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A DICTIONARY

American Politics:

COMPRISING ACCOUNTS OF

Political Parties, Measures and Men,

AND

EXPLANATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, DIVISIONS AND PRAC
TICAL WORKINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT, TOGETHER
WITH POLITICAL PHRASES, FAMILIAR NAMES
OF PERSONS AND PLACES, NOTE-
WORTHY SAYINGS, ETC., ETC.

By EVERIT brown,

Member of the New York Bar ; Author of " The National Standard History
of the United States," etc.:

AND

ALBERT STRAUSS.

NEW YORK:

A. L. BURT

1892.

S^ 3o I

PREFACE.

A BRIEF examination of this volume will convey ft
clearer idea of its contents than any statement could do,
yet a few words may be permitted concerning the aim of
the authors.

It is for those who are more or less interested in the
politics of the United States, but who have neither time
nor opportunity for seeking information in various and
out-of-the-way places, that this book has been prepared.
The main facts in the political history of the federal
government from its foundation to the present moment
are given under appropriate headings and in alphabetical
order. The formation of the Constitution, its growth
and interpretation, have been explained. The rise and
fall of parties have been recounted. Famous measures,
national movements and foreign relations have received
full attention. Especial care has been exercised in de-
scribing the practical workings of the government in its
various branches, and numerous lists of the more prom-
inent officials are furnished. There will also be found
accounts of the origin and meaning of political slang
expressions, familiar names of persons and localities,
famous phrases, and the like.

Most of these facts are scattered in volumes not gen-
erally accessible; many of them that circulate chiefly by
word of mouth are hard to find explained in print; some
are of such recent date that they have been recorded

Q PREFACE,

only in the daily press. To find these items gathered
together in a single volume of moderate compass has
hitherto been impossible.

Liberal use has been made of every source of informa-
tion in preparing this volume. The facts have been
stated with as great accuracy as could be attained by
unstinted care and in the briefest manner consistent
with complete information. The authors have endeav-
ored to write without bias or partiality in any direction.

It will be noticed that cross-references have been freely
used, without which much space would necessarily have
been wasted, and the suggestion may be made that even
in the absence of references the reader should turn to
topics mentioned in the text for the full view of a
subject.

With the hope that this book may help to fill an exist-
ing vacancy, it is submitted to the public.
Jui^E, 1888.

~ Of THi

UNIVEESIXI

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Abolitionists. — The first society for the abolition of
slavery was formed in Pennsylvania in 1774; New York
followed in 1785, Ehode Island in 1786, Maryland in
1789, and Connecticut, Virginia and JSTew Jersey before
1792. Among the presidents of the New York society
were John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. These so-
cieties did nothing except to petition Congress, and
were seldom heard of after 1808. Colonization then
became a favorite subject, until in 1829 The Genius of
U7iiversal Emancipation y a newspaper advocating '^im-
mediate^' abolition, was published in Baltimore by Will-
iam Lloyd Garrison, of Massachusetts. Fined for one of
his articles, and for non-payment of the fine imprisoned,
he soon removed to Boston, where, January 1, 1831, he
began the publication of Tlie Liberator, He opposed
colonization, refused to recognize the Constitution,
which he proclaimed " a covenant with death and an
agreement with hell," and declared for "no union
with slave-holders." Public interest was aroused. In
1832 the /'New England," and in 1833 the ''Ameri-
can '* anti-slavery societies were formed on these prin-
ciples. John Greenleaf Whittier, Wendell Phillips,
Benjamin Lundy and others agitated the subject and
founded branches in the States, and it became a national
topic. The feeling against the abolitionists ran high
and riots were frequent. At Alton, Illinois, in 1837,
Elijah P. Lovejoy {see that title), an abolition editor, was
mobbed and killed, and in 1838, Pennsylvania Hall, in
Philadelphia, was burned. In 1838 many of the party
desiring to nominate candidates for oflBce, a proceeding
to whicn the " Garrisonians " objected, withdrew. The
seceders, who regarded "the Federal Constitution as

8 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

essentially anti-slavery, and swore with good consciences
to uphold it/^ formed the ' 'American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society/^ It was principally of these that
the Liberty party, organized in 1840, was formed. In
1848, the Liberty party, having named no candidates,
the abolitionists voted with the Free Soil party, and
continued with them until 1856, when they supported
the Eepublicans. Until the war was fairly under way
the " Garrisonians '' were in favoi of allowing the
slave-holding States to withdraw peaceably, but when
fighting had actually begun, they were among the most
ardent supporters of the Union. {See also Broion, John,)

Adams and Clay Republicans. — In 1825, the
Federalist party was of no influence — the Democratic-
Eepublican was the only real party. In it there were
two factions, the supporters of President John Quincy
Adams and his lieutenant, Henry Clay, known as above;
and the followers of Andrew Jackson, known as Jackson
Republicans, or Jackson Men {which see). The Adams
and Clay Republicans ultimately became Whigs. (See
National Republican Party.)

Adams, Charles Francis, was born in Boston,
August 18, 1807. He spent much of his boyhood
abroad, his father, John Quincy Adams, being at
different times United States Minister to Great Britain
and to Russia. He was graduated at Harvard and adopted
the profession of law. He served in both Houses of
the Massachusetts Legislature and was candidate for
Vice-President with Van Buren. He served as Repre-
sentative in the Thirty-sixth Congress, and was re-
elected to the Thirty-seventh, but was appointed Min-
ister to Great Britain in 1861. He held that position
during the Civil War, satisfactorily conducting the
many delicate negotiations that arose, notably the Trent
affair. He died November 21, 1886. He was a Repub-
lican.

Adams, John, was born in Braintree (now Quincy),
Massachusetts, October 19, 1735; he died at the same
place, July 4, 1826. Thomas Jefferson died within a
few hours of him. He was graduated at Harvard College,

DJCTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 9

and was soon afterward admitted to the bar. In 1770
he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, and
between 1774 and 1777 he served in the Continental
Congress. He was a signer of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. In 1777 he went to France as Minister of
the United States; he was one of the commissioners
that negotiated the treaty that closed the Revolution.
In 1785 he went to England as representative of our
country. He returned to America in 1788, and was
elected Vice-President under Washington. On Wash-
ington's retirement in 1797, he was elected President by a
majority of three electoral votes over Jefferson. During
his administration trouble arose with France, and war was
imminent, several naval engagements actually taking
place. i^Sce X. Y. Z. Mission.') The alien and sedition
laws passed during his administration tended to make
it unpopular, while his policy toward France, which
averted the war, alienated a portion of his party, and
the end of his administration saw his party thoroughly
divided and defeated at the polls. He was the first and
only Federalist President. His party in Congress had,
just before the expiration of his term, created a number
of new judgeships to be filled with Federalists, and
Adams, after signing their commissions until late at
night of the last day of his term, withdrew from Wash-
ington early the next day without participating in
Jefferson's inauguration. (See Midnight Judges.)

Adams, John Quincy, was born in Braintree (now
Quincy), Massachusetts, July 11, 1767, and died in
Washington, February 23, 1848. He was the eldest
son of John Adams and a graduate of Harvard. He
was admitted to the bar in 1791, and in 1794 he became
Minister at The Hague. In 1803 he became a Federalist
Senator. As Senator he supported the embargo, for
which course the State Legislature censured him. He
at once resigned and joined the Republican (Democratic-
Republican) party, and by his new friends he was sent
as Minister, first to Russia, and then to Great Britain.
He became Secretary of State under Monroe in 1817,
and in 1825 was elected to succeed him. His election

10 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

was by the House of Representatives. His election, his
enemies claimed, was the result of a corrupt bargain
with Henry Clay, but this charge, although frequently
repeated, has always been denied, and it has never been
proved. He served but one term. During his adminis-
tration the anti-Masonic feeling first arose. In 1831,
Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, in
which he served until his death, seventeen years later.
He was stricken with apoplexy in the House, and died
two days thereafter. While a member of the House he
was a law unto himself — no party claiming his allegiance
— and he was the principal champion of free speech
against the Gag Jja^f^ (which see).

Administration, The, Should be Conducted
Behind Glass Doors. — President Cleveland used this
metaphor to express his views as to the publicity that
should surround the acts of public servants.

Administrations of the United States. — For the
officers of the different administrations see under the
heads of their respective functions, as follows : President;
Vice-President; State, Department of; Treasury Depart-
ment; War Department; Justice, Department of; Post-
Office Department; Navy, Department of the; Diterior,
Department of the.

Agriculture, Commissioner of. — The Department
of Agriculture was established by Act of May 15, 1862.
Its object is to disseminate useful information about
agriculture to the classes interested therein and to dis-
tribute among them seeds of rare or new plants. In
February, 1889, this Bureau was made a Department,
and the Commissioner of Agriculture, a Secretary and
a member of the Cabinet. Norman J. Colman, who had
been Commissioner from 1885, was made Secretary by
President Cleveland, and held the position until the ad-
vent of the new administration, when Jeremiah M.Rusk
succeeded him. The salary is the same as that of the
other Cabinet officers, $8,000.

Admission of States to the Union. — The follow-
ing table shows the dates on which the first thirteen
States ratified the Constitution, the dates on which the

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

lemainder were admitted to the Union and the dates on
which the Southern States were re-admitted after the
Civil War:

No.

STATES.

DATE OF RATIFICATION
OB ADMISSION.

DATE OF
BE-ADMrSSION.

Delaware

December 7, 1787

Pennsylvania

December 12, 1787

New Jersey

December 18, 1787

4..
5

Georfiria

Connecticut

January 2, 1788

January 9, 1788

July 15, 1870

Massachusetts

Maryland

South Carolina

New Hampshire

Virginia

New York

February 6, 1788

April 28, 1788

May 23, 1788

June 25, 1868...

June 21, 1788

June 26, 1788

January 26, 1870 .

July 26, 1788

1«

North Carolina

Rhode Island

Vermont

Kentucky

November 21, 1789

May 29, 1790

June 25, 1868

March 4, 1791

Junel, 1792

Tennessee

June 1, 1796 .

July 24, 1866

Ohio

Louisiana

Indiana

November 29, 1802

April 30, 1812

June 25, 1868

December 11, 1816

20..
21,,

Mississippi

Illinois

Alabama

December 10, 1817

December 3, 1818

February 23, 1870

S«>

December 14, 1819

March 15, 1820

June 25, 1868

Maine

Missouri

Arkansas

24.,

August 10, 1821

June 15, 1836..

June 22 1868

2fi

Michigan

January 26, 1837

27 ,

Flori(to

Texas

March 3, 1845

June 25, 1868 --

December 29, 1845

December 28, 1846..

March 30, 1870

Iowa

80..

Wisconsin.

California

Minnesota

May 29, 1848

31..

September 9, 1850

May 11, 1858

,33,

Oregon

February 14, 1859

84 .

Kansas

West Virginia

Nevada

January 29, 1861

85..

June 19, 1863

October 31, 1864 .

37,,

Nebraska

March 1, 1867

88..

Colorado

August 1, 1876

39..

Wyoming

July 10, 1889

40..

North Dakota

South Dakota

November 2, 1889

41..

November 2, 1889

42.,

Montana

November 2, 1889

43..

Washington

November 2, 1889

Alabama was separated from Mississippi Territory
{see Territories) in 1817, and made into Alabama Terri-
tory with the capital at St. Stephens. It was admitted
to the Union on December 14, 1819. On January 11,
1861, an ordinance of secession was adopted in a State

12 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

convention and bvAct of June 25, 1868, the State was re-
admitted to the Union. The capital is Montgomery.
The population in 1880 was 1,262,505, and in the last
census (1890) 1,513,017. Alabama has eight representa-
tives in Congress and ten electoral votes. It is a Demo-
cratic State. The name is of Indian derivation, and
was once supposed to mean '^ Here we rest,^' though it
is now said to have no known meaning. {^See Governors;
Legislatures.)

Alabama Claims. — During the Civil War several
Confederate cruisers were built in England, and some
were equipped in the ports of that nation and her col-
onies. This was all in violation of Great Britain's
avowedly neutral position, of her own statutes and of
international law, and in spite of the fact that our min-
ister to England, Charles Francis Adams, repeatedly
protested and called the attention of the English gov-
ernment to what was being done. Moreover, while
neutrality was strictly enforced against United States
vessels in British ports, even to the extent of prohibiting
their taking on board coal which had been deposited by
our government. Confederate vessels found no difficulty,
through the connivance of officials, in coaling and even
arming in such ports. Chief among the cruisers which
were built or equipped in England were the Florida, the
Georgia, the Shenandoah and the Alabama; the last
named because of her especially destructive career gave
her name to the claims which arose from the depreda-
tions of all such vessels on the commerce of the United
States. As a result of Great Britain's action in these
matters the United States claimed damages from her for
'direct losses in the capture and destruction of a large
number of vessels, with their cargoes, and in the heavy
national expenditures in the pursuit of the cruisers; and
indirect injury in the transfer of a large part of the
American commercial marine to the British flag, in the
enhanced payment of insurance, in the prolongation of
the war, and in the addition of a large sum to the cost
of the war and the suppression of the rebellion." The
dispute between the two governments stood unsettled

DtCTtOI^Ak y OP AMP/^fCAJ\r POLITICS. 13

till after the war. In 1866 the United States offered to
submit the question to arbitration, but would not agree
to a proposition made by Great Britain to limit the dis-
cussion to the damage done by the cruisers, since this
would be an abandonment of our position that the
granting of the rights of belligerents to the Confederate
States (by the Queen's proclamation of May 13, 1861)
was unjustified by necessity, morals, treaties or interna-
tional law. In 1871, however, England proposed a
joint commission to settle various disputes which existed
between the two governments; the United States con-
sented with the proviso that the Alabama claims should
be considered and disposed of by the commission; Eng-
land agreed and the result was the Treaty of Washing-
ton (which see). By this treaty the Alabama claims
were referred to arbitrators who afterward met at
Geneva, Switzerland, and on September 14, 1872,
awarded to the United States 115,500,000 to be paid by
Great Britain in satisfaction of all the Alabama claims.
This was duly paid within the year. The United States
Court of Claims has jurisdiction of cases brought by
those who claim a share in this indemnity. (See
Geneva Award.)
Alabama Territory. (See Territories.)
Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 (see An-
nexations VI). It is an unorganized territory of the
United States and remained without the forms of civil
government till 1884, when the Act of May 17th pro-
vided for the appointment of a governor and other offi-
cers, and also a district court. Sitka is the capital. The
population in 1880 was estimated at 30,178, and in the
last census (1890) 30,329. (See Governers.)

Albany Regency. — A name applied to the combina-
tion of politicians that from 1820 to 1855 managed the
Democratic party in the State of New York. The name
arose from the fact that most of them lived in Albany,
N. Y. Prominent among them were Martin Van
Buren, Wm. L. Marcy, John A. Dix and Silas Wright.
Their success was due mainly to their thorough organi-
zation.

14 DICTIO^TAR Y OP AMl^RlCAN- POLITICS.

Alexander the Coppersmith. — A nickname ap-
plied to Hamilton by those that were dissatisfied with
the copper cents coined in 1793 at his suggestion as
Secretary of the Treasury.
Algerine War. — i^See Barhary Pirates.)
Alien and Sedition Laws. — i)uringthe troubles of
this country with France in 1798 there was a consider-
able portion of the community in sympathy with France,
and attacks of the most scurrilous nature were continu-
ally made against the President and Congress. This
state of things was the occasion for the passage of the
above-named bills. The first Alien bill lengthened the
period of residence for the purpose of naturalization to
fourteeen years. All aliens thereafter to come into the
country were to be registered, and the certificate of
registration was to be the only proof of residence.
Alien enemies could never become citizens. A third
bill gave the President power in case of war with a
foreign nation or danger of invasion by it, to seize or
expel all resident alien citizens of that nation. Another
bill, signed by the President June 25th, gave him power
to send away any alien whom he might think dangerous
to the country; if after being ordered away he were
found here he might be imprisoned for three years and
could never become a citizen; aliens so imprisoned could
be removed from the country by the President's order,
and on voluntarily returning be imprisoned at the Presi-
dent's discretion; the act j)rovided for various details
concerning the carrying out of its intention, and gave
the United States courts cognizance of cases arising
thereunder. The action of the law was limited to two
years. The Sedition bill was passed in July and de-
clared any one that in any way hindered any officer of
the United States in the discharge of his duty, or op-
posed any of its laws, to be guilty of a high crime and
misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of five
thousand dollars and maximum imprisonment of five
years; further, writing, printing or publishing any false,
scandalous and malicious writing against Congress or the
President or aiding therein, was made punishable by a

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 15

maximum fine of two thousand dollars and maximum
imprisonment of two years; but the truth of the matter,
if proved, was to be a good defense. This act was to
expire March, 1801. The opposition aroused by these
bills was enormous, and though the prosecutions under
them were very few, they made Adams' administration
and the Federal party very unpopular. Hamilton had
in vain tried to prevent the party from committing this
blunder.

Allegiance. — Every citizen of the United States
owes paramount allegiance to the national government.
The opinion that he owed allegiance to his State first
and to the Union only secondarily, which was bound up
in the doctrine of state sovereignty, may be considered
as finally negatived by the results of the Civil War. As
to foreign states, no one can become a citizen of the
United States by naturalization without first renouncing
all allegiance to his former government. i^See Expatria-
tion; Naturalization. )

All Men are Created Equal. — The second para-
graph of the Declaration of Independence begins: ^^ We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal," etc. [see Declaration of Independence).
This phrase, either as given above or slightly different,
was used in the Declarations of Kight contained in many
of the State constitutions adopted about 1776. It is
sometimes quoted, '^ All men are born free and equal.""
That form was used in the constitution adopted by
Massachusetts in 1780.

All Quiet Along: the Potomac. — This phrase be-
came proverbial during the fall of 1861 and the begin-
ning of 1862. The weather at that time seemed favor-
able to a campaign, and McClellan's army of about
two hundred thousand men was in excellent condition,
and yet no advance was undertaken. McClellan's
policy, at that period, is sometimes referred to as a policy
of *' masterly inactivity.^' .

All We Ask is to Be Let Alone.— This phrase
occurred in the message of Jefferson Davis to the Con-
federate Congress in March, 1861. He referred to
Northern preparations to oppose secession.

16 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Amendment-Mongers. — A name applied to the
Anti-Federalists.

Amendments to the Constitution. — Article 5 of
the Constitution prescribes the means to be employed in
amending that instrument. By the same article the
Constitution was made unamendable prior to 1808 on
certain points, as follows: So as to prohibit immigration
as existing in 1787, or so as to permit the levying of capi-
tation or other direct taxes by Congress except in pro-
portion to the census. The only point remaining to-day
which is incapable of amendment is that "no State,
without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suf-
frage in the Senate.'^ In the manner prescribed in
Article 5, fifteen amendments in all have been adopted
from time to time. The first Congress, on September
25, 1789, passed twelve amendments, two of which were
not ratified. The remaining ten, having been ratified
by all the States except Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Georgia, were proclaimed in force December 15, 1791.
The first six of these comprise what is sometimes known
as our Bill of Eights. The eleventh amendment was
passed by Congress March 5, 1794, was duly ratified,
and was proclaimed in force January 8, 1798. It pro-
vided that the federal courts should not entertain suits
brought against a State by individuals. The presidential
election of 1800 which was thrown into the House {see
Disputed Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections),
disclosed some defects in the electoral system as estab-
lished by Article 2, section 1, clause 3 of the Constitu-
tion. To remedy these defects the twelfth amendment
was passed by Congress December 12, 1803, and declared
in force September 25, 1804. It had failed to pass in
one Congress and was only carried finally in the House
by the Speaker's vote. The vote of the States also was
only just sufiicient, thirteen ratifying and four — New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Delaware
— rejecting it. For sixty years the Constitution re-
mained unaltered, but the condition of things brought
about by the Civil War rendered three more amend-
ments necessary. The thirteenth amendment was pro-

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 17

posed for the purpose of making emancipation universal
m the nation and prohibiting slavery for the future. It
passed the Senate in April, 1864, by a vote of thirty-
eight to six, but failed to pass the House. The House
reconsidered its vote at the next session and passed the
amendment by a vote of one hundred and nineteen to
fifty-six; it was proposed to the legislatures of the States
February 1, 1865. It was declared in force December
18, 1865, having been ratified by twenty-seven States out
of thirty-six; it was subsequently ratified by four more.
Only two states, Delaware and Kentucky, absolutely re-
jected it. Texas took no action in regard to it and
Alabama and Mississippi ratified it conditionally. The
fourteenth amendment was intended to aid the work of
Reconstruction, It passed Congress in June, 1866, by
a vote of thirty-three to eleven in the Senate and one
hundred and thirty-eight to thirty-six in the House. It
was ratified by thirty out of the thirty-seven States and
was proclaimed in force July 28, 1868. Three others
subsequently ratified it. Delaware, Maryland and
Kentucky rejected it and California failed to act.
All the once Confederate States, except Tennessee, re-
jected it but afterward ratified it in consequence of
an act of Congress providing as one condition of their
re-admission as States that they should do so. New Jer-
sey and Ohio rescinded their first ratifications, but Con-
gress declared that this did not affect their previous
action, and in the end there were enough ratifications
without these. The fifteenth amendment was designed
to supplement the previous one in relation to the suf-
frage of negro citizens and make their right to vote un-
questionable. It passed Congress February 26, 1869, by
a vote of thirty-nine to thirteen in the Senate and one
hundred and forty-four to forty-four in the House. It
was ratified by twenty-nine of the thirty-seven States
and proclaimed in force March 30, 1870; Georgia at first
rejected, but afterward ratified it. New Jersey, Dela-
ware, Maryland, Kentucky, California and Oregon re-
i'ected it, and Tennessee took no action. Ohio, which
lad at first rejected it, afterward ratified it, and New

18 DICTTONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

York rescinded her ratification. Among proposed
amendments to tlie Constitution which have never been
adopted may be mentioned a few of the most important.
Jefferson suggested an amendment to assure the consti-
tutionality of the Louisiana purchase, but his bargain
was universally accepted as valid without such amend-
ment. The same President, and after him Madison,
Monroe, Jackson and Polk, urged an amendment
authorizing Congress to vote money for internal im-
provements, the power to do which, not being men-
tioned in the Constitution, they considered open to
question. This right, however, has come to be admitted
without an amendment. Just previous to the war vari-
ous amendments dealing with the question of slavery
were proposed. (See Crittenden Compromise.) Amend-
ments have also been urged, some extending the right
of suffrage to females and one inserting in the preamble
to the Constitution the following words: ''Acknowl-
edging Almighty God as the source of all authority and
power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the
ruler among the nations, and His will, revealed in the
Holy Scriptures, as of supreme authority, in order to
constitute a Christian government. '^ For the text of
the amendments that have been adopted see Constitution
of the United States.

America for Americans. — One of the cries of the
American party.

American Cato. — Samuel Adams was so called
from supposed resemblance of his character to that of
the Eoman. Adams was born in Boston 1722 and died
in 1802. He was a signer of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence.

American Fabius. — A name applied to Washington
because his generalship during the Revolution resembled
that of Fabius, a commander of ancient Eome, who,
having troops inferior to the enemy in discipline and
equipment, pursued a policy of avoiding pitched battles,
of wearying the enemy by long marches and of harassing
him at every opportunity.

American Knights. — An organization known as

DICTIOj^ARY of AMERICAN POLITICS. 19

the Knights of the Golden Circle had existed at the
South before the Civil War. It was composed of men
opposed to the North and anxious for separation. About
1862 this organization took root in the West, its prin-
cipal object being to hinder the draft of soldiers. It
was variously known as Mutual Protection Society, as
Circle of Honor, as the Circle, and as Knights of the
Mighty Host. The exposure of some of its signs and
secrets led the Confederate General Sterling Price to
organize in Missouri a new society known as the Corps
de Belgique, in honor of the Belgian consul at St. Louis,
Charles L. Hunt, who was Price^s principal assistant.
This organization finally became part of the Order of
American Knights, organized by C. L. Vallandingham,
of Ohio, and P. C. Wright, of New York. The object
of this society was to resist the draft and to encourage
desertion among Union soldiers, to aid the Confederates
by giving them information and by recruiting for their
ranks, and to establish a Northwestern Confederacy.
Some of the secrets of the order having been learned by
the Federal authorities, it was reorganized in 1864 ; its
new name was Order of the Sons of Liberty, or Knights
of the Order of the Sons of Liberty. Its organization
was of a military nature ; in 1864 the number of its
members was estimated at from 350,000 to 800,000,
among whom, it is said, was Jefferson Davis ; among its
Supreme Commanders were Wright and Vallandingham.
H. H. Dodd, one of its highest officers, was arrested for
conspiracy against the government, but he ultimately
escaped punishment. . Locally the order was known by
different names ; in Illinois branches were known as
Illini, Peace Organization, Democratic Invincible Club;
in Kentucky, as Star Organization, Democratic Eead-
ing-room ] in Missouri, as American Organization ; in
New York, as McClellan Minute Men. With the war,
of course, its reason for beicg came to an end.
American Organization. {See American Knights.)
American Party. — I. From the beginning of the
government, movements against aliens have been com-
mon. In New York City, a center of foreign population.

20 DICTIOMAR V OJ^ AMEktCAM POLITICS.

this subject had, from time to time, been agitated, and
after a period of success in 1844, it had again sunk out
of view. About 1852, when the Whig party was break-
ing asunder, a secret, oath-bound organization, said to
have been called " The Sons of "IQ," or '' The Order of
the Star-Span gled Banner,^' was formed. Those of its
members that had not been admitted to the higher de-
grees were kept in ignorance of the aims and name of
the organization, and their constant answer of " I don^t
know " to questions regarding the society gave them the
title of ^^Know-Nothings." All meetings of the party
were secret. It carefully avoided the subject of slavery,
and attempted to draw the voters that were tired of
agitation on that subject, by confining itself to vigorous
opposition to Catholics and aliens. Its principle was
'* Americans must rule America.^' The first national
convention of the party met in February, 1856. The
day previous a secret convention of the order had
adopted sixteen resolutions abolishing much of the
secrecy, demanding the lengthening of the residence
necessary to naturalization and condemning Pierce's
administration for ^^ reopening sectional agitation by
the repeal of the Missouri compromise. '^ The refusal to
consider a resolution regarding the restriction of slavery
led to the withdrawal of about fifty "Anti-Nebraska''
or "North" American delegates. Millard Fillmore, of
New York, was then nominated for President and
Andrew Jackson Donelson for Vice-President. These
nominations were endorsed by a Whig convention in
September. Fillmore carried but one State, Maryland,
while his total popular vote was about 850,000. In 1860
Presidential candidates were again nominated, but under
another party name. {See Constitutional Unio7i Party,)
After Fillmore's defeat, the party in 1857 carried the
State elections in Ehode Island and Maryland, and in
1859 it was still represented by a few members in Con-
gress. The party never had any foothold in the West,
its strength lying in the Middle and Southern States.
(See Anti-Masonic Parties. )
II. The second party of this name was founded on

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 21

opposition to secret societies, unlike the first, which had
itself been such a society. The name was adopted by
the members of the National Christian Association when
that body began to mingle in politics Its platform de-
manded prohibition of the sale of liquor, recognition of
the Sabbath, the withdrawal of the charters of secret
societies and legislative prohibition of their oaths, arbi-
tration of international disputes, the introduction of
the Bible into schools, the restriction of land mon-
opolies, resumption of specie payments, justice to the
Indians and a direct popular vote for President and
Vice-President. The origin of the party is as follows:
The meeting in 1872 in Oberlin, Ohio, of the National
Christian Association was adjourned in order to allow a
political mass meeting in sympathy with its views to be
held. This meeting nominated Charles Francis Adams
for President. This organization for political purposes
was completed at a convention in Syracuse, New York,
in 1874, and the name American party was adopted. A
convention at Pittsburgh, June 9, 1875, adopted a plat-
form of the principles above set forth and nominated
James B. Walker, of Illinois, for President. In 1880
nominations were again made; in 1884 the nominee, S.
C. Pomeroy, withdrew in favor of St. John, the Prohi-
bition candidate, on his assurance that he '^ stood on
every plank of the American platform.^' The party is
inclined to endorse the Prohibition candidates if these
are satisfactory, on the score of the secret society plank.
III. This party was organized by a convention held
in Philadelphia September 16-17, 1887. Its platform
declares the '^ present system of immigration and natural-
ization of foreigners . . . detrimental to the welfare
of the United States;" it demands its restriction and
regulation so as to make fourteen years' residence a pre-
requisite of naturalization, and excludes from the
benefits of citizenship all anarchists, socialists and other
dangerous characters; it demands free schools; con-
demns alien proprietorship in the soil and grants of
land to corporations; demands the establishment of a
navy and the construction of fortifications and a judi-

32 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

cious system of internal improvements ; it reasserts the
''American principles of absolute freedom of religious
worship and belief/^ and ''the permanent separation of
Church and State/' and declares in favor of the enforce-
ment of the Monroe Doctrine. The completion of the
organization of the party is going forward rapidly.

American System. — In the debates which resulted
in the tariff law of 1824, Henry Clay called his plan of
protective duties and internal improvements the " Amer-
ican system/' The term is usually restricted, however,
to denote the policy of protection to home industries by
means of duties on im"Dorts. (See Tariffs of the United
States. )

American Whigs. — In England, before the Ameri-
can Eevolution and after it, too, the Whigs were the
party that struggled against the extension of the royal
prerogative; the Tories upheld it. So it naturally fol-
lowed that Americans opposing the oppression of Great
Britain likewise took the name of Whigs. They were
known as American Whigs. The name was first used
in New York in 1768. The name Tory was by contrast
employed to designate partisans of Great Britain. After
the revolution there was thus but one party, the Whigs.
The estates of some of the Tories had been confiscated,
others had left the country and those that remained were
left without a cause. The Whigs soon broke up into fac-
tions, the Strong-Grovernment Whigs and the Particular-
ists, and these respectively gave rise to the Federalists
and Republicans.

Americans Must Rule America, — One of the
mottoes of the "Know-Nothings.^'

Americans, The, Must Light the Lamps of
Industry and Economy. — This occurs in a letter of
Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, Secretary of
Congress for fifteen years. It was written by him in
1765 from London immediately after the passage of the
Stamp Act. He was at that time the London agent of
Pennsylvania.

Ames, Fisher, was born m Dedham, Massachusetts,
April 9, 1758, and died July 4, 1808. He was a lawyer.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 23

graduating at Harvard. In politics a Federalist, he
served in the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1797,
where he held foremost rank as an orator, his best known
speech being the one in favor of Jay's treaty.

Amistad Case, The. — In June, 1839, the schooner
L'Amistad sailed from Havana for Principe with a num-
ber of slaves that had been kidnaped in Africa. The
slaves overpowered the whites, and killed all but two.
These white men steered the vessel northward instead
of to Africa as directed, and soon the vessel was seized
and taken into New London, Conn., by Lieutenant
Gedney of the United States brig Washington. The
Spanish Minister requested the delivery of the slaves to
be taken to Cuba for trial. President Van Buren was
desirous of granting this request as a matter of comity,
but the Anti-Slavery Society procured counsel, and the
District Court of the United States decided that even
by the Spanish laws the slave trade was illegal, and tlie
negroes were free men. The Circuit Court affirmed
this decision, and so, in March, 1841, did the Supreme
Court, where John Quincy Adams devoted himself to the
cause of the negroes without remuneration. The
negroes were sent back to Africa in an American vessel.

Amnesty, Proclamation of. {See Proclamation of
Amnesty. )

Anarchy Poles. — A derisive name for Liberty Poles,

Ancient Mariner of the Wabash. — A name ap-
plied to Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, who was
Secretary of the Navy under President Hayes.

Annapolis Academy. {See United States Naval
Academy.)

Annexations.- — The territory of the United States
at the commencement of our existence as a nation com-
prised all our present territory between the Atlantic on
the east, the Mississippi on the west, British America
on the north and the thirty-first degree of north lati-
tude on the south, with a few slight differences owing
to subsequent re-arrangements of boundary lines. There
have since been six different additions made to our ter-
ritory, which have brought it to its present extent.

Ji4 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

I. Louisiana. — Before the year 1763, France owned
what was known as the Province of Louisiana, a vast region
which comprised, east of the Mississippi, the territory
south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude and as
far east as the Perdido Kiver, and, west of the Missis-
sippi, the whole of the present Louisiana, Arkansas,
Missouri, Iowa, JSebraska, Dakota, Montana, Idaho,
Oregon and Washington, that part of Minnesota west
of the Mississippi, Wyoming and Colorado east of the
Eocky Mountains and north of the Arkansas River,
and all but a small southwestern section of Kansas and'
the narrow northwestern strip of Indian Territory. By
the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which closed our French
and Indian War, the French territory east of the Mis-
sissippi passed to England, and that west of the Missis-
sippi to Spain. By the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which
ended the Revolution, England gave Florida back to
Spain. During the first years of our national history,
therefore, Spain owned the western shore of the Missis-
sippi and both shores at its mouth. It was soon seen
that our citizens who were settling along the Mississippi
would have their commerce threatened and hampered
by Spain, especially as that country at first refused us
the free navigation of the river. It was not until 1795
that a treaty was negotiated by Thomas Pinckney,
whereby Spain granted us free navigation of the river
and the right to use New Orleans, or some other place
which would be provided, as a place of deposit for
merchandise. In 1800 a secret treaty was negotiated
between France and Spain by which the latter *' retro-
ceded" to France the Province of Louisiana. Napo-
leon, then First Consul of France, threatened to send
an army and fleet to New Orleans. It was feared that
French ambition in Louisiana and Spanish designs in
Florida would ultimately prove hurtful to us. In 1802
the right of deposit in New Orleans was taken away,
and no other place was designated. The western por-
tion of the United States clamored for some govern-
mental action. Congress appropriated 12,000,000 for
the purchase of New Orleans, and President Jefferson,

DICTIONAR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 25

in January, 1803, sent James Monroe as minister extra-
ordinary with discretionary powers, to act with our
Minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, in the pur-
chase. Napoleon at this time found himself burdened
with debt and threatened with an English war, and
proposed to sell the whole Province of Louisiana. A
convention to that effect was speedily arranged and
signed on April 30, 1803, by Livingston and Monroe for
the United States, and Barbe-Marbois for France. The
price agreed upon to be paid was $15,000,000, of which
13.750,000 were claims of our citizens against France,
which the United States agreed to assume. The people
of the United States as a whole rejoiced, though the
Federalists claimed that the measure was unwarranted
by the Constitution, and even Jefferson thought a con-
stitutional amendment v/ould be necessary. The pur-
chase, however, was finally accepted without an amend-
ment, and was generally acquiesced in. An early session
of Congress was called for October 17, 1803. Two days
later the treaty was ratified by the Senate, and on
October 25th the House passed a resolution to carry it
into effect by a vote of ninety to twenty-five, the Fed-
eralists voting in the minority. Napoleon accepted six
per cent, bonds, payable in fifteen years, for this terri-
tory, which more than doubled the area of the United
States. Concerning this purchase Livingston is said to
have exclaimed: ''We have lived long, but this is the
noblest work of our whole lives. ^^ And Napoleon is
eaid to have remarked: "I have just given to England
a maritime rival that will, sooner or later, humble her
pride."" Portions of the boundary line of this pur-
chased territory were in dispute for a long time, but so
far as Spain was concerned, the differences of" opinion
were settled by the treaty of 1819 (see next section of
ths article), and the treaty of 1846 with Great Britain
settled the remainder. {See Northwest Boundary.) The
region acquired by this purchase was divided into the
Territory of Orleans and the Territory of Louisiana.
II. Florida. — When Great Britain in 1763 acquired
ihat part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi from

26 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

France, and Florida from Spain [see preceding section
of this article), she joined her portion af Louisiana to
Florida and divided by the Apalachicola River West
from East Florida. Both of these passed to Spain in
1783. Spain claimed that when, in 1800, she '' retro-
ceded " Louisiana to France, she only gave back what
she had obtained from that country, and that West
Florida, which she obtained from England, still re-
mained hers. The United States maintained that Spain
had given to France the whole original extent of
Louisiana, and that Florida west of the Perdids was a
part of our purchase from France in 1803. Our govern-
ment did not press this claim till 1810, but then, under
direction of the President, Governor Claiborne, of the
Territory of Orleans, took possession of all West Florida
except Mobile, and in 1813 General Wilkinson obtained
possession of Mobile also. There was a growing desire
m the United States to seize East Florida. Jongress as
early f\s 1811 passed secret acts authorizing the Presi-
dent to take '^ temporary possession ^^ of it, though
nothing came of this. In 1814 and 1818 Jackson made
raids into the coveted territory {see Indian Wars),
which seemed to show to Spain the danger her territory
was in. She did not think it wortn defending, and on
February 22, 1819, the Spanish Minister at Washington
signed a treaty by which Florida was ceded to the
United States. Our government in return assumed
claims of its citizens against Spain to the amount of
15,000,000, and accepted the Sabine River as the eastern
boundary of Mexico. By the same treaty Spain ac-
cepted the forty-second degree of north latitude as the
northern limit to her claims of territory west of the
Rocky Mountains. The United States Senate at once
ratified this treaty, but Spain delayed till early in 1821,
and in July of that year possession was surrendered.

