[Sidenote: Webster-Ashburton agreement]

[Sidenote: "Battle of the Maps"]

[Sidenote: American interests in Hawaii]

[Sidenote: Daniel Webster resigns]

The Webster-Ashburton treaty, regulating the northeastern boundary between the United States and Canada, was signed on August 9. A strip of territory claimed by the State of Maine was ceded to Canada, while a more important strip was yielded to Vermont and New York. The treaty also provided for a joint repressive action against the slave trade, and for the extradition of criminals. It was Webster's greatest achievement in diplomacy, as was indicated by the fact that the American Senate, notwithstanding its hostility to President Tyler, ratified it by a three-fourths vote. In England more serious opposition was encountered. In Parliament the treaty was termed "Ashburton's Capitulation," and Lord Palmerston went so far as to attribute its concessions to Ashburton's partiality toward his American wife. The ratification of the treaty was followed by an international controversy known as "The Battle of the Maps." An early map found by Jared Sparks, the American historian, in the Library of Paris, had been used in the Senate to insure the ratification of the treaty without the knowledge of Lord Ashburton. When this became known in England it was denounced as underhand dealing. Frantic search in the archives of the British Museum brought to light another map, bearing the autograph indorsement of King George III. As it turned out, this only sustained the American contentions, and was used in Parliament to vindicate Lord Ashburton, just as Sparks's map had been used in behalf of Webster. Credit also belongs to Webster for his strong stand made at the time the Hawaiian Islands were threatened by a French expedition. It was then stated, as reiterated by President Tyler to Congress, that, in view of the preponderant intercourse of the United States with those islands, the American government would insist that no European nation should colonize or possess them, nor subvert the native governments. After a settlement of these international questions, Daniel Webster was permitted to resign his secretaryship to join the Whig opposition on the floor of the House. His resignation was the more readily accepted since he was known to be out of harmony with the Administration's designs against Mexico. As the son of President Tyler has recorded: "The time had come when it was necessary to have in the office of the Secretary of State one who would go the full length of the Texas question. Certainly, that man was not Webster." In the Senate, Henry Clay resigned his seat, the better to carry on his canvass as a candidate for the Presidency.

[Sidenote: First American submarine cable]

At the time that Charles Dickens paid his first visit to America the agitation for a better copyright law was renewed, and was in a measure successful. Dickens's early impressions of the United States, as published later in England, were distinctly unfavorable to the American people. Had he lingered longer he might have witnessed the laying of the first submarine telegraph between Governor's Island and New York City. In the extreme West another outlet toward the Pacific Ocean was found by Fremont and Kit Carson in the south pass of the Rocky Mountains.

[Sidenote: Latin-American affairs]

In Central America, General Morazan invaded Costa Rica to re-establish by force the federation of the Central American States. At first he was welcomed by the population and recognized as President of Costa Rica. But later, as the guerilla war dragged itself out, the opposition gained ground. Jose Maria Alfaro was recognized as President. In South America, General Rosas made another attempt to subject Montevideo. Gold was discovered in Uruguay. In the West Indies, the restoration of peace in Cuba was followed by educational, far-reaching reforms. Another revolution in Hayti provoked French interference.

[Sidenote: French-Algerian campaign]

The French squadron that had made demonstrations in the Caribbean Sea presently descended upon the Marqueso Islands in the southern Pacific. The islands were annexed to France. In Africa, the war against Abd-el-Kader was pushed forward. The Arabs attacked Mostaganem and Arzee and lured Yussuf, the commander of the new French corps of native Spahis, into an ambush. General Valle, with a division of 9,000 men, drove Abd-el-Kader from an intrenched pass between Medah and Muzaia; but the French lost heavily. The Algerian war during this year alone cost 12,000 lives and 50,000,000 francs. Valle was superseded by Bugeaud.

The French general elections had just resulted in favor of the government, when, on July 13, the Duke of Orleans was killed by a fall from his carriage. After this event the Chambers fixed the succession to the throne upon the Duke of Nemours, until the children of the Duke of Orleans should be of age.

[Sidenote: Louis Blanc]

[Sidenote: Proudhon]

[Sidenote: Eugene Sue]

[Sidenote: "Stendhal"]

By this time the socialistic theories of Saint Simon and Fourier were exploited still further by Louis Blanc and Proudhon. Blanc's writings had an immense vogue among the workmen of Paris. This was especially true of his "Organisation du Travail," published this year, wherein he proclaimed the opportunity to work as a social right. Proudhon carried Etienne Cadet's "Icarian" theories so far that in his famous book, "What is Property?" after describing the conditions under which property is held according to the Napoleonic Code, he delivered the categorical dictum, "If this be property, then property is theft." Other popular books of the day were Eugene Sue's "The Mysteries of Paris," "Le Morne au Diable," and Georges Sand's famous novel "Consuelo." Marie Henri Beyle, known better under his pseudonym, "Stendhal," died during this year. As a novelist he was the precursor of the naturalistic school of romance in France, and was later acknowledged as such by Balzac, Flaubert and Emile Zola. His powers of prose were most ably demonstrated in the novel "Rouge et Noir," treating of the adventures of a worldly Abbe.

[Sidenote: Cherubini]

Another notable figure in Paris passed away with Luigi Cherubini, the great Italian composer. Cherubini, many of whose works were brought out during the previous century was so popular by the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, that he was esteemed above Beethoven. A Viennese critic who ventured to say that Beethoven's "Fidelio" was of equal merit with Cherubini's "Fanisca" was laughed to scorn. Cherubini's best opera, "The Water Carrier," was brought out in Paris and London in 1800 and 1801. Owing to his disregard of Napoleon's musical opinions, Cherubini found himself out of favor throughout the First Empire in France. He retired to the estate of his friend, Prince de Chimay, and would have given up music but for the latter's request to write a Mass for his chapel. The result was the celebrated three-part Mass in F, which proved such a success that Cherubini thenceforward devoted himself to sacred music. After Napoleon's fall he received an appointment at the Paris Conservatory of Music, from the directorship of which he did not retire until 1841. Cherubini's voluminous compositions reveal him as one of the great modern masters of counterpoint. His great skill and erudition show to the best advantage in his sacred music.

[Sidenote: Bunsen]

[Sidenote: Gervinus]

[Sidenote: Forecasts of German union]

Germany about this same time lost her great Oriental scholar, F.W. Genesius. Bunsen invented his carbon battery. Gervinus, the banished Hanoverian professor, brought out his History of German Literature, which ended with a stirring appeal for political unity. The same ideal, in a measure, was voiced during the ceremonies commemorating the resumption of work on the great Cathedral of Cologne. King Frederick William IV. of Prussia, fresh from the riots of Berlin, declared: "The spirit that builds this cathedral is the same that has broken our chains, and the disgrace of foreign domination over this German river—it is the spirit of German strength and unity." Even Archduke John, the uncle of the Emperor of Austria, proposed this toast: "No Austria, no Prussia; but a great united Germany—firm-rooted as her mountains."

[Sidenote: Reforms in Russia]

[Sidenote: Gogol]

[Sidenote: Turgenyev]

In Russia, a concession to modern ideas was made by Czar Nicholas, in his ukase of April 14, permitting the great landholders to liberate their serfs. Another imperial ukase deprived the Roman as well as the Greek clergy of all church lands upon condemnation proceedings and money payments by the government. Russian literature, notwithstanding the strict censorship, flourished during this period. A new source of poetry was discovered by Koltsov in the Slavic folk songs. Griboyodov's new comedy, "Gore Ot Ouma" (Too Clever by Half), had already become one of the stock pieces. The success of this play was rivalled by Gogol's comedy, "The Revisor." In 1842, this same writer brought out his celebrated romance, "Dead Souls." Ivan Turgenyev was just entering upon his career.

Toward the close of the year new troubles broke out in Spain. In November, a popular insurrection at Barcelona was joined by the National Guards. Following upon a bitter fight in the streets of the city, on November 15, the Guards retired into the citadel, where they held their ground. After one month's stubborn resistance there, they were subjected to such heavy artillery fire that they were glad to surrender to Espartero's government forces on Christmas Eve.



1843

[Sidenote: Napier's desert march]

To carry on the British war with Afghanistan it was necessary to pass troops through Scinde. The Ameers remonstrated. Emaun-Ghur, in the Desert of Beluchistan, was a stronghold where the Ameers could gather a numerous army unobserved by the English. Sir Charles Napier determined to strike for this point with a small force, capable of speedily traversing the desert. On the night of January 5, he commenced his perilous adventure. With 360 Irish soldiers on camels, with 200 of the irregular cavalry, with ten camels laden with provisions, and with eighty carrying water, he set forth.

