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The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year. Volume 2 (of 3) This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year. Volume 2 (of 3)

Author: Edwin Emerson

Release date: October 12, 2008 [eBook #26901]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26901

Credits: Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Paul Dring and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, YEAR BY YEAR. VOLUME 2 (OF 3) ***

Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Paul Dring and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY Painted by Edward L Henry, N.A. Copyright by C. Klackner]

A HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY YEAR BY YEAR

EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.

Member of the American Historical Association, New York Historical Society, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Honorary Member of the Royal Philo-Historical Society of Bavaria, etc., etc.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORG GOTTFRIED GERVINUS

ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN COLORED PLATES AND THIRTY-TWO FULL-PAGE, HALF-TONE CUTS AND TWO MAPS

_IN THREE VOLUMES--VOLUME TWO_

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

P.F. COLLIER AND SON

MCMII

By EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.

[Illustration]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME TWO

FULL PAGES IN COLOR

THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY. Painted by Edward L. Henry _Frontispiece_

BALAKLAVA. Painted by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler)

SOLFERINO. Painted by E. Meissonier

LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN. Painted by J. Paul Laurens

FULL PAGES IN BLACK AND WHITE

AMERICAN INVENTORS. Painted by C. Schussele

THE KING OF ROME. Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence

LORD BYRON. Painted by Maurin

BEETHOVEN AND HIS ADMIRERS. Painted by A. Grafle

QUEEN VICTORIA TAKING THE OATH. Painted by Sir George Hayter

LORD TENNYSON. Painted by Frederic Sandys

WASHINGTON IRVING AND HIS FRIENDS. Painted by Daniel Huntington

THE BATTLE OF INKERMANN. Painted by Gustave Dore

WAGNER AND LISZT. Painted by W. Beckmann

OPENING OF THE OPERA. Painted by Edouard Detaille

EXECUTION OF SEPOY REBELS. Painted by Verestchagin

THE EMPEROR OF CHINA RECEIVING THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS.

1816

[Sidenote: Parliamentary rule in France]

[Sidenote: Revival of French letters]

An era of peace and reconstruction had begun. After a generation of war and turmoil France was started on her new career of parliamentary government. The brief period of retaliation ended with the so-called amnesty act of January, which condemned Napoleon and all his relatives to perpetual exile. The Chambers now entered into a prolonged discussion of the propositions for a new election law. The Ministry was headed by the Duc de Richelieu, who had taken the place of Talleyrand and Fouche. The latter was compelled to leave France forever. Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, who succeeded Davoust, reorganized the army on a permanent footing of military equality which satisfied even Napoleon's veterans. In the Chambers, the Comte d'Artois represented the ultra-royalist right wing, while the left was brilliantly led by Lafayette, Manuel, and Benjamin Constant. Guizot, during the same year, for the first time ascended the tribune as spokesman of the moderate party--the so-called Doctrinaires. Chateaubriand so offended the king by his book "La Monarchie selon la Charte" that his name was crossed from the list of the Council of State. Yet he remained the foremost man of letters in France.

[Sidenote: Beranger]

Beranger was the foremost lyric poet. A typical song by him is that rendered by Thackeray:

With pensive eyes the little room I view, Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long; With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two, And a light heart still breaking into song: Making a mock of life, and all its cares, Rich in the glory of my rising sun, Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs, In the brave days when I was twenty-one.

Yes; 'tis a garret--let him know't who will-- There was my bed--full hard it was and small; My table there--and I decipher still Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall. Ye joys, that Time hath swept with him away, Come to mine eyes, ye dreams of love and fun; For you I pawned my watch how many a day, In the brave days when I was twenty-one.

And see my little Lizette, first of all; She comes with pouting lips and sparkling eyes; Behold, how roguishly she pins her shawl Across the narrow easement, curtain-wise; Now by the bed her petticoat glides down, And when did woman look the worse in none? I have heard since who paid for many a gown, In the brave days when I was twenty-one.

One jolly evening, when my friends and I Made happy music with our songs and cheers, A shout of triumph mounted up thus high, And distant cannon opened on our ears: We rise,--we join in the triumphant strain,-- Napoleon conquers--Austerlitz is won-- Tyrants shall never tread us down again, In the brave days when I was twenty-one.

Let us be gone--the place is sad and strange-- How far, far off, these happy times appear; All that I have to live I'd gladly change For one such month as I have wasted here-- To draw long dreams of beauty, love, and power, From founts of hope that never will outrun, And drink all life's quintessence in an hour, Give me the days when I was twenty-one!

It was the period of a new revival for French literature.

[Sidenote: Reaction in southern Europe]

In the other Latin countries, Spain, Portugal and Italy, the restoration of the old monarchies was not attended by like beneficent results. In Spain, the re-establishment of the Inquisition stifled free thought and free speech to such a degree that some of the most progressive Spaniards emigrated to the revolted Spanish dependencies in America. The return of Bourbon rule in Naples and Sicily was made odious by a general suppression of Freemasons and kindred secret societies.

[Sidenote: Metternich's influence]

[Sidenote: German Confederation established]

[Sidenote: The Frankfort Diet]

In the German States, similar measures of persecution were invoked against the student societies at the universities. The University of Erfurt was suspended. The Duke of Hesse, who had gained early notoriety by renting his subjects to foreign armies, now revived corporal punishment together with the stocks and other feudal institutions. In Wurtemberg serfdom was re-established. Throughout Germany the reactionary suggestions of Prince Metternich were carried into effect. A good opportunity for Metternich to assert his ascendency was presented by the first session of the new German Diet. Late in the year the delegates from all the States of the New Germanic Confederation met at Frankfort, Austria holding the permanent presidency. Count Buol von Schauenstein opened the Diet with a solemn address, which fell flat. First of all, it was settled that Hesse would have to cede a large part of Westphalia to Prussia. Next, the title of the Duke of Cambridge to rule as Regent in Hanover was fully recognized. In all resolutions relating to fundamental laws, the organic regulations of the Confederation, the _jura singulorum_ and matters of religion, unanimity was required. All the members of the Confederation bound themselves neither to enter into war nor into any foreign alliance against the Confederation or any of its members. The thirteenth article declared, "Each of the confederated States will grant a constitution to the people." The sixteenth placed all Christian sects on an equality. The eighteenth granted freedom of settlement within the Confederation, and promised "uniformity of regulation concerning the liberty of the press." The fortresses of Luxemburg, Mainz and Landau were declared common property and occupied in common by their troops. A fourth fortress was to be raised on the Upper Rhine with twenty millions of the French contribution money. This was never done. For future sessions of the Diet the votes were so regulated that the eleven States of first rank alone held a full vote, the secondary States merely holding a half or a fourth of a vote, as, for instance, all the Saxon duchies collectively, one vote; Brunswick and Nassau, one; the two Mecklenburgs, one; Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwartzburg, one; the petty princes of Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Lippe, and Waldeck, one; all the free towns, one; forming altogether seventeen votes. In constitutional questions the six States of the highest rank were to have each four votes; the next five States each three; Brunswick, Schwerin, and Nassau, each two; and all the remaining princes each, one vote. This arrangement, as it turned out, proved fruitful of endless trouble.

[Sidenote: Unfair representation]

Austria and Prussia at that time contained forty-two million inhabitants; the rest of Germany merely twelve million. The power of the two predominant States, therefore, really were in proportion to that of the rest of Germany as seven to two, whereas their votes in the Diet stood merely as two to seventeen, and in the plenary assembly as two to fifteen.

[Sidenote: Prussia predominant]

Though Prussia had lost Hanover and East Friesland, she had received sufficient compensation still--thanks to Hardenberg's diplomacy--to start her on her future career as the predominant German State. Incorporated with the Prussian provinces now were half of Saxony, the Grandduchy of Posen, a portion of Westphalia, nearly all of the Lower Rhine region from Mainz to Aix-la-Chapelle, and Swedish Pomerania, for which Prussia paid some eight million thalers by way of indemnity.