III. Texas. — Previous to 1819 the United States had
claimed as part of the Louisiana purchase the region
known as Texas as far as the Rio Grande River, but by
the Spanish treaty of that year yielded its claim. Soon
afterward, inhabitants of the United States began to

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 27

remove to Texas, where they obtained grants of land
and settled. It thus grew into a State which was closely
allied to the United States. This emigration to Texas
and the subsequent annexation were part of the political
scheme of the South to maintain its power in Congress
by the addition of slave-territory, to offset the creation
of free States in the North. In 1827 and 1829, Clay
and Calhoun, as Secretaries of State, tried to obtain
Texas by purchase, offering 11,000,000 and 15,000,000,
but without success. In March, 1836, Texas, dissatis-
fied with the government of Mexico, declared its inde-
pendence. A short war followed. The Mexicans
committed massacres at Goliad and the Alamo (see
Thermopylm of Texas), but on April 10th, at the San
Jacinto, Santa Anna, the Mexican President, with
6,000 men, was badly defeated by 700 men under
General Sam. Houston, the commander of the Texan
forces. Santa Anna agreed to a treaty which rec-
ognized the independence of Texas. This was not
ratified by Mexico, but in March, 1837, the United
States recognized the independence of the Eepublic of
Texas, and soon England, France and Belgium did
likewise. In 1837 Texas made application to Congress
for annexation, but with no immediate result. The
presidential campaign of 1844 turned largely on this
question. The Democratic convention nominated Polk,
who favored annexation, instead of Van Buren, who
opposed it. Clay, the Whig candidate, was also sup-

Sosed to be against the project. In the meantime,
ialhoun, Secretary of State, had negotiated a treaty of
annexation with Texas in April, 1844, including the
territory between the Nueces and Eio Grande Eivers,
disputes as to which finally led to the Mexican War
{which see). This treaty failed of ratification at the
hands of the Senate. Polk was elected, partly by reason
of the votes thrown away on Birney {see Liberty Party),
but his election was taken as a sign of popular approval
of annexation, and Congress and Tyler's administration
now became attached to the project. Early in 1845
Congress authorized the President to negotiate a treaty

or THe r A

university)

28 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

of annexation. Tyler hastened to accomplish the object,
though without a treaty, and on the last day of his term
sent a special messenger to Texas. This emissary on
June 18th secured the consent of the Congress of Texas,
which was ratified by a popular vote on July 4th. A
resolution for the admission of Texas as a State was
passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of
one hundred and forty-one to fifth-six on December 16,
1845, and in the Senate by a vote of thirty-one to thir-
teen on December 22d, and Texas was declared a State
of the Union on December 29, 1845.

IV. New Mexico a^td Upper Californ^ia. — The
name New Mexico was originally applied to the territory
now known as Utah, Kevada and large portions of
Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Upper California
comprised what is now the State of California. These
regions, which belonged to Mexico, were conquered
during the Mexican War, and by the treaty of 1848,
which ended that contest, passed to the United States.
{See Treaty of Guadalujje Hidalgo. ) Our government
paid to Mexico for this cession 115,000,000, and assumed
debts due from Mexico to our citizens amounting to
$3,250,000. A portion of this acquisition (that part of
New Mexico east of the Kio Grande) was claimed by
Texas, and one of the provisions of Henry Clay^s Om-
nibus Bill, passed in 1850, provided for the payment of
$10,000,000 to Texas in satisfaction of her claim.

V. Gadsdek Purchase. — Disputes still remained
with reference to those portions of Arizona and New
Mexico south of the Gila River, and Mexican troops
were sent thither. Trouble was averted, however, by
the Gadsden Treaty, December 30, 1853, so called be-
cause it was negotiated by our Minister to Mexico,
General James Gadsden. By this treaty the United
States obtained the disputed territory, for which we
paid $10,000,000.

YI. Alaska.— By a treaty of March 30, 1867, ratified
by the Senate June 20th of the same year, Russia ceded
to the United States what is now the Territory of
Alaska. The price paid was $7,200,000. The following

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 39

table sliows the original area of the United States and
the areas of the various annexed regions:

SQUARE MILBS.

United States in 1783 827,844

Louisiana (1803) 1,171,931

Florida (1819) ,. 59,268

Texas (1845) 376,133

Mexican Cession (1848) 545.7*3

Gadsden Purchase (1853) 45,585

Alaska (1867) 577,390

Present area 3.603,884

Subsequent measurements and changes in boundaries
have somewhat changed these figures. {8ee Area of the
United States.) For propositions concerning the an-
nexation of Cuba and Santo Domingo, see Cuba, An-
nexation of; Santo Domingo, Annexation of {See also
Territories. )

Annual Message of the President to Congress.
{See President's Message.)

Another County Heard From. — During the ex-
citement incident to the Presidential campaign of 1876,
this phrase gained currency. The returns were very
slowly received from some of the doubtful States, espe-
cially in Florida, and each addition to the uncompleted
vote was hailed as above.

Anti-Federal Junto. — When it was proposed in the
Pennsylvania Legislature to issue a call for a convention
to ratify the United States Constitution, nineteen of the
members withdrew, leaving the House without a quorum.
Enough of these were, however, dragged to the House
to allow business to be transacted. September, 1787;
sixteen of these same members signed an address against
the Constitution; this address contained so many mis-
statements that it soon became an object of ridicule.
To the signers and their followers the name of Anti-
Federal Junto was given.

Anti-Federalists. — Those that were in favor of the
adoption of the Constitution when that instrument was
before the people for ratification were called Feder-
alists; those opposed, Anti-Federalists. The objections
of these latter may be stated as follows: It was feared

:30 DICI'IONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

that contests between the States and the Federal gov-
ernment would follow, with the re-«^ult either that the
Union would go down or that the central government
would usurp the sovereign powers of the States; further
objections were that it contained no bill of rights, no
safeguards of liberty, but was just such an instrument
as ambitious men would desire for the purpose of
furthering their plans. The party was composed prin-
cipally of local politicians who were jealous of enlarged,
political relations and of farmers who were fearful of ad-
ditional taxes. In two States their efforts were of avail,
in Ehode Island and North Carolina. In Pennsylvania
they offered considerable opposition but were overborne.
(iS'ee Anti-Federal Junto.) In New York a deadlock
between them and the Federalists was the cause of that
Staters failure to choose electors for the first President.
After the adoption of the Constitution the same fears
that had made them oppose it, now made them insist on
strict construction of its provisions. In Congress they
opposed Hamilton's financial measures, but they were
without organization, and the issue that had called them
into life being dead, the party had little existence ex-
cept in name. By the year 1793 it had become a part
of the Republican party.
Anti-Ku-Klux Act. {See Ku-Klux Act.)
Anti-Lecompton Democrats. — A name applied to
those Northern Democrats, among them Stephen A.
Douglas, that opposed the admission of Kansas under
the Lecompton Constitution (tvMcTi see).

Anti-Masonic Party. — In 1826 William Morgan of
Batavia, Genesee County, New York, who had declared
his intention of publishing a book containing the secrets
of the Society of the Free Masons, was arrested for debt.
On his release he was at once hurried to a close carriage
and taken to Niagara; he was never again heard from.
Some time afterward a body, asserted by some to be his,
was found in the river below the falls. The affair
created enormous excitement and raised insuperable
prejudices against all Free Masons in a large part of the
community; the prejudice was carried even into politics

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 31

tod many citizens refused to vote for Masons, men, as
they declared, who considered the edicts of their fra-
ternity as above the laws of the country. This feeling
led the National Republican party in New York to name
a State ticket containing no Masons, but an Anti-Mason
convention was, notwithstanding, held, and a ticket
pledged to oppose Free Masonry was nominated. The
vote polled by the Anti-Masons was comparatively small,
but the party increased so rapidly that by 1830 it was,
in New York, the great opponent of the Democrats,
whose head, Andrew Jackson, was a Mason. In 1831
the party held a national convention and nominated
William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmaker of Penn-
sylvania. This ticket received the electoral vote of only
Vermont. The party was swallowed up in the Whig
party, of which it remained a powerful faction. It
maintained a separate existence only in Pennsylvania
where in 1835 its nominee for governor was elected.
(See American Party II.)

Anti-Monopoly Party. — The Anti-Monopoly Or-
ganization of the United States met at Chicago May 14,
1884, and nominated Benjamin F. Butler of Massachu-
setts for the Presidency. It adopted a platform de-
manding economical government and the enactment
and enforcement of equitable laws, including an Inter-
State Commerce Law (one has since been enacted),
establishing Labor Bureaus, providing Industrial Arbi-
tration, a direct vote for Senators, a graduated income
tax, payment of the national debt as it matures, and
*' fostering care^^ for agriculture; while it denounced
the tariff and the grant of land to corporations. Their
nominee was also selected by the Greenback Labor
party, the Joint ticket being known as the People^s
party. It polled 130^000 votes.

Anti-Nebraska Men. — A name applied to the
Northern Whigs that opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
in 1854. These were joined by Democrats of similar
views, and together they controlled the House in the
Thirty-fourth Congress. The Eepublican party sprang
from them.

32 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Anti-Prohibitionists are those who oppose the
adoption of laws prohibiting the sale of liquor for a bev-
erage.

Anti-Renters, The.— Portions of the land in
Albany, Eensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Delaware, Scho-
harie and Otsego counties in New York State were origi-
nally part of large estates belonging to the old Dutch
patroons, as they were called. The tenants held the
farms by perpetual leases on rents payable in produce.
These estates were owned by several of the old families
of the State, the Livingstons, the Van Rensselaers, and
others. The tenants had long been dissatisfied with
this arrangement, and the death, in 1839, of Stephen
Van Rensselaer brought matters to a head. Stephen
Van Rensselaer had allowed the rents to fall largely in
arrears; his son now attempted to collect these rents and
was met by organized opposition. Men disguised as
Indians terrorized the region. Attempts of the sheriff
to collect the rents were likewise unsuccessful; the
militia that accompanied him was largely outnumbered
and the attempt failed. This was known as the '^ Held-
erberg War.^^ For a time the '* Anti-Renters ^' were a
political factor in the State, holding the balance of
power and using it to serve their own ends. In 1850
the difficulty was compromised, the owners of the
manors selling the land to the tenants.

Anti-Slavery. (See Abolitionists.)

Anti-War Democrats. — The Democratic National
Convention met August 29, 1864, and among other
resolutions censuring the war acts of the government,
a resolution was passed declaring it to be '' the sense of
the American people that after four years of failure to
restore the Union by the experiment of war . . .
immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities,
with a view to an ultimate convention of the States
. . . to the end that . . . peace may be restored
on the basis of the Federal union of the States.'' Such
Democriats as favored these views were known as '* Anti-
War Democrats." The same term was applied to those
members of the early Democratic party that opposed the

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 33

war of 1812. They sided on this point with the Federal-
ists against the majority of their own party. Those who
opposed the war and wished for peace at any price were
called "submission men."

Articles of Confederation. — On June 11, 1776, the
Colonial Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, resolved
to appoint a committee, consisting of one member from
each colony, to prepare a form of confederation to be
entered into between the colonies. The committee re-
ported, a few changes were made in the wording of the
document that they submitted, and on November 15,
1777, it was agreed to by Congress. It was submitted
to the States for ratification, and it was provided that it
should be conclusive when signed by the delegates of all
the States, as these should authorize the ratification. On
the 9th of July, 1778, it was signed on behalf of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Ehode Island and
Providence plantations, Connecticut, New York, Penn-
sylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. It was signed
for North Carolina on July 21st, for Georgia on July
24th, and for New Jersey on November 26th. One
delegate of Delaware signed on Feburary 12, 1779, and
the other two on May 5th. On March 1, 1781, the
delegates of Maryland signed, and on the next day,
March 2, 1781, Congress assembled under its new
powers. By this instrument, known as the '^ Articles of
Confederation," the United States were governed before
the adoption of the Constitution. While these articles
gave to Congress power to perform many of the acts of
a sovereign government, they gave to it no power to
enforce its own commands, and as a' consequence it was
impossible in spite of strenuous efforts to raise revenue.
The debt, principal and interest, fell into arrears, the
soldiers of the Revolution remained unpaid and Con-
gress could not even induce the States to give it power
to retaliate on nations bent on ruining our trade. The
attendance of members in Congress grew smaller and
smaller, and it required an especial appeal to have the
quorum necessary for the ratification of the treaty of
peace with Great Britain. July 14, 1788, the ratifi-

84 Die TIONA RY OF A ME RICA N POLITICS.

cation by nine States of the present Constitution (pre^
pared by the Convention of 1787) was announced by
Congress. After January, 1789, the attendance of a few
members, who met and adjourned from day to day, gave
a nominal existence to Congress, and on March 2, two
days before the time fixed for the beginning of the new
government, even this pretence of existence wa^s dropped
and the old Congress was dead. The following is the
text of these articles:

AETICLES OF CONFEDEEATION AND PER^
PETUAL UNION

'Be,Vwe&rh the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay,
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut,
New york, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary-
land, [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia.

Article I. The style of this confederacy shall be, *'Thb
United States of America."

Article TI. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom
and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right,
which is not, by this confederation, expressly delegated to the
United States in Congress assembled.

Article III. The said States hereby severally enter into a
firm league of friendship with each other, for their common
defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and
general welfare ; binding themselves to assist each other agamst
all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them,
on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pre-
tense whatever.

Article IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual
friendship and intercourse among the people of the different
States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these
States, paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted,
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citi-
zens in the several States; and the people of each" State shall
have free ingress and egress to and from any other State, and
shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce,
subject to the same duties, impositions and restrictions as the
inhabitants thereof respectively ; provided, that such restric-
tions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of prop-
erty imported into any State to any other State of which the
owner is an inhabitant; provided, also, that no imposition,
duties or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property
of the United States, or either of them.

If any person guilty of, or charged with treason, f elonjr or
other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice,
and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon de-
mand of the governor or executive power of the State from

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS, 35

which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having
jurisdiction of his offense.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each cf these States
to the records, acts and judicial proceedings, of the courts and
magistrates of every other State.

Article V. For the more convenient management of the
general interests of the United States, delegates shall be an-
nually appointed in such manner as the Legislature of eacli
State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in
November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State
to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the
year, and send others in their stead for the remainder of the
year.

No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two,
nor by more than seven members, and no person shall be capa-
ble oi being a delegate for more than three yearg in any term
of six years, nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable
of holding any offtce under the United States for which he, or
another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees or emolument
of any kind.

Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of
the States, and while they act as members of the committee of
the States.

In determining questions in the United States in Congress
assembled, each State shall have one vote.

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be im-
peached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress ;
and the members of Congress shall be {jrotected in their per-
sons from arrest and imprisonment during the time of their
going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for
treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

Article Vl. No State, without the consent of the United
States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or re-
ceive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agree-
ment, alliance or treaty with any king, prince or State; noi*
shall any person holding any ofBce of profit or trust under the
United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolu-
ment, office or title of any kind whatever, from any king,
prince or foreign State; nor shall the United States in Congress
assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confeder-
ation or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent
of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accu-
rately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and
how long it shall continue.

No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may inter-
fere with any stipulations in treaties entered into by the United
States in Congress assembled, with any king, prince or State,
in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to
the courts of France and Spain.

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any
State, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary
by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defense of
such State or its trade ; nor shall any body of forces be kept
up by any State, in time of peace, except such number only as
in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled,

36 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for
the defense of such State ; hut every State shall always keep
up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufftciently armed
and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready
for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents,
and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equip-
age.

No State shall engage in any war, without the consent of
the United States- in Congress assembled, unless such State be
actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain
advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians
to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to
admit of a delay till the United States in Congress assembled
can be consulted ; nor shall any State grant commissions to
any ship or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal,
except it bo after a declaration of war bj; the United States in
Congress assembled, and then only against the Kingdom or
State, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so
declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by
the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be
infested by pirates, in which vessels of war may be fitted out
for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall con-
tinue, or until the United States in Congress assembled shall
determine otherwise.

Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for
the common defense, all officers of, or under the rank of colonel,
shall be appointed by the Legislature of each State, respect-
ively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner
as such State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be fille" up
by the State which first made the appointment.

Article VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses
that shall be incurred for the common defense, or general wel-
fare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled,
shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be
supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all
land within each State, granted to or surveyed for, any person,
as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall
be estimated, according to such mode as the United States in
Congress assembled shall from time to time direct and appoint.
The taxes for paying that i)roportion shall be laid and levied
by the authority and direction of the Legislatures of the several
States within the time agreed upon by the United States in
Congress assembled.

Article IX. The United States in Congress assembled shall
have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on
peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth arti-
cle: Of sending and receiving embassadors: Entering into
treaties and alliances ; provided that no treaty of commerce
shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective
States shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and
duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or
from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species
of goods or commodities whatever. Of establishing rules for
deciding, in all cases, what captures on land or water shall
be legal ; and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval
forces iu the service of the United States shall be divided or

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 37

appropriated : Of granting letters of marque or reprisal in
times of peace : Appointing courts for the trial of piracies and
felonies committed on the high seas ; and establishing courts,
for receiving and determining, finally, appeals in all cases of
captures; provided, that no member of Congress shall be
appointed a judge of any of the said courts.

The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the
last resort, on appeal, in all disputes and differences now sub-
sisting, or that hereafter may arise, between two or more
States, concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or an^ other cause
whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the
manner following: Whenever the legislative or executive
authority, or lawful agent, of any State, in controversy with
another, shall present a petition to Congress, stating the mat-
ter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall
be given, by order of Congress, to the legislative or executive
authority of the other State in controversy ; and a day assigned
for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who
shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commis-
sioners or judges, to constitute a court for hearing and deter-
mining the matter in question ; but if they cannot agree. Con-
gress shall name three persons, out of each of the United States,
and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately
strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number
shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number, not less
than seven, nor more than nine, names, as Congress shall direct,
shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out, by lot; and
the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of them,
shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine
the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges, who
shall hear the cause, shall agree in the determination. And if
either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, with-
out showing reasons which Congress shall judge sufficient, or
being present shall refuse to strilie, the Congress shall proceed
to nominate three persons out of each State; and the secretary
of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refus-
ing; and the judgment and sentence of the court, to be ap-
pointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and
conclusive. And if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to
the authority of such court, or to appear, or defend their claim
or cause, the court shall, nevertheless, proceed to pronounce
sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and
decisive; the judgment, or sentence, and other proceedings,
being in either case, transmitted to Congress, and, lodged
among the acts of Congress, for the security of the parties
concerned: Provided that every commissioner, before he sits
in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of
the judges of the Supreme or Superior Courts of the State where
the cause shall be tried, " Well and truly to hear and determine
the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment,
without favor, affection, or hope of reward : " Provided, also,
that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of
the United States.

All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed
under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdic-
tion, as they may respect such lands, and the States which

38 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of
them being at the same time claimed to have originated ante-
cedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition
of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally-
determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before
prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial juris-
diction between different States.

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the
sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and
value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the
respective States : Fixing the standard of weights and meas-
ures throughout the United States : Regulating the trade and
managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of
the States; provided that the legislative right of any State,
within its own limits, be not infringed or violated : Establish-
ing and regulating post-ofiices from one State to another,
throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage
on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to
defray the expenses of the said office : Appointing all officers
of the land forces in the service of the United States, except-
ing regimental officers: Appointing all the officers of the
naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the
service of the United States: Making rules for the govern-
ment and regulation of the land and naval forces, and directing
their operations.

The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority
to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be
denominated A Committep of the States, and to consist of
one delegate from each State ; and to appoint such other com-
mittees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the
general affairs of the United States under their direction : To
appoint one of their number to preside; provided, that no
person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than
one year in any term of three years: To ascertain the neces-
sary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United
States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying
the public expenses : To borrow money, or emit bills on the
credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the
respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed
or emitted : To build and equip a navy : To agree upon the
number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each
State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white in-
habitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding ;
and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the
regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm and equip
them, in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United
States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed and
equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the
time agreed on. by the United States in Congress assembled ;
but if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on con-
sideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State should
not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota,
and that any other State should raise a greater number of men
than its quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised,
officered, clothed, armed and equipped, in the same manner as
the quota of such State • unless the Legislature of such State

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 39

shall judge that such extra number cannot he safely spared
out of the same; in which case they shall raise, ofl&cer, clothe,
arm and equip, as many of such extra number as they judge
can be safely spared ^ and'the officers and men so clothed,
armed and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and
within the time agreed on, by the United States in Congress
assembled.

The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage
in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of
peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money,
nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sum avid
expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United
States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on
the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor
agree upon the numbers of vessels of war to be built or pur-
chased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor
appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine
States assent to the same ; nor shall a question on any other
point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined,
unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in Con-
gress assembled.

The Congress of the United States shall have power to
adjourn at any time within the year, and to any phice within
the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a
longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish
the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts
thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations as
in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of
the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered
on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate ; and the
delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request,
shallbe furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except
such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures
of the several States.

Article X. The committee of the States, or any nine of
them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress,
such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Con-

fress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time
o time, think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no
power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of
which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine
States, in the Congress of the United States assembled, is
requisite.

Article XI. Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and
joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted
into and entitled to all the advantages of this Union ; but no
other colony shall be admitted into the same unless such
admission be agreed to by nine States

Article XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed,
and debts contracted by or under the authority of Congress,
before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of
the present Confederation, shall be deemed and considered as
a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfac-
tion whereof the said United States and the public faith are
hereby solemnly pledged.

40 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determina-
tions of the United States in Congress assembled, on all ques-
tions which, by this Confederation, are submitted to them.
And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably
observed by every State ; and the Union shall be peri)etuai.
Nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any
of them, unless such alteration be agreed to, m a Congress of
the United States, and be afterward confirmed by the legis-
latures of every State.

And whereas, it hath pleased the great Governor of the
world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively
represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to
ratify, the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
Union :

Know Ye, That we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of
the power and authority to us given for this purpose, do, by
these presents, in the name, and in behalf, of our respective
constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and
every of the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein
contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage
the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide
by the determinations of the United States in Congress
assembled, on all questions, which, by the said Confederation,
are submitted to them ; and that the articles thereof shall be
inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent;
and that the Union shall be perpetual.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in
Congress.

Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the
ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-eight, and in the third year of the Inde-
pendence of America.

[Here follow the signatures of the delegates from New
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia. Forty-eight in all.]

Appointments to Office. (See Term and Tenure
of Office,)

Apportionment is the allotment to any portion of
the people of the right of selection of a member in a
legislative body, or the allotment to them of the duty of
providing a certain proportion of a tax. It may be based
on status, geographical divisions, or on numbers. The
United States Constitution, Article 1, section 3, appor-
tions two Senators to every State, a geographical appor-
tionment; in Article 1, section 2, the apportionment of
representatives is based on the number of free persons
(excluding Indians), plus three-fifths of all slaves, being

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 41

thus dependent partly on number and partly on status.
The Fourteenth Amendment does away with the limita-
tion as to status and bases the apportionment on num-
bers merely, excluding Indians and persons without
cause deprived of their right to vote. The Constitution
provisionally apportioned the representatives according
to the best information obtainable, assigning to each
State a specified number and provided for subsequent
periodical enumerations, establishing a minimum of
30,000 persons to one representative. In 1792 an ap-
portionment based on the census of 1790, assigned one
hundred and five members, one to every 33,000 inhabit-
ants, all fractions being disregarded, and in 1802 an
apportionment on the same terms was made based on
the census of 1800, the total of members being one hun-
dred and forty-one. The census of 1810 caused in 1811
one hundred and eighty-one members to be distributed
among the States, one member being assigned to 35,000
persons. The census of 1820 increased the number of
members to two hundred and twelve, and the number of
persons to whom one representative was assigned to
40,000. The census of 1830 resulted in a law giving
one member to every 47,000 people, a total of two hun-
dred and forty members. In all these apportionments
fractions had been disregarded, but the discussion fol-
lowing the census of 1840 ended in the adoption of the
principle of representation to fractions larger than one-
half. In this debate a proposition to force States to
elect by districts was voted down. By the act of 1842
there were two hundred and twenty-three members,
being one in 70,680 persons; six members being assigned
to States having fractions larger than one-half. In 1850
S. F. Vinton, of Ohio, amended the bill providing for
the taking of the census, so as to leave the apportion-
ment on the following basis in the hands of the Secre-
tary of the Interior. This law came to be known as the
Vinton Bill. As subsequently passed it provided for
two hundred and thirty-three members. The total
population of the country was to be divided by two hun-
dred and thirty-three, thus obtaining the number of

43 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

constituents of each member, then by dividing the total
population of each State by the basis thus obtained, the
number of representatives assia^ned to each State for full
constituencies would be obtained; the number of mem-
bers remaining was then to be apportioned among the
fractions until exhausted. One member was subse^
quently added to California. The ratio was one to
93,420. The principle of the Vinton Bill has since pre-
vailed in all of the apportionments. Based on the cen-
sus of 1860, two hundred and forty-one members were
apportioned, being one to every 126,840 persons. The thir-
teenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments abolished
the slaves as a basis for representation, but the provision
in the fourteenth amendment ordering a reduction in the
number on which the apportionment is to be based, in
cases of causeless deprivation of persons of the right to
vote, has been deemed impracticable and is now dis^
regarded. In 1872, four members were assigned to
States not having the full number required for one
representative, two hundred and seventy-nine were ap-.
portioned among the remaining States on the principle
of the Vinton Bill, and nine additional were subsequently
added to certain States, making a total of two hundred
and ninety-two, or one in 131,425 persons. The latest
apportionment took effect March 4, 1883. By it three
hundred and twenty-five members sit in Congress, being
one to every 151,912 persons.

Appropriations. — Article 1, section 7, clause 1 of
the Constitution provides that "All bills for raising
revenue shall originate in the House of Representa-
tives;" a similar privilege has been claimed by the House
in the case of appropriations of public money, but in
this case the claim has not been insisted on. Previous
to 1865 the appropriation bills were in the House con-
sidered by the Committee of Ways and Means, but in
that year the Committee on Appropriations was formed.
By a rule of the House and Senate, appropriation bills
must include only items authorized by existing laws, and
they cannot contain provisions changing existing laws.
But this rule is frequently disregarded. These bills

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 43

must be reported to the Committee of the Whole, and
may be reported at any time, taking precedence of any
other measures. This rule puts vast power into the
hands of the chairman of the committee, and of late
years this power has been used to choke discussion on
the subject of the tariff, by withholding the report of
the appropriation bills until the end of the session and
then introducing them at a time when the most urgent
duties of Congress having been performed, that topic is
most likely to come up for discussion. In the House
the yeas and nays on the passage of these bills must be
recorded. But bills are frequently passed under a sus-
pension of this rule. In the Senate this is not neces-
sary. The Appropriation Committee in that body was
organized in 1867, the Finance Committee having previ-
ously had that matter in charge. The appropriation
bills are made up from estimates furnished by the heads
of the executive departments; these are usually much
reduced in the House, and these estimates are again
usually raised by the Senate (which body has less politi-
cal capital to make out of a claim of economy) ; a com-
promise between the two usually results in appropri-
ations considerably lower than the amount asked for by
the department officers. This necessitates the passage,
at the beginning of every session, of a bill to supply the
deficiency of the previous appropriations; this bill is
known as the Deficiency Bill.

The annual appropriation made by th5 United States
Congress for the expenses of the Government for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, was $323,783,079, of
this amount over $135,000,000 was for pensions.

Besides these appropriations there are '' permanent
annual appropriations," or money expended by the
treasury by virtue of laws whose operation involves the
expenditure without a specific appropriation renewed
each year, as interest on the public debt. For the ex-
penditures of the government, 8ee Expenditures and
Receipts of the United States.

Arbitration, International. — The earliest method
of settling international disputes was by war. This

44 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

method has not yet entirely ceased, but the growth of
the industrial spirit among nations, whereby the prop-
erty subject to destruction in war has been vastly aug-
mented and peaceful habits have been cultivated, and
the growth of a spirit of equity in dealing with other
nations has ceased the settlement of many disputes in
modern times by arbitration instead of by war. Tlie
contesting nations select some arbitrator, or arbitrators,
to whom the disputed point is referred and whose deci-
sion is to be final, or subject to the approval of each,
according to the terms of the submission. The sub-
mission is sometimes the result of a treaty, and some-
times it merely grows out of state correspondence, and
is intended to clear the atmosphere in international dis-
cussions by the aid of an impartial opinion. The situa-
tion of the United States, remote from most foreign
nations, her lack of a large navy and standing army,
the peaceful habits of her people and the conciliatory
policy of her government from the outset, have inclined
her frequently in the history of her foreign relations to
submit disputes to arbitration. The Treaty of Wash-
ington was from this point of view a remarkable one,
both because of the importance of its subjects and the
success attending the reference of them to arbitration,
and its example has not been without its effect in in-
creasing respect both for the United States and the
method of arbitration among other nations.

Arctic Expeditions, American. — The first Ameri-
can expedition to the Arctic regions was made in 1850,
when the ships Advance and Eescue started in search
of the lost explorer Sir John Franklin and his party.
In October of the following year, after an absence of
nineteen months, they returned, having discovered only
supposed traces of the objects of their search, and leav-
ing their actual fate in entire uncertainty. The second
American expedition, having for its object the same
humane purpose, was due in a great measure to Dr.
Kane, and was made under the auspices of the Navy
Department, the Smithsonian Institute, the Geographi-
cal Society of New York, the American Philosophical

DtCTlONAkY OF AMERICA]^ POLITICS. 45

Society, and other scientific associations. This expedi-
tion was also unsuccessful so far as discovering any infor-
mation regarding the fate of Franklin. During 1864-^69,
the Monticello, Commander Charles F. Hall, readied
King William's Land, and in 1871, the Polaris reached
latitude 82 degrees 16 minutes north. The next expedi-
tion of particular importance was that of the Jeannette,
Commander Lieutenant De Long, 1879-^81. This un-
fortunate vessel was crushed June 13, 1881, in latitude
77 degrees 14 minutes 57 seconds north. In 1880 the
Oorwin, Commander Captain C. L. Hooper, who had
sailed for the relief of the Jeannette, reached Wrangell
Land; and in the same year the Eodgers, Commander
Lieutenant E. M. Berry, reached latitude 73 degrees 28
minutes north. The Greely expedition of 1881 reached
the highest latitude yet attained — 83 degrees 24 1-2
minutes north.

Arbor Day. — The first suggestion of tree planting
under the direction of state authority was made by B. Gr.
Northrop, then Secretary of the Connecticut Board of
Education, about 1865, in an official state report. In
1876 this same gentleman endeavored to stimulate " cen-
tennial tree planting '^ by the offer of prizes to the
children of Connecticut. But the idea of setting apart a
day for the work had originated with ex-Governor J. Ster-
ling Morton, of Nebraska, who about 1872 induced the
Governor of that state to issue a proclamation appointing
a day for the planting of trees throughout the state. A
year or two later the day was made a legal holiday by
enactment of the Legislature, and provision was made
for awarding premiums to those who put out the most
trees in it. It is said that nearly 700,000,000 Arbor
Day trees are now in thriving condition on the prairie
tracts of the state.

The example of Nebraska was soon followed by Kan-
sas, and with grand results. Arbor Day in Minnesota,
first observed in 1876, resulted, it is said, in planting
over a million and a half of trees. In Michigan the Arbor
Day law was passed in 1881, and in Ohio in 1882. Since

46 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

then Arbor day has been observed in Colorado, Wiscon-
sin, West Virginia, Indiana, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida,
Alabama, Missouri, California, Kentucky, Maine and
Georgia. In several other states its observance has been
secured by the recommendation of the Grange, the
Grand Army of the Eepublic, or by State agricultural
societies. While at the outset economic tree-planting
was the primary aim, the adornment of home and
school grounds soon followed. On the first Ohio Arbor
Day, the children of Cincinnati joined in an attractive
celebration, in the form of planting memorial trees
and dedicating them to authors, statesmen, and other
distinguished citizens. B. G. Northrop says, concern-
ing the value of the observance of Arbor Day: *' While
forests should not be planted on our rich arable lands,
there are in New England and all the Atlantic states
large areas of barrens worthless for field crops, that may
be profitably devoted to wood-growing. The feasibility
of reclaiming our most sterile wastes is proved by many
facts both at home and abroad. Our Atlantic sand
plains were once covered with forests and can be re-
forested. Over 10,000 acres on Cape Cod, which thirty
years ago were barren, sandy plains, are now covered
with thriving planted forests. ^^

Aristocrats. — A name applied by the Republicans
to a section of the Federalists in 1796. Also called the
British Party.

Arizona is a Territory of the United States. It
originally formed parts of the Mexican cession and the
Gadsden purchase. i^See Annexations IV and F.) It
was separated from New Mexico and organized by Act of
February 24, 1863. Phoenix is the capital. The popu-
lation in 1880 was 40,440 and in the last census (1890)
59,602. {See Governors; Legislatures.)

Area of the United States. — The area of the
various territories which have been acquired by the
United States from time to time is given under Annexa-
tions. The areas of the various States and Territories
and of the United States are given in the following

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 47

table, the figures including the gross land and water
areas as given in the census of 1890, except as to
Alaska, the extent of which is given as estimated by
the special agent for that census:

AREA IN
STATES AND TERRITORIES. SQUA^ MILES.

Alabama 52,250

Alaska Territory , 577,390

Arizona 113,020

Arkansas 53, 850

California 158,360

Colorado 103,925

Connecticut 4,990

Dakota, North 70,775

Dakota, South o 77,650

Delaware , 2,050

District of Columbia 70

Florida 58,680

Georgia 59,475

Idaho 84,800

niinois 56,650

Indiana -. 36,350

Indian Territory 31,400

Iowa 56,025

Kansas 82,080

Kentucky 40,400

Louisiana 48,720

Maine 33,040

Maryland 12,210

Massachusetts 8,315

Michigan , 58,915

Minnesota 83,365

Mississippi 46,810

Missouri , = 69,415

Montana 146,080

Nebraska 77,510

Nevada 110,700

New Hampshire 9,:305

New Jersey 7,815

New Mexico 122,580

New York 49,170

North CaroUna 52,250

Ohio 41,060

Oregon , 96,030

Pennsylvania. 45,215

Rhode Island 1,250

South Carolina 80,570

Tennessee 42,050

Texas.......... 265,780

Utah 84,970

Vermont 9,565

Virginia 42,450

Washington 69, 180

West Virginia 24,780

Wisconsin 56,040

Wyoming 97,890

Oklahama Territory 39,030

Delaware Bay 620

Rariton Bay and Lower New York Bay 100

Total United States 8,603,710

[(CNIVEESITI 1

48 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Arkansas. — The State of Arkansas was orii>inally a
portion of the Louisiana purchase. {^8ee Annexations I.)
It was separated as Arkansaw Territory from Missouri in
1819, and was admitted to the Union on June 15, 1836.
On May 6, 1861, a convention passed an ordinance of
secession, and the State was re-admitted to the Union
June 22, 1868. The capital is Little Rock. The popula-
tion in 1880 was 802,525, and in the last 1890, census
1,128,179. Arkansas sends five members to the House
of Representatives and has seven electoral votes; it is a
Democratic State. In 1881 the Legislature declared the
pronunciation of its name to be Ar-kan-saw. The name
is of Indian origin and has no known meaning. Arkansas
is popularly known as the Bear State, in allusion to the
figures on the coat of arms of Missouri, of which it was
once a part. {See Governors; Legislatures.)

