The Mentor, No. 32, Historic Spots of America

The Mentor

“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”

HISTORIC SPOTS OF AMERICA

By ROBERT McNUTT McELROY

Head of the Department of History and Politics, Princeton University

A few years before the settlement of the territory now known as
the United States the people of Europe had witnessed a great
naval battle in which two kinds of civilizations contended for
supremacy. England and Spain were the combatants, and the issue, as
we now clearly see, was whether the old idea of monarchy or the new idea
of democracy should dominate two continents. Gold from Mexico and
Peru had made Spain a great power. Successive royal inheritances had
given to her kingly line the control of a large part of Europe. She was
the champion of the Church of Rome, and regarded it as her mission to
prevent all heretics from planting colonies in the New World. England,
on the other hand, was the champion of Protestantism, whose doctrine of
the direct responsibility of the individual led logically to democracy
in government. England won the battle, destroying Spain’s great
Armada, and thus opening the New World to the settlement of men
professing Protestant doctrines; for as
soon as Spain’s power on the seas was
shattered Protestants could plant colonies
without danger of having them
destroyed by a Spanish man-of-war.

JAMESTOWN ISLAND

The exact site of the original settlement. Once a peninsula, this ground has been cut away from the mainland
by the constant washing of the river. It is now protected by a stone wall.

THE VIRGINIA COMPANY

OLD CHURCH AT JAMESTOWN

A ruined tower of the earliest colonial days.

JAMESTOWN CHURCH

A reproduction of the church built 1639-1647. This building was put
up for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, using the old tower, which
can be seen in the background, for its entrance.

Within a few years after the
destruction of the Armada a great colonizing
company was established in
England for the purpose of sending out
men to settle the New World. Sir
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and
a number of associates asked King
James the First of England to grant
them a charter of incorporation. He
consented, and on April 10, 1606, transferred
to them the vast district called
Virginia, which comprised practically
all the territory later occupied by the
thirteen American colonies. The charter
which made the grant clearly
declared “that all and every the Persons … which shall dwell and
inhabit within every or any of the said colonies or Plantations, and every
of their children, … shall have and enjoy all liberties, Franchises, and
Immunities … as if they had been abiding and born within this our
Realm of England.” This was a promise of self-government for all
English colonies in America, and if England had carried it out in good
faith there would not later have been the necessity of fighting the
Revolutionary War; since all that the Americans
demanded at the opening of that conflict was
to be taxed only by their own representatives,
a privilege which Englishmen in England had
enjoyed for many generations.

JAMESTOWN MONUMENT

A shaft to commemorate the first
permanent English settlement on
American soil. Jamestown was
founded May 13, 1607.

The Virginia Company, as this great corporation
was called, was divided into two
subcompanies, the London and the Plymouth
Companies, to each of which was assigned the
task of colonizing one-half the territory.

Before many weeks had passed George
Popham attempted to plant a colony in the
part assigned to the Plymouth Company, but
it utterly failed.

The London Company, meanwhile, had
fitted up three small vessels, the Godspeed, the
Discovery, and the Susan Constant, placed one
hundred and five colonists aboard, and sent
them forth to plant a colony. They sailed from the Downs on New
Year’s Day, 1607, and after a stormy voyage of almost four months
dropped anchor off a pleasant point of land, to which in gratitude
they gave the name “Point Comfort.”

JAMESTOWN, THE
FIRST ENGLISH
SETTLEMENT

As they had been
warned, however, to
establish this settlement
far up a navigable
river, out of danger
from wandering vessels
of the Spanish Main,
they entered the beautiful
river of Powhatan,
which they
called the James, and
sailed up it for some
fifty miles until they
came to a wooded
island, which they chose as the site of their colony. There they cut logs
and built the rude huts which marked the site of Jamestown, the first
permanent English settlement within the limits of what we now know as
the United States of America.

THE MAYFLOWER

The pilgrim ship is shown as it entered Plymouth Harbor bringing the first
New England settlers.

Through sorrow and privations, surrounded by the nameless terrors
of an unknown wilderness, harassed by savages, and disheartened by sickness,
the little colony survived as by a
miracle, and became the nucleus of a nation.
Of the old Jamestown nothing now remains
but an ancient church tower overgrown with
ivy and a few crumbling tombstones. But
its honor remains, secure in the hearts of
a grateful people.