[Sidenote: Restoration of the Netherlands]

In Holland, the new Stadtholder, Prince William Frederick of Orange-Nassau, having incorporated Belgium as an integral part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, set himself to nullify the French racial traits of his Belgian subjects. A suggestion of future strife on this score could already be found in Van der Palm's memorial on "The Restoration of the Netherlands," published during this year.

[Sidenote: England's commanding position]

[Sidenote: Industrial depression]

[Sidenote: Art and Letters]

The final settlement of Napoleon's great upheaval of Europe left England feverish and exhausted. The prolonged financial strain of twenty years of war had saddled Great Britain with a national debt of eight hundred million pounds. Of material gain there was little to show but the acquisition of Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch; of the former French colony of Mauritius, and of a few West Indian islands. The continued possession of the Rock of Gibraltar, and of Malta, the old stronghold of the Knights of Malta, together with the British protectorate over the Ionic Isles, assured to England her commanding position in the Mediterranean. At home the pressure of the heavy taxes required to meet the financial legacies of the war was imbittered by the general distress of the country. The new tax on the importation of grains resulted in famine prices. Corresponding tariff restrictions abroad kept British markets overstocked with goods. Mills and factories had to be shut down, while at the same time the labor market was glutted with several hundred thousand discharged sailors and soldiers. The starving working people grew bitter in their opposition to new labor-saving devices. Thus the appearance of the first steamship on the Thames and of the earliest ships constructed of iron, followed shortly by Sir Francis Reynold's invention of an electric clock-work telegraph and by James Watt's introduction of stereo plates in book-printing, heightened this feeling. The resentment of laboring men found expression in riotous meetings at Manchester, Littleport and Nottingham. The movement spread to London. A great labor meeting was held there on the Spa fields. The favorite newspaper of the workingmen, Cobbett's radical "Two Penny Register," rivalled the London "Times" in power. In Parliament the leaders of the radical opposition grew ever more importunate. Not until the end of the year did matters mend. The most comforting sign of better times was a partial resumption of specie payments by the Bank of England, followed shortly by the opening of the first Savings Bank in London. Other memorable events of the year were the acquisition of the famous Elgin marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, celebrated in Keats's sonnet "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles," and the publication of Shelley's long poem "Alastor," and Leigh Hunt's "Story of Rimini." A diplomatic setback pregnant with future trouble was the dismissal of Lord Amherst, the British Ambassador at Pekin, for refusing to kow-tow to the Emperor of China.

[Sidenote: Depression in America]

[Sidenote: Financial relief measures]

[Sidenote: Tariff _vs._ Free Trade]

[Sidenote: Changes in New England]

In America the depression of commerce and industry resulting from the war with England continued unabated. To relieve the situation, the Secretary of the Treasury, A.J. Dallas, proposed as a measure of relief the chartering of a new national bank with increased capital and enlarged powers and the readjustment of the tariff by the imposition of higher duties. The bank was chartered for twenty-one years with a capital of $35,000,000, a portion of the stock to be owned by the government and the institution to have in its management five government directors in a board of twenty-five. The tariff policy of Madison was sustained by the Southern party and opposed by the Federalists, especially in New England. Thus it became more a question of sectional interests than of abstract political economy. The capital of New England was invested in shipping, so that the exclusion of articles of foreign production was bound to injure, by a high tariff, New England's carrying trade. On its part, the South sought to establish a home market for its cotton--almost the only staple of the Gulf States. Efforts were made to encourage the domestic manufacture of those coarse fabrics which were indispensable in a slave-holding region. The question thus grew into a struggle between slave labor and free trade. The free-trade party was led by Daniel Webster, and the tariff party by Calhoun. During the first year of the new tariff the value of foreign imports fell off about thirty-two per cent. In the adjustment of capital and trade to an enforced industrial policy, the American people passed through a commercial crisis which paralyzed the flourishing sea-ports of the New England coast. Newburyport, Salem, Plymouth, New London, Newport, and intermediate places sank from lucrative commercial centres into insignificant towns. Manchester, Lowell, Fall River, Pawtucket, Waterbury and other New England cities on the other hand became great manufacturing places.

The Fourteenth American Congress, under the leadership of Clay, imposed a protective tariff of about twenty-five per cent on imported cotton and woollen goods, with specific duties on coal and iron. The average duties on imports amounted almost to prohibition. Late in the year Indiana was admitted as the nineteenth State.

[Sidenote: War with Florida Indians]

The tranquillity of the end of Madison's administration was broken by new troubles with the southern Indians. General Jackson by his impulsive manner of dealing with the Indians of Florida nearly forced the United States into a war with Spain and England. The Indians had reason to complain of the injustice that had marked their treatment by the whites. Florida had become a refuge for runaway slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. The treaty of 1814 was repudiated by many of the Creeks, who resented the new settlements of the whites. Those who were most dissatisfied made common cause with the Seminoles. For a year, General Gaines, in command at the frontier, complained to the authorities at Washington of the conduct of the Indians and Spaniards. General Jackson, to whom the matter was referred, wrote to Gaines that the forts standing in Spanish territory "ought to be blown off the face of the earth, regardless of the ground they stand on." In July, a detachment of men and gunboats under Colonel Church advanced upon Fort Negro. A shot from one of the boats blew up the powder magazine. The fort was laid in ruins. Of the 324 inmates 270 were killed. Most of the survivors were wounded.

[Sidenote: Death of Gouverneur Morris]

During this year, the "Washington," the first American line-of-battle ship put to sea with seventy-four guns on her decks. The first American rolling mill and plant for puddling iron-ore were built at Red Stone Bank in Pennsylvania. Bishop Asbury, the founder of Methodism in the United States, preached his last sermon at Richmond, Virginia. During the same year he died at the age of seventy-one. Other noted Americans who died this year were Gouverneur Morris of New York, and Spaulding, the reputed author of the book of Mormon.

[Sidenote: Death of Miranda]

[Sidenote: Independence of Argentine]

Miranda, the South American revolutionist, expired on July 14, in a dungeon at Cadiz. A British officer who saw him shortly before his death, described him as "tied to a wall with a chain about his neck like a dog." Ever since his defeat and detention in Venezuela, his last years had been spent in captivity. He passed from prison to prison--now at San Carlos, now in Porto Rico, and finally in Spain. Miranda's failure to obtain grants of amnesty for Bolivar and his fellow rebels, when he came to terms with the Spanish general Monteverde, left him discredited with the patriots of South America. In the meanwhile, Miranda's friend, San Martin, was fighting in Chile and Peru for South American independence, and was aided in his struggle by Louis Beltran, an unfrocked friar. On July 9, the independence of Argentine was proclaimed. Pueyrredon was made President of the new republic. Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia established independent governments.

[Sidenote: The struggle in Venezuela]

After Miranda's defeat and the fall of Porto Cabello, Bolivar had fled to Curacoa. He enlisted a corps of refugees in Cartagena and headed an expedition into New Granada. There he rallied more revolutionists about him, and, capturing Madalena from the Spaniards, fought his way through to Caracas. He was welcomed there with extravagant demonstration as the "Savior of Venezuela." After one more victory on the field of Araure his star declined. The Spanish general, Boves, defeated him at La Puerta, and took a terrible vengeance on the patriots. The wounded and prisoners were killed on the field; the homes of all reputed rebels were burned to the ground; and the entire population of Aragua was massacred.

[Sidenote: Spanish vengeance]

[Sidenote: Bolivar's adventures]

Montalvo, the Spanish War Minister, reported officially: "General Boves does not distinguish between the guilty and innocent--soldiers or non-combatants. All alike are killed for the crime of being born in America." Bolivar retired to New Granada and thence to Jamaica. An attempt to assassinate him there failed; for the negro cut-throat who had undertaken to murder Bolivar killed the wrong person. Bolivar crossed over to Hayti. There he raised a new expedition. A negro leader, Petion, then acting-governor of Hayti, helped him in this enterprise, and strongly advised him to proclaim the freedom of all slaves as the first step on landing in his country. "For, how can you free your country," said Petion, "if you don't free all the people in it?" Bolivar heeded his advice. With six ships and one hundred and fifty men, he set out to reconquer Venezuela from Spain. He landed at Margerita, where he had the good fortune to capture several Spanish ships. With them he returned to Santo Domingo for more men and ammunition. Petion furnished him with funds. Thus reinforced, Bolivar made a dash for Barcelona in Venezuela. The end of the struggle was at hand.