Army of the United States. — On January 1,
1892, the army contained:

OFFICERS. EKfLISTED MEN. TOTAI/.

10 Cavalry regiments 432 6,050 6,480

5 Artillery regiments 282 3,675 3,957

25 Infantry regiments 877 12, 125 13,002

MisceUaneous 579 3,370 3,949

Total 2,170 25,220 27,388

The last division includes the engineer service, re-
cruiting parties, ordnance department, hospital service,
Indian scouts, West Point, signal detachments and gen-
eral service.

The army is commanded by three major-generals,
and six brigadier-generals. The pay of the officers is as
follows;

PAY DURING FIRST 5 YEARS Maximmn

of Service. Pay.

Major-General $7,500 10,500

Brigadier-Gfeneral 5,500 7,700

Colonel 3,500 4,500

Lieutenant-Colonel 3,000 4,000

Major 2,500 8,500

Captain, mounted 2,000 2.800

Captain, not mounted 1,800 2,520

First Lieutenant, mounted 1,600 2,240

First Lieutenant,not mounted 1,500 2,100

Second Lieutenant 1,400 1,960

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 49

The pay is graded, acccording to years of active service,
being increased at the rate of ten per cent, for every five
years of service until after twenty years' service the max-
imum is reached; in the case of colonels and lieutenant-
colonels the maximum is fixed somewhat lower. Officers
are allowed mileage at the rate of eight cents a mile for
every mile traveled under orders. The pay of the men
is graded from $13 a month and rations, for the first
two years, to $21 a month and rations after twenty
years' service. The retired list of the army is limited to
400 officers. Any commissioned officer that has served
thirty years may be retired on his own request at the dis-
cretion of the President, or having served forty years on
his own request absolutely; or having served forty-five
years, or having attained the age of sixty-two years, at the
discretion of the President, without any act of his own.
The pay is seventy-five per cent, of the pay allotted to
officers of his rank in active service at the time of retire-
ment. There are at present thirty-one general officers
on the list, being one general, four major-generals and
twenty-six brigader-generals. The general officers of the
army are at present (3892) as follows:

RANK. NAME. COMMAND.

Ma jor-General John M. Schofield United States Army.

Ma jor-Greneral Oliver O. Howard Depart, of the East.

Major-General Nelson A. Miles Depart, of Missouri.

Brigadier-General. . . .Thomas H. Ruger Depart, of California.

Brigadier-General Wesley Merritt Depart, of Dakota.

Brigadier-General David S. Stanley Depart, of Texas.

Brigadier-General John R. Brooke Depart, of the Platte.

Brigadier-General A .Mc D.McCook Depart, of Arizona.

Brigadier-G«naral A. V. Kautz Depart, of the Columbia.

The commanaers of the army have beeaas follows:

Major-General George Washington, June 15, 1775, to December 23, 1783.

Major-General Henry Knox, December 23, 1783, to June 20, 1784.

Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Harmar, General-in-Chief by brevet, Sep-
tember, 1788, to March, 1791.

Major-General Arthur St. Clair, March 4, 1791, to March, 1792.

Major-General Anthony Wayne, April 11, 1792, to December 15, 1796.

Major-General James Wilkinson, December 15, 1796, to July, 1798.

Lieutenant-General George Washington, July 3, 1798, to his death,
December 14, 1799.

Major-General James Wilkinson, June, 1800, to January, 1812.

Major-General Henry Dearborn, January 27, 1812, to June, 1815.

Major-General Jacob Brown, June, 1815, to February 21, 1888.

50 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICO.

Major-General Alexander Macomb, May 24, 1828, to June, 1841.
Major-General Winfleld Scott (brevet Lieutenant-General), June, 1841,

to Novemlier 1, 1861.
Major-General George B. McCiellan, November 1, 1861, to March 11, 1862.
Major-General H. W. Halleck, July 11, 1862, to March 12, 1864.
Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, March 12, 1864, to July 25, 1866, and as

General to March 4, 1869,
General W. T. Sherman, March 4, 1869, to November 1, 1883.
Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, November 1, 1883, to August 5, 1888.
Major-General J. M. Schofleld, August 5, 1888, to

The maximum strength of the army^ including officers
and men, as authorized by Congress at various times,
«ras as follows:

1789 ....1 regiment of Infantry, 1 battery of Artillery.. 840

1792 ....Indian War 5,120

1794 Peace organization 3,629

1801 Peace organization 5,144

1807 .. .Peace organization 3,278

1810 ....Peace organization 7,154

1812 ....War of 1812 11,831

1815 ....Warof 1812 9,413

1817—21 .... Peace organization 9,980

1822—32. . . .Peace organization 6,184

1833— 37.... Peace organization 7,198

183&-42.... Florida War 12,539

1843—46. . . . Peace organization 8,613

1847 .... Mexican War 17,812

1848 . . . .Mexican War 30,890

1840—55. . . . Peace organization 10,320

1856—61 ... Peace organization 12,931

1862 ....Civil War 39,273

1863— 66.... Civil War 43,332

1867 .... Peace organization 54,641

1868— 69.... Peace organization 52,922

1870 — Peace organization — 37,313

1871 ....Peace organization 35,353

1872—74 . . Peace organization 32,264

1875— 92.... Peace organization 27,489

The President of the United States is commander-in-
chief of the army (Constitution, Article 2, section 2),
and under him is the Secretary of War. {^8ee War Be-
partment. )

Arm-in-Arm Convention, — A name given to a con-
vention of Republicans that supported President John-
son's policy on reconstruction; it met in Philadelphia in
August, 1866. Its name arose from the fact that the
members from Massachusetts and from South Carolina
entered the convention together at the head of the
delegates.

Aroostook Disturbance. {8ee Northeast Bound'
ary. )

Arthur, Chester A. — Was born at Pairfield, Prank-
lin County, Vermont, October 5, 1830. During his

DICTIOI^AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 51

early youth his father moved to New York. He was a
graduate of Union College. He taught school for a time,
and from 1860 to 1863 he was engineer-in-chief on Gov-
ernor Morgan's staff and after 1862 inspector-general as
well. From 1871 to 1878 he was Collector of the Port of
New York. In 1880 he was elected Vice-President of
the United States under Garfield, and on the death of the
latter in September, 1881, he became President. He was
a Republican. During his administration the famous
Star Route Trials took place. Although mistrusted by a
portion of the country on first assuming the office, he
disappointed his enemies, by acquitting himself credita-
bly. He was a member of the Stalwart faction of the
Republican party before his accession to the Presidency.
He died in New York City on November 18, 1886.

Ashburton Treaty, The, was drawn up by Lord
Ashburton, Commissioner from Great Britain, and Daniel
Webster, Secretary of State under Tyler. It was signed
at Washington, August 9, 1842, ratified by the Senate
on the 20th of the same month, and proclaimed by th'"
President on the 10th of the following November. Be-
sides settling the northeast boundary (ivhich see), it pro-
vided that the United States should make common cause
with Great Britain in suppressing the slave trade, and
also provided for the extradition of persons charged with
certain crimes.

Ask Nothing but What is Right, Submit to
Nothing Wrong. — This was Andrew Jackson's con-
ception of what our foreign policy should be, as embodied
in instructions to our ministers abroad.

Assay Offices are establishments maintained by the
Government in which gold and silver bullion may be
deposited by citizens, they receiving its value, less charges
in return. There are five, namely: at New York City,
Bois6 City, Idaho; Helena, Montana; Charlotte, North
Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri. The total of their opera-
tions for the year ending July 1, 1887, was 4,483,651,897
standard ounces of gold, and 45,921,882,657 standard
ounces of silver.

Assembly. {See Legislature,)

52 DlCTtOl^AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Assembly, Right of. — The right of the people peace-
ably to assemble for discussion and mutual support in
lawful actions is implied in the republican form of Gov-
ernment. The first amendment to the Constitution
protects the right of assembly and petition for a redress
of grievances, so far as the National GoAiernment is con-
cerned. The State constitutions generally, if not always,
protect the right, so far as it comes within their scope.
But the right of the people to assemble to discuss mat-
ters of a public or private nature is to be distinguished
from the assembly with intent to commit violence on
persons or property, to resist the execution of the laws,
to disturb the public order or for the perpetration of
acts creating public terror or alarm. Such unlawful
assemblies are not protected by State or National Con-
stitutions.
Assessments, Political. {See Civil Service Reform, )
Associated Youth was a name given in 1798 to as-
sociations of young Federalists, who drew up addresses
in favor of the Federalist party and its principles, and
in other ways supported and aided it. They were largely
instrumental in spreading the custom of wearing black
cockades.

Asylum of the Oppressed of Every Nation. —
This phrase is used in the Democratic National Plat-
form of 1856, referring to the United States.

Athens of America, or Modern Athens. — A name
by which Boston, Massachusetts, is sometimes known in
recognition of its intellectual character.
Atherton Gag Laws. {See Gag Laws.)
Atherton Resolutions. {See Gag Laws.)
Attainder is the extinction of civil rights and privi-
leges in an individual, and the forfeiture of his property
to the government. In England, under the common
law, it followed as a matter of course on a conviction
and sentence to death for treason, and to some extent
on sentence for other crimes. A Bill of Attainder is a
legislative conviction of crime, with a sentence of death.
The accused may or may not be given a trial. Foreign
governments have employed this method of disposing of

DICTJONAR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 63

political offenders without giving them the opportunity of
a regular judicial trial. The crime against which Bills of
Attainder are usually directed is treason. Attainder fol-
lowing on sentence of death for treason formerly worked
forfeiture of the condemned person's estate to the govern-
ment, and by corruption of blood, as it is called, pre-
vented his heirs from inheriting. Legislative convictions
which impose punishments less than death are called Bills
of Pains and Penalties; they are included in the meaning
of the words, '' Bill of Attainder,^' used in the Constitu-
tion of the United States. That document prohibits the
passage of Bills of Attainder by Congress or any State
(Article 1, section 9, clause 3), and further provides,
concerning judicial convictions of treason (Article 3,
section 3, clause 2), that '*no attainder of treason shall
work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the
life of the person attainted. '^ The Supreme Court has
decided unconstitutional, as coming within the pro-
hibitions of the Constitution, an act of Congress aimed
at those who had engaged on the Confederate side in the
Civil War, requiring all persons to take an oath negativ-
ing any such disloyal action before they should be allowed
to practice in the United States Courts, {^ee Treason. )

Attorney General of the United States. (JSee
Justice, Department of.)

Bachelor President.— James Buchanan was the only
unmarried President of the United States, and was con-
sequently called as above. President Cleveland was at
the time of his inauguration unmarried, but he married
during his term of office, June 2, 1886.

Balance of Trade of a country is the difference in
value between its exports and its imports. The notion
long prevailed that an excess of exports over imports
was desirable, and this led to such a balance being
termed a balance in favor of the country, while a bal-
ance of imports over exports was considered unfavorable
or against it. This notion was based on the mistaken
idea that the balance of trade must be settled by imports or
exports of specie, the importation of which was regarded
as desirable. This view has, however, been entirely dis-

•54 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

carded by political economists. It is now known thai
in healthy and profitable trade imports must of necessity
exceed exports. A given quantity of merchandise ex-
ported from a country must, in order to yield a profit,
be sold in a foreign market at a price which includes
cost, insurance and freight to the foreign market and
reasonable profit to the merchants; if this increased sum
be invested in merchandise to be returned to the original
country its value there must of necessity be greater than
that of the exported articles. Not that transactions can
be thus traced except in isolated cases; we may indeed
assume a case of exports exclusively to England and of
imports exclusively from France, the trade between
these countries equalizing the transaction; for bills of
exchange and the other instruments of commerce render
very simple in practice even the cases most difficult to
trace in theory; the desire for gain leads every article to
find the market in which it is most valuable; in this
sense gold and silver are articles of commerce, and they
will not be exported unless their value in the other
country is greater than at home.

Ballot is any vote taken in such manner as to keep
secret the choice of each individual voting; it is distin-
guished from the vivd voce or open vote. In most of the
States vote by ballot is an old custom in popular elec-
tions. In many States it was made obligatory by consti-
tutions adopted in 1776. In New York it came into
partial use in 1778, and after 1787 it was universally
adopted there. Many of the Southern States voted
openly, but in all States except Kentucky this has been
superseded by the ballot; but even in that State the vote
for members of the House of Eepresentatives must be by
ballot in accordance with Federal laws. In eleven of the
States provisions in the constitution prescribe the open
vote for all proceedings of the Legislature. Where there
is no such provision the House may determine for itself
its method of voting.

Ballot- Box Stuffing" is a method of election fraud
and consists in arranging several ballots so as to appear
as but one, thus enabling an individual to cast several
votes.

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 5S

Bank Notes are obligations issued by a bank^, by
which it binds itself to pay a certain specified sum tcj
the bearer on demand. These notes will be taken wher-
ever the standing of the bank is known. Our National
bank notes are taken everywhere because protected by
government bonds deposited with the Treasurer of the
United States. Long experience has shown banks what
percentage of the amount of bank notes issued must be
kept on hand in actual specie to meet all demands likely
to be made on that score.

Bank of North America was the name of the first
bank of a national character incorporated in this coun-
try. It had a charter for ten years from 1781 from the
Confederation, but doubts as to its legality lead the bank
to seek and obtain a charter from the State of Pennsyl-
vania in 1783. In 1785 this latter charter was revoked,
but in 1787 it was renewed. It was located at Phila-
delphia.

Bank of the United States. — There have, in the
history of this country, been two such banks, the first
from 1791 to 1811, the second from 1816 to 1836. The
incorporation of the first of these was a part of Hamil-
ton's financial scheme, and it aroused great opposition.
Jelferson, Madison and others that subsequently formed
and became the leaders of the Eepublican party were
foremost in the opposition, which was based on the
lack of power on the part of Congress to charter any
such institution. The attitude of public men on this
measure was among the first indications of the direction
in which party lines would tend. Jefferson and the
future Eepublicans demanded a strict construction of
the Constitution, and denied the grant of any such
power to Congress in that instrument. Hamilton main-
tained that the right to charter a corporation was one
of the inherent privileges of a sovereign power, that the
Federal government was a sovereign power, and need
not therefore have such authority specifically granted,
and that the step was ^* within the sphere of the speci-
fied powers '^ of the government . enumerated by the
Constitution. The bill incorporating the bank became

56 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

law in 1791. The bank was to continue for twenty
years, its capital was to be 110,000,000, of which.
$2,000,000 was to be subscribed by the government. In
return the goyernment was to receive a loan of $2,000,-
000, repayable in yearly installments of $200,000. Con-
gress agreed to charter no other bank within twenty
years. The public subscriptions were to be payable
one-quarter in coin and three-quarters in three or six
per cent, national debt certificates. The bank was
authorized to establish branches, and its notes were to
be received in payments to the United States. Although
Jefferson had originally opposed the bank on the ground
of the unconstitutionality of its charter, he neverthe-
less while President recognized its constitutionality by
signing various acts affecting it, and in the courts the
legitimacy of its existence was never questioned. Its
efforts to obtain a renewal of its charter from the
United States at the expiration of its existence in 1811
were unsuccessful, as were the efforts to prolong its life
by a Pennsylvania State charter, and so it went out of
existence. The head office of the bank was at Phila-
delphia. The government stock in the bank was sold to
English bankers in 1802 at a premium of fifty-seven
per cent. The bank had paid dividends averaging over
eight per cent, per annum; while in liquidation it was
bought out by Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, one of
the stockholders, and continued by him as a private
institution.

In 1816 the second Bank of the United States was
incorporated. Public sentiment had been inclined in
favor of such a renewal by the financial difficulties
attending the war of 1812, but although the subject
was broached as early as 1814, it was two years later
before the act passed. This time it was the Federalists
that were opposed to it, and by in turn supporting and
opposing each of two rival plans, they had compassed the
defeat of both. The powers of the bank were much
the same as those of the first. Its capital stock was
$35,000,000, payable one-fifth in cash and four-fifths in
government stock. It was to have the custody of public

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 57

funds, and five of the twenty-five directors were to be
appointed by the government. Mismanagement brought
the bank into a precarious position, and the new bank
president was obliged, as a matter of necessity, largely to
curtail its loans. The stringency thus created awakened
considerable feeling against the bank. The first inti-
mation of any connection of the bank with politics was
the demand of certain of President Jackson^s political
friends for the removal of the president of a New Eng-
land branch who was politically obnoxious to them.
The president of the bank, Nicholas Biddle, refused,
denying any connection of his institution with politics.
President Jackson was opposed to the bank, and his
messages to Congress in 1829, 1830 and 1831 expressed
strong dislike of the institution. In 1832 a bill to re-
charter passed both Houses, but was vetoed by the
President and failed to pass over the veto. The elec-
tions of that year produced a House, the majority of
which, suppcM'ted the President. On the plea that the
bank was not safe, the President now removed the
government deposits and placed them with State banks,
which were called Banks of Deposit, and nicknamed
^^Pet Banks." Id this he was supported by the House,
which decided against a renewal of the charter and
ordered an investigation of the bank. Of this nothing
came. The bank was chartered by the State of Penn-
sylvania, and was thereafter known as the Nicholas Bid-
die's United States Bank. Only one more attempt to
establish such a bank was made. This was in 1844, while
Tyler was President. Two bills having that end in view
passed Congress, but they were both vetoed.

Bankruptcy is a state of inability to pay all debts; it
is also the process by which an individual may secure a
discharge of his indebtedness by surrendering his prop-
erty and complying with the law. The Constitution of
the United States (Article 1, section 8, clause 4) gives
Congress power "to establish . . . uniform laws
on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United
States." As the States also have the right to pass sim-
ilar laws affecting their own citizens whenever there is

58 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

no national law on the subject in force, it is customary
to distinguish between National and State laws by calling
the former bankrupt, and the latter insolvent laws.
Three times only in the history of the government has
there existed a bankrupt law. The first was passed in
1800 and was repealed in 1803; the second became law
in 1841, and was taken from the statute books in 1843;
the third had the longest life: it became law March 2,
1867, and was repealed on June 7, 1878, the repeal to
take effect September 1st of that year. There is at
present a considerable demand for another bankrupt law
to secure uniformity throughout the country.
Banks of Deposit. {See Deposit Banks.)
' Barbary Pirates. — Tne countries on the Mediter-
ranean coast of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic,
namely, Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli (which are
known collectively as the Barbary Powers) had been in
the habit of preying on the commerce of nations that
refused to pay a tribute to them. Shortly after the
Revolution the operations of these pirates were directed
against our commerce, to protect which treaties were
negotiated with the Barbary States, in 1786-7 with Mor-
occo, in 1795 with Algiers, in 1796 with Tripoli, and in
1799 with Tunis. By these treaties the United States
purchased immunity for its commerce by gross sums or
yearly tributes. This shameful course was made neces-
sary by our lack of an effective navy, which was due to
the action of the Republican party of those days. But
the government was now forced to organize a small navy,
which was found useful against Tripoli. That country,
becoming dissatisfied with the tribute, declared war in
1801. In 1803 some half a dozen American vessels were
dispatched to the Mediterranean. In October the frigate
Philadelphia ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli and
was captured. Decatur in the following February sailed
into the port at night, boarded the Philadelphia under
the guns of the enemy, killed or forced overboard every
one of her defenders, set fire to the vessel, and escaped
without losing a man and with only four wounded. A
land expedition conducted by General Eaton, American

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 50

Consul at Tunis, terminated the war and forced Tripoli
to make peace in June, 1805. In 1812 Algiers declared
war against the United States. As soon as the war then
commencing against England had been brought to an
end, our government turned its attention to Algiers.
The Algerian war was short and decisive. In the spring
of 1815 Commodore Decatur was sent with nine or ten
vessels to chastise the pirates. In June he captured the
largest of their frigates, and soon after took another ves-
sel. He then dictated a treaty to the Dey of Algiers,
which was signed June 30, 1815, relinquishing all claims
to tribute in the future. Tunis and Tripoli were next
forced to pay an indemnity for permitting British men-
of-war to seize American vessels in their harbors during
the war of 1812. Thenceforth there was no more tribute
paid to the Barbary States, and their depredations on
American commerce ceased. The troubles with these
countries had forced the formation of a navy on the
country, despite the wishes of the Eepublicans, and thus
prepared us for the war with England. They also led
to a slight increase in customs duties in 1804 and follow-
ing years for the purpose of forming the Mediterranean
Fund, as it was called, to protect American commerce.

Bargain. {See Political Bargain.) " '

Bar'l. — A slangy abbreviation for the word barrel,
used in politics to denote that which the "barrel^' is
supposed to contain, namely, money. Any rich politi-
cian who opens his coffers for the benefit of his party is
said to ''tap his barl.^^

Barnburners. — A name applied to the followers of
Van Buren, when in 1844 the Democratic party in New
York split into two factions. The story of a farmer that
burned his barn in order to free it from rats, was often
told and the case of the party likened to it. Hence the
name. Later they were known as the Softs or Soft-
Shells. Their opponents, while known as Barnburners,
were the Hunkers; while known as Softs, the Hards or
Hard-Shells. {See Free Soil parti/.)

Battle Above the Clouds, The.— The capture of
Lookout Mountain by General Joseph Hooker during
the Civil War, is known as the battle above the clouds.

60 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Bayard, James Asheton, was born in Pennsylvania,
in 1767. He was graduated at Princeton and then prac-
ticed law in Delaware. From 1797 to 1801 he represented
that State in Congress. He served in the Senate from
1804 to 1813. The posts of Minister to France and also
to Eussia were at different times offered to him, but
declined. He aided in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent.
He died August 6, 1815. He was a Federalist.

Bayard, James A., was born in Wilmington, Dela-
ware, November 16, 1799, and died June 13, 1880. He
served in the United States Senate from 1851 to 1864.
In 1867 he was returned to the Senate. He was the son
of James Asheton Bayard and the father of Thomas F.
Bayard. He was a Democrat.

Bayard, Thomas F., was born at Wilmington, Del-
aware, October 29, 1828. He is a lawyer by profession.
In 1853 he was appointed United States District Attorney
for Delaware, but resigned in the next year. He was
elected to the United States Senate for the term com-
mencing 1869, his father, James A. Bayard, being at
the same time re-elected to the other senatorship. He
continued in the Senate until appointed Secretary of
State by President Cleveland.

Beecher, Henry Ward, was born at Litchfield,
Connecticut, June 24, 1813; he died in Brooklyn March
8, 1887. After acting as pastor in two different Presby-
terian churches in Indiana, he was called to Plymouth
Church, Brooklyn, a Congregationalist organization.
Over this he presided until his death. He was a man of
independent and outspoken views, singularly eloquent,
and a leader in the Anti-Slavery agitation. He was a
liberal-minded man, active in politics and one of the
leaders of the revolt in the Republican party in 1884.

Bell, John, was born near •Nashville, Tennessee,
February 15, 1797, and died September 10, 1869. He
was a lawyer, a graduate of the University of Nashville.
He was a Congressman from 1829 to 1841, as a Whig;
also Secretary of War under Harrison and Tyler. He
became the presidential candidate of the Constitutional
Union party in 1860.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 61

Benton, Thomas Hart, was born near Hillsborough,
North Carolina, March 14, 1784; he died in Washing-
ton April 10, 1858. He was a lawyer in Nashville but
left the place after a street fight with Jackson. He
moved to Missouri, which State he subsequently repre-
sented. He was United States Senator from 1821 to
1851. From 1853 to 1855 he was in the House. He was
a Democrat, but opposed to secession and to slavery agi-
tation; this caused his defeat in several elections late in
life.

Berlin Decree. {See Emhargo Act.)

Biddle's, Nicholas, United States Bank. {8ee
Nicholas Biddle's United States Bank.)

Bi^ Ditch. — The Erie Canal was spoken of derisively
as '' Clinton's Big Ditch " before its success and import-
ance were made apparent.

Big Head is a political phrase to indicate an exalted
opinion of his own abilities on the part of a public man.

Big Knife.— A name applied to General Andrew
Jackson by the Southern Indians in recognition of his
military successes against them.

Bill of l8oo. — A law introduced in that year by Sen-
ator James Ross, of Pennsylvania, to regulate the elec-
toral count. It provided for a '^ grand committee '' of
six Senators, six Representative and the Chief Justice.
These, sitting in secret, were to settle all disputes con-
cerning electoral votes. The bill was amended in the
House so as to give to the committee the power merely
to take testimony, doubtful returns to be rejected only
by a concurrent vote of both Houses; this was amended
by the Senate so as to cause returns to be rejected unless
accepted by a concurrent vote. The bill was lost. The
bill is memorable as the first open attempt on the part
of Congress to arrogate to itself the duty assigned by the
Constitution to the President of the Senate of counting
the electoral votes.

Bill of Rights. — A bill of rights is the summary of
rights and privileges claimed by the people of a nation
against the tyrannous exercise of power by their rulers.
The Bill of Bi^jhts in England is an Act of Parliament

62 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

passed in 1689 by which the privileges claimed in the
petition of right that was presented to William and
Mary and acceded to by them on accepting the call to
the British throne, were enacted as fundamental princi-
ples of English liberty. The chief of these principles
had previously been asserted in the Magna Oharta in
1215, and the Petition of Right presented to Charles I
in 1628 (see tliose titles). The first six amendments to
the Constitution of the United States are sometimes
called our Bill of Rights. They are designed to prevent
tyrannous acts by the Federal government and to protect,
among other things, the freedom of religion, speech and
the press, the rights of assembly, petition, bearing arms,
and trial by jury, and the right to compensation for
private property taken for public uses. [See Eminent
Domain, Jury and Right of Assembly , (&c.) Most of
the State constitutions in a similar way secure these
rights to the people under their control.

Bills of Attainder. {See Attainder.)

Bi-metallism is the doctrine that two metals can and
ought, at the same time, in the same country, to be
adopted as standards of value, and to bear to each other
a fixed ratio established and recognized by the govern-
ment. The term is almost exclusively used in reference
to the metals gold and silver. Monometallism is the
doctrine that only one metal ought so to be used. It is
a proposition generally admitted by bi-metallists that at-
tempts to realize their object must fail unless the most
important commercial countries unite in fixing the ratio
between the metals. If different countries adopt a
double standard, selecting different ratios, the gold or the
silver, as the case may be, of every country, will leave it
to go to a country in which it happens to be rendered
more valuable, and thus the two metals will be separated
and the object fail. If any one country alone adopt a
double standard, its gold or silver will be exported accord-
ing as the market value of silver (in other countries a
mere commodity and not a standard of value) is lower or
higher than the value fixed by the government ratio.
{See Coinage,) Our country is monometallic, notwith-

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 63

standing the fact that there is silver in circulation; silver
is here coined only for the purposes of the government,
and an individual presenting silver bullion at our mints
and assay oflices cannot have the same coined into dol-
lars, as he can with gold. The coinage of bullion, aa
instanced in the case of gold, is called free coinage. Bi-
metallists regard the use of both metals as necessary, and
claim that the co-operation of the principal commercial
nations will suffice to establish it. Monometailists
maintain that practical business has brought all nations
to single standards, and that any change would be an
uncalled for interference with natural laws, the untram-
meled operation of which invariably conduces to the best
results.

Birney, James G., was born in Danville, Kentucky,
February 4, 1792, and died at Perth Amboy, New Jersey,
November 25, 1857. He was originally a slave-holder,
and at one time agent for a colonization society. In
1834 he freed his slaves and established an Abolition
newspaper. Fear of violence compelled him to leave
Danville, and subsequently Cincinnati, whither he had
moved. He came to New York, where he was secretary
of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1840 and 1844
he was the candidate for President of the Liberty party.
In 1842 he moved to Michigan, and a fall from his horse
disabled him from further political activity.

Black Cockade. — A black cockade worn on the hat
was an emblem adopted by the Federalists during the
troubles with France in 1797, when war seemed im^
minent. Its meaning lay in the fact that it had been a
part of the Continental uniform during the Eevolution,
and moreover it served as a contrast to the tri-color
cockade of France which the Kepublicans had aifected.
** Black Cockade Federalist'^ was a term of reproach ap-
plied to Federalists during the days of the party's decline.

Black Codes. (See Black Laws.)

Black Eagle. — In the National Kepublican Conven-
tion of 1884 General John A. Logan, who had been
proposed as the Republican candidate for President, wac
referred to by Judge West, the blind orator of Ohio, as
*' that grand, old Black Eagle of Illinois.''

64 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Black Friday.— On Friday, September 24, 1869, gold
sold as high as 162|. It had been quoted at 143^ in the
Gold Board in New York the previous evening. The
rise was in consequence of an attempt by '^ Jim"' Fisk,
Jay Gould and others to corner the gold market. It was
intended to force gold to 180. "fhis plan was thwarted-
by the offer of the Secretary of the Treasury late on
Friday to sell 14,000,000 of gold to the highest bidder
on the next day, and an offer to purchase government
bonds to the same amount. The effect of this corner
was a violent panic in the stock market; business was
upset, for merchants needed gold to pay at the Custom
House, and the general aspect was so threatening that the
day has been named as above. The Gold Board was so
convulsed that its officers deemed it best to suspend
business, and the Board remained closed until the Wed-
nesday following.

Black Hawk War. {See Indian Wars.)

Black Horse Cavalry is a name given to those legis-
lators (more or less numerous in every legislative body)
that act together for the purpose of exacting money from
friends of any measure under consideration and threaten
its defeat in case of non-compliance. Their number is
frequently great enough to be of considerable influence.

Black Jack. — A name by which Major General John
A. Logan was known on account of his swarthy com-
plexion, black hair and moustache.

Black Laws. — Laws passed in many of the Northern
States before the abolition of slavery requiring certain
acts to be performed by free negroes, as a condition to
their residing in those States, or prescribing disabilities
under which they labored. Such were laws requiring
them to file certificates of their freedom; forbidding
them to testify in cases in which a white man was inter-
ested; excluding them from the militia and from the
public schools, and requiring them to give bonds for
their good behavior.

Black Republicans. — The Republicans were so-
called by their opponents. The term was especially
applied by Southerners to anti-slavery members of that
party.

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 65

Blaine, James Gillespie, was born in Washington
County, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1830. He was in
early life a journalist. From 1863 to 1875 he was in
Congress, being Speaker during the last six years; from
1876 to 1881 he was United States Senator; in 1881 he
became Secretary of State under Garfield; soon after
Garfield^s death he resigned his position. He is a Re-
publican. In 1876 and 1880 he was a prominent candi-
date for the presidential nomination of his party; in 1884
he was nominated but defeated by a small majority,
owing to the defection of a part of the Republican party.
{See Indepe7idents.) In 1888 he wrote a letter saying
that his name would not be presented to the convention,
and in 1889 became Secretary of State, under Harrison.

Blockade is the prevention of neutral commerce with
an enemy^s coasts or ports. It is a measure well recog-
nized in international law as justified by the necessities
of war. Certain ports or portions of coast may be block-
aded, or the blockade may extend to all parts of the ene-
my^s dominions bordering on the sea. One side of a
river may be blockaded while the other remains free. It
is now well settled that in order to render a neutral ves-
sel liable to the penalty for trying to evade or ^^run"'' a
blockade the latter must be effective and due notice must
be given of it. A cabinet or paper blockade is one that
is merely announced or ordered, but which is not or can-
not be enforced. Such are not recognized as effective.
The blockading nation must maintain a sufficient num-
ber of vessels to at least render an attempt to run the
blockade hazardous. The notice may be actual, by in-
forming vessels individually as they approach a block-
aded coast or by calling on them to leave blockaded
waters, or it may be constructive, by giving diplomatic
notice to neutral governments. A neutral vessel is
equally liable to seizure whether seeking access to or de-
parture from a blockaded region. The penalty is con-
fiscation of the vessel and of the cargo also, if it appears
that the latter was the object of the attempted evasion
of the blockade. Neutral war ships are sometimes |)er-
mitted to enter a blockaded port as a matter of comity.

66 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

and vessels in danger from stress of weather may seek
shelter in such harbor if there be no other refuge. A
blockade, when terminated, is said to be raised, and due
notice of this fact should be given to neutral govern-
ments.

Blockade-Runner. — A term applied to a vessel that
endeavors to evade the blockade of a coast or harbor.
During the Civil War many vessels succeeded in running
the Union blockade of the Southern harbors and coasts,
carrying cotton from the Confederates and bringing
food supplies and munitions of war to them.

Bloody Bill. {See Force Bill.)

Bloody Shirt. — Since the Civil War, politicians of
the Eepublican party have from time to time attempted
to draw votes and gain partisan advantages by appeals
to the passions raised by that struggle. The phrase,
'^ bloody shirt,'' is employed in reference to the now
dead issues involved in that struggle, and a politician
reviving them for partisan purposes is said to " wave
the bloody shirt.''

Bluebacks. — A name popularly applied to the Con-
federate currency by reason of its appearance, and to
distinguish it from the greenbacks of the North.

Blue Hen. — A name sometimes applied to the State
of Delaware, originating, it is said, in a remark of Cap-
tain Caldwell, of the First Delaware regiment, that no
fighting cock could be truly game whose mother was not
a blue hen. The State was once proud of its famous
blue hen breed of fighting cocks.

Blue Laws are such as relate to matters that are at
present usually left to the private conscience of indi-
viduals. Before the Eevolution the statute books of
the Colonies were full of laws enforcing attendance on
church worship, forbidding smoking in the public
streets, prohibiting theatres, and the like. Some of
the States, the older ones especially, still retain laws
forbidding blasphemy and regulating work and travel
on Sundays. Connecticut has acquired unpleasant
notoriety in this respect. Such Blue Laws as still
remain unrepealed in the various States are seldom en-
forced at the present time.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 67

Blue- Light Federalists. — This term was applied
to the Federalist opponents of the war of 1812. The
harbor of New London was at that time blockaded by
the British. Two frigates, with Decatur in command,
were in the harbor, and several attempts on their part
to get to sea at night failed. Decatur maintained that
on each occasion blue lights had been burned at the
mouth of the harbor as signals to the British fleet. It
was charged that these signals had been given by
Federalists opposed to the war — hence the name.

Blue Lodges. — A name applied to societies organ-
ized in Missouri, after the passage of the Kansas-Ne-
braska Bill, for the purpose of taking *^ possession of
Kansas on behalf of slavery. ^^

Blue Nose. — A name colloquially given to an in-
habitant of Nova Scotia, and sometimes extended to
apply to any Canadian.

Bolters. — To bolt means to spring out suddenly, and
in political parlance it means to leave a political party
when it is no longer deemed safe or to one^s interest to
remain with it. Those that leave a party under these
circumstances are called bolters. A bolt is usually only
a temporary defection, the bolters generally being the
adherents of some man who aspires to nomination for
ofl&ce, and whose desire is not gratified. It is quite com-
mon for a determined minority to threaten to bolt a con-
vention unless its desires are humored.

