CHAPTER L.

2. On the 1st of February, 1865, Congress adopted an amendment to the Constitution by which slavery was abolished throughout the Union. By the 18th of the following December, the amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven States, and was duly proclaimed as a part of the Constitution. The emancipation proclamation had been issued as a military necessity; and the results of the instrument were now incorporated in the fundamental law of the land.

3. On the 29th of May, the Amnesty Proclamation was issued by the President. By its provisions a pardon was extended to all persons—except those specified in certain classes—who had taken part in upholding the Confederacy. During the summer of 1865, the great armies were disbanded, and the victors and vanquished returned to their homes to resume the works of peace.

4. The finances of the nation were in an alarming condition. The war-debt went on increasing until the beginning of 1866. The yearly interest grew to a hundred and thirty-three million dollars in gold. The expenses of the government had reached two hundred millions of dollars annually. But the revenues of the nation proved sufficient to meet these enormous outlays, and at last the debt began to diminish.

5. During the civil war, the emperor Napoleon III. succeeded in setting up a French empire in Mexico. In 1864 the Mexican crown was conferred on Maximilian of Austria, who sustained his authority with French and Austrian soldiers. But the Mexican president Juarez headed a revolution; the government of the United States rebuked France for her conduct; Napoleon withdrew his army; Maximilian was overthrown; and eventually, on the 13th of June, 1867, was tried and condemned to be shot. Six days afterwards the sentence was carried into execution.

6. After a few weeks of successful operation, the first Atlantic telegraph had ceased to work. But Mr. Field continued to advocate his measure and to plead for assistance both in Europe and America. He made fifty voyages across the Atlantic, and finally secured sufficient capital to lay a second cable. The work began from the coast of Ireland in the summer of 1865; but the first cable parted and was lost. In July of 1866 a third cable, two thousand miles in length, was coiled in the Great Eastern, and again the vessel started on its way. This time the work was completely successful. Mr. Field received a gold medal from Congress, and the plaudits of all civilized nations.

7. In March of 1861, the Territory of Dakota, destined after twenty-eight years to become two great states, was detached from Nebraska and given a distinct organization. The State of Kansas had at last, on the 29th of January, 1861, been admitted into the Union, under a constitution framed at Wyandotte. In February, 1863, Arizona was separated from New Mexico, and on the 3d of March, in that year, Idaho was organized out of portions of Dakota, Nebraska, and Washington Territories. On the 26th of May, 1864, Montana was cut off from Idaho. On the 1st of March, 1867, Nebraska was admitted into the Union as the thirty-seventh State. Finally, on the 25th of July, 1868, the Territory of Wyoming was organized out of portions of Dakota, Idaho, and Utah.

8. The year 1867 was signalized by the Purchase of Alaska. Two years previously, the territory had been explored by a corps of scientific men with a view of establishing telegraphic communication with Asia. The explorers found that the coast-fisheries were of great value, and that the forests of white pine and yellow cedar were among the finest in the world. Negotiations for the purchase were at once opened, and on the 30th of March, 1867, a treaty was concluded by which, for the sum of seven million two hundred thousand dollars, Russia ceded Alaska to the United States. The territory embraced an area of five hundred and eighty thousand square miles, and a population of twenty-nine thousand souls.

9. Very soon after his accession, a serious disagreement arose between the President and Congress. The difficulty grew out of the question of reorganizing the Southern States. The point in dispute was the relation which those States had sustained to the Federal Union during the civil war. The President held that the ordinances of secession were null and void, and that the seceded States had never been out of the Union. The majority in Congress held that the acts of secession were illegal and unconstitutional, but that the seceded States had been actually detached from the Union, and that special legislation was necessary in order to restore them to their former relations.

