as a liberal study or as a serious subject deserving scientific treatment. This is due to the fact that the earlier books on this theme were designed to commemorate the supposed deeds of some ancestor, or to arouse the patriotism of American youth by the relation of stories of doubtful historical foundation, and of very questionable value from an ethical point of view. Probably the works of the notorious Mason L. Weems did much to degrade the taste for real historical information, and to place an undue value on the anecdotal side of history. At all events, it was not until Jared Sparks began his important labors in 1818 that scholars undertook the study of the history of the English race in America with a serious spirit; the earlier work of Abiel Holmes seems to have had slight influence on the study of history, although in itself it is a most important and accurate book. Following Sparks there came into existence a race of historical writers whose names must always be held in grateful remembrance, even though their works have been largely superseded. Of them may be mentioned Pitkin, George Bancroft, Irving, Prescott, and Tucker. All these authors, with the exception of Irving and Prescott, essayed to write a more or less complete history of the country in narrative form. Later another cycle of historical writers began their labors, of whom the best known, perhaps, are John Fiske, Schouler, McMaster, Henry Adams, and Von Holst, all of whom have rewritten portions of the history of the United States with the aid of new material. Side by side with these writers on the general subject, the investigators in more limited fields have been pursuing their researches. Among the foremost of these men may be mentioned Parkman, Winsor, Deane, and Charles Francis Adams. The monographic form has proved attractive, also, to the minor writers; and the publications of the historical societies, and of many universities, contain a vast mass of historical papers, some of them of great importance to the student. During the same time historical material has been accumulated in public repositories and in private collections, while states, municipalities, universities, and societies have vied with one another in their efforts to place this material in the safer and more accessible form of printed books. The materials for the student of American history may be said, therefore, to have been thus established on a permanent and scientific basis. The teaching of American history has advanced more slowly. Long confined even in the higher institutions to juiceless textbooks, it has slowly come to include the reading of standard authors, at least as far down as the secondary schools; and in the college this reading has sometimes been supplemented by practical exercises of various kinds. The universities now have a body of advanced students in history who are receiving systematic training in the study, teaching, and investigation of their subject, and are making contributions to historical literature. Thus the seed of scientific treatment of history has begun to germinate throughout the system of American education; and the universities are supplying trained teachers for schools and colleges as well as for their own needs. At the same time efforts are making to enlarge the means of information, both by preparing better secondary books, and by § 2.] Standing of American History. 3 opening up the sources to make them available not only to college students, but to the reader and solitary student. In new libraries, small and great, American history is always well represented. The habit of historical reading is everywhere encouraged; and the liberality of those in control of the larger public and private collections places the sources of our history at the disposal of the earnest student. The subject of American history is, therefore, widely accepted by school committees and college trustees, by teachers and by thinking people outside of schools and colleges, as a proper discipline and source of pleasure. The material is, however, still much disorganized, and methods of dealing with it are in many places crude and unformed. To open up highways and footpaths into this literature, and thus to contribute to sound learning and accurate judgment of cause and effect, is the purpose of this work. § 2. The Extent of American History. The term "American history" demands a word of explanation. Using the phrase in its broadest sense it would mean an account of everything that has ever happened within the Western Hemisphere. But such a definition is impossible, both on account of the bulk of materials, and because of different degrees of intrinsic importance of the various elements which necessarily go to make up such a history. In American history, as in other fields, the historical writer attempts to set forth the vital elements of the life of the people, so far as he has material for judging. Applying this criterion, we can hardly speak of American history earlier than the discovery by Columbus, because the material is too scanty for anything more than an imperfect notion of feeble native communities and a few far-away suggestions of earlier discoverers. Of human characters, of political devices, of economic development, of literature, and of religion, in America before Columbus, we can know almost nothing; and what we do know has scanty instruction for us. We must also throw out of the effective field of American history almost the whole continent of South America, because the life of the natives there, except in Peru, possesses little interest; and because the Latin-Americans have made no significant contribution to the world's stock of social and political experience. In the northern continent, where five European nations strove against each other to establish colonies, only three of them kept their hold for any considerable length of time; of these Spain and France were the feebler colonizers and were gradually driven out by men of English race. The English acquired the dominant power in that part of the Americas where the physiographical conditions were best suited to a nation's growth. To that dominance succeeded the United States. In the English colonies and in the United States, which included most of them, have been developed and tested, and sent out to the rest of the world, principles of popular government which have altered the government of all nations having a western civilization. The Spanish-American States have during the last century made few advances. It is not boastful, therefore, to say that American history is principally the story of the development of the United States of America, from the earliest English settlements; for the chief service America has rendered to the human race is the development of the great federal republic. § 3. Connection with the History of Other Countries. American history, however, cannot be treated as a separate incident or as an independent movement; in its roots and in its growth, the New World is a part of the Old World. It is a fundamental mistake to look upon modern Europeans as more directly than Americans the descendants of medieval Europeans; the most superficial sketch of American history must take into account the nations out of which our civilization has sprung, and especially England and the English political system. The institutions of the ancestors of the colonists had their roots in the feudal system, the mediaeval church, and even in traditions of the Roman law and administration. But the English nation had flourished in an air of freedom and had developed those ideas of free government |