Boodle was originally a vulgarism for money, and
more particularly for booty; a phrase used in bar-rooms
and at the street corners. Gradually some of the more
vulgar and sensational newspapers begun to make use of
it in their articles dealing with the classes that were them-
selves in the habit of employing the term. Among these,
the majority of the Aldermen of New York City were at
that time numbered, and the bribes that these were sup-
posed to be in the habit of receiving were referred to
under that name. The charges of bribery were brought
prominently forward by the investigation in 1886 by a
committee of the Assembly into the circumstances at-
tending the grant by the Aldermen in the previous year

68 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

of a charter for a street railroad on Broadway .n that
city. Jacob Sharp, a man largely interested in New
York street railroads, was popularly thought to have
bribed the Aldermen to grant the franchise. Much in-
terest in the investigation was manifested by the public,
and the terms boodle and boodlers were continually used
by the newspapers. The general use into which the
term was thus brought added to the fact that it is a con-
cise term, tended to purge it of its vulgar associations
and to give it standing in the vocabulary of the day.
The term boodler is now universally applied to bribe-
takers, more particularly to those connected with muni-
cipal governments, and most accurately to bribed Alder-
men. The New York boodlers were indicted on the
strength of the revelations made by the Assembly Com-
mittee. Of twenty-four members of the Board of Alder-
men two were not bribed, as is proved by their voting
against the franchise; two are dead; four have fled to
foreign countries; three have turned informers; one is
insane; three were convicted and sentenced to Sing Sing
Prison; in the case of one the jury disagreed on the first
trial and he was finally discharged; the procedings
against the others were ultimately dropped. Jacob
Sharp was indicted for bribing the Aldermen; he was
tried, convicted and imprisoned in the County Jail pend-
ing an appeal. The Court of Appeals granted a new
trial on the strength of errors in the former, but Sharp
died pending the re-hearing.

Border Ruffians. — A name applied to Missourians
that (about 1854) made a practice of crossing into Kansas
to drive out the Free-State settlers, or to carry the elec-
tions. They took no trouble to conceal their illegal
voting; in one case 604 votes were cast, of which but
twenty were legal. This is but a sample. Encounters
between them and the Free-State settlers were frequent.

Border States. — Those of the Slave-States, adjoin-
ing the Free-States, were so called; namely: Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, although
North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas were sometimes
included under that name. Their nearness to the Free-

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 69

States caused frequent attempts on the part of slaves to
escape and from them came the most bitter complaints
about the non-execution of fugitive slave laws. They
objected to making slavery an issue, and political parties
that strove to remain neutral on that subject, as the
American and Constitutional Union parties, had their
support. During the Eebellion, Virginia was the only
one of the Border States proper that seceded.

Border War. — A name applied to the hostilities that
took place between the Free-State emigrants to Kansas
and the slave-holders from Missouri, when, in 1854, the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill left the question of slavery in that
Territory to be settled by the inhabitants. Bloody en-
counters were frequent and several pitched battles were
fought.

B OSS. ( See Political Boss. )

Boss Rule is the absolute control of a political
organization by one leader or a small set of leaders.

Bounties. {8ee Subsidies.)
t-^Bounty Jumping. — During the Civil War sums of
money were at times offered by the authorities as an in-
ducement to volunteers for the army and navy. A per-
son who received this money and then failed to serve as
he had promised, was said to be a *^ bounty- jumper. ''

Bourbons. — The house of Bourbon is the family of
kings that ruled France for over two hundred years,
from 1589 to the time of French revolution, 1791. One
of their characteristics was an obstinate refusal to keep
pace with events. Experience taught them nothing.
This trait in their character has caused their name to be
applied (in American political parlance) to any states-
man or politician that clings to dead issues and refuses
to accommodate himself to changes.

Boys, The. — This name is applied to the profes-
sional politicians peculiarly common in cities, to whom
politics is a business out of which (though seldom holding
office themselves) they make a living. By them principally
is the politics of cities prostituted, and their efforts to
retain control of political matters are frequently suc-
cessful even in the face of organized *^pposition, princi-

70 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

pally because tliey rally in defense of their livelihood,
while honest citizens, though vitally affected, do not
have their own interest in the matter brought home to
them with the same force, and are consequently less
active and less energetic. Moreover, the local organiza-
tion is almost exclusively in the hands of these political
^'^ workers, ^^ as they are called, and even reputable party
members, though knowing its corruption, recognize its
efiiciency in gaining votes, and while they would not per-
sonally resort to the means employed, they will yet in-
directly give it their support. The organization when
in the hands of professional politicians of the above
type is known as *^ the Machine/'

Brave. {See Tamamny),

Breckenridge, John Cabell, was born at Lexing-
ton, Kentucky, January 21, 1825, and died May 17,
1875. He was Vice-President of the United States
from 1857 to 1861. He was the presidential candidate
of the southern wing of the Democratic party in 1860.
He was defeated, but was chosen to the United States
Senate. During the extra session of 1861 he was active
in the Senate. Then he went over to the Confederacy,
and became a Major-General in its service. He was
expelled from the Senate, December, 1861.

Brigadiers, Rebel. {See Rebel Brigadiers,)

Broad Construction. {See Construction of the
Constitution. )

Broad Seal War was a controversy as to the election
in 1838 of representatives to Congress from New Jersey.
In that State up to 1846 all the representatives of the
State, six in number, were elected on a general ticket'.
In 1838 there was a Democratic majority of about one
hundred votes in 57,000. Owing to certain irregularities,
the State Board of Canvassers gave the certificates under
the broad seal of the State to the Whig candidates. As
the House without New Jersey^s members stood one
hundred and eighteen Whigs to one hundred and nine-
teen Democrats, success in this controversy meant control
of the House. After considerable confusion a com-
promise Speaker was elected and the Democratic mem-
bers were finally seated.

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 71

Brooks, Preston, of South Carolina, is known only
for his brutal attack on Senator Charles Sumner on
May 22, 1856. Sumner had in debate criticised Senator
Butler, Brooks^ uncle, whereupon Brooks, backed by
two other Eepresentatives, attacked him in the Senate
Chamber after adjournment. He used a heavy cane,
knocking him senseless, and then brutally beating him;
it was several years before Sumner recovered his health.
Brooks was censured by the House and resigned, but he
was at once unanimously re-elected. Massachusetts re-
fused to elect any one in Sumner^s place and the post
remained vacant for several years.

Brother Jonathan. — A general name applied to the
people of the United States. Its origin is said to be as
follows: General Washington found soon after having
taken command of the Continental army that it was
sadly in need of many articles. Jonathan Trumbull,
the elder, at that time Governor of Connecticut, was a
friend of Washington and one in whose judgment Wash-
ington had great confidence. During a consultation on
the state of the army, Washington suggested that they
consult '^ Brother Jonathan,'^ meaning Trumbull. This
advice was followed, and Trumbull devised the means
of procuring what was desired. The story was told in
the army, and the reply to a demand for any article was
invariably advice to ask '^Brother Jonathan.'' The
phrase became proverbial and has lived to the present
time.

Brown, John, was born in Torrington, Connecticut,
May 9, 1800. On his father's side he was descended
from Peter Brown who had come over in the Mayflower;
his ancestors on his mother's side were Dutch. While
John was still young, his father moved to Ohio. John
returned to New England and began to study for the
ministry, but his eyes failing, he was obliged to desist.
He then returned to Ohio where he married; he was not
yet twenty-one years of age. His first wife, by whom
he had seven children, died in 1832. His second wife,
who bore him thirteen children, survived him. He did
not remain long in Ohio; after various changes of resi-

72 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

dence he moved to Massachusetts where he engaged in
the wool business. This venture ended in bankruptcy.
Gerrit Smith gave him some land at North Elba, Essex
County, New York, and in 1849 Brown moved thither
with his family. He took with him some freed negroes,
but they, losing heart at the sterility of soil, gave up in
despair. In 1851 he returned to Ohio. Four of his
sons had moved to Kansas, which was then the seat of
hot slavery contention, and finding it impossible to get
on without arms, they wrote to their father to send such
as they needed. John Brown, moving his family back
to North Elba, set out for Kansas. His purpose was to
free slaves. He belonged to no political party, "he
followed neither Garrison nor Seward; .... but
the Golden Eule and the Declaration of Independence."
He plunged into the fight between the Free-State and
the Slavery men, and on several occasions defeated forces
much larger than his own. Among his notable achieve-
ments was his defense of Ossawatomie against a force
numbering fifteen times his own, until failing ammuni-
tion compelled him to retreat. During this period he
freed many slaves, one of his exploits arousing such ex-
citement that the Governor of Missouri offered three
thousand dollars for his arrest; to this the President
added two hundred and fifty dollars. In January, 1859,
he started East, going to Canada, where he and his
followers elfected a sort of organization. For the next
few months he was first East and then "West, and the
30th of June found him in Maryland, near Harper's
Ferry. Here he and his companions hired a farm to
which, without attracting attention, men and arms were
smuggled. It was his design to seize the National
armory at Harper's Ferry in which over 100,000 stand of
arms were stored, and after freeing and arming what
negroes he could, to take to the mountains, with which
as a base he hoped to repeat his Kansas successes in
freeing slaves. Fears of treachery compelled him to
hasten his plans, and on Sunday evening, October 17th,
the armory was seized by Brown, his force consisting of
twenty-two men. Telegraph wires were cut, trains

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 73

stopped and over sixty prisoners taken. Instead of flee-
ing to the mountains, as planned. Brown stood his
ground, expecting, it is said, the negroes to rise in his
favor. Be that as it may, he was surrounded by over
1,500 militia, besides some marines and artillery, and
captured after a desperate fight in which he was severely
wounded. His trial, which Brown himself pronounced
fair, resulted in his being condemned to death, and on
the 2d of December he was hung. The whole incident
created enormous excitement and intensified the bitter-
iiess between North and South.

Brown's Raid on Harper ''s Ferry. (See Brown,
John. )

Buchanan, James, was born in Franklin County,
Pennsylvania, April 23, 1791, and died at Wheatland,
Pennsylvania, June 1, 1868. He graduated at Dickin-
son College, and was admitted to the bar. His earliest
political career was as a Federalist, but about 1826 he
joined the Democratic party. In 1814 he was a member
of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and from 1820 to 1830
he was in Congress. In 1830 he went to Russia as Min-
ister, returning in 1834, when he entered the Senate,
where he remained until 1845. From 1845 to 1849 he
was Secretary of State under Polk, and from 1852 to
1854 he was Minister to Great Britain. He was the
Democratic candidate for President in 1856, and he was
elected. The Dred Scott decision, John Brown^s raid
and other events connected with slavery and leading up
to the Civil War marked his administration, and it was
due to his lack of energy, and his opinion that the federal
government could not interfere to keep any State in the
Union by force, that the nation was in no condition to
meet the crisis. He retired to private life immediately
on leaving the presidency.

Buck and Breck. — A popular name for the Demo-
cratic presidential nominees in 1856, James Buchanan
and John C. Breckenridge.

Buckeyes. — The buckeye tree (a species of horse
chestnut) which abounds in Ohio, gave its name to that
State and its inhabitants.

74 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Buckshot War. — In 1838 the defeated Democratic
candidate of a congressional district in Pennsylvania
claimed Whig frauds in the North Liberties district as
the cause of his defeat. Thereupon the ten Democratic
return judges threw out the vote of that district, thus
electing their member. The seven Whig judges met
apart from the Democrats and gave certificates to the
Whig candidates for Congress, and also to the Whig can-
didates for the Legislature, although these latter had
considered themselves fairly defeated. This proceeding
was part of a scheme to elect a Whig senator. The
Whig certificates reached the Secretary of State first,
and he, also a Whig, declared his intention of recogniz-
ing them until discredited by investigation. The House
met December 4th at Harrisburg; armed partisans of
both sides were in town; two separate organizations of
the House took place, side by side, amid great con-
fusion. Governor Eitner, a Whig, declared the city in
the hands of a mob, and sought the aid of United States
troops from their commander, and then from President
Van Buren. In both cases he met with refusal. After
a time, several Whigs seceded to the Democratic House,
which had succeeded in keeping possession of the cham-
ber and records, and the latter was recognized by the
State Senate, when the other Whigs joined them; all
but Thaddeus Stevens, who did not attempt to join
until May, 1839. The House then declared his seat
vacant, and he was obliged to be again elected before he
was finally admitted. The remark of a Whig member
that the mob '^ should feel ball and buckshot before the
day is over," is said to have given rise to the name.

Bucktails. {^See CUntonians.)

Bull Run Russell. — A name applied to William H.
Kussell, war correspondent of the London Times in this
country in 1861-62, in consequence of his overdrawn
description of the battle of Bull Eun, and his predic-
tions, based on the result of that battle, that the South
would be successful in her attempt at secession.

Bulwer- Clayton Treaty. {See Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty,)

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, %

Buncombe, To Speak For, is to talk for effect,
political or otherwise. The phrase originated in the de-
bates on the Missouri Compromise, when Felix Walker,
the representative in Congress from the Kortli Carolina
district that included the county of Buncombe, insisted
on speaking, and when begged to desist by other mem-
bers of the House, asserted that he had to '^make a
speech for Buncombe/'

Bureaucracy. {See Civil Service Reform.)

Burlingame, Anson, was born in New York in
1820. He studied at the University of Michigan, and
after graduating from the Harvard Law School, entered
the bar. He joined the American party, and was elected
to Congress, soon afterwards attaching himself to the
Kepublican party. He was representative in Congress
from 1855 to 1861. In 1861 he was appointed Minister
to China, where he remained till 1867. He was then
appointed by China as a special ambassador to negotiate
treaties for that nation. He performed his duties ad-
mirably, and concluded treaties with the United States,
England, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden and Holland. He
died at St. Petersburg in 1870.

Burlingame Treaty, The, was concluded at Wash-
ington, July 28, 1868, between the United States and
China. It was negotiated for the latter nation by Anson
Burlingame in his capacity of special ambassador. By
it, China first gave her adherence to principles of inter-
national law. Moreover, joint efforts were to be made
against the cooley trade; liberty of conscience and wor-
ship, and rights of residence and travel, as accorded to
the most favored nation, were guaranteed to Chinese in
America and Americans in China. The United States
disclaimed the right of interference with internal im-
provements in China.

Burn This Letter. — This was the concluding sen-
tence in one of the Mulligan letters (which see). It waa
a campaign cry of the opponents of James G. Blaine in
the campaign of 1884.

Burr, Aaron, was born at Newark, New Jersey,
February 6, 1756, and died at New York, September 14,

76 DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

1836. He graduated at the College of New Jersey,
and served in the Continental army in the Revolution,
reaching the rank of colonel. He was subsequently ad-
mitted to the bar and moved to New York City. In
1791 he was elected to the United States Senate. He
had a genius for political organization, and soon brought
his party, the anti-Federalists, into a state of efficient
discipline. The Federalists called him, with a small
number of young men of his party that gathered about
him, the Little Band. It was to his efforts that the
success of his party in the presidential contest of 1800
was due. Burr was elected Vice-President, serving
from 1801 to 1805. In 1804 a coalition was arranged
between the New England Federalists, who were hope-
less of victory in the South, and Burros followers. As a
part of this scheme. Burr was first nominated for Gov-
ernor against the candidate of the Clintons, the Living-
stons and the Schuylers, the great New York families
that had been supreme in that State. Alexander Hamil-
ton's personal efforts did much to defeat Burr; the cele-
brated duel between the two followed, ending, as is well
known, in Hamilton's death. This is the last of Burr
in politics. He was subsequently arrested on a charge
of treason, based on an expedition to the West, the de-
sign of which was said to be the establishment of another
republic west of the Rocky Mountains. He was ac-
quitted. After several years spent abroad, he settled
down to the practice of law in New York City.

Burr Conspiracy. — In consequence of Burr's duel
with Hamilton, in which the latter met his death. Burr
was indicted in New York and Ne^v Jersey for murder.
He went West and made an extensive tour, in the course
of which he made preparations for a gigantic but myste-
rious scheme. The real object of this is unknown. It
was either to separate the Mississippi Valley from the
rest of the Union and erect it into a new nation, or to
conquer Mexico. In 1806 he gathered a number of
reckless persons about him and started for the region of
Texas, ostensibly on a colonizing expedition. President
Jefferson issued a proclamation warning citizens against

DiCTtONAk V OP AMEklCAN- POLITICS. 77

joining the expedition. Burr was arrested by Jefferson^s
orders, brought back to Virginia, and indicted there by
a United States Grand Jury for treason and for a mis-
demeanor, based on his course in levying war within this
country on a friendjy nation, but it was hoped that Burr
could also be shown to have had treasonable designs
against the unity of this country. He was acquitted of
treason for want of jurisdiction, on the failure of the
evidence required by Article 3, section 3, clause 1 of the
Constitution; he was also acquitted of misdemeanor.
He was bound over to present himself for trial in Ohio,
but the matter was preased no further. One of Burr*s
dupes in this scheme was Harman Blennerhasset, who
was also arrested, but who was discharged after Burr's
acquittal.

Burrites. {See GUntonians.)

Butler, Benjamin F., was born at Deerfield, New
Hampshire, November 5, 1818. He graduated at Wa-
terville College and was admitted to the bar. In 1853
he was elected to the State Legislature, and m 1859 to
the State Senate. Before 1860 he was a Democrat. He
served in the Civil War as brigadier and major-general.
He then figured in Congress as a Republican from 1867
to 1875 and from 1877 to 1879, representing Massa-
chusetts. In 1878 and 1879 he ran for Governor as the
candidate of the Greenback party. In 188^ he was
elected Governor as the Democratic nominee. In 1884
he was the presidential candidate of both the Greenback-
Labor and Anti-Monopoly parties. He received about
133,000 popular and no electoral votes. He was one
of the managers on the part of the House of Representa-
tives of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

By the Eternal. — This, the favorite oath of Andrew
Jackson, has become historic.

Cabinet. — This name is applied to the heads of the
seven executive departments in their capacity of advisers
of the President. The term itself is not mentioned in
the Constitution, nor was the Cabinet, as at present con-
stituted, contemplated by that instrument. The Con-
stitution, Article 2, section 2, authorizes the President

78 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN- POLITICS,

to "require the opinion in writing of the principal
officer in each of the executive departments upon any
subject relating to the duties of their respective offices/'
and Washington on several occasions called for such
opinions. But the nature of the Cabinet underwent a
gradual change, and it is now an advisory board with
which the President has consultations at regular inter-
vals on the affairs of the nation. Washington inaugu-
rated this change, consulting the members on matters
foreign to their immediate departments on several occa-
sions. Moreover, from being merely the heads of the
executive departments its members have come to be
recognized as an essential part of the executive branch
and in certain contingencies the office of President de-
volves upon one of their number. {^8ee Presidential Suc-
cession.) The plan has frequently been broached of
giving to the members of the Cabinet seats in one of the
Houses of Congress, either with or without a vote, in
order that the demands for legislation or appropriations
on the part of the Executive may be more easily ex-
plained and urged, and that information demanded by
Congress may be more easily obtained. In the Consti-
tution of the Confederate States authority was granted
to Congress to give a seat in either House, with the right
of debate in any measure relating to his department, to
the members of the Cabinet. The Cabinet as origin-
ally constituted consisted of but four members, the
Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Secretary of the
Treasury and the Attorney-General, Since then there
have been added the Secretarv of the Navy and of the
Interior and the Postmaster-d-eneral and the Secretary
of Agriculture, who are only by custom members of the
Cabinet. The salary of every Cabinet officer is $8,000
per annum.

Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I. his Crom-
well, and George III. — may profit by their
examples. If that be treason, make the most
of it. — Patrick Henry introduced into the Assembly of
Virginia a resolution denying the right of the King of
England to tax the American Colonies. This resolution

DICTION-AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 79

was called forth by the Stamp Act of 1765. In the
course of debate he spoke as above. At the words,
''and George 111.," he was interrupted by cri«s of
''Treason! Treason!'^ and, waiting for the cries to sub-
side, he finished as above.

Calhoun, John Caldwell, was born in the Abbe-
ville District, South Carolina, March 18, 1782, and died
in Washington, March 31, 1850. He was a lawyer and
a graduate of Yale. He was a representative in Con-
gress from 1811 to 1817; then he became Secretary of
War. From 1825 to 1831 he was Vice-President. In
1831 he resigned for the purpose of becoming Senator
from South Carolina in order to take part in the debate
then raging in the Senate. {8ee Foot's Eesolutmi.)
The intensity of the excitement in South Carolina is
exemplified by the fact that medals were struck in his
honor bearing the inscription, " First President of the
Southern Confederacy.^' From 1843 to 1845 he was
Secretary of State. In the latter year he again became
Senator. In politics he was a Democrat, although for a
short time allied with the Whigs at the time of their
first organization, but above all party ties he was a firm
and consistent upholder of the doctrine of State Sov-
ereignty. He believed the Union to be merely a number
of sovereign and separate States joined by an alliance
under a single government. He considered slavery a
righteous and beneficent institution, and considered it
the duty of Congress to protect and uphold it in the
Territories.

Calico Foster. — A name given to Charles Foster,
of Ohio (Grovernor 1880 to 1884), in allusion to his
having kept a dry-goods store in earlier life

California. — During the Mexican War, California
was conquered by our troops {see Annexations IV.) and
a provisional military government formed, which con-
tinued in existence after the peace of 1848 till the
admission of the State into the Union, September 9,
1850. The capital is Sacramento. The population in
1880 was 864,694, and in thelastcensus (1890) 1,208,130.
California sends six members to the House of Eepre-

80 DtCTlOMAR Y OF AMEktCAN POLITICS,

sentatives and has eight electoral votes. In national
politics California is generally considered a Eepublican
Stat^ Its electoral vote was cast for the Eepublican
candidate for President between 1860 and 1884, except
in 1880, when all but one of the Democratic electors
were chosen by a small majority. The derivation of its
name is uncertain, but is supposed by some to come
from the Spanish and to mean *'hot furnace.^^ Popu-
larly it is known as the Golden State, in allusion to the
large deposits of gold found in its soil. {^See Governors;
Legislatures. )

Canadian Rebellion. — In 1837 an insurrection took
place in Canada, many of the inhabitants being dis-
satisfied with governmental methods. The rebellion
was completely crushed in about a j^ear. It is of in-
terest in our history because it threatened to cause
international complications between Great Britain and
the United States. Many inhabitants of this country,
largely those of Irish extraction, sympathized with the
Canadians and sought to aid them. In spite of the fact
that our government declared its strict neutrality, about
700 meUj chiefly from New York State, under the lead
of Mackenzie, one of the leaders of the Canadian re-
volt, seized and fortified Kavy Island, situated in the
Niagara Elver and within British jurisdiction. They
made this a base of operations for raids on the Canadian
shore until they were forced to evacuate by a battery of
guns on the Canadian side. The steamer Caroline,
which they had made use of, was seized by the Canadian
militia at a wharf on the American side of the river,
and sent, on fire, over Niag::ra Falls. {See McLeod Case,)
Our government sent General Scott with a force of
soldiers to prevent infractions of our neutral position.

Canal Ring. — In 1874 Samuel J. Tilden was elected
Governor of the State of New York. He had been
prominent in the overthrow of the Tweed Eing in New
York City, and his suspicions had been directed against
the management of the State canals. His first annual
message to the Legislature called attention to the sys-
tem of canal repairs. This subject had been under in-

DICTIOMAR V OF AMEklCAN POLITICS. 81

Testigation some five years earlier, but nothing had come
of it. Tilden had made extensive inquiries and was able
to present facts to the Legislature showing that vast
sums had been fraudulently expended and wasted on the
work of repairs. Ostensibly, contracts for this work were
given out to the lowest bidder; but these lowest bidders
so arranged their bids that while some materials were
contracted for at ridiculously low figures, others were
put in at monstrously high prices; the contracts were
then, by collusion with the authorities, altered so as to
require much of the expensive and little or none of the
cheap material, this altered contract being by the con-
spirators not regarded as a new one (which it was, in
fact), and, therefore, not again offered subject to com-
petition. In his message the Governor showed that on
ten contracts, ostensibly let for about $425,000, thero
had been paid about $1,560,000. He pointed out that
while the books had shown an apparent surplus of canal
revenues over expenditures of about $5,800,000 for a
period of five years, there had actually been a deficiency
of $5,100,000. His vigorous measures succeeded in
breaking up the Ring and lead to the passage of laws
securing the State from that quarter in the future.

Canal Scrip Fraud.— In 1839 the Canal Trustees
of the State of Illinois issued about $390,000 of Canal
Scrip, payable in ninety days. This had practically all
been presented for redemption before 1843, but, as sub-
sequently appeared, the certificates had simply been laid
away and not canceled. In 1859 some of the scrip ap-
peared in circulation, and a legislative inquiry revealed
the fact that $223,182.66 of these redeemed but uncan-
celed certificates had been re-issued by Governor Joel A.
Matteson. As soon as his name was connected with the
matter, Matteson offered to make good any loss to the
State, while at the same time maintaining that he had
acquired the scrip by investment. The legislative com-
mittee was not disposed to press the matter, and although
the Grand Jury of Sangamon County had voted to indict
him, the vote was reconsidered and the matter dropped.
The State was reimbursed for all but a small part of its
loss.

82 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN" POLITICS,

Capital of the United States.— The first national
capital was New York City. The agricultural members
of Congress desired a change, because they feared the
influence of surrounding commercial interests on legis-
tion. Philadelphia was objected to by the Southern mem-
bers, because the Quakers were urging the abolition of
slavery. A compromise was finally made by which the
capital was to be Philadelphia for ten years, and after
that, a district ceded by Maryland and Virginia to the
National Government. Accordingly the seat of govern-
ment was removed to Philadelphia in 1790. In the
meantime Maryland, in 1788, and Virginia, in 1789, had
ceded a district ten miles square lying on both sides of
the Potomac, which was first known as the Federal City
and afterward, in 1791, obtained the name of the Terri-
tory of Columbia, the city being known as the City of
Washington. On November 17, 1800, the Government
was removed to Washington, where it has since remained.
The city at that time was a curious combination of huts
and half-finished buildings of greater pretension, with a
small population. [See District of Columbia.)

Carlisle, John Griffin, was born in Kentucky, Sep-
tember 5, 1835. He is a lawyer by profession. He
served in the State Legislature, both in the House and
the Senate, from 1859 to 1861, and from 1869 to 1871.
In the latter year he was elected Lieutenant-Governor.
He was elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-
seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Con-
gresses, the last time after a contest. In 1883 he was
elected Speaker, and was re-elected to that office in the
Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses. He is a Democrat.

Carpet- Baggers. — A name given by the Southern
whites to the Northern whites that, after the Civil War,
came South and took an active part in politics. Many
held Federal offices and others came for the purpose of
qualifying for elective offices by means of a short resi-
dence. The name arose from the fact that few of them
intended to settle permanently, but carried (it was said)
their effects in a carpet-bag. It was they that organized
and largely controlled the negro vote.

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 83

Cartel is an agreement between belligerent States
relating to the methods of carrying on the war, as for
the exchange of prisoners, declaring certain ground
neutral, repressing marauders, carrying on postal com-
munication, or the like. A cartel-ship (sometimes
simply called a cartel) is one used in exchanging pris-
oners or carrying communications to the enemy. Cartels
for the exchange of prisoners are perhaps the most
common. These are usually concluded by the two
governments, but generals may treat with each other
directly. An exchange of prisoners is beneficial to each
side, which thereby recovers its own men and is saved
the trouble and expense of guarding and feeding its
captives. In an exchange, the rank of the prisoners is
taken into account, and so far as possible, man is ex-
changed for man of equal rank.

Cass, Lewis, was born at Exeter, New Hampshire,
October 9, 1782, and died at Detroit, June 17, 1866.
He was a lawyer. During the War of 1812 he rose to
the rank of Brigadier-General; from 1813 to 1831 he
was Governor of Michigan Territory; under Jackson he
was Secretary of War; under Buchanan, Secretary of
State; from 1845 to 1857 he was United States Senator
from Michigan. In 1848 he was a candidate for Presi-
dent. In politics he was a Democrat.

Cast an Anchor to the Windward. — This phrase
occurs in one of the Mulligan Letters {which see).

Casus Belli is a Latin phrase meaning a reason for
war. Nations usually seek to justify a war by announc-
ing a cause for it, but the pretexts are various, and
international law has not yet decided which shall be
considered as sufficient justifications.

Caucus. — This word is variously derived, but it is
most probably a corruption of the word caulkers, a term
derisively applied to those that attended political meet-
ings in Boston at the time of ill-feeling between the
citizens and the British troops before the Revolution.
Laborers in ship-yards and seafaring men are said to
have been numerous at these meetings, hence the term.
The term has now come to be applied to any political

U t)ICTtO^AR Y 6P AMERICAN POLITICS,

meeting held for the purpose of determining the will of
the majority of the party for the purpose of united
action in the face of opponents. In the earlier years
of the government, presidential nominations were made
by a caucus of the Congressmen of a party. {See Con-
gressional Caucus.) In 1824 this system came to an
end. In 1828 nominations were made by the Legis-
latures of the States, and thereafter by the present
system of nominating conventions. A legislative Cau-
cus is the meeting of the members of a party
(usually the party in the majority) for the purpose
of united action in the legislative chamber. Divis-
ions in the party while in the latter might cause the
adoption of a measure advocated by the minority of
the dominant party with whom the minority party
might join. The legislative caucus began to make its
appearance in national politics about the year 1805. It
has transferred the contest of important matters from the
legislative hall to the caucus meeting, and has perverted
the intention of the Constitution by practically placing
the control of the legislative branch into the hands of
the majority of the majority, which may, in fact, be a
minority. All elections held by legislative bodies, as of
the Speaker in the House of Eepresentatives, or of a
United States Senator in a State Legislature, are deter-
mined in that manner, the election in the legislative
chamber being merely the formal registering of the
caucus decisions.

The local meetings held by the members of a party
for the purpose of naming local candidates, or delegates
to larger political assemblies, were formerly called cau-
cuses, and are still so called in some portions of the
country. The name of Primary Elections is, however,
more generally applied to them, and under that head
they are treated.

Caucus, The Congressional. — In the fitst three
presidential elections the electors were untrammeled by
pledges, except such as may have been given by indi-
vidual members. In the election for the fourth term
in 1800 and thereafter through the election of 1824, the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 85

electors were the mere puppets of the Congressional
Caucus. The Congressional Caucus was a caucus of the
members of Congress of either political party, and by it
were determined the candidates for whom the electors
of that party should vote. To clear themselves of the
charge of arrogating to themselves powers not intended
to be exercised by them, the caucus on several occasions
declared that the members acted ^' only in their indi-
vidual character as citizens."" In 1820 the Republican
caucus met but took no action; the Federal party was
all but dead. In 1824 less than one-fourth of the mem-
bers attended the Republican caucus, and in this year
the system came to an end. At the next election the
State Legislatures nominated the candidates, and in
1832 the present system of nominating conventions
composed of members more or less directly selected by
the people came into use.

Censures of the President by Congress. — Two
resolutions of censure on the President have been
passed, once by the Senate and once by the House, on
occasions where the majority passing these resolutions
was not sufficiently large either to pass measures over
the President's veto or to impeach him. The first was
passed by the Senate March 28, 1834, censuring Presi-
dent Jackson for a violation of the Constitution and
laws in the removal of government deposits from the
United States Bank. {^See Removal of Government De-
posits, (&c.) The President protested against this
resolution as a charge to answer which no opportunity
could be afforded him. The Senate refused to receive
the protest. Finally, January 16, 1837, after unsuc-
cessful attempts for three years the resolution of censure
was expunged from the journal of the Senate. The
second occasion was in a report from the committee to
which President Tyler's message vetoing the Tariff Bill
of 1842 had been referred. The report censuied the
President for improper use of the veto. Tyler protested
against this as Jackson had done before him, but he had
as a member of the Senate voted against the reception
of Jackson's protest, and in answer to his protest the

86 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

House sent him a copy of the Senate resolution on the
former occasion.

Census. {See Population,)

Centralization. {See Construction of the Consti-
tution, )

Center of Population. — The following table gives
approximately the center of population of the United
States at each census, showing the westward tendency
of our national development, which has been due partly
to annexations of territory and partly to fresh settlers:

WESTWARD
TEARS. APPROXIMATE LOCATION. MOVEMENT.

1790. . . .23 miles East of Baltimore

1800. . . .18 miles West of Baltimore 41 miles.

1810. . . .40 miles West Northwest of Washington 36 miles.

1820. ...16 miles North of Woodstock 50 miles.

1830 .... 19 miles West Southwest of Moorefleld 39 miles.

1840 ... 16 miles South of Clarksburg 55 miles.

1850.... 23 miles Southeast of Parkersburg 55 miles.

1860. . . .20 miles South of Chillicothe 81 miles.

1870. ... 48 miles East by North of Cincinnati 42 miles.

1880. ... 8 miles West by South of Cincinnati 56 miles.

1890 — 20 miles East of Columbus, Ind 46 miles.

Channels, Various, In Which I know I Can be
Useful. {See I Do Not Feel that I Shall Prove a Dead-
heady etc.)

Chase, Salmon Portland, was born at Cornish,
New Hampshire, January 13, 1808, and died May 7,
1873. He graduated at Dartmouth, and was admitted
to the bar in Ohio. Although a Democrat, he acted
with the Liberty party and the Free-Soil party. From
1849 to 1855 he was IJnited States Senator from Ohio,
being elected by a coalition of Democrats and Free-
Soilers. From 1856 to 1860 he was Governor of Ohio,
being elected as a Republican. From 1861 to 1864 he
was Secretary of the Treasury during the most trying
time in our history. From 1864 to 1873 he was Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1868 his refusal to
mould the expression of his views on questions connected
with the suffrage cost him the presidential nomination
at the hands of the Democratic party.

Checks and Balances. — This phrase refers to those
features of our system of national government whereby
each branch of the government acts as a check or bal-

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 87

ance on the others in securing laws desired by the people
and in accordance with the Constitution, and in securing
their proper enforcement. Thus the Senate which, by
reason of the longer terms of its members, and their
election by the State Legislatures and not by the people
directly, is not so likely to be influenced by the popular
whims and prejudices of the moment as the House of
Eepresentatives, acts as a check on attempts at hasty or
demagogic action by the latter. The House, reflecting
more immediately the popular will, is a check on legisla-
tion which might be proposed by the Senate in defiance
of the priuciples of a government according to the wishes
of a majority of the people. The veto power of the
President is a check on hasty or improper action by
Congress, but cannot prevent the passage of laws for
which there is an overwhelming demand, as shown by a
two-thirds majority of both houses; and should the
President fail to execute the laws or otherwise miscon-
duct the duties of his office, he is liable to impeachment.
Lastly, the Supreme Court of the United States is the
final arbiter of the constitutionality of enacted laws,
which cannot be enforced should it decide that these
violate the Constitution.

Cheeseparing is a word used to characterize the kind
of national economy" advocated by some public men who
would effect a saving in places where justice and fore-
sight demand liberality, while, moreover, the amount so
saved would be insignificant. Examples of this are
opposition to steps for increasing the salaries of judges in
cities, or reductions of the salaries of foreign ministers
who must in their persons represent the government.

Cherokee Case. — The Indian tribes known as the
*' Creeks ^^ and the "Cherokees^^ possessed large tracts
of land in what are now the States of Georgia and North
Carolina, and the territory to the west of them. From
time to time treaties had been made with these Indians
by which much of this land had been ceded to the
United States. Among these were the Hopewell treaty
of 1785, and the Holston treaty of 1791; the first of
these instruments had, among other things, recognized

88 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

the Cherokees as a nation possessing its own laws and all
the other attributes of nationality; the second had guar-
anteed to them all lands not thereby ceded. AVhen
Georgia in 1802 ceded her western territory to the
United States, the latter agreed to extinguish Indian
titles to lands in the State proper as soon as it could
peaceably and reasonably be done, but the Cherokees
could not be induced to surrender their lands. The
State therefore claimed the right to extend its own laws
over all its territory, and passed acts depriving the
Cherokees of their courts and other machinery of govern-
ment; these were followed by acts dividing the Cherokee
land into counties, and after allotting 160 acres to each
head of a Cherokee family, providing for the distribution
of the remainder by lot among the people of the State.
Notwithstanding the treaties. President Jackson took the
ground that as the State was sovereign the United States
could not interfere. The question now came up before
the United States Supreme Court in the following way.
A Cherokee named Tassels was sentenced to be hanged,
under the laws of Georgia, for killing another Indian on
the Cherokee lands. The United States Supreme Court
granted a writ of error requiring the State to show cause
why the case should not go to the Cherokee courts.
This writ was disregarded, and the Indian was hung.
There the matter was dropped. Again, two missionaries
were convicted of entering the Cherokee territory with-
out having complied with certain requirements demanded
by Georgia enactments regarding these lands. Their
case was carried to the United States Supreme Court on
a writ of error, and the judgment of the court held the
provisions of our Indian treaties as paramount to the
State laws. But the decision was never enforced. Jack-
son is reported to have said : ^^ Well, John Marshall (the
Chief Justice) has made his decision; now let him en-
force it.^* The Cherokee case is important as the first
instance of successful nullification of United States laws
by a State. The Indians were finally persuaded to move
to the Indian Territory, and by 1838 the last had left
the State.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 89

Chief Justice is the title of the presiding Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States. {See Ju-
diciary,) His salary is $10,500 per annum. The fol-
lowing is a list of the persons appointed as Chief -Justices
from the establishment of the court, some of whom,
however, being rejected by the Senate, or, declining the
position^ never served in the office:

John Jay, of New York, appointed by Washington, September 26, 1799 ;

resigned, 1791.
John Rutledge, of South Carolina, appointed by Washington, July 1,

1795 ; rejected by the Senate, December 15, 1795.
William Gushing, ot Massachusetts, appointed by Washington, January

26, 1796 ; declined promotion from his associate justiceship.
Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, appointed by Washington, March 4,

1796 ; resigned, 1800.
John Jay, of New York, appointed by John Adams, December 19, 1800 ;

declined.
John Marshall, of Virginia, appointed by John Adams, January 31,

1801 ; died, July 6, 1835.
Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland, appointed by Jackson, March 15,

183G ; died, October 12, 1864.
Salmon Portland Chase, of Ohio, appointed by Lincoln, December 6,

1864 ; died. May 7, 1873.
George H. Williams, of Oregon, appointed by Grant, 1873 ; rejected.
Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, appointed by Grant, 1873 ; rejected.
Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, appointed by Grant, January 21, 1874 ; died

March 23, 1888.
Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois, appointed by Cleveland, July 20, 1888.