10. In 1865, measures of reconstruction were begun by the President. On the 9th of May, a proclamation was issued for the restoration of Virginia to the Union. Twenty days later a provisional government was established over South Carolina; and similar measures were adopted in respect to the other States of the Confederacy. On the 24th of June, all restrictions on trade and intercourse with the Southern States were removed. On the 7th of September a second amnesty proclamation was issued, by which all persons who had upheld the Confederate cause—excepting the leaders—were unconditionally pardoned. Meanwhile, Tennessee had been reorganized, and in 1866 was restored to its place in the Union. When Congress convened, a committee of fifteen members was appointed, to which were referred all questions concerning the reorganization of the Southern States. In accordance with measures reported by this committee, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina were reconstructed, and in June and July of 1868 readmitted into the Union. Congress had, in the mean time, passed the Civil Rights Bill, by which the privileges of citizenship were conferred on the freedmen of the South. All of these congressional enactments were effected over the veto of the President.

11. Meanwhile, a difficulty had arisen in the President's cabinet which led to his impeachment. On the 21st of February, 1868, he notified Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, of his dismissal from office. The act was regarded by Congress as a usurpation of authority and a violation of law. On the 3d of March, articles of impeachment were agreed to by the House of Representatives, and the President was summoned before the Senate for trial. Proceedings began on the 23d of March and continued until the 26th of May, when the President was acquitted. Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase, one of the most eminent of American statesmen and jurists, presided during the impeachment.

12. The time for another presidential election was already at hand. General Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by the Republicans, and Horatio Seymour, of New York, by the Democrats. The canvass was one of great excitement. The questions most discussed by the political speakers were those arising out of the civil war. The principles advocated by the majority in Congress furnished the Republican platform of 1868, and on that platform General Grant was elected by a large majority. As Vice-president, Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, was chosen.

CHAPTER LI.

3. Before the inauguration of President Grant two additional amendments to the Constitution had been adopted. The first of these, known as the Fourteenth Amendment, extended the right of citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and declared the validity of the public debt. Early in 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted by Congress, providing that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This clause was proclaimed by the President as a part of the Constitution on the 30th of March, 1870.

4. In the first three months of the same year, the reorganization of the Southern States was completed. On the 24th of January, the senators and representatives of Virginia were readmitted to their seats in Congress. On the 23d of February a like action was taken in regard to Mississippi; and on the 30th of March the work was finished by the readmission of Texas.

5. In 1870 was completed the ninth census of the United States. Notwithstanding the ravages of war, the past ten years had been a period of growth and progress. During that time the population had increased to thirty-eight million five hundred and eighty-seven thousand souls. The national debt was rapidly falling off. The products of the United States had grown to a vast aggregate. American manufacturers were competing with those of all nations in the markets of the world. The Union now embraced thirty-seven States and eleven Territories. The national domain had spread to the vast area of three million six hundred and four thousand square miles. Few things have been more wonderful than the territorial and material growth of the United States.

6. In January of 1871, President Grant appointed Senator Wade of Ohio, Professor White of New York, and Dr. Samuel Howe of Massachusetts, to visit San Domingo and report upon the desirability of annexing that island to the United States. The measure was earnestly favored by the President. After three months spent abroad, the commissioners returned and reported in favor of annexation; but the proposal met with opposition in Congress, and was defeated.

7. The claim of the United States against the British government for damages done by Confederate cruisers during the civil war still remained unsettled. After the war Great Britain grew anxious for an adjustment of the difficulty. On the 27th of February, 1871, a joint high commission, composed of five British and five American statesmen, assembled at Washington City. From the fact that the cruiser Alabama had done most of the injury complained of, the claims of the United States were called the Alabama Claims. After much discussion, the commissioners framed a treaty, known as the Treaty of Washington. It was agreed that all claims of either nation against the other should be submitted to a board of arbitration to be appointed by friendly nations. Such a court was formed, and in the summer of 1872 convened at Geneva, Switzerland. The cause of the two nations was heard, and on the 14th of September decided in favor of the United States. Great Britain was required to pay into the Federal treasury fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars.