1817

[Sidenote: Return of Bolivar]

[Sidenote: General Piar shot]

[Sidenote: O'Higgins]

[Sidenote: San Martin]

Bolivar landed on the north coast of Venezuela on the first day of the new year. His landing place, Barcelona, was a small town at the foot of the Maritime Andes, so unprotected against attack that he resolved to leave it at once. He marched his force in the direction of Santa Fe in New Granada, hoping to push through to Peru. Marino and Piar, two insurgent leaders operating in the south, joined forces with Bolivar, and brought 1,200 additional men. By the time their joint column had penetrated well into Orinoco, the three leaders were at odds with each other. Piar tried to incite revolt among his followers. Bolivar caused Piar to be seized, and after a drum-head trial had him shot. In the meanwhile a Spanish force had swooped down on Barcelona, and massacred the inhabitants. Things were at this pass when the standard of revolt was once more raised in Chile by Bernado O'Higgins. He was a natural son of Ambrosio, and had just returned from school in England. At the time the supreme command of the revolutionary forces was given to him this famous South American leader was still a young man, as was his chief lieutenant, MacKenna. By his clever handling of the campaigns that followed he won the title of "El Primer Soldado del Nuevo Mundo"--the first soldier of America. It was still at the outset of his career, in 1817, that help came to the Chileans from Buenos Ayres across the Andes. The man who brought this aid was San Martin.

At Mendoza, on January 17, San Martin reviewed his little army of 5,000, all Gaucho horsemen, as lightly clad and provisioned as the Indians of the Pampas. The women of Mendoza presented the force with a flag bearing the emblem of the Sun. San Martin held the banner aloft, declaring it "the first flag of independence which had been blest in South America." This same flag was carried through all the wars along the Pacific Coast. And under its tattered shreds San Martin was finally laid to rest sixty years later.

[Sidenote: Battle of Chacabuco]

[Sidenote: Acuoncagua]

Marching from Mendoza, San Martin made a feint of crossing the Andes by way of Planchon, thereby inducing a Spanish column under Captain-General Marco del Ponte to concentrate at Talca. During the progress of these movements, San Martin and his followers crossed the mountains by the steep route of Putaendo and Cuevas. Three hundred miles of the stiffest mountain riding were covered in less than a fortnight. Early in February, San Martin's army, now barely 4,000 strong, descended upon Villa Nueva. On February 7, they fought their first battle on Chilean soil with the Spanish outposts at Chacabuco. Driving the Spaniards before him, San Martin, advanced into the plain, and presently joined forces with O'Higgins' infantry. New mounts were provided for the cavalry. At the strong post of Acuoncagua the Spaniards made a stand, but they were outnumbered by the insurgents. San Martin delivered a frontal attack, while O'Higgins outflanked the enemy with an impetuous charge, with the result that the whole Spanish force was routed beyond recovery. The officers fled to Valparaiso. By the middle of February, San Martin entered Santiago de Chile. A new republican junta was formed and complete independence of Spain was declared. O'Higgins assumed the position of dictator.

[Sidenote: Battle of Talca]

[Sidenote: Battle of the Maypo]

[Sidenote: Liberation of Chile]

All Chile was free now except in the south. General Ordonez, commanding the Spanish forces there, was defeated and fell back to Talcahuano. San Martin prepared to invade Peru. Anticipating such an attack, Abascal, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, despatched Osorio with an expedition of 3,500 veterans, who had just arrived from Spain, to Talcahuano. As soon as these reinforcements came, Ordonez set out from Talcahuano with the vanguard to march on Santiago de Chile, and met the patriot forces near Talca. The revolutionists largely outnumbered the Spaniards, but were poorly disciplined and ill-provisioned. While they lost time the Spanish main column under Osorio came up. Ordonez took advantage of the clumsy manoeuvres of the revolutionists to drive a sharp attack between their two wings, piercing their centre. The battle was won after the first fifteen minutes. O'Higgins was wounded and had to be carried out of the fight. San Martin, with his right wing, fell back on San Fernando. With great difficulty O'Higgins managed to reach Santiago, where he was presently joined by San Martin. Steadily the Spanish column advanced on Santiago. The two revolutionary leaders by almost superhuman efforts succeeded in rallying and equipping a force of 5,000 defenders. On April 5, the Spanish army appeared before Santiago de Chile. Near the Maypo, nine miles from Santiago, the revolutionists took up a strong position. Osorio opened the battle about noon with artillery. Soon all the troops were engaged, the fiercest fight raging around a hacienda where San Martin and O'Higgins had their headquarters. Several times the ranch was lost and retaken. By sundown the Spaniards advanced all along the line. The battle seemed lost to the patriots. At this juncture, as the famous regiment of Burgos on the Spanish right was drawing in its deployed lines for a final column attack, Colonel O'Brien, at the head of the insurgent cavalry reserves, charged into the opening and overthrew the Burgos battalions. O'Higgins immediately charged the rest of the Spanish right wing, and San Martin simultaneously attacked in the centre. The whole Spanish army gave away. More than 2,000 Spaniards were killed and wounded. Osorio with his staff escaped to Peru. The victory of Santiago not only freed Chile, but left Peru open to the revolutionists.

[Sidenote: Monroe's Presidency]

In the United States of North America, during this interval, a new President had begun his administration. James Monroe was inaugurated as President in his fifty-ninth year. He had been a member of the Continental Congress, and at thirty-six a Minister to France. Under Madison he served as Secretary of War. Crawford, Calhoun, Meigs, Wirt and Rush were members of his Cabinet, and were all of the dominant Democratic-Republican party. Business throughout the country began to revive almost at once when the re-chartered National Bank went into operation in Philadelphia on the day of Monroe's inauguration.

[Sidenote: "Era of good feeling"]

In June, President Monroe undertook a three months' personal inspection of the military posts of the country. Passing through New York, Boston and Portland, and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Ogdensburg, he took a boat to Sackett's Harbor and Niagara. From there he went to Buffalo and Detroit, and returned to Washington. Everywhere the people greeted him by thousands. Monroe on this occasion wore the three-cornered hat, scarlet-bordered blue coat and buff breeches of the American Revolutionary army. The "Boston Journal" called the times the "Era of Good Feeling," and the expression has passed into American history as a characteristic of Monroe's entire administration.

[Sidenote: Western prairies settled]

It was an era notable for the extraordinary growth of the Western States. Settlers were encouraged to buy government land on the instalment plan, and the States refrained from levying taxes on these lands until years after the settlers had received their title deeds. Endless processions of prairie wagons passed through New York and Pennsylvania. On one turnpike alone, 16,000 vehicles paid toll during the year. Pittsburg at this time had a population of 7,000 persons. The log cabin was the house of all, with its rough chimney, its greased paper in a single window, its door with latch and string, a plank floor and single room, corn husk brooms and its Dutch oven. In the newly broken ground corn and wheat were planted, which, when harvested, were thrashed with the flail and winnowed with a sheet. Little settlements sprang up here and there on the rolling prairie, with store-taverns, blacksmith shops and mills. This a thousand times repeated was seen in western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.

[Sidenote: Steam navigation]

[Sidenote: The Erie Canal]

[Sidenote: "Thanatopsis"]

During the same year the newly organized territory of Mississippi, formed from a division of Alabama, was admitted as the twentieth State to the Union. The first line of steam propelled ocean packets was organized to run between New York and Liverpool. In the western frontier town of St. Louis the first steamboat made its appearance. On July 4, ground was broken for the Erie Canal, which was to connect the city of New York with the great inland waters. On the strength of this progressive achievement De Witt Clinton became a candidate for the governorship of New York. Among other notable events of this year were the foundation of the New York State Library, Gallaudet's foundation of the first school for the deaf and dumb at Hartford, and the establishment of the earliest theological seminaries of the Episcopal Church in America, as well as of the first Unitarian Divinity School at Harvard. William Cullen Bryant, barely come of age, published his master work, "Thanatopsis," in the "North American Review."