Chilian and Peruvian Difficulties. (See Peru-
vian Ouano Troubles.)

Chinese Must Go. — A cry raised by the inhabitants
of the Pacific Slope, especially the laboring men, during
the discussion of the Chinese question {which see).

Chinese Question. — The development of our Pa-
cific Coast after the discovery of gold in California
created a demand for labor which exceeded the supply.
Soon Chinamen began to cross the ocean and settle on
our western coast. The means necessary to enable them
to live in a state comfortable to themselves being small,
they soon underbid white laborers and supplanted them
in many kinds of work. An outcry was raised by the
white population against permitting this competition,
which they claimed was unfair. Local legislation at-
tempted to impede the coming of the Chinese, but the
United States Courts decided such laws invalid. Then
Congress was applied to. It was argued that the
Chinese laborers — coolies, as they were called — would

90 DICTION-AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

drive out white laborers because they could underbid
white labor; that they could do this because they could
live and be happy on a pittance that would not enable
white workmen to live in decency. It was said that the
Chinese were an inferior race in morals and physique;
that so far from being desirous of assimilating them-
selves to our institutions, they were inseparably attached
to their own civilization and regarded us as barbarians;
that they did not inter-marry, and did not come here
with the intention of becoming citizens and residing
permanently in this country. Those who insisted that
'^the Chinese must go,^' asserted that the Chinese came
here under the guidance of what were known as the
Six Companies; that these organizations controlled them
absolutely in trade, in labor, and politically; that they
thus formed a government within our government, and
not in unison with it. As a consequence of these argu-
ments, it was urged that the governmen' should restrict
Chinese immigration in justice to white laborers, for its
own safety and for the welfare of the people at large.
On the other hand, it was argued that the Chinese were
an honest, quiet, industrious, thrifty and ingenious
people; that their peculiar habits and customs would
gradually disappear in this country; that the wealth of
the nation would be increased by the employment of
cheaper labor as it would by using labor-saving machin-
ery, and that it was not in accordance with our national
policy of welcoming the oppressed of all nations to
refuse to receive the Chinese alone, who would come
into harmony with our institutions as speedily as many
immigrants from Europe who were freely admitted.
The West brought such strong pressure to bear on Con-
gress, that in February, 1879, a bill was passed limiting
the number of Chinese passengers that could be brought
to this country in a single vessel. Hayes vetoed the
bill in March as violating treaty stipulations, and the
attempt to pass it over the veto was a failure. Soon
afterward a commission was appointed which negotiated
a treaty with China (ratified by the Senate in May,
1881), giving the United States power to limit or sus-

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 91

pend, but not to prohibit the immigration or residence
of Chinese laborers, but reserving to other Chinamen
and to laborers then in the United States all the privi-
leges of subjects of the most favored nations. In 1882
a bill was passed prohibiting Chinese immigration. This
was vetoed by Arthur in April as violating the treaty.
The bill was at once modified and again passed, and this
time it received the President's approval and became a
law on May 6, 1882. This bill (as amended July 5,
1884) suspends the immigration of Chinese laborers for
ten years, requires that other Chinamen visiting this
country shall be provided with proper certificates, and
prescribes various penalties for violations of its provi-
sions. Chinese officers on diplomatic business, and
their servants, are excepted from the provisions of the
law. In 1870 there were 63,254 Chinese in the United
States. The census of 1880 showed 105,700; of these
California had 75,122, and most of the remainder were
in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Washington Territory,
Montana and Arizona.

Cimarron. — The northwestern corner of Indian Ter-
ritory is reserved for public lands of the United States.
It is sometimes called '^ No Man's Land,'' because almost
unsettled and belonging to no private individuals. Ke-
cently, settlers from Kansas and Colorado ha^e removed
thither and taken up their abode there. They have
asked that the region be made into a Territory, and at
no great distance in the future the public land strip with
a portion of Indian Territory may be so organized. The
name proposed for this district is Cimarron.

Cincinnatus of the West. — It is narrated by an an-
cient historian, though the story is discredited by modern
ones, that on an occasion when Kome was in great danger
and Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus had been made dictator
to deliver her from danger, the message of his appoint-
ment found him at the plow. It is in allusion to this
that William Henry Harrison was spoken of as the *' Cin-
cinnatus of the West" when he was called to the presi-
dency from his estate on the Ohio River. Washington
is sometimes called the "^^ Second Cincinnatus," because

93 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

he came from his retirement at Mount Vernon to assume
the presidency.

Cipher Dispatches. — The presidential election of
1876 was long doubtful; the change of a single electoral
vote would have turned the result. After the election a
number of cipher dispatches were discovered which, on
translation, proved to have been sent by persons closely
identified with Samuel J. Tilden, relating to corrupt
agreements for the purchase of electoral votes in Florida
and Oregon for the Democratic party. The allegations
were investigated by a congressional committee, which
concluded that while at least one of the Florida Canvass-
ing Board was purchasable, still, that Tilden was not
implicated in any attempts to purchase him, even if
these were made. The minority report, being that of
the Republican members of the investigating committee,
concluded that the charges of corruptibility on the part
of members of canvassing boards were ^^but the slanders
of foiled suborners of corruption.^' They regarded the
proofs of attempted corruption as conclusive, and did
not hesitate to indicate their belief that Tilden had
knowledge of the matter. In a card dated October 16,
1878, Tilden denied in most emphatic terms all connec-
tion with the matter. (For the settlement of the election
see Electoral Commission. )

Circle, The. {See American Knights.)
Circle of Honor. {8ee American Knights.)
Circuit Court. {See Judiciary.)
Citess. — Feminine form of citizen {which see).
Cities, Familiar Names of. — Baltimore, Mary-
land— Monumental City. Boston, Massachusetts — Hub
of the Universe; Athens of America; Modern Athens;
Cradle of Liberty; City of Notions; Puritan City. Brook-
lyn, New York — City of Churches. Buffalo, New York — -
Queen City of the Lakes. Chicago, Illinois — Garden
City. Cincinnati, Ohio — Queen City. Cleveland, Ohio-
Forest City, Detroit, Michigan — City of the Straits.
Indianapolis, Indiana — Eailroad City. Kansas City,
Missouri — City of Bluffs. Keokuk, Iowa — Gate City.
Louisville, Kentucky — Falls City. Lowell, Massachu-

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 93

setts- -City of Spindles. Milwaukee, Wisconsin — Cream
City. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota — Twin
Cities. Nashville, Tennessee — City of Rocks. New
Haven, Connecticut — City of Elms; Elm City. New
Orleans, Louisiana — Crescent City. New York City,
New York — Empire City; Gotham; Metropolis of Amer-
ica. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — City of Brotherly
Love; Quaker City. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania — Smoky
City; Iron City. Portland, Maine — Forest City. Roch-
ester, New York — Flour City. Springfield, Illinois —
Flower City. St. Louis, Missouri — Mound City. St.
Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota — Twin Cities. Wash-
ington, District of Columbia — City of Magnificent Dis-
tances.

Citizen. — A term used instead of Mr., Sir, Dr. and
any other titles, during the end of the last century, when
a wave of ultra-Republicanism swept over the country.
It was in imitation of the custom in France.

Citizenship. — A citizen is a member of a common-
wealth Who is entitled to full protection in the enjoy-
ment of what are called private rights. The fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution declares that '^all persons
born or naturalized in the United States and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the State in which they reside." The term
in its broad sense includes both women and children,
and the right to vote is not an inherent privilege of
citizenship. {8ee Suffrage; Qualifications of Voters),
Children of citizens born abroad are citizens without
naturalization. Minor children of naturalized citizens
become citizens by the naturalization of their parents.
All citizens whether so by birth or naturalization, are
entitled when in foreign countries to the full protection
of this government as to their persons and property.
The States cannot deprive of citizenship any person de-
clared by the Constitution to be entitled to it, but thev
may extend citizenship in the State to others as well;
this is often done to persons who have declared their in-
tention of becoming citizens, but who have not yet
been naturalized The act of July 14, 1870, practically

94 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

precluded the admission of Chinese to citizenship. The
only points in which a naturalized citizen is not on an
equal basis with a native-born citizen, are that he can
never be eligible as President or Vice-President, and
that he cannot become a Senator till he has been a
citizen of the United States nine years, nor a Repre-
sentative till he has been a citizen seven years. (Con-
stitution, Article 2, section 1, clause 5; Article 1,
section 3, clause 3, and Article 1, section 1, clause 2. )
{^8ee Naturalization.)

Citizens' Law and Order League of the United
States. — This is an organization having for its aims to
enforce existing laws that are often disregarded, and to
secure the passage of additional legislation, especially in
regard to restricting the sale of liquor, preventing its
sale to minors and on Sunday, and the like. Its work
is done chiefly through the local Law and Order
Leagues.

Civil Rights Bill was introduced into Congress in
1866. Its object was to protect the civil rights of the
Southern negroes, then recently emancipated. It de-
clared all persons born in the United States and not
subject to a foreign power, except Indians, to be citizens
enjoying the same rights as white citizens in regard to
property, contracts, and entitled to all the civil rights of
citizens. A violation of the civil rights of the citizens
before mentioned was made a misdemeanor, the cogni-
zance of which was given exclusively to the Federal
courts; Federal officers were designated to enforce the
execution of the law; the President was empowered to
send these officers to any point at which such violations
were feared, and to use the military and naval forces of
the United States, or militia, in enforcing the act.
President Johnson vetoed the act March 27th, and early
in April it was passed over the veto. An amendment
to this act, seeking to prevent discrimination against
negroes on the part of common carriers, inn-keepers,
theater managers and school-teachers was proposed as
an amendment to the Amnesty Act of 1872 by Senator
Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, but it failed. A

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 95

similar bill failed in December, 1872, and again in April,
1874; at length March 1, 1875, the bill became a law.
In October, 1883, the Supreme Court declared as much
of the act of 1875 as related to its operation in the
States to be unconstitutional, leaving its operation un-
hampered in the District of Columbia and the Terri-
tories.

Civil Service Reform. — The civil service of the
United States includes all, except military and naval
ofiicers, but in general use the term is applied only to
appointive officers in the executive branch of the gov-
ernment and not to those in the legislative and judicial
departments. It seems to have been the intention of
the founders of our government that civil officers should
retain their positions during good behavior. Jefferson"^
was the first President to depart from this policy and to
inaugurate the system of removals and appointments for
political reasons; in a letter to a committee of New
Haven merchants on this subject in 1801, he used the
following well-known sentences : ^'^ If a due participation
of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be
obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation
none.^' (This is sometimes wrongly quoted, '^ Few die
and none resign.'^) But the system of removing and
appointing public officials for political reasons only was
not thoroughly inaugurated till Jackson's time. Then
was introduced from New York politics the full depth
and breadth of the ''^ spoils system, '^ so called from the
phrase descriptive of its aims, ^•'to the victor belong the
spoils of the enemy '' (which see); from that time on
public office was considered a reward for party service.
Jackson maintained that every citizen had an equal
right to public office; he advocated " rotation in office, '*
which involved frequent changes-, and his removals
numbered far more than those of all previous Presidents
together. These doctrines have been defended on the
ground that a long tenure of office creates a bureaucracy
of office-holders, who forget that they are servants of the
public, who assume an undue importance in their own
estimation to the annoyance and obstruction of the

96 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

public, and who are loath to adopt new and improved
methods of transacting business; it is also claimed that
the officers of an administration should be in sympathy
with its policy which the people have approved by their
suffrage. The real reason, however, of the support for
so long by politicians of the doctrine of rotation in office,
seems to have been the desire to have at their command
re wards, for the political services of their followers, a
patronage, by the promise of which they might aid their
efforts at elections. Many politicians, however, have
come to see that the advantages to them of the spoils
system are accompanied by great disadvantages; their
lives are made burdensome by constant solicitations for
their influence in obtaining office for their friends and
constituents. Added to this the civil service reformers
have urged more weighty reasons. They maintain that
public office is a public trust; that it should be con-
ducted as economically and efficiently as possible; that
the sole way of accomplishing these ends is to appoint
to office only persons who are duly qualified, to promote
them as they show themselves worthy, and to remove
them only for misconduct or inefficiency; thus office-
holders will be encouraged to devote themselves in
earnest to their work. They assert that only a few im-
portant officials need to be changed with each adminis-
tration in order to insure the adequate carrying out of
its policy, and the subordinates should be free from the
fear of removal for partisan reasons, which is entirely
unnecessary. They point to the great success in every
way which the adoption of these principles in the British
civil service has effected. Another great evil of the
spoils system was political assessments; as a condition of
retaining their positions officials were made to contribute
largely to the campaign fund of the party which was in
power, thus infringing their individual rights and in-
creasing the means of corruption in elections. It grad-
ually came to be felt by the better class of citizens that
these evils must be cured. The first important step in
this direction was taken by the act of 1871 which ap-
pointed a civil service commission to ascertain the fitness

DICTION A R V OF AMERICA AT POLITICS. 97

of candidates for public office; but Congress soon re-
fused appropriations for it; its work was consequently
suspended, and it proved of little value except in paving
the way for a more complete measure. About the same
time competitive examinations were commenced by the
Naval Officer at New York, and the Custom House at
that place gradually came to adopt the system with ex-
cellent effect; but this was a merely local attempt and
not required by law. Notwithstanding Grant's message
to Congress urging the support of the commission
authorized in 1871, the messages of Hayes, Garfield and
Arthur calling for an efficient measure to reform the
civil service, and executive orders forbidding political
assessments (which orders soon became dead letters),
nothing was accomplished till the latter part of 1882.
Then a bill (often known as the Pendleton Bill) was in-
troduced by a Democrat, Senator Pendleton, for reform-
ing the civil service. It passed the Senate December
27th by a vote of thirty-eight to five; of the majority
twenty-three were Eepublicans, fourteen Democrats and
one Independent; of the minority all were Democrats.
The House passed the bill on January 5, 1883, by a vote
of one hundred and fifty-five to forty-seven; of the
majority one hundred and one were Eepublicans, forty-
nine Democrats and five Independeilts; of the minority
seven were Eepublicans, thirty-nine Democrats and one
Independent. It was approved by President Arthur
January 16, 1883., This bill prohibited all political
assessments and the appointment of more than two mem-
bers of the same family to public office. It created a
Civil Service Commission, consisting of three persons,
not more than two from one political party, to be ao-
pointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate;
the present commission consists of Theo. Eoosevelt of
New York; H. S. Thompson of S. Carolina, and Chas.
Lyman, of Connecticut. The rules framed by the com-
mission for carrying out the purposes of the act are
subject to the approval of the President. The act ap-
plies to offices of more than fifty persons in the depart-
ments at Washington and in the customs and postal

98 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

services, witn certain exceptions, such as confidential
clerks of heads of departments or offices, cashiers, and
some other financial positions, deputy collectors, chiefs
of bureaus or divisions, professional officers, officers re-
quired to be confirmed by the Senate, laborers and work-
men. Local examining boards are appointed by the
commission from officials at the respective places. Open
and competitive examinations are held, but non-com-
petitive examinations may be held when competent per-
sons do not compete after due notice. Vacancies are
filled by the selection of one of the four highest names
on the eligible list, which are furnished to the appoint-
ing officer; persons honorably discharged from the army
and navy are given a preference in appointments. Ap-
pointments are made for a probationary term of six
months and are made permanent, subject to removal for
cause, if the probationer has proved satisfactory. Pro-
motions are also made as the result of examinations.
The workings of this act have proved successful in the
main in raising the efficiency of the service, and some
of the States have adopted in their own jurisdictions
similar systems. Both the Democratic and Eepublican
party in their platforms uphold the principles of Civil
Service Eeform, but accusations of partial execution of
the act will probably continue to be made against the
party in power for the time being. {^8ee Term and
Tenure of Office. )

Civil War, otherwise called the Eebellion. — The
essential cause of the Civil War was slavery; the osten-
sible reason, the doctrine of State Eights; the final pre-
text, the election of Lincoln. The growth of slavery in
the South, and the resulting political conflicts between
the South and the North for and against the protection
and territorial extension of slavery^ gradually made the
South the champion of the doctrine of State Eights,
and led that section to maintain the right of any State to
secede from the Union. ( See Slavery; State Sovereignty. )
The election of Lincoln showed that the power of the
Democratic party was broken, and the South feared a
vigorous policy against the extension of slavery and its

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 99

political supremacy. As the Southern States had declared
they should do in the event of Lincoln's election, they
one by one passed ordinances of secession {see Secession)
and formed a government under the name of the Con-
federate States of America. While this was going on it
became evident that war would be the result. The first
gun was fired on January 9, 1861, by batteries in Charles-
ton harbor, which drove back the steamer Star of the
West, bearing supplies to Fort Sumter. The actual out-
break of war, however, is dated from April 12th, when
Fort Sumter was bombarded. The first blood was shed
in Baltimore on April 19th in a street attack on the Sixth
Massachusetts regiment, which was on its way to Wash-
ington. Bull Run (July 21, 1861) was the first great
battle. It resulted in a severe defeat for the Union
army; 'its effect was to encourage the South and raise a
determined spirit in the North, and to unify both sec-
tions in support of their respective policies. The Mis-
sissippi was opened to Union vessels by the capture of
New Orleans in April, 1862, and of Vicksburg and Port
Hudson in July, 1863. The latter month also saw the
Union victory of Gettysburg, by which the Confederate
attempt to carry the war into the Northern States was
overthrown. From July, 1863, the final victory of the
national cause was assured. Sherman's march to the
sea in the latter part of 1864, cut through the heart of
the Confederacy and did incalculable damage to the
Southern cause. The vigorous blows which, in 1864 and
the spring of 1865, Grant dealt to Lee's army in Vir-
ginia, brought the war to a conclusion. Lee surrendered
at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. John-
ston's army surrendered on April 26th, and within two
months more all the Confederate forces had laid down
their arms. The result of the war was to establish the
fact that the United States is a nation and not a league
of States, and that no State has the right to secede from
the Union. It also resulted in the abolition of slavery.
The proclamation of emancipation, issued by President
Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all
slayes within certain designated territory which was in

100 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

rebellion, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Con-
stitution, adopted after the war, extinguished slavery in
the United States. {See Emancipation; Amendments to
the Constitution. ) The readmission to the Union of the
States that had formed the Confederacy is treated under
Reconstruction. The exclusion of representatives of the
Confederate States from Congress during the war insured
to the Eepublicans majorities in both houses. The Ee-
publican party advocated, and by its legislation enforced,
a vigorous prosecution of the war, while the Democratic
party, as a body, was not in hearty sympathy with it,
though many '^ War Democrats, ^^ as they were called,
were not an inch behind the foremost Eepublicans. {8ee
Amnesty; Drafts; and similar titles for subjects con-
nected with legislation and the execution of the laws.)

Clay, Henry, was born in Hanover County, Virginia,
April 12, 1777, and died in Washington, June 29, 1852.
He was by profession a lawyer. In 1806 and 1807, and
from 1809 to 1811, he was United States Senator from
Kentucky; from 1811 to 1825 he was a Eepresentative,
and six times Speaker of the House, From 1825 to
1829 he was Secretary of State, and from 1836 to 1842,
and from 1849 until his death he was again Senator.
He was originally a War Democrat during the War of
of 1812. He was then of the Adams and Clay Eepubli-
cans, taking part in the scrub race for the presidency in
1825. He became the leader of the Whig party. In
1831 and 1844 he was the Whig candidate for President.
Personally he was one of the most attractive and irre-
sistible of men, and as a leader he was almost wor-
shipped. He was particularly fertile in compromises,
the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850
being his best known achievements.

Clayton- Bulwer Treaty, The, was negotiated at
Washington in April, 1850, by John M. Clayton, Secre-
tary of State under Taylor, and Sir Edward Bulwer,
British Minister to the United States. The treaty pro-
vided that neither the United States nor Great Britain
should attempt to control a proposed canal across Nica-
rauga, in Central America. It provided further for the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 101

neutrality of the canal, and ifc guaranteed encouragement
to all lines of inter-oceanic communication. The terms
of the treaty were afterward much disputed. In 1882
our government intimated to Great Britain that the
canal having become impracticable because of reasons
for which Great Britain alone was responsible, the
United States considered the treaty as no longer bind-
ing, but Great Britain still regards the treaty as in
force.

Clay Whigs. — The death of William Henry Harri-
son raised John Tyler to the presidency. Both were
Whigs. Henry Clay was the leader of the Whig party.
Tyler was one of those nullifiers that had remained with
the Whig party when Calhoun and his followers with-
drew about 1838. The contrast between him and the
other leaders of his party at once showed itself, and a
bitter fight ensued between the followers of Clay and
those of Tyler. Clay^s adherents were known as Clay
Whigs. The first quarrel was on the subject of a
charter for a national bank. The President was opposed
to its being chartered, and vetoed a bill for that purpose
drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury, giving as his
reason the presence of certain features which he con-
sidered objectionable. A bill was hastily drawn up
embodying the President's suggestions, but this, too,
received his veto. The conflict was continued on other
measures. The House next elected was more strongly
Democratic. (/See Whig Party,)

Clean Sweep is a phrase used in politics to indicate
the removal by an official of all of his subordinates not
belonging to his political party.

Cleveland, Grover, was born at Caldwell, New
Jersey, March 18, 1837. He moved to Buffalo, New
York, early in life, and was there admitted to the bar.
He was Assistant District-Attorney from 1863 to 1866;
in 1870 he was elected Sheriff, and in 1881 Mayor of
Buffalo. In 1882 he was elected Governor of New York
by the unprecedented majority of over 192,000, owing
to a split m the Republican ranks. He is a Democrat.
In 1884 he was nominated for President and elected.

102 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Had New York gone against him he would have been
defeated, and he carried that State by a plurality of
but 1,047 votes in a total of over 1,150,000.

Clinton, De Witt, was born at Little Britain, New
York, March 2, 1769, and died at Albany, February 11,
1828. He graduated at Columbia College, and was
admitted to the bar. He was elected to the New York
Senate in 1799. From 1802 to 1803 he was a United
States Senator. From 1817 to 1822, and from 1822 to
1827, he was Governor of New York. He held other
State offices, and was Mayor of New York City. In
1812 he ran against Madison for the presidency He
was a Democrat, but he and his followers in New York
constituted a distinct faction, frequently allied with the
Whigs. Though a Democrat, he believed in internal
improvements, though for the benefit of the State
rather than of the nation. He was the chief promoter
of the Erie Canal.

Clinton, George, was born in Ulster County, New
York, July 26, 1739, and died April 20, 1812. He was
Governor of New York from 1777 to 1795, and from
1801 to 1804. He was the head of the powerful Clinton
family. He opposed the adoption of the Constitution.
He was Vice-President from 1804 to 1812, having been
defeated for the same office in 1789 and 1792.

Clintonian Platform. {See Clintonians.)

Clintonians. — In New York State the Clinton family
was originally opposed to the adoption of the Constitu-
tion; the Livingstons and Schuylers favored it. Alex-
ander Hamilton was a connection of the Schuylers, and
Morgan Lewis of the Livingstons. Aaron Burr had at
first been a lukewarm Federalist. The Clintons were
naturally at once of the Republican (Democratic-Eepub-
lican) party; to them in about the year 1800 were joined
the Livingstons, or Lewisites, and Burr and his followers,
the Burrites. The union of the Burrites with the others
was not firm, and, dissension following, their influence
rapidly waned, the national administration recognizing
and aiding the other faction. About 1807 a split in the
Republican party in the State led to the ascendency of

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 103

the Clintons over the Lewisites, the State patronage being
freely used by the Clintons to accomplish their object.
The Lewisites and Burrites now joined hands and de-
clared against George Clinton and in favor of Madison
for the presidency, to succeed Jefferson. The combina-
tion of the Lewisites and Burrites is usually known as
the '^Martling men/' from their meeting-place in New
York City — Martling^s Long Room. The Clinton fac-
tion was known as the Clintonians. These latter were
thus naturally opposed to the administration, and their
dislike to the restrictive measures on commerce at this
period threw them toward the Federalists, with whom
the Clintonians now frequently acted, jointly supporting
DeWitt Clinton for the presidency in 1812. His friends
issued an address, known as the Clintonian Platform, in
which they attacked the congressional caucus and the
Virginia influence. {^8ee those titles.) Madison had the
support of Jefferson, and his supporters were known in
consequence as Jefferson Democrats. A split among the
Clintonians now threw DeWitt Clinton and the Feder-
alists still more closely together, but in 1815 this coali-
tion was defeated and the Federalists finally destroyed.
Clinton and the others of his party now became recouc^^
ciled, and in 1817 he was elected Governor. TheJ
Martling men had about 1812 revivified the Tammany '
organization and had become known as the '' Buck-
tails,^' a name derived from the Tammany insignia of a
buck's tail worn in the hat instead of a feather. On his
election in 1817, Clinton inaugurated the canal policy
which ended in giving to the State the Erie Canal. The \
Bucktails naturally opposed this policy, and the name /
Bucktail came to be applied to any opponent of the [
canals. Among the prominent Clintonians had been J
Daniel D. Tompkins, now out of politics, and Martin /
Van Buren, who had joined the Bucktails. About (
1822 the Bucktails came to be recognized as the regular \
Republican (Democratic-Republican) party of the State. _ J
In the election of that year the Clintonians were de-
feated. In 1824, however, the removal of Clinton from
the post of Canal Commissioner created a reaction in

104 DlCTiOl^ARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

his favor, and he was elected Grovernor in that year and
again in 1826. The lead of the Bucktails had passed ta
the Albany Regency {which see). In 1828 Cl'nton died,
leaving his faction leaderless. It had always been a
personal party. Clinton tolerated no equals. The
position of his family had enabled him to carry out his
desires, but the increase in the voting population had
rendered it more and more difficult, and the entirely
popular and democratic faction had supplanted him.

Clinton's Ditch is the name at first applied to the
Erie Canal by those opposing it, DeWitt Clinton having
been the chief promoter of the enterprise.

Cobden Club. — The Cobden Club, of England, takes
its name from the great free-trader, Kichard Cobden.
It is the center o£ the free-trade doctrine in British
politics. Protectionists in the United States are fond
of asserting that the movement in this country for the
reduction of duties to a revenue basis is fostered and en-
couraged by the Cobden Club, and that '^ British gold^'
helps to carry on the movement, which, if -successful,
they assert would be as advantageous to British manu-
facturing interests as it would be injurious to ours.

Coinage. — Previous to and during the Revolution
the coins in use in this country were mostly foreign.
The Constitution (Article 1, section 8, clause 5) vested
in Congress the right to coin money and to regulate the
value thereof. The Act of Congress of April 2, 1792,
established the silver dollar as the standard, its weight
being 416 grains of silver of .8924 of fineness, equiva-
lent to 371i grains of pure silver; the relative value of
gold to silver was established at one part of the former
to fifteen of the latter; the fineness of gold coins was
fixed at eleven parts of pure gold to one of alloy. The
Act of June 28, 1834, changed weight and fineness of
the gold dollar, making it 258 grains of .899225 of fine-
ness, or 232 grains of pure gold. The Act of January
18, 1837, established .900 as the standard fineness of
both gold and silver. It left the weight of the gold
dollar unaltered (thus slightly increasing its value) and
reduced the weight of the silver dollar to 412^ grains

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 106

(thus leaving its valae unchanged). The ratio of gold
to silver was thus made one part of the former to 15.98
of the latter. The ratio in most European countries
was one to 15.5. The result of this was that one paii: of
gold imported into this country could be exchanged for
15.98 parts of silver, which when exported would yield
one part of gold and leave a surplus of .48 parts of
silver for the expenses of transportation and loss of
interest while in transit, and yet give a profit on the
transaction. This, of course, lead to heavy exports of
silver, that element of our currency being very largely
eliminated. In order to check ths export of fractional
silver coins, their weight was reduced to 384 grains of
standard silver by Act of February 21, 1853, which law
also stopped the coinage into fractional silver coins of
silver bullion offered to the mints for that purpose,
leaving this entirely in the hands of the government.
The coinage of silver dollars was discontinued for thirty
years by order of the Executive in 1806. They were
then again coined as required by depositors of silver
bullion until their coinage was suspended by Act of
February 12, 1873. The Act of February 28, 1878,
revived their coinage at the rate of at least two million
dollars worth a month, and not to exceed four millions.
This act is still in force. The Act of 1873 authorized
the coinage of trade dollars of 420 grains; these were
not coined for circulation as dollars, but for the con-
venience of merchants for export to the East, their
weight and fineness being marked on the coin. Never-
theless, these coins circulated here, and the decline in
silver rendered the coinage of bullion into trade dollars for
use in circulation profitable to the owners of the bullion.
Their coinage was, therefore, first restricted, and then,
in April, 1878, suspended. Although these coins were
never legal tender, yet for a time they circulated freely,
and as the name " dollar '' had given them at least a
show of right for purposes of circulation, it was deemed
right by Congress to indemnify the holders, who were
presumed to have taken them on the strength of that
name. The Forty-ninth Congress provided for the

106 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

redemption at the Treasury of all trade dollars that should
be presented prior to September 3, 1887. There were thus
redeemed $7,689,036 out of a total of 135,965,924 coin.
The gold coinage at present consists of the double eagle
^twenty dollars), the eagle (ten dollars), the half-eagle
(five dollars), the quarter-eagle (two and one-half dol-
lars), the three-dollar piece, the one-dollar piece. The
silver coinage consists of the standard dollar, the half-
dollar, the quarter-dollar, the dime. The base metal
coinage consists of five, three, two and one-cent pieces.
The gold coins and the standard silver dollar are legal
tender to an unlimited amount; the half-dollars, quarter-
dollars and dimes to the maximum amount of ten dol-
lars, and the base metal coins to the maximum amount
of twenty-five cents in any one payment. The coinage
of the United States mints has been as follows from
1793 to June 30, 1891. Gold, $1,549,927,749.50; silver,
$638,444,073.20; minor, $22,842,245.95; total, $2,211,-
214,028.65. The Act of 1792 established a mint at
Philadelphia. This remained the only institution of its
kind until, in 1835, branches were established at Char-
lotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia, for the
coinage of gold mined in those parts of the country,
and at New Orleans for the coinage of silver imported
from Mexico. In 1852, 1862 and 1863, respectively,
mints were established at San Francisco, Denver and
Carson City for the coinage of gold mined in the West.
No coins were ever struck at the Denver mint, and in
1873 that and the mint at Charlotte were changed to
assay offices. The operations of the mints at Dahlonega,
Charlotte and New Orleans were suspended in 1861.
The latter was reopened in 1879. Coinage at the mint
of Carson City was suspended in 1885. In 1873 a
bureau of the mint was established in the Treasury
Department, under whose control all the mints were
placed. Previously to this they had been branches of
the Philadelphia mint, whose dii'ector was charged with
their supervision.

Colfax, Schuyler, was bom at New York, March
23, 1823. He was a journalist. He served in the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 107

House from 1855 to 1869, being Speaker from 1863 to
1869. From 1869 to 1873 he was Vice-President of the
United States. He was a Republican. He died Janu-
ary 13, 1885.

Colonization. — It was the object of the colonization
societies to aid and encourage free negroes to systematic
colonization of the western coast of Africa. It was
hoped thus to counteract and ultimately to suppress the
slave trade. The idea seems to have originated as early
as 1770 with the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D„ of New-
port, but it was not until January 1, 1817, that the
American Colonization Society was formally organized.
Among its presidents were James Madison and Henry
Clay. Some few negroes had previously emigrated to
the British negro colony of Sierra Leone, but in 1820
the first organized attempt was made to found a colony.
This was at Sherbro Island. The location proving un-
fortunate, land was purchased on the main land at Cape
Mesurado, and early in 1822 colonists landed there.
Between nine and ten thousand persons were sent thither
up to 1856. In 1847 the colony declared itself an inde-
pendent Republic under the name of Liberia. The
colonization movement was at first encouraged by the
slave-holders, as it tended to relieve the South of its
free negroes; but as slaves became more valuable, fewer
were freed by their masters, and these latter, from re-
garding slavery as an institution to be merely tolerated,
came to assert the doctrine of its essential righteous-
ness. Under these circumstances colonization fell into
disfavor at the South, while at the North the Abo-
litionists regarded all such schemes as immoral tem-
porizing.

Colonization^ Political. — In elections it is a com-
mon form of fraud to bring into a doubtful district men
from other parts, and to give them some show of a resi-
dence in that district so as to enable them to vote there
and so turn the result. The voters thus moved or
colonized can, of course, always be spared at the points
from which they are taken, so that while the total vote
of the party in the State remains unchanged, it will be

lOa DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

SO distnbuted as to give to that party more Congressmen
or members of the Legislature, as the case may be, than
it would otherwise have had. This is called coloniza-
tion, and its practice is confined almost exclusively to
the larger cities. Lodging houses are frequently used
for this purpose, and these are shockingly crowded with
transplanted voters on the day preceding election, or
registration, where that formality is required.

Colorado was organized as a Territory in 1861 from
portions of Utah, Kansas, Nebraska and New Mexico.
On August 1, 1876, President Grant proclaimed its ad-
mission to the Union. It is thus the youngest of the
thirty-eight States. The capital is Denver. The popu-
lation in 1880 was 194,327, and intheJast census (1890)
419,198. Colorado has but one member of the House
of Eepresentatives and casts but three electoral votes,
which are always counted on by the Kepublicans. It is
commonly referred to as the Centennial State, referring
to the year of its admission. i^8ee Governors; Legisla-
tures. )

Comity of Nations is the friendly spirit which
exists between diflierent nations, and which often impels
a government to grant a favor to a foreign power that
could not be demanded as a matter of right, either as
coming under the general principles of international
law or the provisions of existing treaties. Such were the
surrender of Arguelles to Spain by Secretary Seward in
1864, and the surrender of William M. Tweed by Spain
to us in 1876.

Commercial Agents. {See Foreign Service.)