8. The year 1871 is noted in American history for the burning of Chicago. On the evening of the 8th of October a fire broke out in De Koven street, and was driven by a high wind into the lumber-yards and wooden houses of the neighborhood. All the next day the flames rolled on, sweeping into a blackened ruin the most valuable portion of the city. The area burned over was two thousand one hundred acres, or three and a third square miles. Nearly two hundred lives were lost, and the property destroyed amounted to about two hundred millions of dollars.

9. As the first term of President Grant drew to a close, the political parties made ready for the twenty-second presidential election. Many parts of the chief magistrate's policy had been made the subjects of controversy. The congressional plan of reconstruction had been unfavorably received in the South. The elevation of the negro race to the rights of citizenship was regarded with apprehension. The military spirit was still rife in the country, and the issues of the civil war were rediscussed with much bitterness. On these issues the people divided in the election of 1872. The Republicans renominated General Grant for the presidency. For the vice-presidency Mr. Colfax was succeeded by Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. As the standard-bearer of the Liberal Republican and Democratic parties, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was nominated. This was the last act in that remarkable man's career. For more than thirty years he had been a leader of public opinion in America. The canvass was one of wild excitement. Mr. Greeley was overwhelmingly defeated, and died in less than a month after the election.

10. On the evening of the 9th of November, a fire broke out on the corner of Kingston and Summer streets, Boston; spread to the northeast; and continued with unabated fury until the morning of the 11th. The best portion of the city, embracing some of the finest blocks in the United States, was laid in ashes. The burnt district covered an area of sixty-five acres. Fifteen lives, eight hundred buildings, and property to the value of eighty million dollars were lost in the conflagration.

11. In the spring of 1872, the Modoc Indians were ordered to remove from their lands on Lake Klamath, Oregon, to a new reservation. They refused to go; and in the following November, a body of troops was sent to force them into compliance. The Modocs resisted, kept up the war during the winter, and then retreated into a volcanic region called the lava-beds. Here, in the spring of 1873, the Indians were surrounded. On the 11th of April, a conference was held between them and six members of the peace commission; but in the midst of the council the savages rose upon the kind-hearted men who sat beside them, and murdered General Canby and Dr. Thomas in cold blood. Mr. Meacham, another member of the commission, was shot, but escaped with his life. The Modocs were then besieged in their stronghold; but it was the 1st of June before Captain Jack and his band were obliged to surrender. The chiefs were tried by court-martial and executed in the following October.

12. About the beginning of President Grant's second term, the country was agitated by the Credit Mobilier Investigation in Congress. The Credit Mobilier was a joint stock company, organized in 1863 for the purpose of constructing public works. In 1867, another company, which had undertaken to build the Pacific Railroad, purchased the charter of the Credit Mobilier, and the capital was increased to three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Owing to the profitableness of the work, the stock rose in value and large dividends were paid to the shareholders. In 1872 it became known that much of this stock was owned by members of Congress. A suspicion that those members had voted corruptly in matters affecting the Pacific Railroad seized the public mind, and led to a congressional investigation, in the course of which many scandalous transactions were brought to light.

13. In the autumn of 1873 occurred one of the most disastrous financial panics ever known in the United States. The alarm was given by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company of Philadelphia. Other failures followed in rapid succession. Depositors hurried to the banks and withdrew their money. Business was paralyzed, and many months elapsed before confidence was sufficiently restored to enable merchants and bankers to engage in the usual transactions of trade.

14. With the coming of 1876 the people made ready to celebrate the Centennial of American Independence. The city of Philadelphia was the central point of interest. There, on the 10th of May, the great International Exposition was opened with imposing ceremonies. In Fairmount Park, on the Schuylkill, were erected beautiful buildings to receive the products of art and industry from all nations. By the beginning of summer these stately edifices were filled to overflowing with the richest products, gathered from every clime and country. On the 4th of July the centennial of the great Declaration was commemorated in Philadelphia with an impressive oration by William M. Evarts, of New York, and a National Ode by the poet, Bayard Taylor. The average daily attendance of visitors at the Exposition was over sixty-one thousand. The grounds were open for one hundred and fifty-eight days; and the receipts for admission amounted to more than three million seven hundred thousand dollars. On the 10th of November, the Exposition, the most successful of its kind ever held, was formally closed by the President of the United States.