[Sidenote: Stenography]

[Sidenote: German liberalism]

[Sidenote: The Wartburg festival]

[Sidenote: European courts alarmed]

[Sidenote: Advances in scholarship]

[Sidenote: African missionary work]

In other parts of the world, likewise, the return of peace was followed by a general advance in culture and civilization. Shortly after the re-establishment of the American National Bank, Canada followed suit with government banks at Montreal and Quebec. Hanka, in Bohemia, claimed to have discovered the famous medieval lyrics of Rukopis Kralodvorsky written at the end of the thirteenth century. Across the border in Poland the new University of Cracow began its career. In Munich, Franz Gabelsberger invented the first working system of shorthand, which, in a perfected form, is still in use in Germany. During this year common school education took an immense stride in Germany, after the establishment in Prussia of a distinct Ministry for Public Education. Unfortunately the government soon came into conflict with the bolder spirits at the universities. By reason of the more liberal privileges allowed to it by the Duke of Weimar, the University of Jena took the lead in the national Teutonic agitation inaugurated by Fichte. On October 18, the students of Jena, aided by delegates from all the student fraternities of Protestant Germany, held a festival at Eisenach to celebrate the three-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. It was also the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig. Five hundred ardent young men, among them scholars who had fought at Leipzig, Ligny and Waterloo, assembled in the halls of Luther's Wartburg Castle. They sang and drank, and fraternized with the members of the militia of Eisenach. In the evening they had a torchlight procession and lighted a huge bonfire on the hill opposite the castle. In imitation of Martin Luther's burning of the Pope's Bull they consigned a number of their pet aversions to the flames. Thus they burned a soldier's straight-jacket and corporal's cane, as well as a recent pamphlet by one Schmalz written in defense of the old Prussian bureaucracy. Rash words were uttered about the broken faith of princes. They were aimed at King Frederick William of Prussia, who had promised to give his country a constitution, but had failed to keep his word. The Wartburg festival, childish as it was in many of its manifestations, created singular alarm throughout Germany and elsewhere. The King of Prussia sent his Prime Minister, Hardenberg, to Weimar to make a thorough investigation of the affair. Richelieu, the Prime Minister of France, wrote from Paris whether another revolution was breaking out; and Metternich insisted that the Duke of Weimar should curtail the liberties of his subjects. The heavy hand of reaction fell upon all German universities. German scholars were compelled to turn their interests from public affairs to pure science and scholarship, to the benefit of German learning. The study of history and archeology took an upward turn with Brentano's publication of old German ballads and Lachmann's original version of the Nibelungen songs. At this time an Italian archeologist, Belzoni, was adding new chapters to ancient history by his original researches in Egypt, which resulted in the removal of the Colossus of Memnon to Alexandria, and in the opening of the great Cephren pyramid. In distant South Africa the first English missionaries began their labors among the blacks. Although the Governor of Natal at first refused to permit Robert Moffat, the first Wesleyan missionary in those parts, to disturb the Kaffirs with his preachings, Moffat pressed on undismayed and soon established a mission beyond the Orange River.

[Sidenote: Green Bag inquiry]

[Sidenote: Manchester Blanketers]

[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction in England]

In England, industrial depression dragged on. Early in the year riots broke out in London on the opening of Parliament. While driving to the House of Lords, the Prince Regent, now grown thoroughly unpopular on account of the scandals with his wife, was hooted by a crowd in St. James's Park. The police claimed that an air gun had been discharged at the Prince and made an attack on the crowd. A number of persons were injured. This was followed in February by the great Green Bag Inquiry, when Lord Sidmouth laid before Parliament a green bag full of reports concerning seditions. Bills were introduced to suspend the habeas corpus act and to provide for the coercion of public meetings. Seditious publications were likewise to be suppressed. In March occurred the rising of the so-called Blanketers in Manchester--dissatisfied workingmen who started in a body for London carrying blanket rolls and other necessaries. Their march was stopped by the military. In April, seven members of the so-called society of Luddites were hanged at Leicester for breaking labor-saving machinery. Shortly afterward eighteen persons were hanged for forging notes on the Bank of England. It was found that since the redemption of specie payments no less than 17,885 forged notes had been presented. Nearly two hundred persons were apprehended and tried in court for this offence. Shortly afterward another insurrection which broke out in Derbyshire, and which was led by Jeremiah Brandrett, was suppressed by soldiers.

[Sidenote: "The Revolt of Islam"]

[Sidenote: "Lalla Rookh"]

[Sidenote: John Keats]

[Sidenote: "Blackwood's"]

While the working classes of England and Ireland were thus struggling against their miseries, English literature shone forth in new splendor. Shelley brought out his "Revolt of Islam" and Tom Moore published his "Lalla Rookh." John Keats at the age of barely twenty-one published his first poems. The volume attracted little attention. The appearance of Blackwood's new magazine in Edinburgh, on the other hand, was hailed as an event in English letters.

[Sidenote: French letters]

[Sidenote: Beranger]

In France, likewise, the return of peace gave a new lease of life to literature. The French Academy was reorganized to consist of forty members, who were elected for life, and who were to be regarded as "the highest authority on questions relating to language, grammar, rhetoric, poetry and the publication of the French classics." Chateaubriand was the Academy's foremost member. Beranger on the other hand, albeit his lyrics had reached the height of their popularity, fell into official disfavor by reason of his glorification of Napoleonic times, as exemplified in his ballads "La Vivandiere," "La Cocarde Blanche," or "Le Juge de Charenton." The last poem, with its veiled allusions to the Lavalette episode, was made the subject of an interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies. While this was still pending further offence was given by the publication of Beranger's satirical piece on "The Holy Alliance." Beranger had to give up his position as secretary at the University of France, and was soon afterward arrested among his boon companions at Madame Saguet's near Le Moulin Vert. He was placed on trial for the alleged blasphemies committed in his song "Le Dieu des Bonnes Gens," and condemned to spend three months in prison and to pay a heavy fine.

[Sidenote: Death of Madame de Stael]

[Sidenote: Death of Massena]

Other literary events of the year were the publication of Beyle's "Lives of Mozart and Haydn"; the performance of Scribe's early plays, and the death of Madame de Stael, which occurred on July 14. This gifted daughter of Necker had not been allowed to return to France until after the fall of Napoleon. Her last work was a treatise of the Constitutional Government, entitled "Considerations sur les Principaux Evenements de la Revolution Francaise," and published posthumously by her long time German companion and adviser, Schlegel. Marshal Massena died during the same year. His funeral was attended with imposing military honors rendered him by his old followers and comrades-in-arms, who recalled the triumphs of Rivoli, Essling, and a score of other victories in which this famous warrior had borne the brunt of the fighting.

[Sidenote: Wachabite rebellion]

[Sidenote: Seminole war]

This year would have been one of peace, the first since the outbreak of the French Revolution, but for another uprising of the Wachabites in Arabia under the standard of Tourkee and the re-occurrence of North American Indian troubles. A year had passed after the destruction of Fort Negro in Florida before the whites found a pretext for another attack. King Natchez was accused of receiving fugitive negroes, and he replied: "I have no negroes.... I shall use force to stop any armed American from passing my lands or my towns." The Seminoles looked with alarm on the new forts of the United States. At Fowltown, on Flint River, the Indians, in November, put up a war pole, and the chief warned Colonel Meigs in command at Fort Scott not to cross the Flint River. Gaines reached the place with some regular troops and volunteers, and Twiggs, with 250 men, moved upon the town, killed some of the people and burned the village. The revenge of the Seminoles was swift and bloody. Settlers were massacred and the property of the whites within reach of the Indians was destroyed. Over 2,700 Seminoles took the field. General Jackson assumed command on the day after Christmas. He declared that so long as the Spaniards held Florida the trouble would continue.

