The Mentor, No. 32, Historic Spots of America
The Mentor
“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”
Vol. 1 No. 32
HISTORIC SPOTS OF AMERICA
JAMESTOWN
PLYMOUTH ROCK
TICONDEROGA
INDEPENDENCE HALL
THE ALAMO
GETTYSBURG
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 asthe United States the people of Europe had witnessed a greatnaval battle in which two kinds of civilizations contended forsupremacy. England and Spain were the combatants, and the issue, aswe now clearly see, was whether the old idea of monarchy or the new ideaof democracy should dominate two continents. Gold from Mexico andPeru had made Spain a great power. Successive royal inheritances hadgiven to her kingly line the control of a large part of Europe. She wasthe champion of the Church of Rome, and regarded it as her mission toprevent all heretics from planting colonies in the New World. England,on the other hand, was the champion of Protestantism, whose doctrine ofthe direct responsibility of the individual led logically to democracyin government. England won the battle, destroying Spain’s greatArmada, and thus opening the New World to the settlement of menprofessing Protestant doctrines; for assoon as Spain’s power on the seas wasshattered Protestants could plant colonieswithout danger of having themdestroyed 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 mainlandby 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 putup for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, using the old tower, whichcan be seen in the background, for its entrance.
Within a few years after thedestruction of the Armada a great colonizingcompany was established inEngland for the purpose of sending outmen to settle the New World. SirThomas Gates, Sir George Somers, anda number of associates asked KingJames the First of England to grantthem a charter of incorporation. Heconsented, and on Apri