EDWARD WINSLOW

From the only portrait of a “Mayflower”
pilgrim in existence. Edward Winslow was
one of the governors of Plymouth colony.

The failure of the Popham colony had
discouraged the Plymouth Company, and
it was not until Jamestown was a flourishing
village that a permanent settlement was
made in the northern part of the region
which King James had granted to the Virginia
Company. Those years had been
years of strife and sorrow in England. The
king in the narrow bigotry of his ecclesiastical
views, had declared that if any refused
to conform to the rules of worship prescribed
by the established Church of England, he
would “harry them out of the land,” and King James had kept
his word. Many Englishmen had been “harried out of the land,” and
had taken refuge on the continent of Europe; but the band for whom
history was reserving the largest place had escaped from Scrooby in Nottinghamshire
and established themselves at Leyden, Holland. Here they
had prospered; but they were still English, and, seeing their children
growing up with distinctly Dutch characteristics, they determined to
migrate to a land where the son of an Englishman would grow up an
Englishman. It is often said that the chief aim of the Puritans was to
settle in a land where they could worship God as they pleased. This,
however, they were quite at liberty to do in Holland. It might be said
with greater truthfulness that they desired to settle in a land where they
could compel others to worship
God as they commanded—and this
they managed quite effectively for
some years after their landing.

THE PILGRIMS

They accordingly obtained
from the London branch of the
Virginia Company permission to
settle at the mouth of the Delaware,
and from the king the
promise that he would “wink at
their heresy.” When all was
ready, the youngest and strongest
of the Leyden congregation, with
Brewster, Bradford, Winslow, and
Myles Standish at their head, repaired
to Delft Haven, where they
embarked for England upon the Speedwell. At Southampton they were
joined by the Mayflower, with recruits from London, and the two little
vessels turned their prows toward the vast waters of the Atlantic.

PLYMOUTH ROCK

The granite boulder on which the Pilgrims are said to have
landed in 1620.

The Speedwell, however, soon sprang a leak, and the two vessels
entered the harbor of Plymouth in Devonshire, where as many as possible
of the Speedwell’s passengers were transferred to the Mayflower, those
who could not be there accommodated being placed ashore. As the Mayflower
glided out of the harbor on September 6, 1620, the one hundred
and two devoted souls on board waved a sad farewell to their twenty
disconsolate fellow Pilgrims who stood on the quay. As the dim outlines of
ancient Cornwall faded from their view, the hearts of flesh cried out, but
the steady voice of the Spirit gave them courage; for to the Puritan, in
spite of his faults, which were many and great, duty was always first,
and the planting of the wilderness with the choicest seed, as he modestly
called himself, was a solemn duty laid upon him by God.

Copr. 1906. A. S. Burbank, Plymouth, Mass.

NATIONAL MONUMENT TO
THE FOREFATHERS

Erected in remembrance of their sufferings
for civil and religious liberty.

Driven from their course, lost on the vast oceans of an unknown
world, the little company pressed bravely on, and on November 9
sighted Cape Cod, far to the north of their intended destination. Here
their patent was useless, and as some of the company in “discontented
and mutinous speeches” during the voyage
had declared that “they would use their
own liberty” after landing, it was thought
wise to draw up a compact binding its
signers to render “all due submission and
obedience” to the government therein provided.
This document has been called the
first written constitution in the world’s
history. It was not a constitution, however;
but only a compact.

PLYMOUTH ROCK

After five weeks of careful inspection
of the coast they selected for their colony
a spot which Captain John Smith had
already named Plymouth, in honor of the
lovely harbor from which they had sailed.
Here, as tradition says, upon a great rock,
now known throughout the world as Plymouth
Rock, they landed on December
21, plowed through the deep snow, and
amid the “murmuring pines and the hemlocks”
began to build a House of God and
about it rude cabins of logs. To this scene
every true American heart should turn
with reverence, whatever his creed, political
affiliation, or sectional tradition; for it,
more than any other in American colonial
history, typifies the spirit which has made
of America a great nation. At Plymouth,
more even than at Jamestown, the political doctrines which had grown
out of Calvinistic theology took firm root. In religion the Puritans
were bigoted and intolerant; but in political theories they represented
the idea of the freedom and dignity of the individual. The God-given
right of self-government was their political motto, and from it they
never swerved. The great contest which we call the American Revolution
was not, as is sometimes asserted, an attempt to throw off the
shackles of tyranny, but was, on the contrary, a determined refusal to
allow these shackles to be put on. George the Third and his obsequious
minister, Lord North, were the real revolutionists; for they
sought to take away from the American colonies rights of self-government
as old as Jamestown and Plymouth. In this they failed, and their failure
cost England an empire.