[Sidenote: Pindaree war]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Toona]

About the same time the British in India were plunged into further wars with the natives. First the Pindarees sent out plundering bands from Malwa. To suppress them, Lord Hastings had to collect an army of 120,000, the largest force yet mustered in India. From Madras, four army divisions under Sir Thomas Hislop crossed the Nerbudda, and drove the Pindarees toward Bengal. By the great number of his remaining troops Lord Hastings overawed the neighboring rulers, Peishwa Sindia of the Mahratta, Ameer Khan, Holkar and Runjit Singh of the Punjab. Peishwa Baji Rao was compelled to sign a treaty of neutrality at Toona. In October, thereupon, Lord Hastings left Cawnpore and crossed the Jumna. The Pindarees were routed in a series of swift-fought engagements. One of their chieftains, Khurin, gave himself up with his whole household, while another, Chetu, was killed by a tiger while hiding in the jungle.

[Sidenote: Mahratta war]

The Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who was biding his time until the British forces should withdraw from his dominions, grew impatient and threatened open war. To appease him a newly arrived British regiment was withdrawn from Toona to Khirki, a village about four miles from the British Residency. This concession only encouraged the Peishwa to further resistance.

[Sidenote: Hindu Blondin]

[Sidenote: Outbreak of Poonah]

[Sidenote: Flight of Baji Rao]

The Mahratta war opened with a romantic incident. Trimbukji Dainglia, one of the favorites of the Peishwa, was held closely confined by the English at Thanna for his share in the murder of one of Baji Rao's enemies. Before the outbreak of hostilities the Mahrattas managed to get word to him of what was coming. A native groom in the service of one of the British officers passed the window of the prisoner every day leading his master's horses. As he did so he trolled a native song the purport of which the British guards neither understood nor suspected. It has thus been translated by Bishop Heber:

Behind the bush the bowmen hide The horse beneath the tree. Where shall I find a chief to ride The jungle paths with me?

There are five-and-fifty horses there, And four-and-fifty men; When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed, The Dekhan thrives again.

A few days after this Trimbukji Dainglia was missing. He had broken a bar from its setting, scaled the wall, and joined a party of horsemen lying in wait. With them he fled to the jungles of Kanderish. Just before the outbreak of hostilities a British officer thought he recognized him at Poonah. On November 5, the British Resident, Elphinstone, left Poonah to inspect the forces at Khirki. On that same day the Mahrattas burned Elphinstone's house and rich Sanskrit library. Baji Rao attacked the military post Khirki with 26,000 men, but was repulsed with a loss of five hundred. The British immediately despatched an army under General Smith for Poonah. On November 15, they prepared for a general attack on the morrow, but in the night Baji Rao fled from Poonah. Thus he surrendered his dominions without a blow.

Appa Sahib, the Rajah of Nagpore, meanwhile had made common cause with Baji Rao. On the evening of November 24, he brought up his forces and attacked the British Residency at Nagpore. The resulting battle of Sitaboldi is famous in Hindu annals. As Wheeler, the historian of British India, describes it:

[Sidenote: Battle of Sitaboldi]

"The English had no European regiment, as they had at Khirki; they had scarcely fourteen hundred Sepoys fit for duty, including three troops of Bengal cavalry, and only four six-pounders. Appa Sahib had an army of eighteen thousand men, including four thousand Arabs, the best soldiers in the Dekhan; he had also thirty-six guns. The battle lasted from six o'clock in the evening of the 26th of November until noon the next day. For many hours the English were in sore peril; their fate seemed to hang upon a thread. The Arabs were beginning to close round the Residency, when a happy stroke of British daring changed the fortunes of the day. Captain Fitzgerald, who commanded the Bengal cavalry, was posted in the Residency compound and was anxious to charge the Arabs; but he was forbidden. Again he implored permission, but was told to charge at his peril. 'On my peril be it!' cried Fitzgerald. Clearing the inclosures, the Bengal cavalry bore down upon the enemy's horse, captured two guns, and cut up a body of infantry. The British Sepoys hailed the exploit with loud huzzahs, and seeing the explosion of one of the enemy's tumbrels, rushed down the hill, driving the Arabs before them. The victory was won, but the English had lost a quarter of their number."

[Illustration: LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN Painted by J. Paul Laurens From Carbon Print by Braun, Clement & Co., N.Y.]

[Sidenote: Appa Sahib's escape]

[Sidenote: Battle of Nahidpore]

[Sidenote: Defence of Korygaun]

[Sidenote: End of Mahratta rule]

Appa Sahib surrendered himself and was placed under arrest. Presently he made good his escape and found a refuge with the Rajah of Jodhpur. In Holkar's State of Indore affairs ran in a similar groove. The Regent Mother showed herself inclined to come to an agreement with the British marching northward under Sir Thomas Hislop. But the Mahratta chiefs were bent on war, and murdered the Regent Mother. A battle, henceforth, was unavoidable. Already the British supply train had been plundered by the Mahrattas. The battle was fought on December 21, at Nahidpore. On each occasion Sir John Malcolm commanded the British troops and won a complete victory. All the Hindu guns and swords fell into British hands. Then came the heroic defence of Korygaun, still celebrated in British Indian annals. A detachment of Bombay Sepoys and native cavalry, under the command of Captain Staunton and ten English officers, in all 800 men with two guns, were caught unawares by the Peishwa's army of 30,000 Mahratta Gosains. Captain Staunton's force intrenched itself in the village of Korygaun and prepared for the worst. The Mahrattas completely surrounded the place and the defenders were cut off from all water and supplies. Then came a succession of fierce rushes by the Mahratta horse and foot, every one of which had to be fought off in desperate hand-to-hand encounters. Of the ten white officers eight were killed; besides them Staunton lost one-third of his Sepoys. The Mahrattas left 600 on the field. To the present day the exploit is celebrated in the songs and stories of the Dekhan. The Peishwa witnessed the long fight from a neighboring hill, and was beside himself when his discouraged troops refused to renew the battle. After this Baji Rao could no longer hold his army together. By the close of the year his forces were dispersed. It was the end of Mahratta rule in the Dekhan.

1818

[Sidenote: Battle of Ashti]

[Sidenote: Baji Rao's surrender]

Peace was re-established in India shortly after New Year's day. Lord Hastings would stop at nothing but the absolute deposition of the Peishwa. He had long resolved to reduce Baji Rao to the condition of Napoleon at St. Helena. Accordingly, he delivered the Rajah of Satara from the thraldom of generations, and assigned to him sufficient territory for support. This done he set himself to hunt down the deposed Peishwa. For several months Baji Rao remained at large. He made a feeble stand at Ashti, but fled at the first shot, leaving his army to be defeated by General Smith. It was on this occasion that the Rajah of Satara fell into English hands. Later in the year Baji Rao was surrounded by British troops, under the command of Sir John Malcolm. No alternative was left him but to die or give up. The terms offered by Malcolm were so liberal as to excite astonishment in Europe. While the great Napoleon was condemned to spend his remaining days on a mere pittance at St. Helena, this most cowardly of Indian princes was allowed to live in luxury near Cawnpore, on a yearly grant of L80,000. His friend Trimbukji Dainglia, however, when captured, was condemned to close confinement in the fortress of Chunar.

[Sidenote: Lord Hastings' Indian policy]

The remains of the Holkar states were permitted to endure, nor would Hastings sanction the proposed dethronement of the family of Jaswant Rao. Holkar was merely required to seize certain territories, and to confirm the grants already made to Ameer Khan. From a sovereign principality the land was reduced to a subsidiary state under British guarantee. Otherwise the infant Mulhar, Rao Holkar, was treated as an independent prince and his administration was left in the hands of a native Durbar, aided by the British Resident. The policy of Lord Hastings, although severely criticised in England, must be pronounced a success in the light of later events. From the suppression of the Pindarees and the extinction of the Peishwa in 1818, down to the days of the great mutiny, no serious attempt was made to overthrow British suzerainty by means of an armed confederation of native states.