[Sidenote: Emaun-Ghur reduced]

[Sidenote: Battle of Meanee]

When the fortress, which no European eye had before seen, was reached, it was found deserted. Immense stores of ammunition had been left behind. Napier mined Emaun-Ghur in twenty-four places, and blew up all the mighty walls of its square tower. After great privations on the march back, Napier and his men rejoined the main army on the 23d near Hyderabad. The Duke of Wellington said that the march to Emaun-Ghur was one of the most arduous military feats of which he knew. On February 12, the Ameers at Hyderabad, who, according to the British Resident himself, had been "cruelly wronged," came to terms. On the day after their apparent submission the British Resident, Major Outram, was attacked by the infuriated Beluchees. With a hundred followers he barely succeeded in fighting his way through to two British war steamers lying in the river. Napier, with his 2,600 men, now moved against the Beluchee army, numbering nearly 10,000. On February 17, the day of the battle of Meanee, Napier wrote in his journal: "It is my first battle as a commander. It may be my last. At sixty it makes little difference what my feelings are. It shall be do or die." It proved an all-day fight. Most of the white officers fell. In the end, Napier closed the doubtful struggle by a decisive cavalry charge. The Sepoy horsemen charged through the Beluchee army and stormed the batteries on the ridge of the hill of Meanee.

[Sidenote: Hyderabad]

Napier followed up his victory the next day by a message sent into Hyderabad that he would storm the city unless it surrendered. Six of the Ameers came out and laid their swords at his feet. Another enemy remained—Shere Mahomed of Meerpoor. On March 24, Napier, with 5,000 troops, attacked this chief, who had come with 20,000 Beluchees before the walls of Hyderabad. Napier won another brilliant victory, which was followed up by the British occupation of Meerpoor. The spirit of the Beluchees was so broken that after two slight actions in June, when Shere Mahomed was routed and fled into the desert, the war was at an end. Scinde was annexed to the British Empire.

[Sidenote: English free-trade agitation]

[Sidenote: Irish disaffection]

[Sidenote: O'Connell arrested]

[Sidenote: Anti-corn law league]

[Sidenote: Mill's "System of Logic"]

[Sidenote: Death of Southey]

[Sidenote: Ballad of Blenheim]

At home, in the meanwhile, the Chartist agitation, with its "sacred month" strike, was carried over into this year, while the leaders were tried before the Lancashire Assizes. Popular meetings were held at Birmingham, Manchester and London. O'Connor, after his suspension of sentence in court, made the mistake of setting himself against the anti-corn law agitation led by Cobden and Bright. To most Englishmen of the day the free-trade issue appeared the most momentous. O'Connor's star paled accordingly. Early in the year a new free-trade hall had been opened in London, the largest room for public meetings in the United Kingdom. A dozen lecturers were kept busy. Cobden alone addressed some thirty great country meetings during the first half of the year. At the same time the Irish agitation for repeal of the legislative union with England assumed formidable proportions. The Irish secret society of the "Molly Maguires" spread alarmingly. On March 16, Daniel O'Connell addressed 30,000 persons at Trim, urging repeal of the act of united legislation for Ireland and Great Britain. A few months later several hundred thousand people gathered on the hill of Tara to listen to his eloquent words. As a result of this agitation, O'Connell, with several of his followers, was arrested, in October, on charges of sedition. Simultaneously with this the so-called "Becca Riots" against turnpikes broke out in Wales. One month after O'Connell's arrest the greatest free-trade meeting of the year was held at Manchester. Both Cobden and Bright made speeches against the corn laws. One hundred thousand pounds were collected on the spot from wealthy manufacturers who attended the meeting. This opened the eyes even of the editors of the London "Times." Under the caption "The League is a Great Fact," it announced that a new power had arisen in the State. This reluctant concession of the leading Tory paper of England caused a great sensation. Other events that excited the attention of Englishmen were the erection of the great Nelson column in Trafalgar Square and the opening of the Thames tunnel for pedestrians. Thousands of curious Londoners passed through its shaft, measuring 1,300 feet in length. Nasmyth invented his steam hammer. Mill published his "System of Logic." The event of the year in English letters was the death of Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate. During the last few years his brain had softened, and his mind had become enfeebled. Southey was born at Bristol in 1774. He was educated at Westminster School and Baliol College, Oxford. While still at college he brought out two volumes of poems, together with Robert Lovell. His first long narrative poem, "Joan of Arc," was written at the age of nineteen, and gave him, as he called it, "a Baxter's shove into the right place in the world." At the opening of the Nineteenth Century, he published the "wild and wondrous song" of "Thalaba, the Destroyer," founded on Moslem mythology. "Kehema," founded on Hindu lore, followed. In 1803, after some years of wandering, the poet went to live at Greta Hall, near Keswick, which remained his home until his death. Besides a long line of prose works, Southey wrote innumerable short poems. Famous among them is the ballad of the battle of Blenheim, with its homely irony:

"With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide, And many a childing mother then And new-born baby died; But things like that, you know, must be At every famous victory."

[Sidenote: Brilliant occasional pieces]

[Sidenote: Southey's works]

[Sidenote: "Stanzas in My Library"]

Southey nourished a passionate hatred against Napoleon Bonaparte. Again and again he invoked the Muse against the world conqueror. Thus he wrote to Landor in 1814: "For five years I have been preaching the policy, the duty, the necessity of declaring Bonaparte under the ban of human nature." Under this stress of feeling he wrote his great "Ode During the Negotiations for Peace." It was the most powerful of his occasional pieces. In 1813, he was made Poet Laureate. As such, it fell to him to write another occasional piece on the death of the Princess Charlotte. The grace and beauty of his lines on this occasion have long outlived the memory of that lamented princess. Unlike his great contemporaries, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, Southey never achieved a great material success. Having married young, he often walked the streets, so he himself confessed, "not having eighteen pence for a dinner, nor bread and cheese at his lodgings." In 1835, when he was sixty-one years old, he wrote to Sir Robert Peel while declining the offer of a baronetcy, "Last year for the first time in my life I was provided with a year's expenditure beforehand." Yet his works at this time filled nearly a hundred volumes. In the words of his brother poets:

"Southey's epics crammed the creaking shelves."

It was in his declining age that he wrote the prophetic "Stanzas Written in My Library":

My days among the Dead are passed: Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The almighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.

* * * * *

My hopes are with the Dead, anon My place with them will be, And I with them shall travel on Through all Futurity; Yet leaving here a name, I trust, That will not perish in the dust.

[Sidenote: Wordsworth, Poet Laureate]

[Sidenote: "The Lost Leader"]

After Southey's death, William Wordsworth was made Poet Laureate. His acceptance of this benefice from the government incensed his more radical friends. Robert Browning then wrote the famous invective lines entitled "The Lost Leader":

Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat— Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, Lost all the others, she lets us devote; They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, So much was theirs who so little allowed: How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags—were they purple, his heart had been proud! We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Made him our pattern to live and to die! Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, Burns, Shelley, were with us—they watch from their graves! He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

[Sidenote: Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico"]

[Sidenote: Edgar Allan Poe]

[Sidenote: "The Gold Bug"]

America this year lost three of her prominent literary men by the deaths of Allston, the poet and painter, Noah Webster, the lexicographer, and Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The historian Prescott now brought out his great "Conquest of Mexico." Longfellow published his "Spanish Student." Edgar Allan Poe entered upon his new journalistic venture "The Stylus." For this he wrote his stories of "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Leonore," and his "Notes upon English Verse." For other publications he wrote "The Pit and the Pendulum," and the striking poem, "The Conqueror Worm." His fearful tale of the "Black Cat" was published in the "Saturday Evening Post." At this time he was ailing in health, while his young wife, Virginia, was dying. During these trying months his principal income was a hundred dollar prize received for his famous story of "The Gold Bug," published in the "Dollar Newspaper." The judges confessed later that they awarded the prize to this contribution largely on account of its neat handwriting.