PLAN OF FORT TICONDEROGA

A restoration begun in 1909. The first fort, called Fort Carillon, was built by the French in 1755. It was taken
by the British in 1758 and rebuilt as Fort Ticonderoga.

TICONDEROGA AND INDEPENDENCE HALL

THE ETHAN ALLEN HOUSE

An inn at Dorset, Vermont, where the
Revolutionary hero used to stop.

TABLET AT TICONDEROGA

On this rock are the names of Ticonderoga’s
heroes, Champlain, Montcalm,
Lord Howe, Amherst and Burgoyne.

To tax a man without his consent has always been, since Magna
Charta was written, contrary to the liberties of native-born Englishmen.
It was therefore contrary also to the liberties of native-born Americans,
and as such it was resisted by our ancestors of the revolutionary epoch,
as it had been resisted by our ancestors of the colonial era. When, on
May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, sword in hand, called
upon the king’s ancient fortress of Ticonderoga to surrender, giving as
their authority “the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” they
were but putting into striking phrase the political doctrines of Calvinism
and seeking to enforce the royal promise that Americans of whatever
colony were entitled to “all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities …
as if they had been abiding and born, within this, our Realm of England.”
And when the great political figures of the Revolution—Adams, Witherspoon,
Franklin, Jefferson, and the rest—assembled in Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, and signed the Declaration of Independence, while the Liberty
Bell pealed forth the notes of freedom, they were but repeating the
declaration of the first American charter.

ETHAN ALLEN MONUMENT

Erected at Manchester, Vt., to
the daring frontiersman who
captured Fort Ticonderoga
from the British.

Our Revolution was thus a war calmly entered upon to maintain immemorial
rights and ancient institutions, whose preservation meant liberty
not alone for America, but for England as well. Today we can clearly see
what was at stake at Ticonderoga, at Bunker
Hill, and upon the long chain of Revolutionary
battlefields, stretching from the lakes
to the faraway swamps of Georgia. Representative
government
hung in the balance,
and whenever we hear
of a nation’s rising
against despotism and
demanding that the
people shall rule, we
should add one more blossom
to the garland which
we are weaving for the
graves of the men who
gave Liberty to enlighten
the world. Tennyson,
with the soul of a true poet, though writing for
Englishmen, has expressed the thought for all men:

LIBERTY BELL

In Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

Years passed by. The ideas which had triumphed in the Revolution
grew ever stronger in the nation that war had created. By slow degrees
men came to understand more fully what it meant for the people to rule.

ROOM IN INDEPENDENCE HALL

The room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776.
Much of the original furniture is preserved here, and the portraits of those
who signed the Declaration hang about the walls.

The colonies grew to populous
cities, and the far off plains of Texas
became the field for pioneer activity:
Austin, Houston, and a host of others,
with their love of “God’s out of
doors,” left settled parts of America
and sought homes upon the spreading
prairies of that distant province of
Mexico. With these men ideals of
American freedom had become instinctive,
and from the very first a
trial of strength was inevitable between
them and Santa Anna, the
despotic ruler of Mexico.

THE ALAMO

The Alamo was a Franciscan
mission, dating from the eighteenth
century. It was strongly built, and
inclosed an area of about three acres,
upon which stood a roofless church
and a few other crumbling buildings.
Its garrison consisted
of 186 men, under
Colonel Travis, and
included the famous
frontiersmen, James
Bowie and David
Crockett. Sam Houston,
commander of the
Texas forces, had ordered
that the Alamo
be blown up and
abandoned; but his orders
had been disregarded,
and the gallant
little garrison was now
to pay the terrible price
of its disobedience.

Copr. Archer’s Studios

PROPOSED ALAMO
HEROES’ MONUMENT

The tower will be 802
feet high, the loftiest in
America, and will cost
2,000,000 dollars.

