which the English colonists brought with them, and which are the common inheritance of all the members of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Still, there must be drawn the line between the origin and predisposing causes of colonization and its results. In reading the history of the United States, we cannot go back in detail to Tacitus and the ancient Germans. Perhaps the most reasonable starting point of American history is a brief account of the social, political, and religious conditions of the colonizing countries, and particularly of England at the beginning of the colonization period. From that point American history proceeds, but never detached from the experiences of the rest of the world. The development of England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reacted powerfully on the colonies; all the European wars in which England had a part spread to the New World; the explorations of the American coast and interior, and the division of territory between nations were subjects for elaborate negotiations and international treaties between European powers. The history of the English colonies can, therefore, be understood only in the light of material drawn from foreign archives, especially those of England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands.

war

The two wars immediately preceding the foundation of the present republic - the French and Indian war, and the Revolutionary were especially European both in military and diplomatic events; and the study of the histories of the foreign countries interested in the New World, written from the foreign standpoint, is essential for a complete understanding of the colonial period by advanced students and teachers.

During the first forty years of the existence of the United States of America, the intimate connection with European history continued. Internal politics had a close connection with foreign treaties, wars, and territorial changes. Since the Florida cession, in 1819, the history of this country has had a closer relation with that of other American nations than with Europe; but there have always been outstanding international questions, such as the spoliation claims with France, the boundary disputes with England, and the relations with Hawaii. For many years thereafter the current of political influence was rather eastward than west

ward; American constitutions and political experiments were adopted and imitated abroad. More recently immigration and the development of ocean transportation have again brought us into closer contact with the economic, political, and social problems of Europe.

Every student, teacher, and writer of American history must from the beginning keep in mind the fact that the development of this country is only a part of a general movement, and that in the relations of foreign powers with the nations of the New World is often to be found the key to the actual direction of American history.

§ 4. Proper Position in a Curriculum.

In the opinion of the Conference on History which reported to the Committee of Ten in 1893, children may at eleven years of age profitably begin the formal study of history, and should carry it to the end of the high school. The programme suggested by the Conference introduces American history in two places in the last year but one before reaching the high school, and in the third year of the high school. The advantage of such a division is that all pupils who reach well toward the end of the grammar school will have had some study of the subject; and that it can be repeated in a more systematic form when they are more mature. To set American history first in order is to exaggerate what is already strongest in a child's mind, his own surroundings. The history of any country taken by itself suggests too limited a set of human motives and habits of thought we need cross lights, and Americans especially need contact with the story of other races and experiences. At the same time it is undoubtedly true that the best way to give a child a true conception of history, as of geography, is to begin with his surroundings and to let him observe for himself, as much as possible, how his own town, state, and government came into being. Such a process demands a thorough teacher, and can probably be applied only where the whole system of teaching is based on this centripetal and correlated plan.

In colleges American and English history are often the only branches of the subject taught. They should properly be preceded by a good college course in general history, with an adequate amount of collateral reading, and with some written work; a thorough course in English history, especially in the Tudor and Stuart periods, is perhaps the best preparation for American history; but mediæval and modern European history better precede than follow American history. Hence the careful study of American history is not likely to begin earlier than the Sophomore or Junior year; and should always be preceded by some subject more remote.

For graduate work American history is very convenient because the materials are everywhere about us and the field is little explored. It has also a close connection with the study of American government and economics, and therefore with current events. But no one can be fitted to be a specialist in American history who has not also a good all-round training in the general subject, and thus is able to compare intelligently the history of other countries with that of his own.

§ 5. Educative Value.

The same warning might be given to the student of other fields than American: no country furnishes in itself a sufficient lesson,

and the systematic study of the history of any nation which has really contributed to the world's political thought is educative in itself, and prepares the student to appreciate the history of other lands. In its effect on the mind American history is distinctly to be commended. The principal reasons for the study of history are that it trains the memory, is a steady practice in the use of materials, exercises the judgment, and sets before the student's mind a high standard of character. In all these respects American history is inferior to that of no other country. The events which are studied and should be kept in the memory are interesting in themselves and important for the world's development. The native races of America have for four centuries been a favorite subject for the imagination of Western Europe, and their

customs are a commentary on the customs of Europe at the dawn of history and during the Germanic invasions. The three centuries of strife between these native races and the white invaders what Parkman calls "the history of the forest" is one of the world's treasure-houses of romantic episodes, comparable with the history of chivalry. To the men and the principles of the Revolution the world has agreed to give its admiration. The later settlement of the West has been as yet too little studied, but we can see already that it is a movement not less important than the migrations of the nations at the close of the period of the greatness of the Roman Empire. The slavery struggle, culminating in the Civil War, is one of the two most important and interesting episodes since the French Revolution. Though it be said that "facts of themselves are hard to learn, even when supported by artificial systems of memorizing they are like digits in arithmetic; they are learned only as a means to an end"; nevertheless the facts of American history are absorbingly interesting.

As a training in the use of materials American history has the great advantage of possessing a large body of sources in English, the only language known to most school children, and scattered abroad in many available volumes. The stimulating study of local history by American young people is of course confined to American history. There is an historical school which holds no history to have much training value unless it require the use of several languages, and unless the material be so scanty and incomplete that the scholar is obliged to leap from one stepping stone of fact to another, or to build a bridge of presumptions. Is not that history most valuable in which the bases for a judgment are broadest and surest? Where the country described, and often the very scenes of historic interest, lie all about the student, it is like studying geology in a broken and irregular region. Logical reasoning is as well applied to the growth of the United States as to the growth of Rome and accurate knowledge, the foundation of good judgment, is much easier to attain.

As a means also of training the judgment, American history has great advantages. The mind is chiefly developed in three ways: by cultivating the power of discriminating observation; by

§ 6.]

Place and Educative Value.

9

strengthening the logical faculty of following an argument from point to point; and by improving the process of comparison, that is, the judgment. It seems reasonable to claim that judgment about a country into the spirit of which a child is born, ought to have as sound a basis, and to be as quickly applicable to new problems, as judgment about a foreign nation with which its associations are purely artificial. The principal purpose of the study of history is to put the student into such a frame of mind that he may apply known principles to things with which he is for the first time confronted. It is the best training for administrative duties, for citizenship, for public life, and especially for the decision of any question which needs a knowledge of the past for its settlement.

So far as the study of character goes, American history furnishes a host of strong, individual, idea-producing men. Columbus, Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, are some of the world's greatest forces. William Bradford, John Winthrop, Roger Williams, William Penn, the galaxy of Revolutionary statesmen, the great triumvirate, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, are also men whose lives are a lesson in the art of statesmanship.

§ 6. Historical Basis.

Few countries have a history more complex and more difficult to reduce to a system. Many native races of various degrees of barbarism, and most races of Western Europe, have helped to people the United States. Settlements began at a number of widely separated points along the coast, which expanded into little commonwealths, each with its own institutions, interests and public men. Many of the early commonwealths became merged into others, as New Plymouth and New Haven; most of these commonwealths continued, and the nation has thrown off additional states till there are now forty-five, each having a history of its own. The central government is complicated, and each part of it has had its peculiar growth. It is difficult to find a clue through the maze; but it is not impossible, if regard be had for certain well-defined principles.