[Sidenote: Oregon controversy]

[Sidenote: Texas unannexed]

On June 17, the new Bunker Hill Monument of Boston was dedicated amid impressive ceremonies. Daniel Webster, who as a young man had spoken there when the cornerstone was laid by Lafayette, was once more the orator of the day. In the South, Jefferson Davis began his political career as a member of the Mississippi Convention, as did Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was then elected to Congress. The pending negotiations with Great Britain concerning the possession of Oregon were made more momentous by the exodus of some thousand American emigrants from Missouri, on an overland journey to distant Oregon. The first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, in December, showed a Democratic majority in the House of sixty-nine votes. Under the Whig regime, the policy of a great navy had been developed. A bill for a large increase in ships was passed. Tyler's last message recommended the annexation of Texas, for which a treaty was pending. It was voted down in the Senate by a two-thirds vote.

[Sidenote: Central-American upheavals]

Under the shadow of impending war with the United States, a new Constitution was proclaimed in Mexico. Santa Anna prepared for the conflict by assuming the practical powers of a dictator. In Ecuador, too, a new Constitution was adopted. General Flores had himself made President for a third time. When the opposition to him became too formidable, he consented to yield and quit the country after accepting a bonus of $20,000 and the title of generalissimo. Another revolution in Hayti resulted in the expulsion of President Boyer.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Spain]

[Sidenote: Isabella proclaimed queen]

[Sidenote: Spanish marriage projects]

In Spain a revolutionary junta in June once more assumed power at Barcelona. Other parts of the country declared for the ex-Queen Regent Christina. On July 15, General Narvaez compelled the surrender of Madrid to Christina. General Espartero laid siege to Seville. On November 8, the Spanish Cortes proclaimed as queen, Princess Isabella, then in her thirteenth year. With the crown of Spain on the head of a young girl, and no immediate successor in sight but her sister, the King of France and his Prime Minister, Guizot, deemed the time ripe for action. It was proposed to marry both Spanish princesses to the sons of Louis Philippe, so as to secure the throne of Spain to the House of Orleans, as it had once been secured to that of Bourbon. For the French people the interest in Spain was revived by Gautier's new book, "Tras los Montes." During the negotiations over the new extradition treaty with England, the project was confidentially broached to Lord Aberdeen. He gave his consent to the proposed marriage of the Duke of Montpensier to the Infanta Fernanda, on the express understanding that it should not be celebrated until Queen Isabella had been married herself, and had children. For some time still the plan hung fire.

In the meanwhile, Hungary was once more in uproar. Kossuth, after his release from prison in 1840, had become the spokesman of the new generation of Magyars. The other wings of the Hungarian party were led by Scechenyi and Deak.



[Sidenote: Hungarian reform movement]

[Sidenote: Clash at Agram]

[Sidenote: Kossuth's oratory]

By the time the Hungarian Diet of 1843 was convoked, all parties united in demanding the most important reforms, i.e. of a new electoral system, a new criminal code, trial by jury, and official recognition of the Magyar language. One of the first resolutions of the Lower Chamber was that no language but Magyar should be permitted in debate, and that all persons incapable of speaking Magyar should gradually be excluded from all public employment. Against the prohibition of Latin in the Diet, the Croatians appealed to the government. The Emperor promptly vetoed the resolution. Upon the publication of the imperial rescript a popular storm broke forth in Hungary. At Agram, the capital of Croatia, the two factions fought on the streets. The Austrian Cabinet receded from its position. A compromise was accepted whereby Latin was to be permitted in the Hungarian Diet for the next six years. Of all the important schemes for reform brought before the Hungarian Diet of this year, only the language compromise became law. This was due to the fact that the members of the Lower House were bound to vote as directed by the Provincial Assemblies, which vetoed everything affecting their local interests. To do away with this anomaly Kossuth and his followers now set themselves to bring their appeal before the country at large. Kossuth dropped the pen and became an orator.

[Sidenote: Algerian campaign]

[Sidenote: "Foreign Legion" formed]

In other parts of the world the spread of Western civilization was carried on with accustomed vigor. A French squadron seized Tahiti in the Society Islands. In Algiers the war against Abd-el-Kader was kept alive by occasional raids and by buying over the less faithful of his followers. The natives were enrolled in the French army in regiments of Turcos, Zouaves and Spahis. The barbaric glamour of their oriental garb, as well as the reputation of their dashing leader, Colonel Lamorciere, attracted many Frenchmen and foreign adventurers to this service. Soon there were enough men to form the famous "Foreign Legion."

[Sidenote: Chinese treaty ports opened]

[Sidenote: British seize Sindia]

In China, after the ratification of the Nanking treaty, the five treaty ports were opened to all foreigners on the same footing as to Englishmen. Long before this, the Russians had already established themselves in certain parts of China. The smouldering resentment against the white men found vent in the truculent doings of the anti-foreign society of the "Green Water Lily" in Hoonan. Now trouble broke out in the Punjab. Jankoji Bao Sindia had died in February, and his widow, a girl of twelve, now ruled over the Sikhs. She outwitted her native Minister, who was supported by the British. Lord Ellenborough hastened to interfere. He ordered the British army to advance to Gwalior, under Sir Hugh Gough, in December. All Sindia made common cause against the foreigner. The Sikh warriors tried to oppose the British advance in two simultaneous battles at Maharajpore and Punniar, fought on the twenty-ninth day of December. Both engagements resulted in their defeat. The Queen and her Ministers submitted to England's terms. They were deposed. The Sikh army was reduced to 6,000 men.



1844

[Sidenote: Texas]

[Sidenote: Calhoun becomes Secretary of State]

[Sidenote: Texan annexation rejected]

Tyler's scheme for the annexation of Texas to the North American Union was uppermost in American affairs from the outset of this year. After the retirement of Daniel Webster from the State Department, active efforts toward that end were begun. The Mexican Government, learning of this movement, notified the United States that annexation would be regarded as a cause for war. Texas first asked for American interference, and, failing in this, came to an agreement with Great Britain. In return for England's action in securing the recognition of independence by Mexico, Texas pledged itself not to be annexed to any other country. This agreement was approved in Mexico. The Texan debt was largely owed in England, and it was the policy of Lord Aberdeen, accordingly, to encourage her independence. In February, a note by Lord Aberdeen was transmitted to the American Government, stating that Great Britain desired to see slavery abolished in Texas, as elsewhere, but disclaimed any intention unduly to force that point. This statement in itself whetted the desire of the Southern States of the Union to incorporate Texas among the slave-holding States. Calhoun, who as early as 1836 had demanded the annexation of Texas on behalf of the interests of Southern slavery, was invited to join Tyler's Cabinet as Secretary of State. The office had been rendered vacant by the calamitous explosion of a new monster gun on the U.S.S. "Princeton," killing Secretary of State Upshar and Secretary Gilmer of the Navy in the immediate vicinity of President Tyler. Calhoun entered office on March 6, and on April 12 the Texan treaty of annexation was signed. On April 18, Calhoun answered Lord Aberdeen's note, declaring that "the British avowal made it the imperious duty of the Federal Government to conclude in self-defence a treaty of annexation with Texas." As to this transaction, Von Holst, Calhoun's biographer, has said: "It may not be correct to apply, without modification, the code of private ethics to politics; but, however flexible political morality may be, a lie is a lie, and Calhoun knew there was not a particle of truth in these assertions." The annexation treaty was held back in the American Senate until the Democratic Convention of 1844 had declared for the reannexation of Texas. In the hope that this would secure ratification the treaty was submitted in June, but the Senate once more rejected it by 35 to 16 votes. Undismayed by this, President Tyler within three days sent another message to the House of Representatives asking for reconsideration of the subject, but the matter went over until after the Presidential campaign in the autumn. Henry Clay's vacillating stand throughout this controversy proved fatal to his Presidential aspirations.

[Sidenote: Anti-Mormon riots]

[Sidenote: Brigham Young]

During this same year, the Indians surrendered the regions adjoining Lake Superior, which were promptly settled by white men. Iron was then discovered at Marquette and copper at Kewenaw Point. At Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormons had just erected a temple, their revival of patriarchal polygamy excited the wrath of the people. Riots broke out June 27. The Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, and his brother, who had been lodged in jail, were killed. Brigham Young thenceforth became the leader of the Mormons.

[Sidenote: Morse's telegraph]

[Sidenote: Wells' anaesthetic discovery]

By means of a Congressional grant of $30,000, Samuel B.F. Morse constructed his first telegraph line over the forty miles between Baltimore and Washington. The first message, "What hath God wrought?" is still preserved by the Connecticut Historical Society. Before this Alfred Vail had perfected his telegraph code of alphabetical signs, with his dry point reading register and relay key. Now Ezra Cornell contributed his invention of an inverted cup of glass for insulating live wires. Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Connecticut, first employed nitrous oxide gas, popularly known as laughing gas, in extracting one of his own teeth.