On February 23, 1836, the Alamo was invested by four thousand
Mexican soldiers and the final reckoning began. On March 6, after a
gallant defense, it was taken by storm, its garrison having been slaughtered
to a man. “Thermopylæ had its messenger of defeat—the Alamo had
none,” so runs the epitaph which stands upon the
monument of these heroes of liberty.

But the blood-avenger was at hand. A few weeks
later Sam Houston, standing with bared head before
his little army of Texas patriots, gathered at San
Jacinto, gave the watchword, “Remember the Alamo!”
and within twenty minutes the army of Santa Anna
was scattered “like the chaff which the wind driveth
away.” Texas was free.

GETTYSBURG

But I have mentioned one other battlefield, and
one which in numbers and in the military skill of
those engaged, as well as in the principles at stake,
stands among the great battles of the world. Gettysburg
is a name which is justly mentioned with pride
by Americans of all sections; for when its aged veterans,
North and South, can clasp hands and declare
themselves brothers, it would be presumptuous for
others to display the rancor of partizanship.

The settings of the battle were dramatic. Robert
E. Lee, the ablest commander of the Confederacy, had
crossed into Pennsylvania with his main column. The
Federal army of the Potomac was close behind, intent
upon pressing northward after Lee to protect Baltimore
should it be endangered. Gettysburg lies in a
fruitful valley of Pennsylvania, just north of the Maryland
borderline. It is walled in by low mountain
ranges studded with peaks—Culp’s Hill, Round Top,
and Little Round Top—whose names rouse thrilling
memories. Here on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, the two
armies fought the most fearful and significant open
battle of the whole Civil War.

For the first two days fate favored the Confederate army, and “these
partial successes,” writes General Lee, “determined me to continue the
assault next day.” A movement was planned in which Pickett’s division
of Longstreet’s corps was to strike the Federal line in the center, while
Stuart with his cavalry attacked it in the rear. It was a desperate
venture, and Longstreet declared that when the moment came for ordering
Pickett and his gallant five thousand to advance, his lips refused to form
the words, and to the calm inquiry, “General, shall I advance?” he could
only reply by an affirmative bow. Within thirty minutes two thousand
of the detachment had fallen, and of the officers who had headed this
desperate venture, only Pickett and one lieutenant came out unharmed.

Stuart had failed to reach the Federal rear in time to aid the attack
which, unsustained, had ended in disaster. “It was all my fault,” generously
commented Lee, when the whole tragic result was understood, “Let
us do the best we can toward saving that which is left us.” Meade made
no attempt at pursuit. Lee led his army back to Virginia and was safe.

In an order of July 4, Meade had used the expression, “driving the
invader from our soil,” which, when the great, sad-eyed Lincoln read, he
heaved a deep sigh and remarked, “Will our generals never get that idea
out of their heads? The whole country is our soil.”

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

This struggle, the crisis of our Civil War and one of the great battles of the world, raged for three days.

Editorial

The Mentor Association is less than a
year old. The Mentor plan is a few
months older than that. But the idea
of which The Mentor Association is the
outgrowth is one of the oldest in the
world. It is as old as Curiosity—and just
as human. The “Wonder Why” of
Curiosity is always linked with the
“Want to Know.” The two lead on to
Knowledge. What has always been wanted
and what is wanted now is a quick,
easy and agreeable way of getting
Knowledge. That is what The Mentor
Association gives.

The plan of The Mentor Association
fills so definitely a real want, that every
one ought to know about it. All members
of the Association and all others who see
The Mentor will want to know not only
what we have done and are doing, but what
we shall do for months in the future. In a
broad, popular, educational plan of this
kind there should be the fullest confidence.
The importance of this grows
week by week, for The Mentor idea has
drawn the interest of many thousands,
and the membership increases day by day.

Though these lines are headed “editorial,”
we feel a good deal of hesitancy
in using the word. It gives the impression
that The Mentor is simply a magazine,
while actually it is much more than
that. It is an important part of a broad
educational plan, which includes an Inquiry
Department, Suggested Courses of
Reading, and other advantages.