In some respects the administration of Lord Hastings marks a new era in the history of India. Hastings was the first Governor-General who encouraged the education of the native population. Early in his administration he denounced the maxim of his predecessors, that native ignorance would insure the security of British rule, as an utterly unworthy and futile doctrine. Accordingly, he promoted the establishment of native schools and publications.

[Sidenote: Death of Warren Hastings]

[Sidenote: Hastings' career]

The affairs of India were kept before the British public by the renewed discussion that followed the death of Lord Hastings' great namesake, Warren Hastings. It was due to the scandals of Warren Hastings' career in India, and his famous impeachment toward the close of the previous century, that the administrative reforms and modern rule in India were inaugurated during the nineteenth century. This reform began with the act, known at Pitt's Bill, by which the British Crown assumed supreme authority over the civil and military administration of the affairs in India by the British East India Company. Henceforward, no alliances could be formed with any native prince without the express sanction of Parliament. This act arose directly out of Warren Hastings' confession that he had accepted a present of a hundred thousand pounds from Asof-Ud-Daula. Warren Hastings' record, though he was ultimately acquitted, was lastingly besmirched by his dubious monetary transactions, and it was for this reason that William Pitt refused to recommend him for the peerage, or for honorable employment under the British Crown. Yet he was the greatest statesman that ever ruled India. His overthrow of the French in India, of the first Mahratta rising, and of the formidable rebellion of Hyder Ali, are among the greatest achievements of British colonial extension. The disgrace of Warren Hastings was a great event in English history, but it made no impression on the people in India. They only knew him as one of the greatest of conquerors and their deliverer. Philip Francis, who brought about Hastings' downfall, so far from supplanting him, is remembered now only as the probable author of the anonymous "Letters of Junius."

[Sidenote: Ross' and Franklin's Expeditions]

[Sidenote: "Frankenstein"]

[Sidenote: "Endymion"]

[Sidenote: Macadam roads]

[Sidenote: Invention of Velocipede]

Besides the death of Warren Hastings, several other notable events preoccupied the attention of Englishmen. During this year Sir John Ross sailed north to discover a northwest passage. Another relief expedition under Lieutenant Franklin, which had sailed after him, resulted only in failure. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published her curious novel "Frankenstein," and John Keats brought out his long poem "Endymion," for which he was violently assailed by the critics, notably by Jeffries, of "Blackwood's Magazine." Shelley, Moore, Hunt, and eventually Byron, warmly took his part. In the meanwhile a number of industrial reforms were introduced in England. Infant schools were first thrown open during this year, and steam was first used for heating purposes. A company in Edinburgh undertook to light the streets with gas. John Loudon Macadam's new system of road building was successfully introduced. In France similar strides were made in industrial progress. Joseph Nicephore Niepce invented his velocipede. The kindred invention of the "draisine," or dandy-horse was patented for Baron Drais of Sauerbron. These inventions contained the germ of the modern bicycle.

[Sidenote: Congress of Aachen]

[Sidenote: Czar Alexander aroused]

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, consisting of the sovereigns of Russia, Austria and Prussia, aided by ministers of Great Britain and France, signed a convention for the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France, and for the reception of France into the European concert. For other countries the deliberations of this Congress were not so beneficent. Since the Polish Diet in the spring, when Alexander had promised to give all Russia a constitutional government, a change of spirit had come over the Czar. This change has been explained by the revelation of a military conspiracy against his person. At all events, Alexander appeared at Aix-la-Chapelle with the most reactionary proposals. Up to this time Metternich, the inveterate foe of liberalism, had found in the Czar his most formidable opponent. Now the Czar distributed among his fellow sovereigns a pamphlet written by one Stourdza, which described Germany as on the brink of revolution, and blamed the universities and public press. Metternich instantly took his cue from the Czar. Before the end of the conference he delivered to the King of Prussia and to Hardenberg two papers containing his recommendations for the management of Prussian affairs. Frederick William was warned against giving his people a national parliament. After the example of the Czar, Metternich inveighed against the universities and the press.

[Sidenote: Metternich's sentiments]

"The revolutionists," he said, "despairing of attaining their end themselves, have formed the settled plan of educating the next generation for revolution. The high school establishment is a preparatory school for university disorders. The university seizes the youth as he leaves boyhood, and gives him a revolutionary training. This mischief is common to all Germany, and must be checked by joint action of the governments. Gymnasia (high schools), on the contrary, were first invented at Berlin. For these, palliative measures are no longer sufficient; it has become a duty of State for the King of Prussia to destroy the evil. The whole institution in every shape must be closed and uprooted."

[Sidenote: Prussian reaction]

The reactionary policy outlined in these papers became the guiding star of King Frederick William of Prussia. They outline the history of what actually was carried out in Prussia during the succeeding generation.

[Sidenote: Misgovernment in Spain]

It was not only in Germany that the new spirit of liberalism gave concern to the members of the Holy Alliance. In Spain it appeared in a more dangerous form, since it was espoused there by the military class. Ferdinand's misgovernment of Spain had soon resulted in an empty treasury, in consequence of which soldiers and sailors received no pay for several years. Military revolts were instituted by General Mina, and by Porliar and Lacy at this period; but they failed through the indifference of the soldiers themselves. The government's attempt to offset the numerous desertions from the army by seizing and enrolling some 60,000 beggars in military service, proved a complete failure. Napoleon's prediction to Rear-Admiral Cockburn that Spain was doomed to lose all her colonies was reaching fulfilment in America.

[Sidenote: Defection of Spanish colonies]

Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's River in Florida, had long been the resort of lawless men, among whom were European adventurers attracted by the South American revolution, and many fugitive slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. A plan was formed to organize a revolution on that island and to add Florida to the revolting South American republics. The forces gathered there became too strong for the Spaniards, and President Monroe decided to interfere. Gaines was sent to Amelia Island; but before he arrived, Aury, the commander of the malcontents, had surrendered to Commodore Henley. General Jackson, who was operating in those parts against the Seminoles, declared that "the cause of the United States must be carried to any point within the limits of Florida where an enemy is permitted to be protected." All eastern Florida, he set forth to the President, should be seized when Amelia Island was taken, and should be held as an indemnity for the outrages of Spain upon American citizens. This plan, Jackson said, could be carried out without implicating the United States. "Let it be signified to me that the province of Florida would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished."

[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson in Florida]

[Sidenote: Summary military measures]

[Sidenote: Pensacola occupied]

When the order to assume command reached Jackson, he raised a volunteer force in Tennessee from among his old soldiers. With these and the troops left by Gaines he marched into Florida. On the site of the Negro fort he built Fort Gadsden. He then advanced to the Bay of St. Marks, defeating the few Seminoles whom he encountered. On April 7, he raised the American flag there in place of the standard of Spain. Two Seminole chiefs who had taken refuge on an American vessel in the bay, and who were supposed to have participated in the massacre of a party of Americans, were brought on shore and hanged. Leaving a strong garrison at St. Marks, Jackson marched a hundred miles to the Indian town of Suwanee, where he hoped to capture Billy Bowlegs and his band. But the Indians, warned of his approach, escaped across the river. Suwanee was destroyed. Jackson, when at St. Marks, had taken prisoner one Arbuthnot, a Scotchman and supposed Indian sympathizer, whom he ordered to be confined until his return. At Suwanee, Captain Ambrister, a former English officer, intending to join the Indians, blundered into Jackson's camp, and was held a prisoner. On his return, Jackson ordered the two men to be tried by court-martial, on the charge of warning the Indians of the approach of the American soldiers, and both were convicted and executed. Jackson, on reaching Fort Gadsden, received from the Spanish Governor of Pensacola a protest against his invasion. He turned back, occupied Pensacola, and took the Fort of Carrios De Barrancas, to which the governor had fled.