[Sidenote: Death of John Dalton]

In England, Faraday published his first "Experimental Researches in Electricity." The anonymous publication of "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," containing the first enunciation of Darwin's doctrine of the origin of species by evolution, was followed by a storm of controversy. Another subject for controversy was furnished by the invention of the new tonic system in music (Do re mi fa). Kingsley brought out his "Village Sermons," while Max Mueller came into prominence by his new edition and translation of "Hitopadesa," a collection of old Hindu fables. The necrology of the year in England includes John Dalton, the physicist, and Sir Francis Burdett, the parliamentarian and popular leader, who did so much for liberty of speech and of the press. John Dalton, a strangely original genius, and perhaps the greatest theoretical chemist of his generation, first came into prominence by showing that water existed in air as an independent gas. The wonderful theory of atoms, on which the whole gigantic structure of modern chemistry rests, was the logical outgrowth of the original conception of this country-bred, self-taught Quaker.

[Sidenote: O'Connell's trial]

[Sidenote: Government monopoly of English railways]

[Sidenote: Y.M.C.A. founded]

A feature of the year was the sensational trial of Daniel O'Connell and his associates on charges of sedition in Ireland. On May 30, O'Connell was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and fined L2,000. After Lord Heytesbury's advent as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland the judgment of the Irish Court of Queen's Bench against O'Connell was reversed and O'Connell and his associates were liberated. Baring's bill for a renewal of the Bank of England's charter was passed with a handsome government majority. The new Royal Exchange was opened by the Queen in October. Another measure which was speedily passed through Parliament, owing to the slight importance attached to it, was Gladstone's bill requiring the railroads of England to provide proper accommodations and to run cheap trains daily. The government was authorized, with the approval of Parliament, to undertake the gradual purchase of all existing railways before the year 1866. At this same time there were but fourteen miles of railroad in all British America. Minor events of importance to Englishmen were the foundation of the Young Men's Christian Association by certain drygoods clerks of London, and the demolition of the notorious Fleet Prison, made immortal by the novels of Dickens.

[Sidenote: Secession of Santo Domingo]

The discovery of gold in South Australia drew hordes of immigrants to that colony. Others were attracted to America by the discovery of diamonds in Brazil. In the West Indies, the successful rising against President Boyer of Hayti resulted in the foundation of the Black Republic of Santo Domingo. President Riviere, at the head of 20,000 negroes from Hayti, was defeated and had to abandon his attempt to subdue the Dominicans. Guerrier superseded him as President of Hayti. The warlike spirit of these negroes spread to the neighboring island of Cuba. Various armed risings of the blacks in the province of Santiago and elsewhere were sternly put down by the Spaniards and their white descendants in Cuba.

[Sidenote: Otto's reign in Greece]

A bloodless revolution in Greece resulted in the dismissal of King Otto's Bavarian Ministry and the King's acceptance of a Constitution, which left the King almost as absolute as before. Yet his government was weak and slipshod. The wretched fiscal system and heavy taxation of the old Turkish regime were retained, while ill-managed innovations from Bavaria, such as military conscription, drove large numbers to brigandage. As an American traveller remarked at the time: "The whole Greek Government is one enormous job."

[Sidenote: Revolt of Calabria]

The long-smouldering discontent of the common people in Italy and Sicily, fomented by the secret agitation of such men as Mazzini and Garibaldi, found premature vent in a popular insurrection in Calabria. The revolt was ruthlessly put down. The patriotic leaders, Attilio and Emilio Bandiero, with eighteen others, were shot for their part in the affair.

[Sidenote: Death of Bernadotte]

On March 8, Bernadotte, latterly known as King Charles XIV. of Sweden, died in his eighty-first year. During the last years of his reign he received many signs of love and appreciation from his adopted people, notably on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his coronation. Shortly before his death this self-made king asserted with good reason: "No one living has made a career like mine."

[Sidenote: Progress in Sweden]

[Sidenote: Geijer]

[Sidenote: Tegner's "Frithiof's Saga"]

The reign of Bernadotte produced a new line of eminent scientists and was the golden age of Swedish literature. Berzelius remolded the science of chemistry and founded theoretical chemistry. Elias Fries devised a new system of botany. Sven Nilsson, a distinguished zoologist, also became the founder of a new science, comparative archeology. Schlyter brought out a complete collection of the old Scandinavian laws, a work of equal importance to philology and jurisprudence. Ling invented the Swedish system of gymnastics and founded the Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, where his Swedish massage or movement cure was further developed. Geijer, as a philosopher, was a follower of Hoeijer, while as a historian he attained foremost rank in Sweden. As a poet and composer, Geijer also attained noteworthy success. Professor of History at Upsala, he was accused of atheism, but acquitted. His political career was equally remarkable. Geijer was a firm supporter of the government until fifty-seven years of age, when he joined the opposition. Swedish writers were divided in factions as opposed to each other as political parties. The old Gustavian school, of which Leopold remained the last representative, was attacked by the "New School," which was inspired by German Romanticism. Of this so-called "phosphoristic" school Atterbom was the leader. Stagnelius, the young poet, who died early, belonged to the same group. The New School was in turn opposed by the Gothic Society or Scandinavian School, among whom were Ling and Geijer. Franzen and Wallin devoted themselves to religious poetry. The most famous of all modern Swedish poets was Esaias Tegner, whose "Frithiof's Saga" achieved an international reputation. Politically, he was conspicuous for his inveterate hostility to the "Holy Alliance" and its reactionary spirit in state, church and literature.

[Sidenote: Oscar I. of Sweden]

Bernadotte's son, Oscar I., was forty-five years old when he ascended the throne. Like his father, he was a patron of the fine arts. Upon his accession several important reforms were at once enacted by the new Riksdag. It was decided that this assembly should meet every third instead of every fifth year; the liberty of the press was extended, and equal rights were accorded to women in certain matters of inheritance and of marriage. This last reform aroused so much criticism that a powerful opposition was organized in the Riksdag, under the leadership of Hartmansdorff and Bishop Wingan.

[Sidenote: Death of Thorvaldsen]

[Sidenote: The great sculptor's career]

Albert Bertal Thorvaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, died suddenly on March 25, at Copenhagen. Thorvaldsen was the son of an Icelandic sailor, who incidentally earned a living by carving wooden figure-heads for ships. The boy was born at sea, in 1770, while his mother was making a voyage to Copenhagen. At the age of twenty-four, young Thorvaldsen, who had attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Copenhagen, won the grand prize, which enabled him to pursue his studies at Rome. His first work was the model of a colossal statue of Jason, a marble execution of which was ordered by Thomas Hope, the English banker. For this work Thorvaldsen asked six hundred sequins. Hope offered him eight hundred. Yet Thorvaldsen did not fulfil his contract with Hope until fourteen years had passed. At the house of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Rome, Thorvaldsen met Count von Moltke, who commissioned him to execute two statues of Bacchus and Ariadne. About the same time he made his famous "Cupid and Psyche" for the Countess von Ronzov. The fame of these statues and others was such that the Academy of Copenhagen bestowed upon the young sculptor another prize of four hundred crowns.

[Sidenote: Famous works]

[Sidenote: A Napoleonic order]

[Sidenote: "Morning and Night"]

In the spring of 1805 Thorvaldsen made his first important bass-relief, "The Abduction of Briseis," which still remains one of the most celebrated of the sculptor's works. Orders now began to come in from all over the world. Marquis Torlogna commissioned Thorvaldsen to make companion pieces to Canova's famous group "Hercules and Lycas" in the Palazzo Brazzino, while a government representative of the United States offered to pay five thousand crowns apiece for colossal statues of a Liberty and a Victory to be erected in the city of Washington. These and other works Thorvaldsen was prevented from executing by his unfortunate entanglement with Signora d'Uhden, whose fits of jealousy imbittered his life. About this time the sculptor formed life-long friendships with his German fellow-sculptor, Rauch, and with Prince Louis of Bavaria, who commissioned him to execute an Adonis for the Munich Museum, and to restore the AEgean marbles lately acquired by that prince. Napoleon's visit to Rome in 1811 resulted in a characteristic order. The Emperor left to Thorvaldsen the choice of the subject, but gave him only three months' time wherein to finish his models. The sculptor accordingly executed his colossal frieze presenting the "Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon." It remains one of the largest and most ambitious of Thorvaldsen's works. It was intended for the Temple of Glory, now the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, and the price stipulated by Napoleon was 320,000 francs. Before Thorvaldsen could execute the frieze in marble, Napoleon suffered his reverses and was exiled to Elba. The Bourbon Government in France refused to take the monument. A replica in marble now adorns the Palace of Christianborg in Denmark. No less abortive was Thorvaldsen's undertaking of a great monument intended to commemorate the re-establishment of Poland. The monument was ordered in 1812, after Napoleon's entry into Warsaw. By the time the work was finished Poland was no more. To the year 1815 belong Thorvaldsen's famous bass-reliefs "The Workshop of Vulcan," "Achilles and Priam," and the two well-known medallions, "Morning" and "Night," which were reproduced a thousand-fold throughout Europe. They were conceived, it is said, during a sleepless night, and were modelled in one day.