15. The last year of President Grant's administration was noted for the war with the Sioux. These fierce savages had, in 1867, made a treaty with the United States, agreeing to relinquish all of the territory south of the Niobrara, west of the one hundred and fourth meridian, and north of the forty-sixth parallel. By this treaty the Sioux were confined to a large reservation in southwestern Dakota, and upon this they agreed to retire by the first of January, 1876. But many of the tribes continued to roam at large through Wyoming and Montana, burning houses, stealing horses, and murdering whoever opposed them.

16. The Government now undertook to drive the Sioux upon their reservation. A large force of regulars, under Generals Terry and Crook, was sent into the mountainous country of the Upper Yellowstone, and the savages, to the number of several thousand, were crowded back against the Big Horn Mountains and River. Generals Custer and Reno, who were sent forward with the Seventh Cavalry to discover the whereabouts of the Indians, found them on the left bank of the Little Horn.

17. On the 25th of June, General Custer, without waiting for reinforcements, charged headlong with his division into the Indian town, and was immediately surrounded. The struggle equaled in desperation and disaster any other Indian battle ever fought in America. General Custer and every man of his command fell in the fight. The whole loss of the Seventh Cavalry was two hundred and sixty-one killed, and fifty-two wounded. General Reno held his position, on the bluffs of the Little Horn, until General Gibbon arrived with reinforcements and saved the remnant from destruction.

18. Other divisions of the army were soon hurried forward, and during the summer and autumn the Indians were beaten in several engagements. On the 24th of November, the Sioux were decisively defeated by Colonel McKenzie at a pass in the Big Horn Mountains. On the 5th of January, the savages were again overtaken and routed by the forces of Colonel Miles. The remaining bands, under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, being able to offer no further serious resistance, escaped across the border into Canada.

19. In August, 1876, Colorado took her place as the thirty-eighth State of the Union. The population of the "Centennial State" numbered forty-five thousand.

20. The twenty-third presidential election was one of the most exciting and critical in the history of the nation. General Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, were chosen as candidates by the Republicans; Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, by the Democrats. The Independent Greenback party presented as candidates Peter Cooper, of New York, and Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio. The canvass began early and with great spirit. The real contest lay between the Republicans and the Democrats. The election was held. The general result was uncertain, and both parties claimed the victory! The election was so evenly balanced; there had been so much irregularity in the elections in South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon; and the power of Congress over the electoral proceedings was so poorly defined, that no certain result could be announced. For the first time in the history of the country, there was a disputed presidency.

21. When Congress convened in December, the whole question came before that body for adjustment. After much debating it was agreed that the disputed election returns should be referred for decision to a Joint High Commission, consisting of five members chosen from the United States Senate, five from the House of Representatives, and five from the Supreme Court. The Commission was accordingly constituted. The returns of the disputed States were referred to the tribunal; and on the 2d of March a result was reached. The Republican candidates were declared elected. One hundred and eighty-five electoral votes were cast for Hayes and Wheeler, and one hundred and eighty-four for Tilden and Hendricks.

CHAPTER LII.

2. In the summer of 1877, in consequence of a threatened reduction in the wages of railway employes, occurred what is known as the Great Railroad Strike. On the 16th of July, the workmen of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad left their posts and gathered such strength in Baltimore and at Martinsburg, West Virginia, as to prevent the running of trains. The militia was called out by Governor Matthews, but was soon dispersed by the strikers. The President then ordered General French to the scene with a body of regulars, and the blockade of the road was raised.

3. Meanwhile, the trains had been stopped on all the important roads between the Hudson and the Mississippi, and business was paralyzed. In Pittsburgh the strikers, rioters, and dangerous classes, gathering in a mob to the number of twenty thousand, held, for two days, a reign of terror unparalleled in the history of the country. The insurrection was finally suppressed by the regular troops and the Pennsylvania militia, but not until nearly one hundred lives, and property to the value of more than three millions of dollars, had been lost. Riots also occurred, or were threatened, at Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne. By the close of the month, the alarming insurrection was at an end.

4. In the spring of 1877 a war broke out with the Nez Percé Indians of Idaho. The national authorities in 1854 purchased a part of the Nez Percé territory, large reservations being made in northwestern Idaho and northeastern Oregon, but some of the chiefs refused to ratify the compact, and remained at large. This was the beginning of difficulties.

5. The war began with the usual depredations by the Indians. General Howard marched against them with a small force of regulars; but the Nez Percés, led by their noted chieftain Joseph, fled. During the greater part of summer the pursuit continued. In the fall they were chased through the mountains into northern Montana, where they were confronted by other troops commanded by Colonel Miles.

6. The Nez Percés were next driven across the Missouri River, and were finally surrounded in their camp north of the Bear Paw Mountains. Here, on the 4th of October, they were attacked, and completely routed by the forces of Colonel Miles. Only a few, led by the chief White Bird, escaped. Three hundred and seventy-five of the captive Nez Percés were brought back to the American post on the Missouri.

7. During the year 1877 the public mind was greatly agitated concerning the Remonetization of Silver. By the first coinage regulations of the United States the standard unit of value was the silver dollar. From 1792 until 1873, the quantity of pure metal in this unit had never been changed, though the amount of alloy contained in the dollar was altered several times. In 1849 a gold dollar was added to the coinage, and from that time forth the standard unit of value existed in both metals. In 1873-74 a series of acts were adopted by Congress bearing upon the standard unit of value, whereby the legal-tender quality of silver was abolished, and the silver dollar omitted from the list of coins to be struck at the national mints.

8. In January, 1875, the Resumption Act was passed by Congress. It was declared that on the 1st of January, 1879, the Government should begin to redeem its outstanding legal-tender notes in coin. The question was now raised as to the meaning of the word "coin" in the act; and, for the first time, the attention of the people was aroused to the fact that the privilege of paying debts in silver had been taken away. A great agitation followed, and in 1878 a measure in Congress was passed over the President's veto, for the restoration of the legal-tender quality of the old silver dollar, and for the compulsory coinage of that unit at a rate of not less than two millions of dollars a month.

9. In the summer of 1878 several of the Gulf States were scourged with a Yellow Fever Epidemic. The disease made its appearance in New Orleans, and from thence was scattered among the towns along the Mississippi. A regular system of contributions was established in the Northern States, and men and treasure were poured out without stint to relieve the suffering South. After more than twenty thousand people had fallen victims to the plague, the frosts of October came and ended the pestilence.

10. By the Treaty of Washington (1871), it was agreed that the right of the United States in certain sea-fisheries in the neighborhood of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, hitherto claimed by Great Britain, should be acknowledged and maintained. The government of the United States agreed to relinquish the duties which had hitherto been charged on certain kinds of fish imported by British subjects into American harbors; and, in order to balance any discrepancy, it was further agreed that any total advantage to the United States might be compensated by a gross sum to be paid by the American government. This sum was fixed at five million dollars in November, 1877, and a year later the amount was paid to the British government.

11. The year 1878 witnessed the establishment of a resident Chinese Embassy at Washington. For twenty years the great treaty negotiated by Anson Burlingame had been in force between the United States and China. The commercial relations of the two countries had been vastly extended. On the 28th of September the embassy chosen by the imperial government was received by the President. The ceremonies of the occasion were among the most interesting ever witnessed in Washington. The speech of Chen Lan Pin, the minister, was equal in dignity and appropriateness to the best efforts of a European diplomatist.

12. In June, 1878, the Life Saving Service of the United States was established by act of Congress. The plan proposed the establishment of regular stations and lighthouses on all the exposed parts of the Atlantic coast and along the Great Lakes. Each station was to be manned by a band of surfmen experienced in the dangers peculiar to the shore in times of storms, and drilled in the best methods of rescue and resuscitation. Boats and other appliances of the most approved pattern were provided and equipped. The success of the enterprise has been so great as to reflect the highest credit on its promoters. The number of lives saved through the agency of the service reaches to thousands annually, and the amount of human suffering and distress alleviated by this beneficent movement is beyond computation.

13. On the 1st of January, 1879, the Resumption of Specie Payments was accomplished by the treasury of the United States. After seventeen years' disappearance, gold and silver coin, which during that time had been at a premium over the legal-tender notes of the government, again came into common circulation.

14. The presidential election of 1880 was accompanied with the excitement usually attendant upon great political struggles in the United States. The Republican national convention was held in Chicago on the 2d and 3d of June; a platform of principles was adopted, and General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated for President. For Vice-president, Chester A. Arthur, of New York, received the nomination. The Democratic national convention assembled at Cincinnati on the 22d of June, and nominated for the presidency General Winfield S. Hancock, of New York, and for the Vice-presidency William H. English, of Indiana. The National Greenback party held a convention in Chicago on the 9th of June, and nominated General James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and General Benjamin J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice-president. The election resulted in the choice of Garfield and Arthur. Two hundred and fourteen electoral votes, embracing those of nearly all the Northern States, were cast for the Republican candidates.

15. Soon after retiring from the presidency, General Grant, with his family and a company of personal friends, set out to make a TOUR OF THE WORLD. The expedition attracted the most conspicuous attention both at home and abroad. The departure from Philadelphia on the 17th of May, 1877, was the beginning of such a pageant as was never before extended to any citizen of any nation of the earth. General Grant visited Europe, India, Burmah and Siam; China and Japan. In the fall of 1879 the party returned to San Francisco, bearing with them the highest tokens of esteem which the great nations of the Old World could bestow upon the honored representative of the New.

16. The Census of 1880 was undertaken with more system and care than ever before in the history of the country. The work was intrusted to the superintendency of Professor Francis A. Walker. In every source of national power, the development of the country was shown to have continued without abatement. The total population of the States and Territories now amounted to 50,182,525—an increase since 1870 of more than a million inhabitants a year! The center of population had moved westward about fifty miles, to the vicinity of Cincinnati.

17. During the administration of Hayes several eminent Americans passed from the scene of their earthly activities. On the 1st of November, 1877, the distinguished senator, Oliver P. Morton, died of paralysis at his home in Indianapolis. His reputation in his own State and throughout the Union was very great, and his sterling character had won the respect even of his political enemies. As War Governor of Indiana, he had been one of the main pillars of support to the Union in the trying days of the Civil War. After that event he had become one of the foremost men of the nation. Although but fifty-four years of age, he had risen to be a recognized leader in American statesmanship. His death was regarded as a public calamity, and the Nation, without distinction of party, joined with his own State in doing honor to the memory of the great dead.

18. Still more universally felt was the loss of the great poet and journalist, William Cullen Bryant, who on the 12th of June, 1878, at the advanced age of eighty-four, passed from among the living. For more than sixty years his name had been known and honored wherever the English language was spoken. On the 19th of December, in the same year, the illustrious Bayard Taylor, who had recently been appointed American Minister to the German Empire, died suddenly in the city of Berlin. His life had been exclusively devoted to literary work; and almost every department of letters, from the common tasks of journalism to the highest charms of poetry, had been adorned by his genius. On the 1st day of November, 1879, Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, one of the organizers of the Republican party, and a great leader of that party in the times of the civil war, died suddenly at Chicago; and on the 24th day of April, 1881, the noted publisher and author, James T. Fields, died at his home in Boston.

CHAPTER LIII.

2. In the same year, Garfield returned to Ohio, and was made first a professor and afterwards president of Hiram College. This position he held until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he left his post to enter the army. In the service he rose to distinction, and while still in the field was elected by the people of his district to the lower house of Congress. In 1879 he was elected to the United States Senate, and hard upon this followed his nomination and election to the presidency. American history has furnished but few instances of a more steady and brilliant rise, from the poverty of an obscure boyhood, to the most distinguished elective office in the gift of mankind.