It is not easy to find the exact word for a
plan of this sort. Some day a brief phrase
will come to us—no doubt some member
of the Association will supply it—that
will tell fully and adequately all that
The Mentor Association stands for.
We have described it many times. We
cover the plan fairly well when we say
in our prospectus that “the purpose of The
Mentor Association is to make it easy to
learn the things we want to know and
ought to know,” but in that we say
nothing of the beautiful pictures, which
are a most important feature. There is a
value in the stimulating phrase that we
use, “Learn one thing every day,” but
there is no hint in that of the delight
afforded by the exquisite illustrations
furnished in The Mentor. In the service
of The Mentor Association Information
and Art go hand in hand.

The quick recognition of the value of
The Mentor plan during the eight
months of its existence is naturally gratifying,
but what is most interesting is the
wide reach of its appeal. We have hundreds
of letters coming to us from all
sources, and the message is much the
same, whether it be a lawyer, a college
professor, a teacher, a clubwoman, an
engineer or a doctor. The burden of all
these messages can be summed up in three
phrases: First, “The idea is fine”; second,
“You have carried it out admirably”; and
third, “It fills a real want.”

We have referred to our prospectus.
This is a booklet in which the plans and
purposes of The Mentor Association
are fully described, and the schedule
of the year is given. It also tells
something of what we have in preparation
for 1914. Send for copies of this prospectus.
If you are a member of The Mentor
Association you will, of course, want
it, and you should have some extra copies
to give to your friends. You will be doing
them a service.

JAMESTOWN TOWER

ONE

Slowly up the river three vessels made their way
with the light though favoring breeze. Gradually
the open of the bay was passed, as, two days previously,
the open of the sea had been left behind.
Now the land was closing in on each side, and both ships were
alive with the figures of those who stood eagerly scanning the
shore. And what they saw was a welcome
sight. The April sun was shining on the
forests of both banks; elms, they saw, like
old friends, stretching out their branches
in friendly protection; oaks, too, knotted
and gnarled, seemed to voice a welcome.
On nearer approach they noticed masses
of dogwood in brilliant bloom, and other
shrubs in flower, whose fragrance was
wafted over to them as a pleasant incense.
And there was a riot of sweet birds’ songs
coming out of the woods.

Truly, it was a paradise that they had
come to, and many fell on their knees in
thanksgiving that they had safely crossed
the seas and been guided to a land of such
beauty. Till night they sailed on up the
river, and then the sails were furled, the
anchor dropped, and their long journey
was at an end.

Thus came the colonists who, a few
weeks later, founded Jamestown in Virginia,
the first English settlement in
America, which they named after King
James I. Starting in three small vessels,
one of them but twenty tons in burden,
they had taken more than four months
in crossing.

At first they had only tents to live in.
It was late to plant, and food was not plentiful.
And they soon learned that terror
and death lurked in the land. Indians
had stolen up, and with bows and arrows
wounded seventeen of the men and killed
a boy. The thunder of muskets drove
them away; but the settlers felt it necessary
to keep regular watch, and each man
sat up every third night to take his turn.
Those first few months were hard, and
many died. Then they built cabins, and
enjoyed more comfort.

Captain Smith, later a governor, was
absent much of the time, buying food from
the Indians. Two years afterward he
went home, and the months that followed
were called the “Starving Time,” when all
but sixty of the four hundred settlers died.

Yet, through many tribulations, Jamestown
lived. In 1608 it was burned, and
other cabins were built. In 1619 word
was received that a representative government
had been granted. The settlers
were each to have a portion of ground,
and plantations were gradually laid out
along the James. In spite of Indian massacres
the colony and all Virginia grew.

In 1676 Jamestown was burned by
Nathaniel Bacon, who had risen against
the autocratic rule of the governor. In
1691 the capital of Virginia was removed
from Jamestown to Williamsburg, and
the importance of the old colony ceased,
until it is now but a site of ruins.

It was on low and marshy ground that
later became an island. There are monuments
erected in commemoration of the
colony, of Captain Smith and Pocahontas,
and a church that resembles the one
first built.

The Jamestown Exposition in 1907
was held near Norfolk, forty miles down
the river.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 32, SERIAL No. 32
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

PLYMOUTH ROCK

TWO

The little ship hove to and the sails were furled upon
the yards. The long journey was over. There, on
the harbor’s edge, rose the hill that was to become
so familiar in after years to those who had spent
these many weeks at sea. There too, below the hill and on
the very shore, projected the great boulder of granite upon
which they were to make their landing,
which would ever afterward be famous.
Here, at last, was freedom in a new land,
freedom to think and worship as they
pleased! And the voyagers were jubilant.