Despite the urgent requests of his countrymen, Thorvaldsen would not be weaned from Rome. About this time Thorvaldsen produced his famous "Dancing Girl," "Love Victorious," "Ganymede and the Eagle," and "A Young Shepherd with his Dog." It was then, too, that he modelled the portrait of Lord Byron which served for the monument subsequently erected to that poet in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.

[Sidenote: "The Lion of Luzerne"]

[Sidenote: Thorvaldsen in Copenhagen]

At last, after thirty-three years of absence from home, Thorvaldsen resolved to return to Denmark. On the way he stopped at Luzerne in Switzerland, and there executed the famous Lion of Luzerne, carved into the solid rock of the Alps. When he modelled this monument, Thorvaldsen had never seen a live lion. From Luzerne, Thorvaldsen proceeded straight to Copenhagen. He was received like a royal sovereign. At Copenhagen the artist began his great series of sculptural embellishments for the Cathedral. As completed, they comprised almost all his works on religious subjects, among them the colossal "Christ and the Twelve Apostles," the grand frieze of "Christ on the Road to Calvary," "The Baptism of Christ," "The Preachings of St. John the Baptist," "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," and "The Lord's Supper." From Copenhagen Thorvaldsen went to Warsaw, where he executed a bust of Emperor Alexander, and an equestrian statue of Prince Poniatovski. This monument did not reach Warsaw until 1829. It was never put up. What became of it is still a matter of conjecture.

[Sidenote: Roman honors]

[Sidenote: Thorvaldsen's friends]

[Sidenote: Sculptures for Germany]

[Sidenote: The Thorvaldsen Museum]

The accidental collapse of Thorvaldsen's studio at Rome, and the damage done to several of his sculptures there, hastened his return to that city. On the death of Pope Pius VII., shortly afterward, Thorvaldsen was commissioned by Cardinal Consalvi to execute a monument to his memory. The death of Canova having left the Academy of St. Luke without a president, Pope Leo XII. himself nominated Thorvaldsen as Canova's successor. When objections were raised that he was a heretic, the Holy Father asked: "Is there any doubt that Thorvaldsen is the greatest sculptor in Rome?" "The fact is incontestable," answered the prelates. "Then Thorvaldsen shall be made president," said Leo XII. The office was held by the Danish sculptor for the full term of three years, when he was glad to resign it. Just before the outbreak of the Paris Revolution of 1830, Thorvaldsen was commissioned to execute a colossal bust of Napoleon I. He entered upon this task with enthusiasm. During the trying times of the revolution at Rome, Thorvaldsen formed a close friendship with Horace Vernet, the French artist, and Felix Mendelssohn, the German composer. Mendelssohn would play on the piano in Thorvaldsen's studio at Rome, while the sculptor worked on his models. About this time, too, occurred the famous interview between Thorvaldsen and Walter Scott. Neither understood the other's language, yet they took a warm liking to each other. Later, Thorvaldsen modelled a bust of Sir Walter Scott. Shortly after the Revolution of 1830, the new French Government of Louis Philippe appointed Thorvaldsen an officer of the Legion of Honor. At the invitation of King Louis of Bavaria, Thorvaldsen went to Munich. There he finished his monument to Prince Eugene, the equestrian statue of Elector Maximilian, and another model of his famous "Adonis," ordered by that art-loving King. For the city of Mainz he finished his model of Gutenberg, for which he refused to receive any pay, while for the city of Stuttgart he made a monument of Schiller. On Thorvaldsen's return to Rome, his stay there was brought to an end by an epidemic of cholera. The government of Denmark sent a royal frigate to Leghorn to bring Thorvaldsen and all his sculptures back to his native land. Arriving in Copenhagen, the old artist was received with even greater honor than before. The Castle of Nysoe was put at his disposal, and there he executed his last works, among them a statue of himself. In his seventy-second year he died very suddenly, while attending a performance at the Royal Theatre at Copenhagen. His obsequies were marked by all the pomp and ceremony due to a sovereign of Denmark. Four years later, after the completion of the Thorvaldsen Museum, his remains were laid in the vault that had been prepared for him there, amid the rich collection of his masterpieces.

[Sidenote: The master's pupils]

As a sculptor, Thorvaldsen's name will always be linked with that of his great rival and contemporary, Canova. Both sculptors are equally remarkable for the way they returned to the classic traditions of Hellenic sculpture. It can be said of them that they bridged the chasm of nearly two thousand years that had elapsed between antiquity and modern times. It was reserved to their successors to introduce a modern note in sculpture. Like Canova, Thorvaldsen exerted great influence on almost all the sculptors who came to Rome in his day. Thus Rauch declared himself indebted to him for the purity of his style. From his school in turn issued Riechel of Dresden, Drake, Wolff and Blauser of Cologne. Among the friends of Thorvaldsen, who profited by his councils, were Dannecker, Schadow and Schwanthaler. At Rome, Tenerini, Louis Bienaime, Pierre Galli and Emile Wolff proved themselves apt pupils of the Danish master, while, at Copenhagen, Thorvaldsen's influence was kept alive by Bisson.

[Sidenote: Death of Saint Hilaire]

[Sidenote: Comte]

[Sidenote: Lacordaire]

[Sidenote: "Count of Monte Cristo"]

In France two other great personages of Napoleonic days passed away with Joseph Bonaparte, the great Napoleon's brother and quondam king of Naples and Spain, and Jacques Lafitte, Napoleon's banker, to whose honor were intrusted the millions left behind by Napoleon, when he fled from Paris. More lamented than their death, perhaps, was that of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the great French naturalist. Born in 1772, he first came into prominence as the curator of the wild animals in the Jardin des Plantes. Here he formed his life-long friendship with Cuvier. General Bonaparte took him along on the expedition to Egypt, where Saint-Hilaire helped found the Institute of Cairo. In 1807 he was admitted into the French Institute, and two years later was appointed Professor of Zoology and Comparative Physiology in the Faculty of Sciences. This chair he retained until his death. Starting as a pure zoologist, Saint-Hilaire became the founder of the science of philosophical anatomy. This new doctrine was fully expounded in his "Philosophie Anatomique" (1818-1822). Other important works of Saint-Hilaire were "Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes," collaborated with Cuvier (1819-1837); "Principes de la Philosophie Zoologique" (1830), and "Etudes Progressives d'un Naturaliste." During this same year Comte published his "Discours sur l'Esprit Positive." Pere Lacordaire brought out his "Funeral Orations," while Charles Lenormais, with others, published the great French work on "Ceramographic Monuments." Practical effect to the teachings of Saint-Simon, Fourier and Louis Blanc was given by the establishment of the so-called Creches, or infant asylums for the temporary care of children of working mothers. The greatest literary success of the year was that of Alexandre Dumas's serial novel, "The Count of Monte Cristo."

[Sidenote: French war with Morocco]

[Sidenote: Hawaiian independence guaranteed]

The foreign affairs of France throughout this year were conducted by Guizot. As a result of the military occupation of Algiers, war with Morocco broke out in May. The Prince de Joinville bombarded and captured the fortified town of Mogador. Marshal Buguead won a signal victory over the Moors on the banks of Isly. After the defeat of the rebellious subjects of the Sultan of Morocco, this potentate, Abder Rahman, made common cause with the French against Abd-el-Kader. A French treaty with China was negotiated by Guizot in October. In regard to the vexed problem of Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands an understanding was reached with the other Powers. Amends were made to England for the French indignities to the British Consul at Tahiti, while the independence of Hawaii was guaranteed by a joint declaration of France, Great Britain and the United States. Toward the close of the year the uncertainties of government in Spain were once more made manifest by a military insurrection, headed by General Zurbano.



