THE PACK-HORSE, THE FLAT BOAT, AND THE NEW PROBLEM. ROBERT FULTON AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. HIS FOURTH OF JULY SKY ROCKETS. A NEW METHOD OF NAVIGATION. FULTON'S FONDNESS FOR DRAWING AND PAINTING. HE INVENTS THE DIVING-BOAT. FULTON AND LIVINGSTON. A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. "FULTON'S FOLLY" AND HER TRIP UP THE HUDSON.
1. Give an account of Fulton's life at school, and his youthful inventions.
2. Tell about his experience with the diving-boat.
3. What serious accident happened to his boat?
4. Imagine yourself on the Clermont at the time of its trial trip, and give an account of the journey from New York to Albany.
5. What do you admire in the character of Robert Fulton?
Andrew Jackson, the Upholder of the Union
Only four years after the Clermont made its successful trip up the Hudson, the first steamboat on the Ohio was launched at Pittsburg. This boat was the forerunner of numerous steam-driven craft which swarmed the extensive network of rivers west of the Alleghany Mountains. A fresh impulse was given to westward migration, for settlers could now easily and cheaply reach the fertile lands of the Mississippi Valley, and, having raised an abundant crop, could successfully send the surplus to the Eastern markets. Under conditions so favorable the West grew in population with marvellous rapidity.
Wealth went hand in hand with the increase of population, and greatly strengthened the influence of the people of the West in the affairs of the country. By 1829, one of their number became the sixth President of the United States. This was Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee.
Andrew Jackson was born in Union County, N. C., in 1767, of poor parents, who about two years before had come from Ireland. In a little clearing in the woods, they had built a rude log hut and settled down to hard work.
But Andrew's father soon died, and his mother went with her children to live in her brother's home, where she spun flax to earn money. She was very fond of little Andrew and hoped some day to make a minister of him. With this in view she sent him to school where he learned reading, writing, and a little ciphering. But he cared so little for study that he made small advancement, and in fact never learned to spell well nor to write the English language with ease or even correctness.