Page:Lives of the presidents in words of one syllable (1903).djvu/53

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to land. Wheels in the mills made a start. Then came work for all.

There was much need of good roads to take grain and all kinds of goods from farms that were far in-land to the place of sale, and a great start was made at this time to build them. To serve the same end the E-rie Can-al was dug from Buf-fa-lo to Al-ba-ny—a great work that brought much wealth to the State of New York.

Some red men in the South made war which grew quite fierce, but Gen. Jack-son put them down.

More States were made then. Mis-sou-ri was one of them, and caused a war of words. The South wished that slaves should be held there, while the North wished that it should be a free State. Con-gress at last let it in as a slave State, but passed a law that a line should be drawn through the land, north of which slaves could not be held.

In South A-mer-i-ca folks did not want to have on them the yoke of strange lands. We then gave them help so that they soon were free.

Mon-roe then set forth the view that if the kings of Eu- rope should seek to lay once more their yoke on those who had been set free, they must first fight us. This is known as the "Mon-roe Doc-trine," and we stand by it to this day.

James Mon-roe was the last of the Pres-i-dents of the Rev-o-lu-tion. He died like Jef-fer-son and John Ad-ams, on the Fourth of Ju-ly. He had gone to New York to see his child, and there, in 1831, at four score years of age, the day came when the warm old heart cease to beat. The name he left stands high on the roll of fame, as one who gave his best for his land and fought for her in her hour of need.