1845

[Sidenote: Poe's "Raven"]

At the beginning of the year, in America, came a literary sensation of unwonted brilliancy. In the New York "Evening Mirror," January 29, Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Raven" was reprinted from the advance sheets of "The American Whig Review," in which the name of the author was masked under the pseudonym of "Quarles." The poem was copied all over America and soon reached England. Baudelaire translated it into French. As Poe's biographer, Woodberry, has said: "No great poem ever established itself so immediately, so widely and so imperishably in men's minds." A literary tradition has it that Poe only received ten dollars for this masterpiece, and had to wait a year and more for his money.

[Sidenote: Texas annexed to the United States]

[Sidenote: Florida admitted to Union]

[Sidenote: James K. Polk, President]

[Sidenote: Oregon dispute settled.]

War between the United States of North America and Mexico was now seen to be inevitable. On January 25, a joint resolution for the annexation of Texas passed through the American House of Representatives by a vote of 120 to 98, and through the Senate by 27 over 25 votes. On March 1, President Tyler signed the bill. The tactics by which Texas was annexed were similar to those by which the Missouri Compromise had been forced through Congress in 1820, and the nullification compromise in 1833. It meant a distinct gain for the pro-slavery party in the United States, and was denounced as such by the abolitionists of the North. Both in Mexico and in the United States active preparations were now made for war. American ships were still welcomed in the ports of Mexico, the more so since many of them brought needed munitions of war. In the United States strenuous efforts were made to settle all pending differences with other countries. In February, Great Britain had already accepted the forty-ninth parallel as a boundary line agreeable to the governments of both countries, and soon the Oregon boundary dispute was likewise settled by treaty. Caleb Cushing's treaty with China was ratified by the Senate. Florida was admitted into the Union on March 3, the day before Tyler ceased to be President. James K. Polk succeeded him as the eleventh President. He had represented Tennessee in the House for fourteen years, serving twice as Speaker. Having declined the re-election to Congress, he was chosen Governor of his State. His nomination to the Presidency had been brought about by accident. Immediately after his inauguration, Polk appointed James Buchanan as his Secretary of State. Polk in his inaugural address suggested a settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute with England on the line of 54 deg. 40'. The Democratic platform of 1844 had declared: "Fifty-four-forty, or fight." In other words, both Great Britain and the United States claimed the country on the Columbia River. When Calhoun proposed a line of boundary along the forty-ninth degree of latitude, the British Ministry made a counter proposition, accepting the line to the summit and thence along the Columbia River to the Pacific. Despite much talk of war, Calhoun's successor in the end accepted the British proposition of a boundary along the line of forty degrees, continuing to the ocean.

[Sidenote: Death of Andrew Jackson]

By the aid of the Whig Senators a treaty on this basis was approved by the Senate. With this question out of the way, the brunt of preparing for war now fell upon the new administration. Troops were massed within striking distance, and General Taylor was put in command of the American army. He proceeded to St. Joseph's Island, and from there crossed over to Corpus Christi on the mainland, near the mouth of the Neuces. At this point more troops were concentrated to remain in winter quarters until the opening of hostilities. On June 8, Andrew Jackson died at "The Hermitage" in Tennessee. He had lived there quietly ever since his retirement from the Presidency. One of his last acts was to write a public letter to President Polk, wherein he urged him to prompt action in the Oregon boundary matter so as to be ready for decisive measures in Texas.

[Sidenote: Slave trade under ban]

[Sidenote: General Zurbano shot]

The frustration of the British attempt to keep slavery out of Texas was offset in other directions. A convention was concluded between Ecuador and Great Britain to suppress slave trading in that region. In Cuba, likewise, General Concha took measures for the total suppression of the slave trade. A law was passed making the trade a criminal offence in the Spanish West Indies. The government of Spain after much reluctance recognized the independence of Venezuela. Affairs in Spain had taken a new turn. On January 21, General Zurbano was betrayed into the hands of his enemies and was shot. The Cortes adopted a reactionary constitution.

[Sidenote: Atrocities in Algiers]

In France, a Liberal majority in the Chambers, after a prolonged struggle, brought about the expulsion of the Jesuits. In the midst of this movement, Cavaignac, the great opposition journalist, expired. The French war in Algeria by this time had degenerated into mere guerilla fighting. The chief event of the year brought execration upon the arms of France. A tribe of Kabyles had taken refuge in the caves of Dahra. Unable to dislodge them from there, General Pelissier gave orders to smoke them out. Some five hundred of the tribesmen, among them women, children and aged people, were suffocated.

[Sidenote: Colonial expansion]

[Sidenote: Sikhs belligerent]

Colonial extension in other parts of the world was carried on in like aggressive manner. Thus a joint expedition of France and Great Britain made an attack on Tamatave in Madagascar, but failed of success. Another joint expedition of the two powers forced the Republic of Argentine to concede free navigation of the La Plata River. From China concessions were wrested by which Christian missionaries were to be admitted to all of the five treaty ports. As a consequence of these concessions a virulent hatred of the foreigners sprang up among the common people of China. In South Africa, Governor-General Maitland of Cape Colony earned the everlasting hatred of the Boers by sending out an armed expedition to assist the black warriors of Griqualand against the Boers. In India, affairs at Lahore had reached a crisis. There the boy Maharajah, with his regent mother and her favorite sirdar, Lal Singh, were at the mercy of their Sikh soldiery. To save themselves they determined to launch their army upon the British.

[Sidenote: John Franklin's Arctic quest]

[Sidenote: Conflagration of Quebec]

[Sidenote: Irish famine]

[Sidenote: Peel's Cabinet resigns]

British enterprise found a vent in other ways beyond colonial conquests. In the spring of this year Sir John Franklin sailed out once more with the "Erebus" and "Terror," in quest of the Northwest Passage. The last message from him was received in July. News also reached England that he had entered Lancaster Sound, but it was long after that before anything was heard concerning him. Since then more than thirty Arctic expeditions have searched in vain for the body of Franklin. About the same time that Franklin sailed on this expedition, a great fire in Quebec destroyed 1,650 houses, rendering 12,000 people homeless. Just one month later, on June 29, a second fire destroyed 1,365 houses. Two-thirds of the city was laid in ashes. Another serious calamity was the Irish famine of this year, caused by the failure of the potato crop. The distress thus occasioned increased the agitation against the corn laws. As during the preceding year, great mass meetings were held in Birmingham and Manchester. Sir Robert Peel, early in the year, had showed his new leanings toward free trade, by the introduction of a bill for the abolition of import duties on no less than four hundred and thirty articles. The government's discrimination in favor of the duties on sugar provoked a long debate in Parliament. Gladstone continued to support his old colleagues in the government, while Cobden and Bright led the opposition on the floor of the House. By the time Parliament was prorogued in August, the Ministry had won a complete victory. The spread of the famine during the summer, when almost all harvests failed, reacted powerfully upon the government. A strong public letter from the pen of Lord Russell brought the precarious position of the government home to the Cabinet. Sir Robert Peel admitted the necessity of an absolute repeal of the corn laws. Rather than confess such a complete change of position, Peel's Cabinet resigned. Lord Russell was summoned to form a new Cabinet.

[Sidenote: Death of Hood]

[Sidenote: Thomas Hood's Works]

During this interim the practice of duelling in England, but recently countenanced in the army by the Duke of Wellington, fell under lasting disfavor by the fatal outcome of an army duel, in which Lieutenant Hawkes killed Lieutenant Seaton. About the same time occurred the death of Thomas Hood, the poet and humorist. Born in 1798, as a son of a bookseller, he soon became a writer. As one of the editors of the "London Magazine," he moved among all the principal wits of the day. His first book, "Odes and Addresses to Great People," was written in conjunction with J.H. Reynolds, his brother-in-law. This was followed by "Whims and Oddities," in prose and verse; "National Tales," and "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," a book full of imaginative verse. Hood's rich sense of humor found scope in his "Comic Annual," appearing through ten successive years, and his collection of "Whimsicalities." Among his minor poems, "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt" deserve special mention.



[Sidenote: Death of Sydney Smith]

[Sidenote: Pungent satire]

Sir Sydney Smith, the essayist, died shortly before this. Born in 1771, he studied for orders and became a clergyman. At the opening of the Nineteenth Century he entered the field of authorship with the publication of "Six Sermons Preached at Charlotte Chapel." Then came the famous "Letters on the Catholics, from Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham." This book established Sydney Smith's reputation as a satirist. For nearly twenty years he published no more books, though a constant contributor to the "Edinburgh Review." Some idea of Sydney Smith's pungent style may be derived from his famous remarks on England's taxation during the wars with Napoleon: "The schoolboy," he said, "whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of one hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and then he is gathered to his forefathers to be taxed no more."