[Sidenote: Jackson unrebuked]

[Sidenote: An amicable settlement]

When the news of Jackson's course reached Washington, Congress engaged in a heated debate over his occupation of the forts of a friendly power. In defending himself Jackson wrote that the Secretary of War had given him full power to conduct the campaign in the manner which seemed best. Spain, he claimed, had failed to fulfil that article of the treaty by which she was bound to restrain the Florida Indians from hostilities. Popular feeling proved too strong for Congress to assert its privileges as the sole war-making power. Jackson was not even rebuked for his course. During all those months, Onis, the Spanish Minister, and Adams were in negotiation over a treaty, which was not ratified until two years later. Florida was to be ceded to the United States on a payment of $5,000,000, to be applied in satisfying the claims of American citizens against Spain. The Sabine River, instead of the Rio Grande, was made the dividing line between the United States and Spanish territory. The line was to run from the mouth of the Sabine to the 32d parallel, thence north to the Red River and along it to the 100th meridian, thence north to the Arkansas and along that river to its source on the 42d parallel, and thence west to the Pacific. War with Spain was thus averted.

[Sidenote: The slavery issue]

While the Florida question was under consideration, there arose another far more momentous to America. Free labor in the North and slave labor in the South were brought squarely face to face. Slave labor was fast rising in value. The new lands of the lower Mississippi opened a vast field for the employment of slaves in the production of cotton, sugar and tobacco. It was believed the extension of slavery into that new territory would save it from gradual extinction. The interstate traffic in slaves was viewed with abhorrence by many leading men in the South. John Randolph, while upholding slavery, denounced the traffic that was carried on in the Southern plantations. On the other hand it was seen that compromise would be of little value if the North only was to be permitted to increase its power by the admission of new States. New slave States as well were demanded by the Southerners.

[Sidenote: Contention over Missouri]

In March, the citizens of Missouri had asked permission to form a State constitution and to be admitted into the Union. It was tacitly understood that slavery might be carried into territory east of the Mississippi belonging originally to the existing slave States. But Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, belonged to the whole of the United States rather than to any one of the several States. The question now arose whether Congress should establish slavery anew in territory of the United States. The alternative was presented to the people of the North whether to submit to the demands of the South or to consent to a dissolution of the Union. Though represented by a majority in Congress, the Northern States were defeated after a long struggle. John Quincy Adams doubted if Congress, under the American Constitution, had the right to prohibit slavery in a territory where it already existed. "If a dissolution of the Union should result from the slave question," he wrote, "it is obvious that it must shortly afterward be followed by a universal emancipation of the slaves."

[Sidenote: American Pension system inaugurated]

[Sidenote: Oregon in dispute]

During this same year Congress first granted pensions to needy veterans of the Revolutionary War and soon afterward to the widows and children of dead soldiers. Thus began the system of American pension legislation for former American soldiers which was destined to grow to such gigantic proportions in later years. Up to that time the number of stripes in the American flag had been eighteen. Now a bill was approved reducing the number of stripes to thirteen, the number of original States comprising the Union. The number of stars was to be made equal to that of the States. Soon afterward, the new flag, with twenty stars in its quartering, was first raised over the halls of Congress. Shortly after this the Fifteenth Congress adjourned. On October 20, a convention with Great Britain was signed respecting fisheries and boundaries, giving to Americans the right to fish in Newfoundland waters and renewing the agreement of 1815, making the 49th parallel the boundary between the United States and British North America. The convention also provided for the joint occupation of Oregon for ten years longer.

The glossy finish to leather known as "patent" leather was first patented in this year. Another notable invention of the time was the process of engraving on soft steel.

[Sidenote: Illinois a State]

The second session of the American Congress was not called until late in the year. Illinois was then admitted as the twenty-first State of the Union.

1819

[Sidenote: Florida ceded by Spain]

[Sidenote: Southern Indians dispossessed]

[Sidenote: Alabama a state]

Early in the year Andrew Jackson was called to Washington. He was the hero of the day. When he visited New York he was received with public honors. On February 22, a treaty with Spain was adopted by which she surrendered all claims to Florida and ceded West Florida. The cost of the war to the United States had been forty million dollars. The year was marked by the enforced retirement of large bodies of the Cherokees from Georgia to the Mississippi. The Cherokees as well as the Creeks, the Choctaws and the Chickasaws were greatly perturbed at the prospect of their final removal from the land which the United States had guaranteed to them. Partly as a result of these changes, the Territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union as the twenty-second State.

[Sidenote: The Missouri problem]

There were now eleven free and eleven slave States; and serious opposition arose to the admission of Missouri. In February, the first bill was introduced in the House for the admission of that Territory. James Tallmadge, Jr., of New York, proposed that there should be no personal servitude in the State except by those already held as slaves, and that these should be manumitted within a certain period. This proposition he modified by moving an amendment providing that the introduction of slavery should be prohibited, but that those already slaves in Missouri should remain so, and that the children of such slaves should be liberated upon reaching the age of twenty-five. The proposition to hold in slavery a generation yet unborn was fiercely resented. The two Houses did not agree, and the question went over to another year. The South presented an unbroken and unyielding front. Caleb of Georgia said that this attempt to interfere with slavery was "destructive of the peace and harmony of the union"; that those who proposed it "were kindling a fire which all the waters of the ocean could not extinguish. It could be extinguished only in blood."

[Sidenote: Antagonism to slavery]

[Sidenote: Maine _vs._ Missouri]

The Missouri question having been left for the next session, the cognate issue concerning a government for the Arkansas country south of parallel 33 deg. 30' was taken up. In both Houses an amendment to prohibit slavery was lost. As a compromise a representative from Delaware suggested a division of the Western Territory between the free and slave States. The contest was renewed at the December session. Resolutions of Northern Legislatures condemning the placing of slavery under the national government were presented, and were treated with contempt by the Southern statesmen. Senator Mason of North Carolina said: "They may philosophize at town meetings about it as much as they please, but they know nothing about the question." In the House the matter was brought up in the same form as in the previous session. James W. Taylor of New York presented an amendment prohibiting slavery, but holding in bondage those who were already slaves. He kept this point clearly in view through the debate that followed. Finally the bill was passed by a vote of 91 to 82, the prohibitory amendment being adopted by a majority of eight. The bill for the admission of Missouri was attached to that for the admission of Maine. The suggestion of this stratagem was made on the 20th of December by Henry Clay, who declared that he did "not mean to give his consent to the admission of Maine, so long as the doctrine was upheld of annexing conditions to the admission of States beyond the mountains." The analogy was scarcely just. Under the Constitution the right was absolute; Maine was a part of the original thirteen States of the Republic. The problem respecting Missouri was radically different, and resolved itself into the question whether Congress, under the American Constitution, had the right to create a new State out of the purchased territory, and to admit it to the Union without a republican form of government. Clay's threat was improved upon. The judiciary committee reported the House bill for the admission of Maine, adding an amendment for the admission of Missouri. Roberts of Pennsylvania moved to amend the amendment by prohibiting slavery in Missouri, but his motion was rejected by a majority of eleven (including six Senators from free States). A motion to make the admission of Maine a separate question was also defeated. The two Houses now stood directly opposed to each other. The Representatives would not retreat from their decision to prohibit slavery in Missouri; the Senate was equally determined that Missouri should be admitted as a slave State. Had the House maintained its ground, the United States for the next half century might have had another history.

[Sidenote: The Missouri compromise]

Senator Thomas of Illinois, who had voted thus far with the South, now came forward with a compromise. He proposed to prohibit slavery in that portion of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 deg. 30' excepting Missouri. This was accepted in the Senate by thirty-four votes against ten. But when the bill came up two days later for its final passage it received only a majority of four. After much delay the compromise measure was finally passed through the House by a majority of 134 to 42 votes. The measure was a Northern victory, having been carried by Northern votes. For the moment peace was gained; but the fire was only smothered. On the one side there was a gain of one slave State; on the other side, a mere promise to prohibit slavery in future States.