Commercial Crises. — A period of prosperity will
lead the business community, in the hope of still larger
profits, to undue extension of all branches of profitable
industries, or of industries believed to be so. In every
civilized community business is now very largely based
on credit, and this credit is at such times lavishly
granted as one of the means of business extension.
Overproduction, a fall in prices, failures of merchants
and of banks follow. Complete distrust on every hand
leads capitaliets to lock their money in vaults, and

DrCTlONAk Y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 109

even banks in many cases to refuse loans to perfectly
solvent business men. This conservatism, usually as
extreme as was the expansion preceding, has the effect
of bringing on a money panic, which, re-acting on the
situation, in its turn aggravates the crisis. The result
of the crisis is a fall in prices usually (by a reaction that
is quite natural) to a point below the normal level.
Debts are wiped out. A period of inaction, of extreme
depression, follows, followed in turn by moderate pros-
perity, increasing to extreme prosperity, ending as
before. The recurrence of these events shows a certain
periodicity, the period in England being about ten
years. In this country the period has been more irregu-
lar, 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1884, having witnessed
commercial crises. The War of 1812 was followed by
a rise in prices, followed by money stringency and large
declines. This was brought about partly by calls of the
government on the Bank of the United States for funds
to meet $7,500,000 of maturing stock of the issue that
had furnished funds to pay for the Territory of Louisi-
ana. This compelled the bank largely to reduce -its
discounts. The panic of 1837 was due to speculation in
western lands, the sales of which in twenty-six months
amounted to $41,000,000. The sales for the previous
forty years had amounted to but $49,000,000. This
speculative fever had been aided by the deposit of
government funds in State banks. {See Pet Banks.)
The specie circular of the government requiring pay-
ments for lands to be made in coin, caused many of
these banks to suspend, and the crisis was precipitated.
Specie payments were suspended in May, 1837, by all
banks except the State Bank of Missouri. Specie was
worth a premium of about twelve per cent. Specie
payments were resumed on April 16, 1838, by three
Boston banks, and in the next month they were gener-
ally resumed. The next suspension of specie payment
took place in October, 1857, but in sixty days it was
again resumed. The drain of the Civil War caused
the suspension of specie payments by the government,
as well as by the banks, on December 30, 1861, but this

Of THE '^ \

IVERSITI j

110 DlCTtONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

suspension was not accompanied by a panic. Specie
payments were not resumed until January 1, 1879.
Meanwhile the suspension forced gold to a premium^
and it became an article of merchandise. Its highest
point was reached in July, 1864, when it sold at 285.
The crisis of 1873 was due principally to excessive rail-
road building. In New York the panic was so great
that the New York Stock Exchange was for twelve
days closed for business. The banks suspended cur-
rency payments, but after forty days they again re-
sumed. Business passed through the usual stages, and
by 1879 a season of prosperity had again set in. It
continued to increase until July, 1881. The assassina-
tion of President Garfield on the second of that month
being the epoch from which the decline in prices is
usually dated. This gradual decline continued, with
occasional reactions, until in May, 1884, another panic
set in. Money rose to three per cent, per day and
stocks dropped rapidly, but rates for money soon de-
clined to more moderate figures. The banks in New
York, the center of the panic, aided each other in car-
rying securities of doubtful value, thus limiting the
casualties among the banks to one failure and one sus-
pension. The usual depression followed. In 1886 busi-
ness was slowly recovering, and the usual period of
inflation may next be expected.

Committee of the Whole in legislative assemblies
is a committee consisting of all the individual members
of the assembly. When an assembly goes into com-
mittee of the whole, the presiding officer surrenders the
chair, usually to some member named by him. When
the committee has finished the consideration of the
subjects entrusted to it, the presiding officer of the
assembly resumes the chair, and the chairman of the
committee reports to the assembly, which may then take
action on the report just as on the report of any other
committee. The rules and powers of the committee of
the whole differ materially from those of the assembly,
and it is for the purpose of gaining the greater freedom
und expedition thus afforded that the fiction of a com-

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. \\\

mittee of the whole is made use of. The United States
Senate does not resolve itself into committee of the
whole. In that body it is simply moved that a subject
be considered *^as in committee of the whole/' This is
called a quasi committee. In legislative bodies the as-
sistant clerk acts as clerk of the committee, and the
journal of the House does not contain the proceedings
of the committee, only its report to the House. In
committee of the whole a member may speak on the
same question as often as he can obtain the floor,
the previous question- or reconsideration cannot be
moved, nor can motions, appeals or amendments be
laid on the table. In the House of Representatives of
Congress, every public bill and all measures relating to
religion, trade, revenue or the grant of public money,
must be considered in committee of the whole before
being considered by the House.

Committee of Ways and Means. {_See Ways
and Means, Oo?nmittee of. )

Committees. — In order to facilitate the work of
Congress, the Senate and the House have each a number
of standing committees on a variety of subjects, and
any measures introduced are referred to the committee
within the scope of whose labors they properly fall.
These committees are appointed at the beginning of a
Congress, and remain in existence throughout its life.
The power of these committees is very great, for a
measure may be delayed by them and thus practically
killed, or adversely reported, in which case its chances
of success are nearly hopeless. On the other hand, it
is within the power of a committee to press any par-
ticular measure upon the attention of Congress. Most
of the real work on bills is done in committee, the vote
in the House being frequently only a hurried and ill-
considered proceeding. Among the most important
standing committees are the Committee of Ways and
Means, Appropriations Committee (in the House),
Finance Committee (in the Senate), Banking and Cur-
rency, etc. In the House the Speaker appoints these
committees; in the Senate they are nominally voted for.

112 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITIC^.

but they are really arranged by the caucus of the ma-
jority. Joint committees are standing committees of
both Houses acting together. Select committees are
appointed for the investigation of particular subjects.
Committees of conference are committees appointed by
each House in order to confer on points in dispute be-
tween the Houses.
Compound Duties. (^See Customs Duties.)
Compromise of 1850. — For more than a year after
the termination of the Mexican War, the territory ac-
quired by that war had remained under military rule.
But in 1850 California adopted a constitution prohibit-
ing slavery, and then applied for admission. The slave
States would not agree to admit her unless a new slave
State were also formed. At the same time the organiza-
tion of the newly acquired territory came up for discus-
sion. Henry Clay then proposed a compromise, which,
having been referred to a select committee of thirteen,
of which he was chairman, was reported by them in
substantially the same shape as proposed. It provided
for: 1. The postponement of the admission of new
States to be formed out of Texas until demanded by
such State. 2. The admission of California as a free
State. 3. The organization, without the Wilmot Pro-
viso, of all territory acquired from Mexico, and not
included in California, as the Territories of New
Mexico and Utah. 4. The combination of the last two
measures in one bill. 5. The establishment of the
boundaries of Texas and the payment to her of 110,-
000,000 for the abandonment of her claim to New
Mexico. 6. More effectual laws for the return of
fugitive slaves. 7. Abolishing the slave trade in the
District of Columbia, but leaving slavery there undis-
turbed. These measures all became laws, and together
were commonly known as the Omnibus Bill. It is
charged that the indemnity of $10,000,000, the pay-
ment of which raised the market value of Texas securi-
ties from twenty or thirty to nearly par, was not without
influence in the passage of the bill. The Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, passed in 1854, virtually repealed this
compromise.

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 113

Compromises of the Constitution.— On three
points did the convention of 1787, framing the Consti-
tution, come to a stage at which further progress seemed
impossible. From this sprang three compromises. The
result of the first was the present system of a Senate
containing two members from each State, regardless of
size, and a House whose members are apportioned to the
population. (^See A;pporUonment.^ Ehode Island was
never represented in the convention, and New Hamp-
shire not until after this subject was disposed of. There
were therefore eleven States, and these were divided as
follows: Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, six, known as
the ^' large States,^' against New York, Maryland, Con-
necticut, New Jersey and Delaware, five, known as the
''small States.^' The former desired representation
according to population, the national system, the latter
by States, or the federative system. A compromise was
effected, the present system being the result. One of
the most serious evils of the Confederation was the
powerlessness of Congress to regulate commerce. The
commercial States were all in favor of giving to Con-
gress complete control of this subject, nor were the
other States generally opposed to this, except in this,
that the Southern States, whose industries consisted
almost exclusively in the cultivation of rice, tobacco
and a few other articles, objected strenuously to any
possibility by which an export tax could at any time be
imposed on these articles, as any such proceeding would
tend to cripple the entire State. The second com-
promise was accordingly made, complete control over
commerce being given to Congress, except that a tax on
exports was prohibited. (Article 1, section 4, clause 5.)
The third compromise was on the question of slavery.
Georgia and South Carolina refused to enter the Union
if the slave trade were to be prohibited or discriminated
against. It was then that Article 1, section 9, clause 1,
was agreed on, forbidding Congress to prohibit the slave
trade prior to the year 1808, but permitting the imposi-
tion of a tax thereon not to exceed ten dollars a head.

1 14 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

The other concessions to the slave States were Article
4, section 2, clause %, concerning the return of fugitive
slaves, and Article 1, section 2, clause 3, giving repre-
sentation in Congress to the nuuLoer of inhabitants plus
three-fifths of the slaves. The consideration for these
concessions was the elimination of the following section:
^' No Navigation Act shall be passed without the assent
of two-thirds of the members present in either House/'

Compromise Tariff. — A Tariff Act introduced bv
Henry Clay in 1833. {8ee Tariffs of the United States^

Concord Mob. — In August, 1835, a time when the
anti-slavery leaders were decried and insulted even in
New England, John Greenleaf Whittier accompanied
George Thompson, an English orator, to Concord, New
Hampshire, to make arrangements for an anti-slavery
meeting. A mob of several hundred gathered, assailed
Whittier with sticks and stones^ injured him and drove
him into the house of an honorable man, though not
an Abolitionist. Meanwhile the house which held
Thompson was also attacked. Whittier managed to
join him. A cannon was actually brought to bombard
the house, but finally the rioters dispersed without doing
serious damage, and Whittier and Thompson escaped
from the town.

Confederate States, The. — The name adopted by
the States that seceded in 1861. Delegates from six of
these States met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 4,

1861, and formed a provisional government under the
above name. The delegates to the convention had been
appointed by the different State conventions, and not
elected by the people. The government thus established
adopted provisionally the Constitution of the United
States, making in it such changes as suited their pur-
pose, and declared all the laws of the United States in
force until repealed. The legislation of the provisional
Congress (consisting of one House only) dealt with the
carrying on of the war, the raising of money and the
adoption of a permanent constitution. In February,

1862, this constitution " having been adopted by all the
States, an election was held under it, and Jefferson

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLl riCS. 115

Davis and Alexander H. Stephens (the provisional
President and Vice-President) were chosen. They were
inaugurated February 22, 1862. The capital had been
removed to Richmond, Virginia, and there it remained
during the war. The influence of Congress on the
course of events was but small, all the real power being
in the hands of the President, who made his influence
felt in every department. The surrender of Lee in 1865
put an end to the Civil War, and at the same time to
the Confederacy. Most of the changes that were made
in the Constitution were made for the purpose of secur-
ing explicit recognition of slavery and of the sovereignty
of the States. A point of interest to us is a prohibition
on laying any duties on imports '^ to promote or foster
any branch of industry. ^^

Confirmation by the Senate. {Bee Term and
Tenure of Office.)

Congress. — All legislative powers granted by the
Constitution of the United States are vested in Con-
gress, which consists of the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The powers of Congress are enumer-
ated in Article 1, section 8, of the Constitution, and all
powers not granted to Congress, or prohibited to the
States, are reserved to the States or to the people; but
the power of Congress is absolute within the scope of
its authority. The Senate is composed of two members
from every State, regardless of size or population; the
members of the House are apportioned on the basis of
population. Thus, while in the House the influence of
the people is felt directly, according to their numbers,
the Senate provides the means of defending the smaller
States from the possible encroachments of the larger;
and to assure the safety of the smaller States, the Con-
stitution, Article 5, provides that "no State without its
consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the
Senate. ^^ Bills that have passed both Houses are sent
to the President, who may either sign or veto them, or
do neither, in which case the bill becomes a law after
ten days unless Congress has previousl}' adjourned.
{See Veto.) The veto of the President is the only

116 DICTiOMAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

check upon the power of Congress to legislate within
the scope of its authority. Legislation exceeding the
constitutional power of Congress will be declared un-
constitutional by the Supreme Court, if that body is
appealed to by either party to any controversy arising in
an attempt to enforce such laws. Each House is, by the
Constitution, *' the judge of the elections, returns and
qualifications of its own members."

Congressman. {8ee House of Representatives;
Congressman-at-Large. )

Congressman-at-Large. — The Act of February
25, 1882, provided for the reapportionment of Eepre-
sentafcives. {8ee Apportionment?) In cases where the
number assigned to a State was increased and the Legis-
lature of that State did not provide for rearrangement
of the districts, the additional members were to be
elected on a general ticket by the whole State, the old
districts each electing one member as before. Where
the representation of a State was diminished and a
corresponding change of district was not made, the
whole number of members was to be elected on a
general ticket There is at present but one Congress-
man-at-large. He is from Pennsylvania.

Conkling, Roscoe, was born at Albany, Kew York,
October 30, 1829. From 1859 to 1863 and 1865 to 1867 he
served in the House, and from 1867 to 1881 in the
United States Senate. In 1881 he resigned. {8ee Stal-
warts.) Subsequently he devoted himself exclusively
to his profession of the law in which he held prominent
rank. He died at New York, April 18, 1888.

Connecticut was one of the original States of the
Union. It had two capitals, Hartford and New Haven,
up to 1873, when the former was made the sole seat of
government. The population in 1880 was 622,700, and
in the last census (1890) 746,258. Connecticut is entitled
to four members of the House of Kepresentatives, and
casts six electoral votes. It is a somewhat doubtful
State in national politics. From 1860 to 1884 it was
Republican, except that in 1876 Tilden had a ^mall
majority, and in 1884 Cleveland a small plurality. It
takes its name from its principal river, which means in

DICTJONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 117

the Indian tongue, "long river/' Popularly it is
variously known as the Freestone, Nutmeg, or Wooden
Nutmeg State, or the Land of Steady Habits. (^See
Governors; Legislatures. )

Conscience Whigs. — In 1850 the Whigs in Con-
gress had taken the position that the slavery question,
which they regarded as settled by the Compromise of
1850, should not be reopened. This policy was approved
by President Fillmore. Their attitude led to dissen-
sions in the party in many of the States. In Massachu-
setts those opposed to the stand thus taken by the
leaders were known as Conscience Whigs; those that
approved it as Cotton Whigs. The reason of the name
is obvious. In New York, Fillmore's State, the sup-
porters of his view were known as Silver Grays, a name
given to them because they were mostly the older mem-
bers. They were also called Snuff-takers. Those op-
posing it, headed by William H. Seward, were called
Woolly Heads, or Seward Whigs.

Conscription Bill. {See Drafts.)

Conservatives. — A name assumed by certain po-
litical parties in many nations. These parties are some-
times actually, and always avowedly, opposed to changes
from old and established forms and practices. In United
States history these names have never been in general
use, but in Van Buren's administration the name was
applied to those Democrats that at the special session of
Congress, of September, 1837, opposed the establish-
ment of the sub- treasury system. In the Congress that
met December, 1839, they had practically disappeared.
The name was also assumed by Southern whites during
the reconstruction period following the Civil War, to
show their adherence to the old State governments, the
abolition of which by Congress they opposed. In Vir-
ginia the name was in use until 1872. The name was
also used at the North during this period. The Demo-
crats applied it to themselves to draw moderate Repub-
lican votes.

Constitution, The, is a Covenant with Death
and an Agreement with HeU. — One of the mottoes

118 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

of the Abolitionist newspaper. The Liberator. {See
Abolitionists.)

Constitutional Union Party. — This name was
adopted at a convention in Baltimore, in May, 1860, of
those Whigs that had not, on the dissolution of their
party, joined either the Kepublicans or Democrats. In
1856 they had constituted a portion of the American
party. They denounced the platforms of existing
parties as tending ^'to widen political divisions,'^ and
declared their principle to be ''the Constitution of the
country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of
the laws.-*^ John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward
Everett, of Massachusetts, were respectively nominated
for President and Vice-President. This ticket carried
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, receiving thirty-
nine electoral votes. In several of the States ''fusion^'
tickets of electors had been named, and in these the
popular vote for each ticket can only be estimated.
BelFs total popular vote is variously estimated from
about 590,000 to 650,000, of which the former is prob-
ably more nearly correct. This party disappeared at the
beginning of the Civil War.

Constitution of the Country, The, the Union
of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws.
— This phrase is from the platform of the Constitutional
Union Party, adopted at its convention in Baltimore,
May 19, 1860.

Constitution of the United States. — The history
of the formation of our Constitution is given under the
heading of Convention of 1787 {which see). It was
signed, as indicated below, by all the delegates to that
convention except Gerry, of Massachusetts, and Mason
and Kandolph, of Virginia. Having been transmitted
to Congress, that body, on September 28, 1787, ordered
it to be submitted to conventions chosen in the separate
States by the people thereof. Such conventions were
chosen, and through them eleven States ratified the
Constitution on the following dates: Delaware, Decem-
ber 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New
Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788;

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN- POLITICS. 119

Oonnecticut, January 9, 1788; MasFachn setts, February
6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May
23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Virginia,
June 26, 1788; New York, July 26, 1788. As the
seventh article provided that the ratification of nine
States should be sufficient, it was therefore adopted.
March 4, 1789, was the day set for the operations of the
new government to commence. Subsequently it was
ratified by the two remaining States — by North Caro-
lina on November 21, 1789, and by Ehode Island on
May 29, 1790. The text of the various amendments is
given below with the body of the Constitution. The
dates of the adoption of the amendments are given
under the heading Amendments to the Constitution
(which see).

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA.

PREAMBLE.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran-
quility, provide for the common defence, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION I.

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate
and House of Representatives.

SECTION II.

^st Clause. The House of Representatives shall be com-

fiosed of members chosen every second year by the people of
he several States, and the electors in each State shall have
the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous
branch of the State Legislature.

2d Clause. No person shall be a Representative who shall
not have attained/ to the age of twenty-five years, and been
seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not,
when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall
be chosen.

Bd Clause. Representatives and direct taxes shall be ai)por-
tloned among the several States which may be included within

120 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall
be determined by adding to the whole number of free per-
sons, including those bound to service for a term of years,
and excluding Indians not taxed three-fifths of all other per-
sons. [Altered by the Fourteenth Amendment, Section II.]
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years
after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States,
and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such man-
ner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representa-
tives shall not exceed one for every thirtj^ thousand, but each
State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such
enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall
be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York
six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one,
Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Caro-
lina five, and Georgia three.

4th. Clause. When vacancies happen in the representation
from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue
writs of election to fill such vacancies.

6th Clause. The House of Representatives shall choose
their Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power
of impeachment.

SECTION III.

Ist Clause. The Senate of the United States shall be com-
posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legisla-
ture thereof for six years; and each Senator shall have one
vote.

2d Clause. Immediately after they shall be assembled in
consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as
equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators
of the first class shall be vacated at the exi)iration of the
second year, of the second class at the expiration of the
fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the
sixth year, so that one- third ma;^ be chosen every second year;
and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during
the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive
thereof may make temporary appointments until the next
meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacan-
cies.

3d Clause. No person shall be a Senator who shall not
have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a
citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected,
be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Uh Clause. The Vice-President of the United States shall
be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they
be equally divided.

5th Clause. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and
also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-Presi-
dent, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the
United States.

6th Clause. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all
impeachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be
on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United
States is tried, the Chief -Justice shall preside ; and no person

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 121

shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of
the members present.

lih Clause. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not
extend further than to removal from office and disqualifica-
tion to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit
under the United States ; but the jjarty convicted shall never-
theless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment
and punishment, according to law.

SECTION IV.

1st Clause. The times, places and manner of holding elec-
tions for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in
each State by the Legislature thereof ; but the Congress may
at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as
to the places of choosing Senators.

2d Clause. The Congress shall assemble at least once in
every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in
December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

SECTION v;

1st Clause, Each House shall be the judge of the elections,
returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority
of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller
number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized
to compel the attendance of absent members m such manner
and under such penalties as each House may provide.

2d Clause. Each House may determine the rules of its pro-
ceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and,
with the concurrence of two-thirds, exj)el a member.

3d Clause. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceed-
ings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such
parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas
end nays of the members of either House on any question
shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on
the journal.

4tth Clause. Neither House during the session of Congress
shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than
three davs, nor to any other place than that in which the two
Houses shall be sitting.

SECTION VI.

1st Cla/ase. The Senators and Representatives shall receive
a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law
and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They
shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at
the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and
returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in
either House they shall not be questioned in any other place.

2d Clause. No Senator or Representative shall, during the
time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office
under the authority of the United States which shall have
been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been in-
dreased, during such time ; and no person holding any office

122 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

under the United States shall be a member of either House
during his continuance in ofBce.

SECTION VII.

1st Clause. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in
the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or
concur with amendments as on other bills.

2d Clause. Every bill which shall have passed the House
of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a
law, be presented to the President of the United States ; if he
approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his
objections, to that House in which it shall have originated,
who shall enter their objections at large on their journal and
proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two-
thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be
sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by
which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by
two-thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all
such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by
yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for
and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each
House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the
President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall
have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like
manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be
a law.

Sd Clause. Every order, resolution or vote to which the
concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may
be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be
presented to the President of the United States ; and before
the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being
disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the
Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules
and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

SECTION VIII.

The Congress shall have power :

1st Clause. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and
excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence
and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, im-

Sosts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United
tates ;

2d Clause. To borrow money on the credit of the United
States ;

3d Clause. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and
among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ;

Ufi Clause. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization,
and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout
the United States ;

bth Clause. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and
of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

6th Clause. To provide for the punishment of counterfeit-
ing the securities and current coin of the United States ;

7th Clause, To establish post-offices and post-roads ;

Sth Clause. To promote the progress of science and u&ef ul

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 123

arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors
the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ;

9t^ Clause. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme
Court ;

10th Clause. To define and punish piracies and felonies
committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of
nations;

nth Clause. To declare war, grant letters of marque and
reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and
water ;

12th Clause. To raise and support armies; but no appro-
priation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than
two years;

ISth Clause. To provide and maintain a navy ;

lUh Clause. To make rules for the government and regula-
tion of the land and naval forces ;

15th Clause. To provide for calling forth the militia to
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and
repel invasions;

16t^ Clause. To provide for organizing, arming and discip-
lining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may
be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to
the States respectively the appointment of the officers and
the authority of training the militia according to the discip-
line prescribed by Congress ;

17th Clause. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square)
as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of
Congress, become the seat of the government of the United
States ; and to exercise like authority overall places purchased
by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the
same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dock-yards, and other needful buildings ; and

ISth Clause. To make all ^aws which shall be necessary and
proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and
all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Govern-
ment of the United States, or in any department or officer
thereof.

SECTION rx.

Ist Clause. The migration or importation of such persons as
any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit,
shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one
thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be
imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars tor
each person.

2d Clause. The privilege of the writ of habeas cori)us shall
not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion
the public safety may require it.

Sd Clause. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall bo

Uh Clause. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid,
unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore
directed to be taken.

5t?i Clause. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported
from any State.

124 DICTIONAR y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS.

Qth Clause. No preference shall be given by any regulation
of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of
another nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be
obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.

7th Clause. No money shall be drawn from the treasury,
but in consequence of appropi iations made by law; and a
regular statement and account of the receipts and expend-
itures of all public moneys shall be published from time to
time.

8th Clause. No title of nobility shall be granted by the
United States; and no person holding any office of profit or
trust under th*^m, shall, without the consent of the Congress,
accept of an> present, emolument, office, or title of any Kind
whatever, Ix-om any king, prince, or foreign state.

SECTIOX X.

1st Clause. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin
money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but ^old and sil-
ver coin a tender in payment of debts; j)ass any bill of attain-
der or ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of
contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

2d Clause. No State shall, without the consent of the Con-
gress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except
what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection
laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by
any State on imports and exports, shall be for the use of the
Treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be sub-
ject to the revision and control of the Congress.

3d Clause. No State shall, without the consent of the Con-
gress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in
time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, un-
less actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not
admit of delay.

ARTICLE II.

SECTION I.

1st Clause. The executive power shall be vested in a Presiv
dent of the United States of America. He shall hold his office
during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-
President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows:

2d Clause. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to
the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which
the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or
Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit
under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

*Sd Clause. The electors shall meet in their respective
States, and vote by ballot for two persons, one of whom, at
l»ast, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them-
selves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted

» This clause has been superseded by the Twelfth Amendment.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 126

for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the the seat of Govern-
ment of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of
the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certifi-
cates ; and the votes shall then be counted. The person hav-
ing the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such
number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap-
pointed; and if there be more than one who have such major-
ity, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of
Representatives shall immediately choose, by ballot, one of
them for President, and if no person have a majority, then,
from the five highest on the list, the said House shall, in like
manner, choose the President. But, in choosing the President,
the votes shall be taken by States ; the representation from
each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall
consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States ;
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
In every case, after the choice of a President, the person hav-
ing the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be Vice-
President. But, if there should remain two or more who have
equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them, by ballot, the
Vice-President.

Wx Clause. The Congress may determine the time of
choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give
their votes ; which day shall be the same throughout the
United States.

bth Clause. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a
citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this
Constitution, shall be eligible to the ofBce of President; neither
shall any person be eligible to that ofBce who shall not have
attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen
years a resident within the United States.

6th Clause. In case of the removal of the President from
oflSce, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the
powers and duties of the said oflBce, the same shall devolve on
the Vice-President ; and the Congress may by law provide for
the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the
President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then
act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until
the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

7th Clause. The President shall, at stated times, receive for
his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased
nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been
elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other
emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Sth Clause. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he
shall take the following oath or affirmation :

*' I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully exe-
cute the office of President of the United States, and will, to
the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Con-
stitution of the United States."

SECTION n.

1st Clause. The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of
the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of

126 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

the several States, when called into the actual service of the
United States: he may require the opinion, in writing, of the
principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon
any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices,
and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeach-
ment.

'id Clause. He shall have power, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of
the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the
supreme court, ancf all other officers of the United States,
whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for,
and which shall be established by law ^ "but the Congress may
by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they
think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or
in the heads of departments.

3d! Clause. The President shall have power to fill up all
vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by
granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their
next session.

SECTION III.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information
of the state of the Union, and recommend to their considera-
tion such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ;
he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or
either of them, and in case of disagreement between them,
with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them
to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambas-
sadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the
laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the offi-
cers of the United States.

SECTION rv.

The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment
for, and on conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high
crimes and misdemeanorSc

ARTICLE III.

SECTION I.

The judicialpower of the United States shall be vested in
one Supreme Courtj and in such inferior courts as the Congress
may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both
of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices dur-
ing good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their
services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during
their continuance in office.

SECTION II.

1st Clause. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in
law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 127

United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made
under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors,
other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty
and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the
United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two
or more States; between a State and citizens of another
State; between citizens of different States; between citi-
zens of the same State claiming lands under grants of dif-
ferent States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and
foreign States, citizens, or subjects.

2d, Clause. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public
ministers and consuls, and those m which a State shall be a
party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In
all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall
have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such
exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall
make.

Sd Clause. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of im-
peachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in
the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ;
but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be
at such place or places as the Congress may by law have
directed.

SECTION in.

Is* Clause. Treason against the United States shall consist
only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their
enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be
convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses
to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

2d Clause. The Congress shall have power to declare the
punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work
corruption of blood, or forfeiture, 3xcept during the life of the
person attainted.

ARTICIiE IV

SECTION I,

Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the pub-
lic acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State.
And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner

in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved,
and the effect thereof

SECTION II.

l8« Clause. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

2d Clause. A person charged in any State with treason,
felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be
found in another State, shall on demand of the executive
authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to
be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.

Sd Clause. No person held to service or labor in one Stat«,
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in couse-

128 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from sucli
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party
to whom such service or labor may be due.

SECTION III.

\8t Clause. New States may be admitted by the Congress
into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected
within the jurisdiction- of any other State; nor any State be
formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of
States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States
concerned as well as of the Congress.

2id Clause. The Congress shall have power to dispose of
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the ter-
ritory or other property belonging to the United States; and
nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to preju-
dice any claims of the United States, or of any particular
State.

SECTION IV.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union
a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them
against invasion; and on application of the Legislature, or of the
Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against
domestic violence.

ARTICLE V,

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall
deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution,
or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the
several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments,
which, in either case, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes,
as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of
three- fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-
fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may
be proposed by the Congress: provided that no amendment
which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and
fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that
no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal
suffrage in the Senate.

ARTICLE VI.

\st Clause. All debts contracted and engagements entered
into before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid
against the United States under this Constitution, as under the
Confederation.

%d Clause. This Constitution, and the laws of the United
States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all trea-
ties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith-
standing.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 129

3d Clause. The Senators and Representative§ before men-
tioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures,
and all executive and judicial offtcers, both of the United
States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or
affirmation to support this ConstitutioM ; but no religious test
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public
trust under the United States.

ARTICLE VIL

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be
sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between
the States so ratifying the same.

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the States

E resent the seventeenth day of September in the year of our
lOrd one thousand seven hundred and tighty-seven, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the
twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed
our names.

Go: WASHINGTON

Presidt, and Deputy from Virginia,,

New Ha/m/pshire.^John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman.

Massachusetts. — Nathaniel Gorham, Ruf us King.

Connecticut.— Wwi. Saml. Johnson, Roger Sherman.

New Forfc.— Alexander Hamilton.

New Jersey.— Will Livingston, David Brearley, Wm. Patter-
son, Jona: Dayton.

Pennsylvania.— B. Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robt. Morris,
Geo. Clymer, Thos. Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson,
Gouv Morris.

Delaware.— Geo: Read, Gunning Bedford, Jun., John Dickin-
son, Richard Bassett, Jaco. Broom.

Maryland.— James MoHenry, Dan of St. Thos Jenifer, DanL
CSarroU.

Virginia.— John Blair, James Madison, Jr.

North Carolina.— Wm. Blount, Riohd. Dobbs Spaight, Hu
Williamson.

South Carolina.— J. Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,
Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler.

Georyta.— William Few, Abr Baldwin.

Attest: Wn^LiAM Jackson, Secretary,

130 DICTJONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Amendments to the Constitution.

PROPOSED BY CONGRESS AND RATIFIED BT THE liEGISIiATITRES
OF THE SEVERAIj STATES.

ARTICLE I.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.

ARTICLE II.

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall
not be infringed.

ARTICLE III.

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house
without the consent of the owner, nor m time of war but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IV.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiz-
ures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but
upon probable cause, supp> rted by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the per-
sons or things to be seized.

ARTICLE V.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a
grand jury, except in . ases arising in the land or naval
forces, or in the militi •, when in actual service in time of war
or public df; ^rer • nor shall any person be subject for the same
offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,
nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due pro-
cess of law , nor shall private property be taken for public use
without just compensation.

ARTICLE VL

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy th«
right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the
State and district wherein the crime shall have been commit-
ted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by
law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusa-
tion ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 131

ARTICLE VII.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial bv jury shall be pre-
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-
examined in any court of the United States than according to
the rules of the common law.

ARTICLE VIIL

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im-
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

ARTICLE IX.

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.

ARTICLE X.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con-
stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the people.

ARTICLE XI.

The judicial powers of the United States shall not be con-
strued to extend to any suit, in law or equity, commenced or
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of
another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.

ARTICLE XII.

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them-
selves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-
President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons
voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-
President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists
they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of
the Government of the United States, directed to the Presi-
dent of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all
the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the per-
son having the greatest number of votes for President, shall
be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed; and if no person have such
majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers,
not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President,
the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by
ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes
shall be taken by States, the representation from each State
having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a
member or members from two-thirds of the States, aud a ma-
jority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if
the House of Representatives shall not choose a President
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before

132 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-Presi-
dent shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other
constitutional disability of the President. The person having
the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the
Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the wholo
number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a major-
ity, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate
shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose
shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators,
and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a
choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office
of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the
United States.

ARTICLE XIII.

Section I.— Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex-
cept as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Sec. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

ARTICLE XIV.

Section I.— All persons born or- naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law, nor deny any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Sec II.— Representatives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respective numbers, counting
the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians
not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the
choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the
United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
judicial offtcers of a State, or the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State,
being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United
States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in re-
bellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall
be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-
one years of age in such State.

Sec III. — No person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold
any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under
any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member
of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a mem-
ber of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial
officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United
States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against
the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove
8uch disability.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 133

Sec. IV.— The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay-
ment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing in-
suri'ection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against
the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of
any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be
held illegal and void.

Sec. V. — The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro-
priate legislation, the provisions of this article.

ARTICLE XV.

Section I.— The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shah not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by
any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

Sec. II.— The Congress shall have power to enforce this arti-
cle by appropriate legislation.

Construction of the Constitution. — The interpre-
tation of a law by a tribunal is the declaration by that
tribunal of the meaning of the law as derived from
its terms merely. When the mere words are not suffi-
cient to yield this meaning, recourse is had to '' con-
struction " of the law, the intention of the law-makers
and the circumstances under which it was passed being
taken into consideration. Construction begins where
interpretation ends. It is evident that the construction
of general provisions of the United States Constitution,
applying them to particular cases, offers ground for wide
differences of opinion as to powers granted or acts per-
mitted. The view that the strict letter of the Consti-
tution must be adhered to in all cases is called the strict
construction theory. The view that the Constitution
should be liberally construed, thus giving to the Fed-
eral Government much power denied to it under the
other view,is called the broad or loose construction theory.
The tendency of this construction is to centralization
by strengthening the hands of the Federal Government.
It is plain that a political party espousing the former
view would shift its position but little with time, the
letter of the Constitution being its sheet-anchor, while
the body supporting the latter view would appear in
forms varying with the particular cause advocated by

134 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

them,, tlieir contention being of necessity for a partic-
ular reform asserted by tbem to come within the scope
of the Constitution. And so it has been. The Dem-
ocratic-Eepublican party has been the strict construc-
tion party, and it has had the Federal, the Whig, and
the Eepublican parties successively opposed to it, as
advocates of the establishment of a United States bank,
of excise laws, of a navy, in the first case; of a protect-
ive tariff and of internal improvements in the second;
and of the power of the Federal Government to control
slavery outside of the States, and subsequently of eman-
cipation and of reconstruction, in the third. But the
Democratic-Eepublican party does not now favor strict
construction in the same way as in 1790. Changes
made by the opposition have proved beneficial and have
been permanent, and the strict construction view of each
period has acknowledged accomplished facts of the past.
Moreover, even the Democratic-Eepublican party, when
in power, favors broader construction than when in
opposition, and the broad-constructionists are apt to in-
sist on rather strict construction when their opponents
are in power. The Civil War and the reconstruction
period following it, led to the passage of many Acts
by Congress based on principles of the loosest construc-
tion, and while many of these, as the Ku-Klux Acts
(except the conspiracy section), have been declared
constitutional by the Supreme Court, others, as the
Civil Eights Bill, have been declared unconstitutional.
In several recent cases the Supreme Court has shown a
tendency to decide cases by a rather strict construction
of the Constitution. {^8ee Civil Riahts Bill,)

Consul. {8ee Foreign Service.)

Contested Elections. — The history of Disputed
Presidential or Vice-Presidential Elections is given
under that head. The courts of every State decide as
to the validity of the votes cast, and the two Houses of
Congress see that this vote is authenticated in accord-
ance with the laws. Each House of Congress is the
sole judge as to its own members, and any contest as to a
Beat in either House is decided by that House. Th©

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 135

testimony is taken by the appropriate committee, and
after its report the House decides. Contestant and con-
testee are each allowed a sum, not to exceed $2,000, for
expenses actually incurred in the contest and properly
vouched for, and special appropriations for compensa-
tion to contestants are frequently made.

Contraband of War. — Articles carried by neutrals
in vessels or otherwise, which are for the assistance of
an enemy in carrying on war, are said to be contraband
of war. The term embraces arms, ammunition, mate-
rials for manufacturing gunpowder, armed vessels, pro-
visions intended for the military forces, and the like.
According to international law, these are liable to seiz-
ure and to confiscation by order of a prize court. !N"o
recompense is made to the neutral except in the case of
provisions. During the Civil War the phrase '^ contra-
band of war^^ was applied to negro slaves who came
within the Union lines. This use of it originated with
General Benjamin F. Butler, who, being in command
of the Department of Eastern Virginia in 1861, refused
to return fugitive slaves, declaring that they were con-
traband of war. His position was disaffirmed by the
Government.

Contracts, Impairing the Obligation of. — Article
1, section 10, clause 1 of the Constitution of the United
States provides that '^ no State shall . . . pass any
. . . law impairing the obligation of contracts. '' It
will be noticed that this restriction applies only to the
States, and that Congress is under no restraint in this
respect. The decision in the Dartmouth College case
{which see) is the most important in the interpretation
of this clause of the Constitution.

Convention of 1787. — The government of this
country under the Articles of Confederation had been
a failure, and the remedy suggested by many was by
means of a convention • of the States, This was pro-
posed in 1781 in a pamphlet by Pelatiah Webster, and
within the next few years the Legislatures of New York
and of Massachusetts adopted resolutions of similar
tenor. In 1786 a resolution of the Virginia Legislature,

136 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

growing out of a desire to regulate commerce on Chesa«
peake Bay and the connected waters, was passed, ap-
pointing commissioners to meet representatives of the
other States for the purpose of considering the commer-
cial condition of the United States. This commission,
to which only five States sent delegates, reported the
fault to be with the Articles of Confederation, and
recommended a convention of all the States to amend
them, without which step they despaired of any im-
provement in the condition of trade. Their report was
approved by Congress, and on May 25, 1787, the repre-
sentatives of seven States met and elected as their
president George Washington, the delegate of Virginia.
All the States except Rhode Island were ultimately
represented in the convention. The first plan proposed
was that of Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, known as
the Virginia Plan. It consisted of fifteen resolutions
and provided for two Houses, one elected by the people,
the other elected by the first House from nominations
made by the State Legislatures. Congress was to have
a veto power on State laws and power to coerce de-
linquent States; it was also -to choose the executive.
These are the salient features in which the plan differed
from the Constitution as ultimately adopted. Charles
Pinckney, of South Carolina, introduced a plan, the
original of which has been lost and the only record of
which, a copy furnished by Pinckney over thirty years
later, is not believed to be entirely accurate. In its
general features it resembled the Virginia Plan, but it
differed from the latter in being more nearly like the
present Constitution. It was known as the South Caro-
lina Plan. On June 13th the committee of the whole
reported a modification of the Virginia Plan in nineteen
resolutions, the most striking change being that the
power to coerce a State was not granted to Congress.
June 14th the convention adjourned in order to enable
William Paterson, of New Jersey, to introduce what is
known as the Jersey Plan, the main features of which
were as follows: Congress was to continue as a single
House, but with additional powers; it was to elect the

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 137

executive; acts of Congress and treaties were to be para-
mount to State laws, and the executive was to nave
power to coerce refractory individuals and States.
Hamilton suggested a plan whereby, among other provis-
ions, the Senate and President were to hold office for life,
but his plan had no supporters. On July 24th the various
resolutions and plans were referred to a committee of detail,
from which, on August 6th, a draft of a constitution in
twenty-three articles was reported. After debate of
more than a month, during which the clause permitting
the slave trade for twenty years, the fugitive slave clause
and the electoral system clause were inserted, the draft
was referred to a committee consisting of Gouverneur
Morris, Johnson, Hamilton, Madison and King. This
committee, most of whose work was done by Morris, on
September 13th reported the Constitution in substan-
tially its present form. Some trifling changes were
made by the convention, which then adopted the
instrument, and after deciding against a new convention
to consider amendments suggested by the States, the
convention adjourned September 1 7th. The Constitution,
accompanied by a request that it be submitted to the
States for ratification, was sent to Congress, by whom
copies were sent to the State Legislatures. The Con-
stitution, as finally adopted, was signed by but thirty-
nine out of the fifty-five delegates. The proceedings of
the convention were secret. Its papers were placed in
Washington's custody, subject to the disposal of the
new Congress, and in 1796 they were deposited with the
State Department.
Convention of London. {See Fishery Treaties,)
Conventions. {See Nominating Conventions.)
Coodies, The, were a faction of the New York
Federalists that favored the War of 1812. The Feder-
alists generally opposed it. The Coodies opposed De
Witt Clinton, who, though a Democrat, was on good
terms politically with the Federalists. Their name
arose from the assumed name, Abimalecli Coody, adopted
by their leader, Gulian C. Verplanck, in his communica-
tions to the newspapers.

138 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Cooly. — As generally used in this country, tlie word
cooly is applied to Chinese laborers of the lower classes
who come to this country. It has obtained this broad
meaning during the discussion of the Chinese question:
strictly, it includes only such laborers as have been
imported under contract or by force or fraud.

Co-operation. — In 1861 some of the members of
the South Carolina Legislature attempted to check the
impetuosity of those in favor of immediate secession,
by proposing that the Governor be empowered to as-
semble a secession convention " as soon as any one of
the other Southern States shall, in his judgment, give
satisfactory assurance or evidence of her determination
to withdraw from the Union. ^' This course was called
co-operation. It was voted.down.

Copperhead. — A name applied during the Civil
"War to Northern sympathizers with the South. It is
also the name of a snake that '^ prefers dark and moist
places," and is said ''to sting from behind." The
allusion is obvious.

Corea, Difficulty with. — In 1871 Admiral Rodgers,
with several United States vessels, was surveying one of
the rivers of Corea, when, without warning, the vessels
were fired on from the Corean forts. Though little
damage had been inflicted, some retaliation was neces-
sary to support the dignity of our flag, and on June
11th several of the fortifications were captured and
destroyed by the Americans with a loss of three killed
and seven wounded. The Corean government refused
to be communicated with as to the prisoners we had
taken, so they were released and the squadron sailed
away.

Corn- Crackers. — ^A name given to the inhabitants
of Kentucky.

Corner-stone Speech. — By this name is known
the sjpeech made by Alexander H. Stephens, at Savan-
nah, immediately after his election to the vice-presi-
dency of the Confederate States. He spoke of the
United States government as founded on the " funda-
mentally wrong assumption of the equality of races,"

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 13^

and continued as follows: ''Our new government is
founded upon exactly opposite ideas. Its foundations
are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that
the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery,
subordination to the superior race, is his natural and
normal condition/'

Corporal's Guard. — The few supporters of Presi-
dent Tyler's administration are so called.
Corps de Belgique. i^Bee American Knights.)
Corwin, Thomas, was born in Kentucky, July 29,
1794. He was a lawyer by profession. He served in
the Ohio Legislature, in the House of Representatives
and the Senate, and as G-overnor of his State. In 1844
he was a presidential elector. Under President Fill-
more he was Secretary of the Treasury. In 1861 he
was appointed Minister to Mexico. Hp died December
18, 1865.
Cotton Whigs. {8ee Conscience Whigs.)
Council of Appointment. — The New YorJc State
Constitution of 1777 placed in a Council of Appoint-
ment the power to appoint chancellors, judges of the
supreme court, all State officers except State treasurer,
all mayors, recorders, sheriffs, clerks, justices of the peace;"
in fact, nearly all civil and military officers except al-
dermen, constables. Assemblymen and Senators. The
council consisted of the Governor and four Senators
chosen by the Assembly. The Governor at first nomi-
nated, and the council confirmed or rejected the nomina-
tions, but in time the other members of the council
claimed the right also to nominate, and in 1801 a con-
vention, assembled for the purpose, declared this latter
view of the Constitution correct, thus placing the Gov-
ernor on the same footing as the other members. The
enormous influence wielded by this body was vigorously
used as a political weapon. The Constitution adopted
in 1822 abolished the council.

Council of Revision. — A body created by the State
Constitution of New York, adopted in 1777 and abol-
ished by the Constitution adopted in 1822. It had the
power of negativing any action of the Legislature
unless passed by a two-thirds vote of each House.

140 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Counting in the Alternative. — This phrase is ap-
plied to a method of counting the electoral vote of a
State before Congress, sometimes adopted in cases where
objections are raised to their reception. The first case
of this kind was in 1821. Objection having been made
to the reception of the vote of Missouri, the Houses
directed the President of the Senate to declare that ^^ if
the votes of Missouri were to be counted the result would
be for A. B. — votes; if not counted, for A. B. —
votes; but in either event A. B. was elected." In 1837
the votes of Michigan, and in 1869 "^nd in 1881 the
votes of Georgia were so counted.

Counting Out. — It sometimes happens that the
political candidate that has received the largest number
of votes is, by fraud in the canvass, deprived of the
office to which -he has been elected, the vote of his
opponent being made to appear larger than his. He is
then said to have been counted out.

Courtesy of the Senate. — In considering the
nomination made by the President for a federal office
in any State, the Senate is almost invariably guided by
the wishes of the Senators from that State. If only
one of these Senators is of the p^rty in the majority,
his sole desire is followed. This practice is called the
courtesy of the Senate. It is plainly a violation by the
Senate of the trust imposed upon it by the Constitu-
tion regarding the confirmation of nominees. This
practical control of federal nominations in the State
gives the Senators great local influence. Since the con-
sent of the Senators of a State \^ practically necessary
to an appointment, it has become customary for the
President to consult Senators before making appoint-
ments. The failure of President Garfield to consult
the wishes of Senators Coukling and Piatt, of New
York, in the appointment of a Collector of the Port of
New York in 1881, led to their resignation. They at
once sought reelection, but after a protracted fight in
the Legislature they were not returned. {8ee Senate.)
The term, "Oourteey of the Senate," is also applied in
a general way to a numbe" of <justoms governing that

DICTIOMAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICO. 141

body which have all the force of regularly adopted
rules.

Courts. {See Judiciary.)

Cox, Sunset. {See Sunset Cox.)

Cradle of Liberty. — A name by which Faneuil
Hall in Boston is known. During the Revolution it
was the favorite meeting place of the Americans. The
name is also sometimes applied to the city of Boston.

Credit Mobilier. — This was the name of a corpora-
tion formed for the purpose of building the Union
Pacific Railroad. One of the most extensive scandals
in the history of this country centered around this cor-
poration and took its name from it. The Credit Mo-
bilier of America was a corporation chartered by the
State of Pennsylvania, originally under the name of the
Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency. The control of this cor-
poration passed to parties interested in the building of
the Union Pacific, among whom were Oakes Ames and
Oliver Ames, of Massachusetts. In August, 1867, the
Credit Mobilier, through Oakes Ames, contracted with
the Union Pacific Railroad to build for it 637 miles of
road at prices aggregating $47,000,000. The value of
the Credit Mobilier shares, estimated on the advantages
to be derived from this contract, was 200 per cent, in
December, 1867, and 300 or 400 per cent, in February,
1868. Oakes Ames was at that time a member of Con-
gress, and fearing legislation adverse to the Union
Pacific, he undertook to place the stock " where it will
do most good to us,^^ as he put it. Accordingly, in
December, 1867, he entered into contracts with various
members of the House of Representatives to sell to
them sto'ck of the Credit Mobilier at par, merely stating
that it was a good investment, and in some cases, in
answer to a direct question, asserting that no embarrass-
ment to them could flow from it, as the Union Pacific
had received all the aid that it wanted from the govern-
ment. Some of the members that thus bought stock
paid for it; for others Ames advanced the money, agree-
ing to apply the dividends of the stock to the payment
of the indebtedness. Two dividends received in 1868

143 DICTION' A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

sufficed to pay for the entire stock of the latter class of
members and left a small balance due to them. Among
these members was James A. Garfield, of Ohio, and in
the presidential campaign of 1880 his connection with
this matter was brought up against him. The amount
of money that he had thus received was $329, and the
cry of '^329^^ was a common one on the part of the
Democrats in that campaign. Charges based on the
Credit Mobilier affair had been circulated during the
campaign of 1872, and on the assembling of Congress a
committee of investigation was ordered by the House
on the motion of the Speaker, James G. Blaine. The
committee was appointed by a Democrat temporarily
acting as Speaker, and consisted of two Democrats, two
Eepublicans and one Liberal Republican. The com-
mittee recommended the eixpulsion of Cakes Ames, of
Massachusetts, and of James Brooks, of New York, the
former for having attempted to bribe members by sales
of stock below its value, the latter for having received
stock from the Credit Mobilier much below its value,
knowing that it was intended to influence his action as
a congressman and as government director in the Union
Pacific. Moreover, as a director he must have known
that the Credit Mobilier was to receive payments in
securities of the Union Pacific, a fact of which the
other members, so the committee found, were in igno-
rance. The House did not expel Ames and Brooks, but
subjected them to the " absolute condemnation of the
House. ^^ Though these were the only members pun-
ished, the innocence of some of the others was at least
open to doubt.

Creek Wars. {See Indian Wars.)

Creole Case, The. — The Act of Congress of March
2, 1807, had allowed coastwise trade in slaves. In
October, 1841, the brig Creole sailed from Hampton
Roads for New Orleans with a cargo of 130 slaves. On
the passage seventeen of the slaves mutinied, killed one
of the owners, took possession of the vessel and put
into Nassau, where the British authorities set free ah
the slaves that had not participated in the murder.

DICTION A R V OF AMERICA AT POLITICS. 143

The United States demanded their return, claiming
that having remained under the United States flag they
had in effect remained on United ' States soil, and were
therefore still slaves. Our claim was not admitted, and
was finally disposed of during the negotiations for the
extradition treaty of August 9, 1842. {See Giddings'
Resolution. )

Crime Against Kansas is the name by which the
speech of Charles Sumner, delivered in the Senate May
19 and 20, 1856, is known. It was directed against the
acts of the slavery faction in the United States in its
endeavors to secure the admission of Kansas as a slave
State. {See Border War; Brown, John; Lecompton
Constitution.) Senator Butler had attacked Sumner in
debate and in this speech Sumner retorted. For this
he was brutally assaulted by Butler's nephew. {See
Brooks y Preston S.)

Crittenden Compromise. — In 1860, when secession
of the Southern States was threatening, John J. Crit-
tenden, of Kentucky, offered a resolution that the Con-
stitution be amended as follows: In all territory north
of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes slavery was to be
prohibited; in all territory south of that line it was to
be protected. New States in either section were to
determine for themselves. The resolution further de-
clared that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia as long as it existed in either
Virginia or Maryland, nor without the consent of the
inhabitants and compensation to non-assenting owners.
Further provisions concerned slaves held by federal
officers in the District, and damages for slaves freed by
violence, while still others proliibited Congress from
abolishing the inter-State slave trade and forbade future
amendments to the Constitution changing any of these
provisions, or Article 1, section 2, clause 3, and
Article 4, section 2, clause 3, of the Constitution,
or abolishing slavery in any State. Then followed reso-
lutions which declared the fugitive slave laws to be con-
stitutional, recommending some slight changes in them,
and requesting the State Legislatures to repeal or

144 DICTJOJ^ARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

modify the *' personal liberty laws/' and concluded by
a denunciation of the African slave trade. It was not
adopted.

Cuba, Annexation of. — Ever since the purchase of
Florida from Spain, the importance of Cuba to the
United States has been recognized. Its position at the
entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and the value of its
sugar, molasses and tobacco have made it seem a desir-
able island to possess. President John Quincy Adams
and his Secretary of State, Clay, suggested the purchase
of it from Spain, but that country declined to part with
her possession. In 1848 Polk authorized the United
States Minister at Madrid to offer $100,000,000 for
Cuba, but the offer met with a curt refusal. The fili-
bustering expeditions of Lopez from 1849 to 1851 {se&
Filibusters) drew fresh attention to the island. In declin-
ing to join in the Tripartite Treaty {which see) in 1852,
the United States government denied having any inten-
tion of annexing Cuba, but refused to bind itself. In
1854 our Ministers at London, Paris and Madrid ad-
dressed to our government the Ostend Manifesto {ivhich
see), wherein they advocated that the United States
gain possession of Cuba, by purchase if possible, by
force if necessary. This advice found more favor with
the Democratic party and the South than it did with
the Eepublican party and the North. Nothing came of
it, however, and since the Civil War no discussion of the
subject has attracted Avide attention.

Cumberland Road is a public road originally pro-
jected from Cumberland, in Maryland, to the OhioEiver,
but ultimately carried as far as Illinois. The first act
in regard to it was passed by Congress March 29, 1806.
It appropriated $30,000 for the exjienses of three com-
missioners, to be appointed by the President, for the
purpose of laying out the road. There was much op-
position to every successive bill appropriating money
for the road on the ground of the unconstitutionality of
any act of Congress providing for internal improve-
ments. On this ground President Monroe vetoed the
bill of May 4, 1822, providing for its repair. Sixty

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 145

bills in all were passed appropriating money for the
establishment, extension and repair of this road, the
last being that of May 25, 1838. The rise of railroads
put a stop to its further extension. The total amount
appropriated was $6,821,246.

Currency. — Strictly speaking, any medium of ex-
change that is current, or everywhere received, is cur-
rency, whether it be coin or paper money. The term
has, however, come to be applied exclusively to paper
money. The paper money of this country is of four
kinds: first, legal tender notes; second, national bank
notes; third, gold certificates; fourth, silver certificates.
The legal tender notes of the United States are bills
issued merely on the credit of the government. {See
Fiat Money,) The acts of 1875 and 1882, however,
direct the Treasurer of the United States to hold $100,-
000,000 as a reserve for their redemption. There were
outstanding on September 1, 1865 (when the national
debt was at its maximum), $432,553,000 of legal tender
notes. This was reduced to $346,681,016 by January 1,
1879, at which amount it has since remained. These
notes are issued in denominations of one, two, five, ten,
twenty, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand,
five thousand and ten thousand dollars. Previous to
1879 (when specie payments were resumed) bills for
fractions of a dollar, fractional currency as it was
called, were issued. There is at present pending a bill
authorizing the issue of a limited amount of fractional
currency, which it is maintained will be of great con-
venience to business men in enabling them to remit
small amounts of money by mail. The legal tender
notes were issued by the government during the war as
a means of raising revenue, and the issue was generally
regarded merely as a war measure, but the Supreme
Court has declared their issue constitutional and legal,
though issued in time of peace. The national bank
notes are issued by the national banks and guaranteed
by the government, the banks depositing United States
bonds as security. {See National Banking System.^
There were outstanding on October 5, 1887, $272,387, 17

146 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN- POLITICS.

of these notes, of whicli $102,719,440, though not yet
redeemed, had been surrendered by the banks, and
for the redemption of which these had deposited legal
tender notes. Gold and silver certificates are issued by the
government against deposits of gold and silver coin, and
are exchangeable for the coin on demand. The treasury
holds the coin so deposited as a trust fund. The cer-
tificates represent the coin and are used in preference
to it merely because of greater convenience in handling.
On November 1, 1891, the outstanding currency, both
gold and silver certificates, amounted to $172,184,558.

Curtis, George William, was born in Providence,
Ehode Island, February 24, 1824. He is a man of let-
ters, and as such has won a wide reputation. He was
at one time connected with the New York Tribune and
with Putnam's Monthly. Since 1867 he has been editor
of Harper's Weekly, and connected with Harper's
Monthly. In 1871 he was one of the committee ap-
pointed by President Grant to draw up rules for the Civil
Service, in the reform of which he takes a deep inter-
est. In 1868 he was one of the members of the Consti-
tutional Convention of his adopted State, New York.
Since 1864 he has been one of the Eegents of the Uni-
versity of that State. He was a Republican, but in 1884
became one of the leaders of the revolt in that party.
(See Independents.)

Custer Massacre. {See Indian Wars.)
Customs Duties are indirect taxes levied on goods
imported into, or exported from, a country. Duties on
exports are forbidden by the Constitution of the United
States, Article 1, section 9, clause 5. Customs duties
are of five kinds, namely, discriminating, minimum,
compound, ad valorem, and specific. Discriminating
duties are additions to the usual rate, levied on goods im-
ported from certain countries or portions of the world, or
imported in vessels of certain nations. In the case of so-
called minimum duties, goods that have cost less than a
certain sum are taxed as if they had cost that sum.
Such duties were first levied in 1816, and the principle
is still retained, though no wide application is made of

DICTION- AR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 147

it in the present tariff. Compound duties are a mixture
of specific and ad valorem duties and are applied to
manufactured articles, the raw materials of which are
dutiable. The specific part of the duty is intended to
equal the rate that would have been imposed on the raw
materials if they had been imported before manufacture,
and thus to put the domestic manufacturer on as equal
a footing with the foreign maker as if the raw material
had been imported free of duty, while, at the same time,
the domestic producer of the raw material has his indus-
try protected. The ad valorem part of the duty is levied
for the purpose of protecting the manufacturer. Such
duties have been common since 1860, and appear promi-
nently in the law of 1883. Ad valorem' ^^x!^^^ are a tax
of a certain percentage of the value of the merchandise.
Specific duties are a tax of a certain specified sum for
each pound, or yard, or other unit of measure of the
merchandise, usually irrespective of its quality or value,
though sometimes it is provided that they shall vary
with variations between specified limits of the quality or
value of the goods. Both specific and ad valorem rates
have been imposed by all the general tariff acts of the
United States, with the exception, it is believed, of the
law of 1846, which levied ad valorem rates only. Whether
specific or ad valorem duties are the best, all things consid-
ered, is a disputed point. The latter are evidently the
fairer, but they give a much wider field for defrauding
the government by undervaluation. They also occasion
much more trouble to the merchant, and by levjdng duty
on the market value of goods prevent him from fully
enjoying the possible benefits of his shrewdness in buy-
ing under the market price. They also necessitate a
higher and better-paid class of government officials, and
there is danger that a competitive leniency will be exer-
cised in the various ports to attract trade. The objec-
tion to specific duties is chiefly that as they impose a
relatively higher duty on poorer qualities of merchandise
they encourage the home production of inferior goods.
Their advantages are ease m levying duties, less chance
of fraud, that they do not necessitate such high-

148 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

salaried officials, and that the revenue can, therefore, be
collected at a less cost. Foreign nations have been tend-
ing in the direction of specific duties and such is the
present tendency of opinion in the United States. The
first ninety years of our government show that over fifty-
seven per cent, of all its revenues have been derived
from customs duties. In the earlier years of this period
the proportion was much larger than this. i^See Tariffs
of the United States ; Exports and Imports. )

Dade's Massacre. {See Indian Wars.)

Dakota was formerly a territory, but on November 3,
1889 it was divided into North and South Dakota,
and under these names admitted to the Union as States.
It was part of the Louisiana purchase {see Annexation) as
a territory it was organized by Act of March 2, 1861,
and at that time was made to include the larger part of
what are now Wyoming and Montana. Bismarck is the
capital of North Dakota, and Pierre of South Dakota.
The population of North Dakota by the census of 1890
is 182,719, and that of South Dakota is 328,808. {See
Governors', Legislatures.)

Dallas, George Mifflin, was born at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, July 10, 1792, and died December 31,
1864. He was a lawyer and had graduated at Princeton.
He was a United States Senator from 1831 to 1833; Min-
ister to Russia, 1837 to 1839; Vice-President of the
United States, 1844 to 1848, and Minister to Great
Britain from February 4 to May 16, 1861. He was a
Democrat.

Dark Horse is a political phrase. When nominating
conventions name an individual that was not prom-
inently considered as a candidate before the meeting of
the convention, or during its earlier ballots, he is called
a dark horse. An instance is the case of James A. Gar-
field in the Republican National Convention of 1880.

Dartmoor Massacre. — During the war of 1812
many of the American prisoners captured by the British
were confined in a prison at Dartmoor, Devonshire. At
the close of the war there were several thousands of these,
besides twenty -five hundred impressed sailors who

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 149

claimed to be American seamen and refused to fight in
the British navy against the United States. Some of
these seamen had been imprisoned for years before the
war broke out. The prisoners, not being released im-
mediately on their hearing of the treaty of peace, grew
impatient. Eigorous discipline and lack of satisfactory
food further excited them, and there were signs of in-
subordination. On April 6, 1815, the guard fired on
them, killing several and wounding more. This occur-
rence was probably the result of a mistake, but when
the news of it reached this country it was called the
"Dartmoor Massacre,^' and excited bitter feelings against
England.

Dartmouth College Case. — A controversy arose
in 1815-16 between the Legislature of New Hampshire
and the corporation of Dartmouth College, caused chiefly
by the removal of the president of that institution by the
trustees in consequence of a local religious dispute. The
Legislature in 1816 passed acts changing the name of
Dartmouth College to Dartmouth University, and creat-
ing a new corporation, to which its property was trans-
ferred. The old trustees began suit for the recovery of
the property, and in the highest court of the State were
defeated. The case (The Trustees of Dartmouth College
vs. Woodward) was then taken on writ of error to the
United States Supreme Court. Daniel Webster made a
great argument, claiming that the acts of the Legislature
violated Article 1, section 10, clause 1 of the Constitu-
tion of the United States, which provides that ^'No
State shall . . . pass any . . . law impairing the
obligation of contracts, ^^ and that these acts were there-
fore unconstitutional and void. The decision of the
Supreme Court, rendered in 1819, upheld this view. It
settled the law that a charter granted to a private cor-
poration was a contract which could not be altered in a
material point without the consent of those who held it,
unless the power of revision is reserved to the Legislature
by a clause in the charter or a general law of the State.
This decision is one of the most important ever rendered
by the Supreme Court.

150 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Davis, Jefferson, was born in Christian County,
Kentucky, June 3, 1808. He graduated at West Point.
In politics he was a Democrat, and as such served in the
House of Eepresentatives as member from Mississippi
from 1845 to 1846. From 1847 to 1851, and from 1857
to 1861 he was in the Senate. Under Pierce he was
Secretary of War. He was one of the group of Southern
Senators that was chiefly instrumental in bringing about
secession. He was chosen President of the Confederacy
by the provisional Congress and inaugurated. He was
a^ain chosen by a popular vote and inaugurated a second
time, February 22, 1862. After the war he was im-
prisoned for two years and then released on bail. He
was never restored to citizenship. While President of
the Confederacy he was constanly interfering with his
generals, his own estimate of his military attaiments
being very high,and many of the Southern disasters are
laid at his door. He died Dec. 6, 1889.

Davis- Wade Manifesto. — In May, 1864, a bill was
introduced in Congress by Henry Winter Davis, provid-
ing for a scheme of reconstruction for States in rebellion
{see Reconstruction), This bill was carried in both
Houses, and one hour before the adjournment of Con-
gress it was placed before the President, who refused to
sign it, thus preventing its becoming a law. On July 8th
the President issued a proclamation, having attached to
it a copy of the bill, in which he recited these facts, and
while declaring that he was not prepared to commit him-
self to any one plan of reconstruction, nor to set aside
the new governments of Arkansas and of Louisiana, nor
^' to declare a constitutional competency in Congress to
abolish slavery in States '* (though hoping for its abolition
by a constitutional amendment), he yet was satisfied with
the scheme of the bill '' as one very proper plan for the
loyal people of any State choosing to adopt it,^^ and to such
he promised all aid in carrying it out. Thereupon Davis
and Benjamin F. Wade (who had aided in preparing
the bill) issued a manifesto impugning President Lincoln^s
motives, which they declared to be a desire to aid his
own reelection by means of the votes of Louisiana and

DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 151

Arkansas, asserting that the substance of the bill had
been before the country a year and that he was therefore
familiar with it, but that he himself had schemed to
delay it, that ^' he discards the authority of the Supreme
Court and strides headlong toward the anarchy '* he had
inaugurated. The influence of the manifesto in the
election was small. The bill was introduced at the next
session of Congress, but it was laid on the table.

Deadhead in the Enterprise. (See I do not Feel
that I Shall Prove a Deadhead in the Enterprise if I
Once Emharh in It. )

Deadlock is the state of affairs in which the business
of a legislative assembly is blocked through the ob-
structions of a minority, or where in an election for
officers by a legislative assembly neither party has suf-
ficient votes to elect its candidate and neither will yield
or compromise; as where more than a majority vote is
required to elect, or there is a tie or a majority of the
members (present or not present) is requisite and all can-
not be induced to attend. The term is also applied to a
stoppage of legislative business by reason of the refusal
of either of the Houses to yield on a question on which
there is a difference of opinion between them.

Debt of the United States.— The debt of the
United States, as reported to the first Congress at its
second session, 1790-1791, by Alexander Hamilton, Sec-
retary of the Treasury, consisted of the foreign debt,
domestic debt and State debts. The Secretary recom-
mended that these latter be assumed by the general gov-
ernment, and after considerable discussion this was
agreed to. The debt then stood:

Domestic debt $42,414,066

Foreign debt 11,710,378

State debts (as finally assumed) 18,271,786

Total $72,396,249

The foreign debt consisted of money due in France,
Holland and Spain, for loans made to us during the Kevo-
lution.

152 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

In 1836 the treasury had on hand a surplus of over
$40,000,000, all but $5,000,000 of which was ordered by
Congress to be distributed among the States, on certain
conditions and in four installments. Three of these
were paid, but the turn taken by financial affairs ren-
dered the payment of the fourth inexpedient. The in-
crease between 1847 and 1849 was due to the Mexican
War. Between 1852 and 1857 over $53,000,000 of the
debt was purchased in the market by the government,
about $8,000,000 being paid as premium. After the
panic of 1857 the debt began to increase ; the sudden
enormous increase in 1862 was caused by the Civil
War. During that struggle in 1866 the debt reached
the highest point in the history of the country, and
since then it has been paid off so rapidly that the prob-
lem now before the country is not how to raise money,
but to keep down the revenues. i^See Surplus), The
total amount of loans issued by the government up to
the outbreak of the Civil War was $505,353,591.95 ; be-
tween that time and July 1, 1880, there was issued $10,-
144,589,408.69; and since then 3| per cent, bonds to
the amount of $460,461,050, matured 5 and 6 per cent,
bonds extended being at that rate, and 3 per cent, bonds
to the amount of $304,204,350, for the purpose of
extending the above-mentioned 3^ per cent, bonds.
{See Refunding of United States Debt. )

The present debt of the United States may be divided
into three parts : (1) the interest bearing debt, con-
sisting of bonds of various denominations ; (2) the debt
on which interest has ceased since maturity, which is a
total of overdue bonds outstanding that have never been
presented for payment; (3) debt bearing no interest,
which includes old demand notes, the legal-tender notes,
certificates of deposit, and gold and silver certificates.
The total debt of the United States according to the
last report of the treasury Department, December, 1891,
was $1,546,961,695.61, and the cash balance in the
Treasury was $139,126,917.96.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 153

Below is given a statement of the debt since July 1,
1856, being debt less cash in the treasury.

TEAR. NET DEBT.

1856 5^10,965,953

1857 9,998,621

1858 37,900,191

1859 53,405,234

1860 59,964,402

1861 87,718,660

1862 505,312,758

1863 1,111,350,737

1864 1,709,452,277

1865 2,674,815,856

1865 2,756,431,571

1866 2,636,036,163

1867 2,508,151,211

1868 2,480,853,413

1869 2,432,771,873

1870 2,331,169,956

1871 2,246,994,068

1872 2,149,780,530

1873 ; 2,105,462,060

1874 2,104,149,153

1875 2,090,041,170

1876 2,060,925,340

1877 2,019,275,431

1878 1,999,382,280

1879 1,996,414,905

1880 1,919,326,747

1881 1,819,650,154

1882 1,675,023,474

1883 ■ 1,538,781,825

1884 1,438,542,995

1885 1,375,352,443

1886 1,282,145,840

1887 1,279.428,737

1888, January 1 1,225,598,401

1889, December 1 1,056,081,004

1890, " 1 873,435,939

1891, " 1 798,604,945

Debt, Imprisonment for. — New York was the first
State in the United States to abolish imprisonment for
debt. This was done in 1831, and the example was
shortly followed by the other States; and though there
is great difference in the insolvent laws of the several
States, they all permit debtors their freedom — except in
cases wherein dishonesty or peculation renders the
debtor also amenable to the Penal Code.

Decatur, Stephen, was born at Sinnepuxent, Md.,
January 5, 1779, and entered the navy in 1798. During
the war with Tripoli he led a small party which burned
the Philadelphia, an American vessel, which had been
captured by, and was in possession of the enemy. For
his bravery on this occasion he was promoted to the
rank of captain. In 1815 he led a squadron against the

154 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Algeraines, captured several of their vessels, and com-
pelled the Dey to seek peace. He was killed by Com-
modore James Barron, in a duel, on March 22, 1820.

Decentralization. — Broad construction of the Con-
stitution tends to the centralization of power in the
Federal government. Strict construction leads to de-
centralization, giving more power to the States. {See
Construction of the Constitution.)

Declaration of Independence. — The struggle of the
American colonies against Great Britain was begun with-
out any general idea of pushing the matter to a separation
from the mother country. Though the idea of form-
ing an independent government was favored in New
England, it was so distasteful to the other colonies that
Congress formally disavowed it July 6, 1775. How-
ever, the idea gained ground largely during the follow-
ing year, and no one thing aided more in its spread
than the publication of Thomas Paine's pamphlet,
"Common Sense.'' This struck the keynote of the
situation by advocating, with forcible logic, an asser-
tion of independence on the part of the colonies, and
the formation of a republican government. The Penn-
sylvania Legislature so well appreciated the value of
Paine's pamphlet that it gave him a grant of $2,500 in
consideration of it. In May, 1776, the Virginia Con-
vention instructed its delegates to propose a resolution
for independence. This was done June 7 by Kichard
Henry Lee. In the year 1826, after all save one of the
band of patriots whose signatures are borne on the
Declaration of Independence had descended to the
tomb, and the venerable Carroll alone remained among
the living, the government of the City of New York
deputed a committee to wait on the illustrious survivor.
They obtained from him, for deposit in the public hall of
the city, a copy of the Declaration of 1776 graced and
authenticated anew with his sign-manual.

On June 10, 1776, the Colonial Congress assembled
at Philadelphia, resolved that a committee should be
appointed to prepare a declaration "that the United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde-
pendent States/' Such action was taken and the

DICTIONAR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 155

committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, Eoger Sherman and Eobert E. Liv-
ingston. A draft was reported by this committee on
June 28th. On July 2d a resolution was adopted de-
claring the colonies free and independent States. Finally,
on July 4th, the Declaration of Independence was
agreed to, engrossed on paper and signed by John Han-
cock, President. It was afterward engrossed on parch-
ment and signed with the names given below. The doc-
ument is almost entirely from the pen of Thomas Jeffer-
son, few changes having been made in his original draft.
One of the most striking passages of the original draft,
omitted in the declaration as finally adopted, is the fol-
lowing: "He has waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and
liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never
offended him, captivating and carrying them into
slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable
death in their transportation thither. This piratical
warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the war-
fare of the Cheistiak King of Great Britain. Deter-
mined to keep open a market where men" should be
bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup-
pressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to re-
strain this execrable commerce; and that this assemblage
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he
is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among
us, and to purchase that liberty, of which Tie has de-
prived them, by murdering the people upon whom lie
also obtruded them, thus paying off former crimes com-
mitted against the liberties of one, people with crimes
which he urges them to commit against the lives of an-
other. ^^ Below is given the declaration as adopted:

THE DEOLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

A Declaration hy the Representatives of the Xfnited States of
America in Congress assembled, July 4, 1776.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con-
nected them with another, and to assume, among the powers

166 DiCTlONAk y OF AMERTCAn POLITICS.

of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws
of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights ; that among these, are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever an^
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
a new government, laying its foundation on such principles,
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likelv to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should
not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accord-
ingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more dis-
posed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them-
selves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of
these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to alter their former systems of government. The his-
tory of the present king of Great Britain is a history of re-
peated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object,
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.
Toprove this, let facts be submitted' to a candid world :

He has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation
till his assent should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he
has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish
the right of representation in the legislature ; a right inesti-
mable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their^public
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for op-
posing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the
people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to
cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, in-
capable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large
for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the meantime, ex-
posed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convul-
sions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ;
for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization oX

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, IS?

foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their mira-
tion hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations
of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, hy refusing
his assent to laws for establishing judiciarj powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the ten-
ure of their ofifices, and the amount and payment of their sala-
ries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither
swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their sub-
stance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies
without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and
superior to, the civil power.

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation :

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us :

For protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment, for
any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of
these States:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent :

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by
jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended .
offenses :

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbor-
ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government,
and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an ex-
ample and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these colonies :

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable
laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our govern-
ments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring them-
selves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases what-
soever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of
hisprotection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravished our coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mer-
cenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and
perfidy scarcely paralled in the most barbarous ages, and
totallv unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the
high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the
executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall them-
selves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has en-
deavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontierSj the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is au
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

158 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
redress, in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions
have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose
character is thus marked by every act which may define a
tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British breth-
ren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts
made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable juris-
diction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances
of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to
their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them, by the ties of our common kmdred, to disavow these
usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connec-
tions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore,
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation,
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in
war, in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of
America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Su-
preme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the
British crown, and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dis-
solved; and that, as free and independent states, they have
full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, es-
tablish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which
independent states may of right do. And, for the support of
this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

JOHN HANCOCK.