[Sidenote: Meagre literary remains]

It was Sydney Smith, too, who asked the famous question: "Who ever reads an American book?" In 1824 Sydney Smith broke his long silence as an author, with the fervent pamphlet "The Judge that Smites Contrary to the Law." This was followed by a long series of open letters on clerical and political questions of the day. Shortly before his death he brought out a collection of sermons. A posthumous work was his collection, "Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy." Sydney Smith's case has been held up, together with that of Swift, as an example of political ingratitude. Despite all his labors for the Whig cause, but slender recognition was given to him by his political friends in office. The excuse for not making him a bishop was that his writings were generally regarded as inconsistent with clerical decorum. Like Jeffrey, Wilson and other distinguished contributors to English periodical literature at this time, he left no truly great work to posterity.

[Sidenote: Elizabeth Fry's work]

Elizabeth Fry, the great English prison reformer, died on October 15. She it was that improved the condition of women prisoners at Newgate. Later her influence was apparent in most of the reforms introduced into the jails, houses of correction, lunatic asylums and infirmaries of England, the abuses of which were so eloquently voiced by Dickens.

[Sidenote: Peel recalled]

[Sidenote: A premature announcement]

Lord John Russell's attempts to form a new Ministry proved unsuccessful, largely because Lord Howick—who by the death of his father had become Earl Grey—refused to join the new Ministry on account of his objections to the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston. Sir Robert Peel was presently recalled. All of his colleagues retained their posts, except Lord Stanley, superseded by Gladstone. Soon after Peel's re-entry into office, the London "Times" announced that the Cabinet had decided on proposing a measure for the repeal of the corn laws. This premature announcement was one of the most startling journalistic achievements of the time. Notwithstanding all the published denials it was generally believed, and was followed by a great fall in the price of corn.

[Sidenote: War with Sikhs]

[Sidenote: Moodkee]

[Sidenote: Ferozeshahar]

In the mind of the Ministry, as well as of the country at large, the threatening state of foreign affairs claimed precedence. In Autumn the Sikh army of the Khalsa had crossed the Sutlej, to the number of 60,000 warriors, 40,000 armed followers and 150 guns. Sir John Little marched out of Ferozepore with 10,000 troops and 31 guns to offer battle, but the Sikhs preferred to surround them. Meanwhile, Sir Hugh Gough and Sir Henry Hardinge, the new Governor-General, hurried toward the frontier with a large relieving force. On September 18, they met the army of Lal Singh at Moodkee and won a slender success. But for the flight of Lal Singh, the Sikhs might have claimed the victory. The British troops now advanced on the Sikh intrenchments, Ferozeshahar, where they effected a junction with Little. On December 21, the British advanced in force, but encountered such stubborn resistance that the day ended in a drawn battle. Not until after sunset did Gough's battalions succeed in storming the most formidable of the Sikh batteries. After a night of horrors the battle was resumed. The Sikh soldiers, who had risen in mutiny against their own leaders, fell back and yielded their strong position. The second army of the Sikhs under Tej Singh came up too late. After a brief artillery engagement, all the Sikh forces fell back across the Sutlej River.



1846

[Sidenote: Battle of Sobraon]

[Sidenote: End of first Sikh war]

In January, the hostile forces on both sides of the Sutlej River in India were reinforced. The Sikhs recrossed the river, entered British territory, and hostilities were renewed. On January 27, Sir Harry Smith defeated a part of the Sikh forces at Aliwal. The Sikhs threw up intrenchments at Sobraon. On February 10, the British army advanced to the attack under Gough and Hardinge. The battle proved one of the hardest fought in the history of British India. Advancing in line, the British had two battalions mowed down by the Khalsa guns. Tej Singh broke down the bridge over the river. After fighting all day, the British at last succeeded in driving the Sikhs into the Sutlej at the point of the bayonet. The victory was dearly won. The British losses were 2,000 men, while the Sikhs were said to have lost 8,000. This practically ended the first Sikh war. The British army crossed the Sutlej River by means of their pontoons, and, pushing on to Lahore, there dictated terms of peace. An indemnity of a million and a half pounds was exacted. It was paid by Gholab Singh, the Viceroy of Cashmere and Jamu, upon British recognition of his independence of the Sikh Government at Lahore. The British frontier was extended from the banks of the Sutlej to those of the Ravi.

[Sidenote: English internal affairs]

[Sidenote: Death of Clarkson]

[Sidenote: Disraeli]

[Sidenote: Repeal of corn laws]

[Sidenote: Fall of Peel's Ministry]

[Sidenote: Richard Cobden's reward]

[Sidenote: Modern progress]

[Sidenote: Astronomical discoveries]

[Sidenote: Sue's "Wandering Jew"]

In England, Sir Henry Hardinge's services in the Sikh war were rewarded by his elevation to the peerage. The distress of the previous year continued, owing partly to a commercial panic brought on by overspeculation in railways, and partly to a repeated failure of the crops. To relieve the potato famine in Ireland, Parliament voted L10,000,000 for that country. In the midst of this general distress the twopenny omnibuses made their first appearance in London, and the first issue of the "Daily News" appeared in the metropolis. Leigh Hunt brought out his stories from the Italian poets. Sir Aubrey De Vere, the Irish poet, died in his thirty-ninth year. A few years before his death he had published his "Song of Faith" and other poems. A posthumous publication was the poetic drama "Mary Tudor." Thomas Clarkson, the great anti-slavery advocate of England, died soon afterward, in his eighty-sixth year. Early during the first Parliamentary session Sir Robert Peel avowed his complete change of face in regard to the corn laws. The rage of the protectionists was voiced by Benjamin Disraeli, then known chiefly as a writer of novels remarkable for the wild exuberance of their fancy. He denounced Peel as a political trimmer and no more of a statesman "than a boy who steals a ride behind a carriage is a great whip." Peel, in speaking for the principle of free trade, declared that England had received no guarantees from any foreign government that her example would be followed. Notwithstanding their hostile tariffs, however, he showed that the value of British exports had increased above L10,000,000 since the first reductions in the tariffs were made. On June 26, a bill for the total repeal of the corn laws was at last accepted. It passed through the Commons by a majority of 98 votes, while in the House of Peers, largely through the efforts of the Duke of Wellington, a majority of 47 was attained. The wrath of the defeated protectionists found vent on the same day when another Irish oppression bill was brought before the House. Lord Bentinck, as the mouthpiece of the protectionist party, launched forth in vehement invective against Sir Robert Peel, "his forty paid janizaries, and the seventy other members who, in supporting him, blazoned forth their own shame." In conclusion, Lord Bentinck called upon Parliament to "kick the bill and the Ministry out together," exclaiming, "It is time that atonement should be made to the betrayed honor of Parliament and of England." After this speech the Ministry called for a vote of confidence. It was denied by a majority of 73 votes against the government. On June 29, Sir Robert Peel announced his resignation. In a final speech he gave all credit for the repeal of the corn laws to Richard Cobden. A few weeks later a testimonial of L80,000 was placed at the disposal of Richard Cobden for his eminent services in promoting the repeal of the corn laws. On July 16, Lord Russell succeeded Peel as Prime Minister. His Cabinet included the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, Earl Granville, Lord Auckland and Gladstone. The Duke of Wellington was retained in supreme command of the army. Unlike other heroes, he lived to see several monuments raised to his fame. Thus the grand Wellington Monument in London, made chiefly from captured cannon, was erected at the corner of Hyde Park. Otherwise it was a year of bridge building in England. At Newcastle a high level bridge was erected, while at Conway and at the Menai Strait work was begun on two of the greatest tubular bridges of England. In Germany, Schoenbein invented gun-cotton. About the time of the death of Friedrich Bessel, the great German astronomer, one of the greatest triumphs of abstract astronomical reasoning was achieved. In France, Leverrier had worked out the position of the planet Neptune, finally determining it on September 23. He communicated this to Johann Galle at Berlin, who discovered the planet on the same night. Adams, in England, a few months previous, had made calculations to the same effect, and communicated with Challis, but owing to delays Challis did not discover the planet until after Galle. The Royal Astronomical Society at London awarded its gold medal to each as equally deserving. Within a few days after this discovery, on October 10, a satellite of Neptune was discovered by Laselle. Eugene Sue, moved by the popular agitation against the Jesuits, wrote his novel of the "Wandering Jew," first published in serials.