It was cold, for Christmas was only
four days off; but the spirits of the Pilgrims
were not dampened. The armed
men went ashore to reconnoiter, and soon
returned with the word that it was a likely
spot. Then for many days there was a
sound of axes clearing the land and felling
trees to build houses with; the smoke of
many fires brought with it the odor of
burning pine. But the buoyant spirits of
the colonists could not long withstand the
penetrating cold. Food was poor and
scarce, and none was to be had from the
surrounding country. Sickness came, and
death broke into the ranks. Indeed, before
the close of that first winter nearly
half of the colonists had perished. They
were buried upon the hill near the harbor,
and in the spring grain was sowed over
their graves that the Indians might not
see how terribly the little company had
suffered.

Friendly Indians showed them how to
plant their corn, putting fish into the hills
to fertilize it. Other colonists came; other
colonies were established—and so New
England was born.

The story of gruff, big-hearted Myles
Standish, the military captain of Plymouth,
and Priscilla Mullins, is inseparably
connected with the colony. Captain
Standish had many encounters with the
Indians. A fort was built, and, while in
general the Indians were friendly, the
men of the little army under his command
were constantly on the lookout for trouble
that might arise. Once a conspiracy was
detected, and the Indians put to death
with the very weapons they had brought
to use upon the people of the colony.

In 1624 each member of the colony received
a parcel of land, which he was
allowed to work for himself. After that
there was always plenty of food in Plymouth.
The colony was united with that
of Massachusetts Bay in 1691.

Today Plymouth is a busy city of
more than 12,000 people. The great boulder
upon which the Pilgrims stepped is
still there at the harbor edge, and a protecting
canopy of granite has been built
above it. The bones of some of the Pilgrims
have been placed within the canopy.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 32, SERIAL No. 32
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

TICONDEROGA

THREE

Darkness had fallen long before the men of Vermont
came to the lakes. Through woods where
giant trees reached upward and made the darkness
impenetrable they had marched, stumbling along,
feeling their way, often bumping into trees or falling over logs.
Now at the lake shore they were ready to embark. Silently
they moved to and fro, and the only
sound was the lapping of the water against
the shore and the roar of the falls. Just
a few boats could be found; but they were
filled and rowed across in silence, brought
back, filled again, and again rowed across.
When dawn broke in the east eighty-three
American soldiers had been ferried over,
and it was too late to wait for more.

If the attack was to be a success it
must be made without more delay. With
the utmost caution, therefore, the men
moved forward and up the slope. The
rumble of the falls helped them, drowning
out all other sounds. They reached the
sally port. There a sentry pointed his
musket at the leader of the Americans and
pulled the trigger. The piece did not go
off, and the sentry fled. In a few moments
the little army of invaders had
formed a hollow square within the fort,
facing the barracks about them, their
muskets ready to fire. The Indian war-cry
was given, and Ethan Allen, who led
them, made his way to the quarters of
the commandant, and demanded the surrender
of the fort.

“In whose name,” asked the commandant.

“In the name of the Great Jehovah and
the Continental Congress,” replied Allen.
And the surrender was made. So easily
and quietly did Ethan Allen and Benedict
Arnold capture Ticonderoga from the
British on that early morning in May,
1775, without the loss of a man or the firing
of a gun, and the army of the colonies
was enriched by many precious cannon,
muskets, and a large amount of ammunition
for the struggle for freedom that had
but started.

“Sounding waters” is the interpretation
given to the Indian name, Ticonderoga.
Here, where the waters of Lake
George descend tumultuously into Lake
Champlain, falling thirty feet in one sheer
drop, where the voyagers from Canada to
New England had to leave their boats, and
portage their loads, a fort had been built
by the French twenty years before. Three
years after it was put up, Ticonderoga
was attacked by six thousand British
regulars and ten thousand provincials.
The four thousand men of the French garrison
repulsed the attacking army, and
among the killed was Lord Howe. His
memory is kept fresh by a tablet in Westminster
Abbey, erected by the people of
Massachusetts. Three weeks after this
repulse, when Montcalm had gone to
Quebec to oppose General Wolfe and only
four hundred men were left in the fort,
Lord Amherst, with eleven thousand English,
besieged it. Realizing the hopelessness
of their task, the garrison blew up the
fortifications and abandoned the place. It
had been in English hands since that time
up to its capture by the “Green Mountain
Boys” under Ethan Allen. Two
years later, when General Burgoyne descended
from Canada, the fort was captured,
while the Americans retreated after
a feeble resistance. But when Burgoyne
surrendered, after the battle of Saratoga,
Ticonderoga again fell into American
hands.

In 1909, on the three hundredth anniversary
of the discovery of Lake Champlain,
the owner of the ground on which
the ruins of the fort stood began its
restoration.

The waters still roar at the falls as they
did on the night Ethan Allen and his
Green Mountain Boys made the bloodless
attack upon the fort.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 32, SERIAL No. 32
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

INDEPENDENCE HALL

FOUR

Of the sixty American gentlemen in frosted wigs and
silk stockings, who sat in what is now Independence
Hall in Philadelphia and composed the Continental
Congress, there was none more aristocratic by
birth, more democratic by nature, than Thomas Jefferson.
Perhaps that was one reason why they selected him to pen the
Declaration of Independence, adopted on
July 4, 1776, which remains today America’s
most sacred historical document.
He was sufficiently modest, however, to
insist that in writing the Declaration he
simply put down the ideas prevalent at
the time.

This Continental Congress was the first
body of men at that time sitting in any of
the parliaments of the world. These
statesmen had the courage to break an
old order, the valor to maintain a new one,
and the wisdom to fortify it with laws
and a constitution. The first and second
Congress of our nation comprised the
flower of the character of that age. As a
whole body they ruled higher for talents,
firmness, and good judgment than any
national assembly known to history.

So when it came to a division between
allegiance to England and a complete separation
from the mother country, these
men chose wisely, bravely, and confidently.
It was a big step to take, and a
dangerous one also. Hitherto the colonies
had been merely fighting for “no taxation
without representation”; but now
they would be fighting for liberty. And,
if conquered, the leaders could hope
for no better fate than execution as
traitors.

It is related that when Benjamin Franklin
lifted his pen, after signing the Declaration
of Independence, he turned to the assembly
and said with a grim smile:

“Now, gentlemen, we must all hang
together, or we shall hang separately.”

The Declaration of Independence was
adopted on July 4, 1776; but not all the
members of the Continental Congress
signed it on that day. A great many
signed at later dates.

The old bell that rang out this message
of liberty is now kept as an almost sacred
relic in Independence Hall. When the
Pennsylvanians were building their State
edifice they ordered a bell from England.
But when it arrived they found that it
had lost its voice and had to be recast.
A quotation was inscribed on the new bell,
which, though chosen a quarter of a century
in advance of the Declaration of Independence,
showed the direction in which
the thoughts of all the people of America
were even then turning—“Proclaim Liberty
throughout the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof.” This quotation was
taken from the tenth verse of the twenty-fifth
chapter of Leviticus.

The bell was afterward used on various
occasions of national importance; but
was cracked in 1835 in tolling for the
funeral of Chief Justice Marshall, and
since 1843 has never been sounded.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 32, SERIAL No. 32
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE ALAMO

FIVE

Two men who were riding up the heights dismounted,
left their horses, and walked to the top. The scene
before them was one that tried their souls,—a great
circle of troops; here and there a battery of guns;
in the center a low rambling building of adobe, at which the
fire was directed.

“It’s no use, Bonham,” said the elder
of the two. “We can’t do it. To try to
get in now would be certain death. You
have done your best to get assistance;
you can do no more.”

“Smith,” replied the other, “I am going
in. Travis sent me for help. It is right
for you to turn back; but I cannot. I
will report the results of my mission or
die in the attempt.”

Putting a white handkerchief in his hat
brim and fastening it there he mounted
the splendid cream-colored horse. The
two men clasped hands and looked into
each other’s eyes for a moment, and then
Bonham rode down toward the beleaguered
fort. Smith saw him reach the
Mexican lines and spur his horse on. He
was apparently unnoticed for a time, and
then the fire of hundreds was turned upon
him. Bending low in the saddle, man
and horse seemed to fly over the ground.
Hundreds of bullets must have whizzed
past him; but he seemed to have a charmed
life. On and on he went, and the fire
against him grew heavier. But now the
men of the garrison had seen the white
handkerchief, which had been agreed upon
as a signal, and a cheer went up. The
gates of the fort swung open. The horse
went faster. Smith saw horse and rider
reach the fort, and the gates swing to behind
them. They had gone unscathed
through the entire Mexican army.

The Alamo at San Antonio, originally
built for a mission, had been taken by
the Texans in their efforts to gain independence
from Mexico. Garrisoned by
a few men under Col. William Barrett
Travis, it was surrounded on February
23, 1836, by an army variously estimated
at from 3,000 to 8,000 men, under General
Santa Anna.

With his force of 150 Texans, among
them Colonel Bowie, David Crockett,
frontiersman and ex-member of Congress,
and James Butler Bonham, a friend from
boyhood days of Colonel Travis, the last
named made a gallant fight against overwhelming
odds. Messengers had been
despatched to summon help, and finally
Travis sent his friend out to bring assistance.
At the first place he tried, appeals
were of no avail, and he rode on to Gonzales.
There he found that Captain Martin
and thirty-two men had gone to the
assistance of the besieged men, fighting
their way into the fort. So he returned.

Three days after Bonham’s ride the
Mexican army made a general assault.
All but six of the brave garrison were
killed, and these, surrendering on condition
of parole, were butchered in cold
blood. The Mexicans lost 1,600 men. On
April 21 the Mexican army overtook General
Houston and his army of 780 men at
San Jacinto. The battle cry of the Texans
was “Remember the Alamo!” and the
enraged men of the little army cut the
Mexican forces to pieces, killing 630 and
capturing nearly all the rest. Thus Texas
won her independence.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
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COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

GETTYSBURG

SIX

Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the
Rebellion, and Pickett’s charge was the high-water
mark of Gettysburg. In that terrific engagement
of the third day the advance of the Confederates
into northern territory was effectually checked, and the question
of the Confederacy maintaining a position in northern
territory was settled. Lee turned south
with his defeated and broken forces, and
as the booming of the guns of Gettysburg
died down, the Confederate cause ebbed
away.

When the battle started, more than two
hundred cannon hurled shot and shell
across a lovely green valley with yellowing
grain fields. The carnage and the
roar and smoke of guns continued until
the Confederate gunners began to run
short of ammunition; then, on the third
day, came a lull. It was an ominous silence.
Down from the one hill surged a
line of gray, and another, and another.
The Confederate forces charged on across
the valley, and still the Federal batteries
reserved their fire. The supreme moment
was at hand. North and South hung upon
the issue with drawn breath. Then as the
gray army mounted the opposite hill,
rifles and cannon thundered again, line
after line broke and fell; but still the
charging body of the Confederates kept
on. They captured the first Federal outworks,
and staggered on toward the second.
But the Union fire had been too
deadly. No human bravery could withstand
such losses. The gray lines fell
back, leaving most of their men dead on
the field. Thus with the third day of the
Battle of Gettysburg over, the climax of
the war was past.

The little town round which the battle
raged was settled about 1740, and in 1800
it became the county seat. It holds the
oldest Lutheran college in America, and
likewise the oldest Lutheran theological
seminary. Today the valley is a beautiful
national park, with the lines of battle
marked by six hundred monuments, five
hundred iron tablets, one thousand markers,
and hundreds of cannon. Observation
towers enable the visitor to see the
surrounding country.

It is a curious fact that neither side had
intended to fight at Gettysburg, General
Meade having determined to make a
stand at Pipes Creek, fifteen miles distant.
But Lee’s troops, coming into contact with
a body of Union cavalry near Gettysburg,
July 1, 1863, precipitated the battle, and
both armies hurried to the scene. The
Federal troops were forced back, retreating
through the village, and took position
on Cemetery Hill, just beyond. At one
time in his march toward Gettysburg,
General Lee was within a few miles of the
main ammunition stores of the Federal
army, which, had he known it, he could
easily have captured.

Both sides suffered tremendous losses.
Of an army of 75,000 Lee lost 43,000
killed, wounded, and captured, and Meade
23,000 in killed and wounded out of
90,000. In Pickett’s charge, out of fifteen
regimental commanders, ten were killed
and five wounded. One regiment lost 90
per cent. of its members; of 4,500 officers
and men 3,393 were left on the field.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 32, SERIAL No. 32
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.