[Sidenote: Modern progress]

[Sidenote: Irving's "Sketch Book"]

Notwithstanding the political agitation, general progress in America was pronounced and rapid during this period. Steam navigation was no longer a novelty. The Erie Canal was well under way. New towns were springing up along its course. Blanchard invented his lathe for turning irregular forms. The famous Danish physicist, Hans Christian Oersted, made his classical electrical experiments with the magnetic needle and laid the foundation of our modern theory of electromagnetism. The literary event of the year in America was the appearance of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book." The work found favor in England, where Sir Walter Scott befriended Irving.

[Sidenote: Polar expedition]

[Sidenote: Cochrane in Chilean service]

In England, too, it was a period of new industrial and colonial expansion. Following the unsuccessful polar expeditions of the previous year, Lieutenant Franklin undertook his second search for the northwest passage, and a similar expedition, under Perry and Liddon, set out for Arctic waters. In India, where the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh were engaged in their great conquest of Cashmere, a British settlement was established in Singapore. British supremacy at sea received its tribute in an invitation from the Chileans to Sir Thomas Cochrane to command their new navy. After their victory on the Maypo, the patriot leaders of Chile had set to work to create a navy for their country. The British ship "Cumberland" was purchased in London, and renamed the "San Martin." Within a few months she captured the "Maria Isabella" from the Spanish. The prize was taken to Valparaiso, remounted, and renamed the "O'Higgins." To these ships were added the "Galvarino," "Araucano," "Interpodo," and the "Independencia." With the "O'Higgins" for a flagship, Cochrane took this squadron up and down the coast of South America, harrying the Spanish sea-ports everywhere.

[Sidenote: The "Six Acts"]

[Sidenote: Birth of Victoria]

In England, meanwhile, there was renewed agitation for Parliamentary reforms. Henry Grattan in Parliament moved for a Committee of the Whole House to consider the laws excluding Catholics from public offices. His motion was defeated by a narrow vote of 243 against 241. Instead of this reform the British Government, falling in line with the reactionary measures of the Continental governments, passed through Parliament the so-called "Six Acts" for the prevention and punishment of sedition in England. To latter-day Englishmen this year is principally noted for the birth of Queen Victoria. The little princess, the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, son of George the Third and Maria Louisa Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, a sister of Leopold I. of Belgium, was born at Kensington Palace, and was named Alexandrina Victoria.

[Sidenote: Schopenhauer]

Germans of the present day remember this year for the appearance of Schopenhauer's great philosophic work "The World, as Will and Idea"--"Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung." Schopenhauer, in this book, laid down the doctrine that the universe, and therefore human life as such, is governed by the conflicting principles of the ungoverned will and of the unattainable ideal. The true solution of life, he held, was to be found in subjecting brute will to the intellectual force of the ideal.

[Sidenote: Assassination of Kotzebue]

Schopenhauer's book at that time passed almost unnoticed. The educated classes of Germany were in too much of a ferment over the recent police restrictions inflicted upon the universities and public press. By this time it had become well known what part Czar Alexander had played at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. A vehement outcry arose at the universities against the interference of foreigners in German affairs. The wrath of the Liberals turned against August von Kotzebue, the prolific playwright, who held the office of Russian agent in central Germany. Kotzebue conducted a weekly newspaper at Mannheim in which he inveighed against the German national movement of the day, and ridiculed the patriotic eccentricities of the students. Having himself studied at Jena, Kotzebue was denounced by the students there as a traitor. He was believed to be responsible for the Czar's conversion from liberal ideas to reactionary principles. This belief cost Kotzebue his life. One Sand, a theological student at Jena, noted for piety and patriotic ardor, formed a fanatical resolution to do away with this enemy of the country. An extract from Sand's diary, written on the eve of his last New Year's day, reveals the character of the man: "I meet the last day of this year in an earnest festal spirit, knowing well that the Christmas which I have celebrated will be my last. If our strivings are to result in anything, if the cause of mankind is to succeed in our fatherland, if all is not to be forgotten, all our enthusiasm spent in vain, the evil doer, the traitor, the corrupter of youth must die. Until I have executed this, I have no peace; and what can comfort me until I know that I have with upright will set my life at stake? O God, I pray only for the right clearness and courage of soul, that in that last supreme hour I may not be false to myself." On March 23, Sand sought out Baron Kotzebue in the midst of his family and stabbed him to the heart. Then he turned the dagger against himself. Unfortunately Sand recovered from his wounds, and thus lived to die on the scaffold.

[Sidenote: Retaliatory measures]

[Sidenote: German liberals persecuted]

The mad deed was followed by the worst possible results for Germany. Minister Hardenberg, when he heard of the murder of Kotzebue, declared that a Prussian Constitution had now been rendered impossible. Metternich, who was then in Rome, instantly drew up a scheme for further repressive measures and summoned the ministers of the various German States for a meeting at Carlsbad. "By the help of God," wrote Metternich, "I hope to defeat the German revolution, just as I vanquished the conqueror of the world. The revolutionists thought me far away, because I was five hundred leagues off. They deceived themselves; I have been in the midst of them, and now I am striking my blows." A number of innocent persons were arrested in various parts of Germany under utterly unwarrantable circumstances. The houses of professors were searched and private papers were seized. Jahn, the founder of the popular Gymnastic schools, was arrested in Berlin. De Wette, a professor of theology at the University of Berlin, had to flee to Switzerland on account of a letter of sympathy addressed by him to Sand's mother. With him Oken, the great naturalist, and Corres, the pamphleteer, became exiles in Switzerland. Professor Fries lost his chair at Jena; the poet Arndt was suspended at Bonn, and his private papers, in garbled form, were published by the government. Many of the younger professors, accompanied by their favorite students, emigrated to America.

[Sidenote: Convention of Carlsbad]

[Sidenote: Police censors appointed]

[Sidenote: Binzer's poem]

During August the German ministers met at Carlsbad. Their conferences, in the memory of the German people, are justly associated with the suppression of intellectual freedom for a whole generation. It was ordered that in every State within the German federation a strict censorship should be established over all publications. Within fifteen days an inquisitorial commission was called together at Mainz to investigate the students' societies at the universities. The commission was empowered to arrest any subject in any German State. Special police commissioners were appointed at the universities, whose duty it was to keep a strict eye on the drift of the professor's teachings. Any professor or student expelled from a university was not to be employed by any other German government. The students' societies were suppressed, at least to all outward appearance. The poet Binzer wrote a defiant song ending with the lines:

The Spirit liveth in us all, For God is still our stronghold.

[Sidenote: Resignation of Wilhelm Humboldt]

[Sidenote: South German liberalism]

So far was repression carried in Prussia that out of 203 students arrested for wearing black-red-yellow ribbons, no less than 94 were condemned to death. Wilhelm von Humboldt, the best and most liberal of Prussian Ministers during the first half of the nineteenth century, resigned his portfolio in disgust. The zeal with which the Prussian Government accepted these measures made it useless for the minor German States to offer much opposition. Yet they formed the only remaining bulwark against Metternich's restrictive policy. In spite of his strenuous opposition, the rulers of Bavaria and Baden granted to their subjects constitutional forms of government. Representative assemblies with lower and upper houses, after the manner of the English Parliament, were established. In Wurtemberg, serfdom was abolished, and a constitution was published a few days before the enrolment of the decrees of Carlsbad.

[Sidenote: Laennec's stethoscope]

In France, Dr. Laennec published his epoch-making work "Traite d'Auscultation Mediate," the result of his recent experiments in listening to human heart-beats and lung respirations through a hollow cylinder. Various names were given to the instrument until Laennec decided to call it "stethoscope," the name it has ever since retained. Laennec's contributions to the study of diseases of the lungs, of the heart and of the abdominal organs may be said to have laid the foundation of modern clinical medicine.

[Sidenote: Decazes Prime Minister]

[Sidenote: The Gregoire episode]

[Sidenote: Troubles in Spain]