[Sidenote: Attempts to kill French king]

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon escapes from Ham]

Another attempt to kill King Louis Philippe by one Lecompte in April had been frustrated by the Guards. On July 29, Joseph Henry risked his life in the seventh attempt at the assassination of the King. Louis Bonaparte, the quondam king of Holland, who resigned his throne rather than submit to his brother Napoleon's demands, died in his sixty-eighth year. His namesake, Prince Louis Napoleon, imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, succeeded in making a sensational escape disguised in the garb of a stone mason. Once more he returned to his exile in England.

[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein question]

On July 8, King Christian VIII. of Denmark published an open letter in which he reasserted the union of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein with Denmark regardless of the differing systems of succession prevailing in these provinces. The question of succession was so intricate that the Chancelleries of Europe despaired of satisfactory solution. Inasmuch as Schleswig and Holstein had been recognized as German principalities entitled to representation in the Germanic Confederation, the German people as such objected to their absolute incorporation with Denmark. The storm raised over King Christian's letter was such as to forebode no other settlement than by arms.

[Sidenote: Gioberti]

[Sidenote: Pius IX.]

[Sidenote: Early Papal measures]

Pope Gregory XVI. died at Rome in his eighty-first year. At the time of his death the Papal prisons were filled with conspirators and reformers, among whom were some of his best subjects. His death gave new hope to the followers of Gioberti, whose political dreams depicted a new Italy, regenerated by the moral force of a reforming Papacy. Austria's candidate for the Papacy having failed to secure the requisite number of votes in the College of Cardinals, Mastai Ferretti, Bishop of Imola, was elected, and on June 17 assumed the title Pius IX. The choice of this popular prelate was taken to be a tribute to Italian feeling. The first acts of Pio Nono confirmed this impression. Universal amnesty was extended to political prisoners. Hundreds of Italian patriots who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life were set free. When, in addition to this, permission was given to the citizens of Rome to enroll themselves in the new civic guard, all Rome gave itself up to popular rejoicings. The climax of national enthusiasm was reached when the new Pope took occasion to voice a formal protest against the designs of Austria upon Ferrara.

[Sidenote: Revolt of Cracow]

[Sidenote: Anarchy in Austrian-Poland]

[Sidenote: Cracow incorporated in Austria]

[Sidenote: Tennyson on Poland]

For the time being the Austrian Government was too preoccupied with its troubles at home to carry its Italian policy to extremes. The Polish refugees at Paris had long determined to strike another blow for the freedom of their country. It was arranged that the Polish provinces in Austria and Prussia should rise and revolt, early during this year, and extend the revolution to Russian Poland. But the Prussian Government crushed the conspiracy before a blow was struck. In Austria the attempt was more successful. Late in February insurrection broke out in the free city of Cracow. General Collin occupied the city, but his forces proved too weak. The Polish nobles around Tarnow in Northern Galicia raised the standard of revolt. Some 40,000 Polish insurgents marched on Cracow. A severe reverse was inflicted upon them by the government troops. Now the peasants turned against the nobles, burning down the largest estates and plunging the country into anarchy. The landowners, face to face with the humiliating fact that their own tenants were their bitterest foes, charged the Austrian Government with having instigated a communistic revolt. In a circular note to the European courts, Metternich protested that the outbreak of the Polish peasantry was purely spontaneous. A simultaneous attempt at revolution in Silesia was ruthlessly put down. Austria, Russia and Prussia now revoked the treaty of Vienna in regard to Poland. Cracow, which had been recognized as an independent republic, was annexed by Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia, and against the protests of England, France and Sweden. New measures of repression against Polish national aspirations were taken in Russia. The last traces of Poland were blotted from the map of nations. It was then that Tennyson wrote his famous sonnet on Poland:

"How long, O God, shall men be ridden down, And trampled under by the last and least Of men? The heart of Poland hath not ceased To quiver, tho' her sacred blood doth drown The fields, and out of every smouldering town Cries to Thee, lest brute Power be increased."

In Russia during this year Otto von Kotzebue, the great navigator and Arctic explorer, died in his fifty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Civil war in Portugal]

Almost simultaneously with the attempted revolution of Poland, another revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the constitutional army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.

[Sidenote: Spanish princesses married]

In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding, her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.

[Sidenote: Guizot's doubtful success]

Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The entente cordiale between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.

[Sidenote: Oregon treaty signed]

[Sidenote: Rae's Arctic explorations]

Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty, signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the forty-ninth degree of northern latitude was accepted as the boundary between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English ships, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on the Island of Vancouver, as the most promising British port in the Pacific. During this same year, Dr. John Rae, by sledge journeys of more than 1,200 miles, explored the northernmost region, Boothia, wherein was determined the northern magnetic pole.

[Sidenote: Ether in surgery]

[Sidenote: Chloroform]

On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author, named the new method "Anaesthesia." The credit of the new discovery was claimed forthwith by several persons—notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon, Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with analogous effect.

[Sidenote: Mexican war begun]

[Sidenote: Mexican success]

[Sidenote: American reverse at Fort Brown]

[Sidenote: Palo Alto]

[Sidenote: Resaca de la Palma]

[Sidenote: Invasion of Mexico]

In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas, opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a fleet of seven ships brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there, he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel. The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown, and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor. With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor assaulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican infantry. The prairie grass between the two armies took fire. Both lines drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade, but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers, and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred. Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000 men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made President.

[Sidenote: Kearney annexes New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Fremont in California]

In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fe. On August 1, he annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at once assumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil War—Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.

[Sidenote: Tardy declaration of war]

The news of these events did not reach Washington until after Congress had declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of 40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure, announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation, was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.

[Sidenote: Assault of Monterey]

[Sidenote: Hoffman's stanzas]

[Sidenote: Long armistice]

General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras. On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies passed to the rear of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's "King Henry V.":

We were not many—we who stood Before the iron sleet that day; Yet many a gallant spirit would Give half his years if he but could Have been with us at Monterey.

Our banners on those turrets wave, And there our evening bugles play; Where orange-boughs above their grave Keep green the memory of the brave Who fought and fell at Monterey.

An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars, and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.

[Sidenote: Howe's sewing machine]

[Sidenote: Iowa becomes a State]

On the American side, too, little was done. On August 8, the Wilmot Proviso was considered. It was a proviso to the $2,000,000 bill asked by the President to arrange peace with Mexico, and it declared it to be "an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist therein." August 10 the proviso came up for final passage, but John Davis of Massachusetts, in order to defeat action on the bill, held the floor till the session expired. Congress adjourned on that day. Great agitation prevailed in the North over the defeat of this proviso. The Democrats lost their majority in the Twenty-ninth Congress, owing to the new tariff and the predominance of pro-slavery issues in the war. Polk had but 110 votes against 118 when the new Congress met. Now the new tariff went into effect. Howe, the American inventor, secured a patent for an improvement in sewing-machines, which embodied the main features of the machine used at present; to wit, a grooved needle provided with an eye near its point, a shuttle operating on the side of the cloth opposite the needle to form a lockstitch, and an automatic feed. On December 28, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the twenty-ninth State.



1847

[Sidenote: Santa Anna's advance]

[Sidenote: Buena Vista]

General Winfield Scott reached the harbor of Vera Cruz in January, and assumed command of all the American forces. He took with him the best officers and troops on the field of action, and left Taylor with only 5,200 men, most of whom were volunteers. Santa Anna, who had gathered 12,000 men eager to be led against the Americans, was approaching Saltillo. Leaving Monterey on January 31, Taylor reached Saltillo on February 2, and passed on to Aqua Nueva, twenty miles south of Saltillo, where he remained three weeks. Thence he fell back to a mountain gorge opposite Buena Vista. On February 22, his troops and those of Santa Anna were within sight of each other. Under a flag of truce, Santa Anna demanded Taylor's surrender, which was refused. The famous battleground, taking its name from the estate of Buena Vista, is a rugged valley from two to five miles wide, between rocky walls a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep ravines. Taylor placed his forces in groups on the crests of the bluffs, at the base of the eastern mountain, and in the southern edge of the plateau. The Mexican troops attempted to flank his position, but were driven off. The Mexican cavalry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove them back, firing into their heavy mass.

[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]

[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]

At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line. "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed—a command which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang: