Nation in a Nutshell

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Title: The Nation in a Nutshell
Author: George Makepeace Towle
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9322] [Yes, we are more than
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NATION IN A NUTSHELL ***

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THE NATION IN A NUTSHELL
A _RAPID OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY._
BY
GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE
AUTHOR OF "YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND,"
"YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRELAND," "HEROES OF
HISTORY," "MODERN FRANCE," ETC.
1886
THE NATION IN A NUTSHELL
CONTENTS:
I. AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES II. THE ERA OF DISCOVERY III.
THE ERA OF COLONIZATION IV. THE COLONIAL ERA V. THE
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE VI. SOCIETY IN 1776 VII.
THE REVOLUTION VIII. THE CONFEDERATION AND
CONSTITUTION IX. WASHINGTON'S PRESIDENCY X. THE
WAR OF 1812 XI. THE MEXICAN WAR XII. THE SLAVERY
AGITATION XIII. THE CIVIL WAR XIV. THE PRESIDENTS XV.
MATERIAL PROGRESS XVI. PROGRESS IN LITERATURE XVII.
PROGRESS IN THE ARTS XVIII. PROGRESS IN SCIENCE AND
INVENTION XIX. POLITICAL CHANGES

THE NATION IN A NUTSHELL
AN OUTLINE OF
AMERICAN HISTORY.

I.

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.
[Sidenote: Geology and Archaeology.]
The sciences of geology and archaeology, working side by side, have
made a wonderful progress in the past half a century. The one, seeking
for the history and transformations of the physical earth, and the other,
aiming to discover the antiquity, differences of race, and social and
ethnical development of man, have obtained results which we cannot
regard without amazement and more or less incredulity. The two
sciences have been faithful handmaidens the one to the other; but
geology has always led the way, and archaeology has been competed to
follow in its path.
[Sidenote: Four Eras of Civilization.]
Though we may doubt as to the exactness of the detailed data
established by the archaeologists, there are certain broad facts which
we must accept from them as established beyond doubt. These facts are
of the highest value and interest. The antiquary has been able, from
discovered remains of extinct civilizations, to reconstruct societies and
peoples, and to trace the occupancy of countries to periods far anterior
to that of which history takes cognizance. The general fact seems to be
settled that, in prehistoric times, Europe passed through four distinct
eras. These were the Rude Stone Age, when man was the contemporary
in Europe of the extinct hairy elephant and the cave bear; the Polished
Stone Age; the Bronze Age, when bronze was used for arms and
utensils; and the Iron Age, in which iron superseded bronze in the
making of useful articles.
[Sidenote: Ancient America.]
In the same way it has been established that, on our own continent, the
oldest discoverable civilization was one in which rude stone
implements were used, and man lived contemporaneously with the
megatherium and the mastodon. Then polished and worked stone
implements came into use; and after the lapse of ages, copper. The
researches of our antiquaries have rendered it probable that America is
as ancient, as an inhabited continent, as Europe. Evidences have been
brought to light, leading to the conclusion that many thousands of years
before the Christian era, America was the seat of a civilization far from
rude or savage. Groping into the remains of the far past, we find
skeletons, skulls, implements of war, and even basket-work, buried in

geological strata, which have been overlaid by repeated convulsions
and changes of the physical earth. But so few are the relics of this dim,
primeval period, that we can only conclude its antiquity, and we can
infer little or nothing of its characteristics.
[Sidenote: Primeval Races.]
Advancing, however, another stage in research and discovery, we come
upon clear and overwhelming proofs of the existence on this continent
of a great, enterprising, skilful, and even