3. On the 4th of March, 1881, President Garfield delivered his inaugural address, and the new administration entered upon its course with omens of an auspicious future. But its prospects were soon darkened with political difficulties. A division arose in the ranks of the Republican party. The two wings of the Republicans were nicknamed the "Stalwarts" and the "Half-Breeds": the former, headed by Senator Conkling of New York; the latter, led by Mr. Blaine, Secretary of State, and indorsed by the President himself. The Stalwarts claimed the right of dispensing the appointive offices of the Government, after the manner which had prevailed for many preceding administrations; the President, supported by his division of the party, insisted on naming the officers in the various States according to his own wishes.

4. The chief clash between the two influences in the party occurred in New York. The collectorship of customs for the port of New York is the best appointive office in the Government. To fill this position the President nominated Judge William Robertson, and the appointment was antagonized by the New York senators, Conkling and Platt, who, failing to prevent the confirmation of Robertson, resigned their seats, returned to their State, and failed of a reelection.

5. A few days after the adjournment of the Senate in June, the President, in company with Secretary Blaine and a few friends, entered the railroad depot at Washington to take the train for Long Branch, New Jersey. A moment afterwards he was approached by a miserable miscreant, who, unperceived, came within a few feet of the company, drew a pistol, and fired upon the Chief Magistrate. The shot struck the President in the back, and inflicted a dreadful wound. The bleeding chieftain was borne away to the executive mansion, and the wretch who had committed the crime was hurried to prison. For eighty days the stricken President lingered between life and death, bearing the pain and anguish of his situation with a fortitude and heroism rarely witnessed among men; but at half-past ten on the evening of September 19th, the anniversary of the battle of Chickamauga, his vital powers suddenly gave way, and in a few moments death closed the scene.

6. On the day following this deplorable event, Vice-president Arthur took the oath of office in New York, and repaired to Washington. Chester A. Arthur was born in Vernon, Franklin County, Vermont, October 5, 1830. He was of Irish descent, and was educated at Union College, from which institution he was graduated in 1849. For awhile he taught school in his native State, and then came to New York City to study law. During the civil war he was Quartermaster-General of the State of New York. After 1865 he returned to the practice of law, and in 1871 was appointed Collector of Customs for the port of New York. This position he held until July, 1878, when he was removed by President Hayes. Again he returned to his law practice, but was soon called by the voice of his party to be a standard-bearer in the Presidential canvass of 1880.

7. The administration of President Arthur proved to be uneventful. The government pursued the even tenor of its way, and the progress of the country was unchecked by calamity. Several important scientific inventions were perfected about this time, and several great public works completed.

8. One of the best examples of the application of scientific discovery to the affairs of every-day life is that of the Telephone. It has remained for our day to discover the possibility of transmitting or reproducing the human voice at a distance of hundreds or even thousands of miles. By means of a simple contrivance, a person in one part of the country is able to converse with friends in another part, as if face to face. The invention of this wonderful instrument is to be credited to Professor A. Graham Bell, of Massachusetts, and Elisha P. Gray, of Chicago. It should be mentioned, also, that Professor A. C. Dolbear, of Tufts College, and the great inventor, Thomas A. Edison, have succeeded in the production of telephonic instruments.

9. Another recent invention is the Phonograph. It is the nature of the phonograph to receive and retain the wave-lines and figures of sound, whether of the human voice or some other sound, and by an ingenious contrivance to reproduce those sounds as if they were the original utterance. It is to be regretted that thus far the phonograph has proved to be of little or no practical utility.

10. But perhaps the greatest invention of the age is the Electric Light. About 1870 it was first proposed to use electricity for practical illumination. Long before this time the possibility of electric lighting had been shown by the philosopher Gramme, of Paris. About the same time the Russian scientist, Jablokoff, also succeeded in converting electricity into light. It remained, however, for the great American inventor, Thomas A. Edison, to remove the difficulties in the way of electric lighting, and to make the invention practical. The systems produced by him and others are rapidly taking the place of the old methods of illumination.