N&w Hamps?iire.— Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew
Thornton.

Massachusetts Bay. — Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt.
Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Rhode Island, etc.— Steph. Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut.— Roger Sherman, Sam'l Huntington, Wm. Will-
iams, Oliver Wolcott.

New York.— Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis,
Lewis Morris.

New Jersey.— Riohd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Frana
Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.

Pennsylvania.— Roht. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Frank-
lin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James
Wilson, Geo. Ross.

Delaware.— Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M'Kean.

iJf ar^land.— Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles
Carroll of Carrollton.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 159

Virginia. — George Wythe, Ricliard Henry Lee, Thos. Jeffer-
Bon, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.

North Carolina. — Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina.— E^vj&rdi Rutledge, Thomas Hey ward, Jr.,
Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia. — Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.

Decoration Day. — The observance of " Dec-
oratiou Day^"* has grown spontaneously from the tender
remembrance by the mothers, sisters, younger brothers,
and all who survived the war for the Union, of the
heroes who perished that we might live to enjoy a
united, free, and just government. The practice of
setting aside a day to visit the graves of their fallen sol-
diers, recall the memory of their noble deeds, and strew
their tombs with flowers, took its rise early in the late
war: first in particular places, here a city, there a
village, or it might be a county. In some places it was
on one day, in others on another. After a time the
practice became more general. In some cases governors
recommended the observance of a particular day; but
there was no wide extended agreement. In time, partly
through the influence of leading members of the Chris-
tian commission, which had done so much for soldiers
during the war, partly through the influence of the
pulpit and press, and, finally, through the systematic
efforts of the Grand Army of the Kepublic and various
veteran soldier associations, many State legislatures
were induced to make a given day a legal holiday for
this purpose, and the president and governors were led
to unite in recommending the observance of the same
day, now known as ^ ^Decoration Day" in nearly every
State of the Union. Precisely when, or in what com-
munity, the first instance of calling upon the citizens
in general to come together for this purpose took place,
it seems to be impossible at this late day to determine.
It is claimed that there were instances of this kind ag
early as the spring of 1863, some say as early as the
summer of 1862.

160 DICTION AR Y OF A MERICAN POLITICS,

De Fuca Explorations. — The boundary line on
the far northwest had for many years been a serious
question between the United States and Great Britain.
That part of the Pacific coast had been visited, on be-
half of Spain, by the Greek pilot De Fuca in 1592, by
Admiral Fonte in 1640, and by subsequent explorers,
who had mapped a great portion of it as far as the
fifty-fifth degree north latitude. The Nootka treaty of
1790 , between Spain and Great Britain, only gave the
latter some fishing and trading rights in the vicinity of
Puget Sound. The discovery and exploration of Co-
lumbia River by Captain Robert Gray, an American,
who gave the name of his vessel to the river; the pur-
chase of Louisiana and all that belonged to it to the
Pacific from the French in 1803, their claim being the
best, next to that of Spain; the exploration of Colum-
bia River from its sources to its mouth by Lewis and
Clarke, by order of the United States, in 1804-5; and
the treaty of limits concluded between Spain and the
United States in 1819, by which all the territory north
of forty-two degrees north latitude was expressly de-
clared to belong to the United States, were held to be
sufficient proofs of the title of the United States to that
territory. Still Great Britain laid claim to a large por-
tion of the region. Captain Winship, a hardy New
Englander, in 1810 built a house on the Columbia, but
the floods came and the winds blew, and it fell the same
year and the settlement was abandoned. The fort and
fur-trading house at Astoria, established in 1811 by
John Jacob Astor, were given up to the British, who
were then engaged in the prosecution of the war of 1812.
The place was then named Fort George. Subsequently
it passed into the control of the Hudson Bay Company,
and a feeble attempt was made to cultivate the soil. In
the '^forties'' the immigration was large, and in '43
they formed a provisional government. For years
previous to these events the boundary line question had
been the subject of correspondence between Great
Britain and the United States. At times the question

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 161

became so serious as to threaten the peaceful relations
of the two countries, and the subject so much absorbed
public attention that the Democratic National Conven-
tion of 1844 in its platform declared for a certain
boundary line or war as a consequence. (See North-
west Boundary.)

De Facto and De Jure. — These terms are gener-
ally used in connection with the holdii/g of office. One
who has actual possession of an office and exercises its
functions is said to be an officer de facto, or in fact; one
who is entitled to an office, but does not actually fill it,
is said to be an officer de jure, or by right. A de facto
officer may hold his oflfice without wrongful intent,
though without legal sanction, as when there have been
technical irregularities in the appointment, or when the
law under which he was appointed is afterward declared
unconstitutional by the courts. The acts of a de fatto
incumbent are valid as respects third persons and the
public generally if the officer holds his position by color
of right (that is, with supposed authority based on
reasonable grounds), if he holds it with some degree of
notoriety, if he is actually in exercise of continuous
official acts, or if he is in actual possession of a public
office. For application of these terms in 1877 to Hayes
and Tilden, see Presidents De Facto and De Jure.

Defender of the Constitution. — A name applied
to Daniel Webster, principally by reason of his second
speech in reply to Robert Y. Hayne in the Senate. {See
Foofs Resolution.)

Deficiency Bill. {See Appropriations.)

De Golyer Contract.— In 1872 the Board of Public
Works at Washington had under advisement about forty
different kinds of pavement, one of which it intended
to select for use. James A. Garfield was retained by
the attorney of the De Golyer and McClellan patent to
prepare a brief on this patent and to argue its merits
before the board, the attorney himself having been
called away from Washington. For these services he
received a fee of 15,000, It was charged, and the

182 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

charge was revived during the presidential campaign of
1880, that Garfield had done no work to deserve this
fee, which had been given, it was said, as a bribe to
influence his action in Congress, and especially as chair-
man of the Appropriations Committee of the House.
On the other hand, it was shown that he did consider-
able laborious work in connection with the matter, and
that, moreover, the money required" had already been
voted, so that the alleged bribe would have been on the
rather remote contingency of a deficiency and a conse-
quent additional appropriation. Moreover, the objec-
tions to the whole transaction were not to the pavement
itself, but to the contract with the company, and with
this Garfield had no connection.

Delaware was one of the original States of the
Union. The capital is Dover. The population in 1880
was 146,608, in the last census (1890) is 168,493. Dela-
ware sends only one member to the House of Represen-
tatives, and has but three electoral votes. Since 1860
it has voted for the Democratic national candidates,
except in 1872, and the Democratic vote has been, as a
rule, steadily increasing. It took its name from the
river and bay, which, in turn, were named after Lord
De la Ware, one of the early Governors of Virginia. It
is familiarly known as the Diamond State from its
shape, and the Blue Hen State from a game breed of
fighting cocks of which the State was proud. {Se^
Governors; Legislatures. )

Democrat. — Thus did the Federalists call all their
opponents. Of these only a portion accepted the title,
and after 1810 Democrat and Democratic may be taken
as synonymous. The word as first used was intended to
denote revolutionary tendencies. {See Democratio jSo-
ciety.)

Democratic Clubs. (See Democratic Society.)

Democratic Invincible Club. (See American
Knights.)

Democratic Party. (See Democratic- Republican
Party.)

Democratic Reading - Room. (See American
Knights.)

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS 16S

Democratic - Republican Party.— This party,
known first as the Kepublican, then as the Democratic-
Eepublican, and generally in our own time, merely as
the Democratic party, has as its fundamental principles
the limitation of the powers of the federal government
to those granted by the letter of the Constitution and
the increase of the direct influence of the people in the af-
fairs of the government. Though the party has from time
to time swerved from these principles, when the exigencies
of the political situation seemed to demand it (and the
slavery question caused very violent fluctuations of this
nature), yet to these principles it has always returned,
and wnile acting on them its greatest successes have been
gained. The adoption of the Constitution let*; the anti-
F'ederal party without a cause; there was no organized
opposition to the Federal party, to which most of the
prominent men of the time belonged, and from it the
Republican party, as the Democratic-Republican party
was first called, was but gradually differentiated. The
financial measures of Hamilton clearly showed his purpose
of applying to the Constitution loose principles, of con-
struction, and his proposals to assume the State debts,
and later to incorporate the United States bank, and to
levy a tax on distilled spirits, were the first measures
that marked a divergence in the Federal party. Madi-
son, Jefferson and Randolph opposed these measures as
unconstitutional. As was natural, the following of
Hamilton consisted largely of the commercial interests,
while the agricultural interests as naturally favored a view
tending to localize political power. It was not until
1792 that the party thus segregated, was known by the
name of Republican. Those that were then known as
Democrats, agitating, loud-mouthed and abusive par-
tisans of France, in the war she was then engaged in,
were not acknowledged by the Republicans as their
party, though the two were frequently united in action;
in the third House, the Republicans elected their candi-
date for Speaker, and the merging of the two factions was
hastened by this event, though, for some time thereafter,
the line between the two was plainly visible within the

164 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

party; thereafter it was known as the Democratic-Repub-
lican party. John Adams succeeded Washington as
President, defeating Jefferson by a majority of but three
electoral votes. The alien and sedition laws aided in
rendering Adams' administration extremely unpopular,
and in the next presidential contest the small Federal-
ist majority was overcome and Jefferson was elected
President by the House of Representatives, into which
the election had been thrown by a tie in the electoral
college. The party as now constituted aimed at strict
construction, an elective judiciary, reduction of ex-
penditure (on this ground they opposed a navy), and,
as a consequence, thereof, a reduction of taxation, and
the extension of the suffrage. The party was so suc-
cessful that before 1805 the State governments of all but
two of the States (Vermont and Connecticut) were in
their hands, and they controlled the Senate and House
of Representatives. The purchase of Lousiana by
Jefferson, though enthusiastically commended every-
where, was a palpable deviation from strict construc-
tion, as was also the embargo; to this latter step the
party was forced by its previous policy of refusmg to
establish a navy. The failure of the embargo occasioned
a change in party feeling, and as a result war against
England was declared in 1812. The war increased the
national feeling, the restriction of trade preceding the
war and incident to it, had fostered manufactures to
maintain which the party was forced to adopt a tariff
slightly protective, and the financial difficulties raised
by the war led to the establishment of a national bank
in 1816. Thus the party had been forced into a position
closely resembling that of its former antagonists. These
were now politically dead, the few that remained calling
themselves Federal-Republicans. It was an "era of
good feeling,^' but it was not destined to continue long.
The party was soon divided into two wings, again on the
general lines of strict and loose construction. John
Quincy Adams was an advocate of the latter, and the
opposition to him culminated in the election of Andrew
Jackson as his successor. During the presidency of

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 165

Adams, his followers gradually came to be known as
National Republicans, while the others first known as
" Jackson men/'' ultimately took the name of Democrats.
The former were the precursors of the Whigs. Jackson
undertook to give form to his party, using the federal
patronage as a means, and he was eminently successful;
his own leanings were to strict construction, and the
party was once more placed on that basis. A distinc-
tively Southern and slavery faction of the party, under
Calhoun, carried their opposition to the length of threat-
ening secession, but Jackson firmly repressed the move-
ment. i^See Nullification.) In practice, Jackson was
not uniformly consistent, but he enforced his strict con-
struction theories in the case of the United States bank,
and the adoption, under Van Buren, of the sub-treasury
system, still more firmly entrenched the theory. The
panic during Van Buren^s administra,tion was effectively
used against him in the next campaign, and Harrison, a
"Whig, was elected. It was about this time that the
name Loco-foco was applied to the Democratic party.
Harrison died within a month after his inauguration,
and was succeeded by the Vice-President, Tyler, a Cal-
houn Democrat. The ascendency of the Calhoun fac-
tion committed the party, in its convention of 1844, to
the annexation of Texas. From this time forward, it
vibrated between strict and loose construction, as suited
its purpose, using the latter for the purpose of spreading
slavery, and the former to secure it where thus estab-
lished; the Calhoun faction was first and foremost a pro-
slavery party. The election of Polk was in great part
due to the Liberty party. His successor, Taylor, was a
Whig, but his election was owing to local dissensions
among the Democrats, and Fillmore, who became Presi-
dent on Taylor^s death, was succeeded by Pierce, a
Democrat. Northern Democrats were not in favor of
slavery, but they regarded it as the policy of their party
to ignore the question; Southern Whigs were pro-slavery,
and to them the question of slavery was paramount to
any party ties. Buchanan, another Democrat, succeeded
Pierce, but the power of the party was diminishing.

166 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

especially in the West. When it appeared that the
Kansas-Nebraska bill would fail to make Kansas a slave
State, the Southern section of the party took refuge in
the Calhoun doctrine of the duty of government to pro-
tect slavery, and the split thus occasioned ended in dis-
sension in the party convention at Charleston, in 1860.
Douglas led the Northern Democrats, who upheld
popular sovereignty; the Southern members had adopted
the Calhoun view. Douglas triumphed in the conven-
tion. On this the Southern wing withdrew, to meet at
Eichmond; the Douglas wing adjourned to Baltimore,
where further dissensions caused the withdrawal of many
of the border States. These latter, aided by the original
seceders, nominated John C. Breckenridge; Douglas
was named by his party. These conflicts in the party
resulted in the election of Lincoln, the Republican
candidate. The Civil AVar followed. During that strug-
gle the party was uniformly opposed to the government
measures, rendered necessary by the anomalous condition
of the country. The secession of the Southern States
had deprived them of most of their members in Con-
gress, and in the North only New York and New Jersey
had Democratic G-overnors. Their convention of 1864
denounced the war measures of the Republicans, de-
clared the war a failure and demanded the cessation of
hostilities. On this issue they were overwhelmingly de-
feated. The reconstruction measures of the Republi-
cans, notably the Civil Rights bill, were strenuously op-
posed by the Democrats, and opposition to this was made
the most prominent feature of the party creed, and in its
desire to repress the negroes, the party swerved from its
old principle of the extension of suffrage. In 1872, the
action of the Liberal-Republicans helped in clearing
away these dogmas, which had greatly hampered the
party, and aided by the financial depression of 1873, and
hy the disfavor with which Grant^s second term was re-
garded, the party made large gains, carrying the State
elections in many of the Northern States, and getting a
majority in the House. Tilden, the Democratic candi-
date for President in 1876, had a popular majority over

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 167

Hayes, the Republican, but the result of the electoral
vote was in doubt, and the election was finally awarded
to Hayes. i^See Electoral Commission. ) Their next candi-
date, Hancock, was likewise defeated. The action of the
party, after the war, in opposing negro suffrage, had
tended to consolidate Southern whites in its favor, while
the memories of the war have been a strong rallying
point for the Republicans in the North, so that, generally
speaking, the latter has been Republican, the former
Democratic. In 1884, Cleveland, a Democrat, was
elected President, the deciding State being New York,
which he carried by a plurality of only 1,047, in a total
vote of over 1,100,000. His election was partly owing to
dissatisfaction of many of the Republicans with their
candidate. The Democratic party has generally been
in favor of a '^^ tariff for revenue only,'"* but a strong
minority favors protection, and its platform has at-
tempted to meet the views of both wings; the Presi-
dent's message to the Fiftieth Congress, dealing as it
did, exclusively with the tariff, and strongly advocating
its reduction, probably tended to identify the party
more thoroughly than before with that view.' It is
difficult, as the parties now stand, to draw a sharp line
between them; the Democratic party still stands as the
representative of stricter construction than the Republi-
can, and the declaration of a Supreme Court, appointed
by Republican Presidents, of the unconstitutionality of
the Civil Rights bill, and its decision in the Virginia
bond cases, seems to justify its position; both parties
profess devotion to Civil Service Reform, and while the
Republican party has consistently favored cessation of
the coinage of depreciated silver dollars, the Democrats,
owing to divided opinions within the party, have failed
to act. But the immediate future may see great changes
in both parties.

Democratic Rooster. — :The emblems of the Dem-
ocratic party at the time of Jackson's administration
were the hickory pole and broom. About 1840, in In-
diana there lived a man named Chapman, a Democrat,
who had a local reputation for exercising his vocal organs

168 DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

ill the way of crowing. One story says that in answei- to
a desponding letter of Chapman's concerning the polit-
ical situation, a friend wrote an encouraging letter end-
ing with the words, '^ Crow, Chapman, crow!" An-
other account makes the letter pass between two friends,
and close with the words, " Tell Chapman to crow/^
The letter, whichever it was, was published, and the
phrase spread. In 1842 and 1844, after Whig defeats,
the rooster came into general use as the Democratic
emblem of victory.

Democratic Society. — In 1793, during the war be-
tween England and France, while Citizen G-enet was
active here on behalf of the latter, a society on the plan
of the Jacobin clubs of France was formed in Philadel-
phia. It was founded for the purpose of encouraging
sympathy for France, of scrupulously examining all
governmental innovations, and generally (it was asserted)
to guard the rights of man. The club soon had branches
everywhere, the one at Charleston going so far as to seek
and obtain recognition as a branch of the Jacobin Club
of Paris. The career of the society was marked by
abuse of the excise laws and of the government. The
overthrow of Robespierre and the suppression of the
Jacobin clubs of France dealt it a fatal blow, however,
and it disappeared after the year 1794.

Demonetization of Silver. — To demonetize a metal
is to take from it its standard value and thus make it
a commodity merely. {See Silver Question.)

Departments of the Government. {See Interior,
Department of the ; Justice, Department of; Navy, De-
partment of the ; Post- Office Department ; State Depart-
ment; Treasury Department ; War Department.)

Deposit Banks. — The State banks in which govern-
ment funds were deposited when President Jackson had
them removed from the Bank of the United States were
so called. They were also called Pet Banks.

Deposits, Removal of. {See Removal of Government
Deposits from the United States BanTc. )

Deseret. {See Mormons.)

Dickinson^ Don M., was at one time Postmaster Gen-

DICTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 169

eral of the TJnited States. By profession a lawyer, he
has been prominent as a Democratic politician in his
State, Michigan. In 1876 he was chairman of the Dem-
ocratic State Committee, and in 1884 he became a mem-
ber of the Democratic National Committee. He was
appointed Postmaster-General by Cleveland in December,
1887, and his name was confirmed by the Senate January
17, 1888.

Died of an Attempt to Swallow the Fugitive
Slave Law. — This was said of the Whig party, the
eighth resolution of its platform of 1852 having been an
elaborate statement to the effect that the party recog-
nized that law as a portion of the final settlement re-
garding slavery, unless '^ evasion " or ^^ the abuse of their
powers^' should demand further steps, and recommend-
ing that the agitation of the subject be dropped. The
party was practically destroyed in the election that fol-
lowed.

Die in the Last Ditch.— William of Orange, when
the destruction of the United Provinces appeared unavoid-
able, exclaimed: " There is one certain means by which
I can be sure never to see my country's ruin — I will die
in the last ditch.'' The phrase is often used to indicate
an intention to persevere m a course of action to the last
extremity.

Diplomatic Service. i^See Foreign Service,)

Disability of Rebels. {See Proclamation of Am^
nesty. )

Disability of the President. — Disability signifies
lack of qualfication; inability, lack of power. A man
that is not a natural-born citizen of this country is dis-
abled from occupying the presidential chair. A Presi-
dent stricken with insanity is unable to act as President.
The word "disability" is commonly used when "inabil-
ity" is meant. The Constitution, Article 2, section 1,
clause 6, provides for the succession in case of the re-
moval, death, resignation or inability of the President.
{See Presidential Succession,) There is, however, no
provision, nor can there be any, to indicate what degree
of inability shall shift the office to the Vice-President.

170 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

In the case, for example, of the insanity of the President,
in which it is not probable that he himself will realize
his condition, or give notice of it, it must be left to
the Vice-President to assume the office at his discre-
tion, leaving the determination of the question, in case
of a contest, to the courts.

Disgruntled is a word of recent coinage. It is ap-
plied to politicians that have been disappointed, and
that are, as a consequence, disaffected. The word to
gruntle means to sulk, and disgruntle is probably a more
emphatic form of gruntle.

Disputed Presidential and Vice- Presidential
Elections. — The original method of choosing the Pres-
ident and Vice-President is prescribed in Article 2,
section 1, clause 3, of the Constitution; the Twelfth
Amendment, ratified September 25, 1804, altered that
method to its present form. There have been three
controversies in regard to the presidency and one in re-
gard to the vice-presidency.

I. When the electoral votes were counted in 1801 it
was found that Jefferson and Burr had each received 73,
being a majority of all the electors, each elector having
two votes. On the House of Representatives was there-
fore thrown the task of deciding between them. All
but two of the members were present; one had died and
one was ill; another, though ill, was carried to the House
in his bed. Rules were adopted as follows: The public
was to be excluded, the Senate to be admitted; there
was to be no adjournment, and no other business was to
be considered until a choice had been arrived at; States
were to sit together; duplicate statements of the vote of
each State were to be prepared and to be cast into two
different ballot-boxes, to be passed around by the ser-
geant-at-arms. The word ''divided^' was to be used in
the cases of States that could not agree. The contents
of the two ballot-boxes were then to be counted by
tellers, of whom one was to be appointed by each State.
The agreement of the boxes was to be the test of the
correctness of the vote. The Federalists, obliged to
choose between two Republicans, at first supported

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 171

Burr, though not unanimously. The balloting con-
tinued for seven days with no choice. At length, Feb-
ruary 17th, the Federalists' chief, James A. Bayard, of
Delaware, having obtained from Jefferson assurances
that he would maintain the navy and the public credit,
and that he would not remove Federalist office-holders
for party causes, decided to end the struggle, and on the
thirty-seventh ballot three members in Vermont and
Maryland by voting blank gave the&o States to Jefferson,
who was thus elected.

II. There was practically but one party in 1824, and
the contest in that year was between John Q.uincy
Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford and Henry
Clay, all Republicans. Their electoral votes were re-
spectively, 84, 99, 41, 37. None having a majority,
the election went to the House, which was obliged to
choose from the highest three; Clay was thus excluded, *
and his strength went to Adams, between whose views
and those of Clay there was marked agreement, and
Adams carrying thirteen States was elected. Jackson
carried seven States and Crawford four. The House
had adopted the rules of 1801. Adams made Clay his
Secretary of State, the price, it was alleged, of Clay's
support and influence in the House.

III. The third and latest presidential dispute differed
from the others. In 1876 four States had each sent in
several disagreeing returns. The question arose as to
which was to be recognized. The Democratic nominees,
Tilden and Hendricks, had indisputably received 184
votes, one less than a majority. The votes of South
Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, and one vote from
Oregon, being twenty in all, were in doubt, differing
returns having been made, owing, in the first three
States, to the rejection by theReturning Boards of votes
alleged to be fraudulent. To settle the matter the
Electoral Commission (which see) was created. It de-
cided in favor of the Republican, Hayes, and as only
the concurrent vote of both Houses could overthrow the
result, its decision stood; the Republican Senate voting
to sustain, the Democratic House to reject. One elector

172 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

in each of five States was objected to as ineligible be-
cause holding federal office, but both Houses consented
to admit these votes.

IV. The only distinctively vice-presidential contest was
in 1837, when Eichard M. Johnson received 147 votes, to
147 for all the other candidates. The Senate, thus com-
pelled to choose between the highest two, gave 33 votes
to Johnson and 16 to Francis Granger; Johnson was
thus elected.

District Court. i^See Judiciary,)

District of Columbia, The, originally included
sixty-four square miles ceded to the national govern-
ment by Maryland in 1788 and thirty-six square miles
ceded by Virginia in 1789. The District was organized
by acts of July 16, 1790, and March 3, 1791. In 1800
the national seat of government was removed to "Wash-
ington. i^See Capital of the United States.) In 1801
Congress took complete control of the District, and the
inhabitants had no representation in that body till 1871,
when it was organized like the other Territories of the
United States. By act of June 20, 1874, however, a
government by three commissioners, appointed by the
President, was established. In 1846 the portion west
of the Potomac was retroceded to Virginia. The capital
is Washington. The population in 1880 was 177,624,
and in 1890, 230,392.

Dixie. — This was the title of a song popular in the
South during the Civil War. The original of it was a
negro melody of the time when slavery existed in New
York, where a Mr. Dixy, or Dixie, owned many slaves.
•His estate was known among them as ^' Dixie's Land.'*
During the war the South was commonly spoken of as
Dixie, or Dixie's Land.

Dollar of our Dads. — A nickname for the silver
dollar.

Don't Fire Till You See the Whites of their
Eyes, was the order given to the Americans by Colonel
Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans
had but little powder, and it was important that none
should be wasted.

DtCTtO^tAR V OP AMERICAN- POZ/r/CS. 173

Don't Give Up the Ship. — These words were used
by Captain Lawrence, of the United States frigate
Chesapeake, as he was being carried below, mortally
wounded, during the action between that vessel and the
British frigate Shannon during the War of 1812. The
Chesapeake was obliged to strike her colors. The
words were inscribed on the blue pennant that Commo-
dore Oliver H. Perry carried at his masthead during the
battle of Lake Erie later in the same year.

Door-keeper. — The door-keeper of the House of
Representatives is elected by the House; the door-keeper
of the Senate is appointed by the sergeant-at-arms.
The door-keeper has charge of the legislative chamber
and its contents, and superintendence of the document
and folding-rooms. He enforces the rules relating to
the admission of persons not members, and appoints the
assistant door-keepers and the pages.

Dorr Rebellion. — In 1840 Connecticut and Rhode
Island were the only States that were still governed by
their colonial charters. The charter of the latter State,
imposing, as it did, a property qualification so high as
to disfranchise two-thirds of the citizens, was extremely
unpopular. A proposition of Thomas W. Dorr, of
Providence, to extend the franchise was voted down.
Dorr then took to agitation, and finally a convention
prepared a constitution and submitted it to a popular
vote. Its supporters claimed a majority for it, which
its opponents, known as the law and order party,
denied. Nevertheless, in 1842 the constitution was pro-
claimed to be in force. An election was held under it,
only the suffrage party participating. Dorr was elected
Governor. The suffrage Legislature assembled at Provi-
dence with Thomas W. Dorr as Governor; the charter
Legislature at Newport, with Samuel W. King as Gov-
ernor. After transacting some business the suffrage
Legislature' adjourned. The charter Legislature author-
ized the Governor to take energetic steps, and an appeal
for aid was made to the national government. The
suffragists attempted armed resistance, but were dis-
persed. Dorr fled, but soon returned and gave himself

174 DlCTtONAR y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS,

up. He was convicted of high treason in 1844, and
sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned
in 1847, and in 1852 was restored to his civil rights.
The charter party soon after the rebellion proposed a
new constitution, largely extending the suffrage, which
was carried and went into effect in May, 1843.
Dorsey Combination. {See Star Route Trials.)
Double Standard. {See Single Standard.)
Dough-face. — On one occasion during the discussion
of the Missouri Bill in 1820, eighteen STorthem mem-
bers of the House of Eepresentatives voted with the
Southern members. John Randolph, of Roanoke, stig-
matized these members as ^'dough-faces." The term
signifies one who is easily molded by personal or un-
worthy motives to forsake his principles. It was gen-
erally applied to Northern men who favored slavery, but
has also occasionally been used in referring to Southerners
who did not keep step with their section on the slavery
question.

Doug'las, Stephen Arnold, was born at Brandon,
Vermont, April 23, 1813, and died at Chicago, Illinois,
June 3, 1861. He was a lawyer, practising in Illinois where
he became judge of the State Supreme Court. He was
in the House from 1843 to 1847, and in the Senate from
1847 until his death. He was a Democrat, but on the ques-
tion of the Lecompton constitution for Kansas, Douglas
separated from the Southern Democracy. Lincoln was
his opponent for Senator in 1858, and on that occasion a
series of seven joint debates were held between them,
attracting much attention.

Draft Riots. — The attempt to enforce the draft in
1863 {see Drafts) led to serious troubles in some sections
of the country. Pennsylvania was disturbed in this
way, but New York City was the scene of the greatest
outrages. On July 13th a mob gained control of the
city, and was not dispersed till four days had elapsed.
The police force was too small to cope with the rioters,
but a small force of United States regulars could be
commanded, and the militia were absent at the seat of
war. The enmity of the mob was directed especially

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 175

against the negroes, several of them being hanged or
otherwise killed, and the Colored Orphan Asylum being
burned. Finally the regulars, the police and some militia
that had returned after the battle of Gettysburg suc-
ceeded in quelling the riot. It is estimated that .ibout
1,000 persons lost their lives, and the city was obliged to
pay indemnities for loss of property amounting to over
$1,500,000.

Drafts, or conscriptions for obtaining men for the
military forces of the government, depend on the gen-
eral principle that it is the duty of a citizen who enjoys
the protection of a government to defend it. The State
constitutions make citizens liable to military duty, and
the Constitution of the United States (Article 1, section
8, clause 12) gives Congress power to raise armies, which
the courts have held includes the right of conscription.
During the war of 1812 the necessity for troops led to
the introduction of a bill in Congress, known as the
" Draft of 1814,^^ providing for a draft from the militia,
but it failed to pass. During the Civil War the need of
soldiers occasioned the passage of the Conscription Bill,
which became law on March 3, 1863 (afterwards amended
in February and July, 1864). This bill provided for the
enrollment of all able-bodied citizens between 18 and 45
years of age. In default of volunteers to fill the quota
from a congressional district, the deficiency was to be
supplied by drafts from the enrolled citizens. Provisions
were made for the acceptance of substitutes or a commu-
tation of $300 in place of the drafted individual. Per-
sons refusing obedience were to be considered as deserters.
A call for 300,000 troops was made by the President in
May, and the application of the draft created serious
riots. {See Draft Riots.) It was alleged that a dispro-
portionate number of men had been demanded from
Democratic districts; these discrepancies were cor-
rected by the War Department. In October, 1863, the
President issued another call for 300,000 men, and a draft
was ordered for the following January to supply any
deficiencies. Other drafts were subsequently made. The
operation of the drafts was not satisfactory in the num-

176 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

ber of men directly obtained, and desertions were fre-
quent among such as were drafted, but voluntary enlist-
ments were quickened. The Confederate States had
very stringent conscription laws, which were rigidly
enforced.

Drawbacks. {^See Protection.)

Dred Scott Case. — Dred Scott was a negro slave of
Dr. Emerson, United States Army. In 1834 Dr. Emer-
son was ordered from Missouri to Eock Island, Illinois,
where slavery was prohibited by statute, and in 1836 to
Fort Snelling, in what is now Minnesota, but then a ter-
ritory. Scott went with him, and at Fort Snelling mar-
ried Harriet, another of his master^s slaves. In 1838,
after a child had been born to them, they returned with
their master to St. Louis. In 1848 Scott brought a suit
in the State courts, involving the question of his free-
dom, and obtained a verdict in his favor, which was,
however, reversed by the Supreme Court of Missouri.
Shortly afterward he was sold to J. F. A. Sandford, of
New York, against whom he at once began a similar suit
in the United States Courts. The case was carried to
the United States Supreme Court, and on March 6, 1857,
Chief-Justice Eoger Brooke Taney, of Maryland, an-
nounced the decision. The court held that Scott had no
right to sue because, even if he were free, no colored per-
son was regarded by the Constitution as a citizen. He says
*^they had for more than a century before been regarded
as ... so far inferior that they had no rights which
the white man was bound to respect.^' After deciding
this, the question at issue, the court went out of its way
to declare the Missouri compromise void, and to deny
the right of Congress to exclude slavery from any terri-
tory. Of the associate justices six supported the Chief
Justice, and two, McLean of Ohio and Curtis of Massa-
chusetts, dissented. The opinion was for a time with-
held from publication, in order not to increase the
excitement of the Presidential election then pending.

Drys. — A term used chiefly, if not exclusively, in
Georgia, and applied to the Prohibitionists; opposed to
^'wets.''

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 177 1

Dudes and Pharisees. — The word " dude " has
long been a portion of the slang of the language. It
means a beau, a man scrupulously careful about and at
the same time zealously subdued in his dress. The
phrase Dudes and Pharisees was, in the presidential cam-
paign of 1884, applied to those Eepublicans that refused
to vote for Blaine. They were also called Mugwumps
(which see). The word dude is intended to represent the
over-carefulness and scrupulousness of these voters, while
the word pharisees is intended to represent the ^* holier
than thou " spirit which is attributed to them.

Duties. — For customs duties, ad valorem, specific,
compound, discriminating and minimum duties, see
Customs Duties.

East Florida. {See Annexations II.)

Edmunds* Anti-Poligamy Bill. {See Mormons.)

Edmunds' Electoral Bill was the act creating the
Electoral Commission {which see). It was introduced
into the Senate by George F. Edmunds, of Vermont,
passed Congress and was approved by the President Jan-
uary 29, 1877.

Edmunds, George F., was born in Eichmond, Ver-
mont February 1, 1828. He is a lawyer. He served five
years in the Legislature, acting as Speaker during three
years, and in the State Senate two years, during which he
acted as presiding officer. In 1866 he entered the United
States Senate, in which he has since served. In March,
1883, he was elected President of the Senate pro tem-
pore.

Election Bets. — New York and Wisconsin are the
only States in the Union in which a voter becomes dis-
qualified by reason of being interested in a bet depending
on the election at which he attempts to vote. Article 2,
section 2, of the Constitution of New York State reads :
*'No person . . . who shall make or become directly
or indirectly interested in any bet or wager, depending
upon the result of any election, shall vote at such elec-
tion." Then follows directions as to the challenging of
the votes of betters.

Electoral College is the name given to the presi-

178 DlCTtOJ^AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

dential electors of a State when convened for the pur-
pose of casting their votes for President and Vice-Presi-
dent. The term came into use about the year 1821, but
it was first oHicially used in the law of January 23, 1845.

Elections, Contested or Disputed. {See Contested
Elections; Disputed Presidential and Vice-Presidential
Elections, )

Electoral Commission, The. — In the presidential
election in 1876, four States each sent in diiferent and
differing returns, each set having some claims to be con-
sidered regular. Aside from the doubtful votes the
Democratic nominees, Tilden and Hendricks, lacked but
one vote to a majority. The twenty-second joint rule of
the houses, ordering the rejection of any electoral votes
to which objection should be made, unless accepted by
the concurrent vote of both Houses, had been repealed
by the Republican Senate in January, 1876; its applica-
tion would have elected Tilden. To pass upon the con-
flicting returns the Electoral Commission was created by
act of Congress approved January 29, 1877. Four jus-
tices of the Supreme Court (those assigned to certain
circuits specified in the bill) were made members of the
commission; these four were to select a fifth justice;
with these five were to sit five members of the Senate
and five of the House, each House to elect its own repre-
sentatives. To this commission was delegated the power
in the premises of '^'^the two Houses acting separately or
together, '' and its decisions were to be reversed only by
the concurrent action of both Houses. The commissson
was constituted as follows (Democrats in Italic, Repub-
licans in Roman) : Senators — George F, Edmunds, Ver-
mont; Oliver P. Morton, Indiana; Frederick T. Freling-
huysen, New Jersey; Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware;
Allen G, Thurman, Ohio (the latter having become ill
Francis Kernan, New York, was substituted). Repre-
sentatives— Henry B. Payne, Ohio; Eppa Hunton, Vir-
ginia; Josiah G. Abbott, Massachusetts; James A. Gar-
field, Ohio; George F. Hoar, Massachusetts. Supreme
Court — Nathan Clifford, President of the Commission;
William Strong, Samuel F. Miller, Stephen J. Field,

DICTIOI^AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 179

These had heen designated by the act; the fifth selected
by them was Joseph P. Bradley. The commission first
considered the Florida returns. There were three sots.
1. The votes of the Hayes electors, with the certificate
of Governor Stearns attached, according to the decision
of the State Returning Board in throwing out certain
returns. 2. The votes of the Tilden electors, with the
certificate of the Attorney-General of the State attached,
according to the actual vote cast. 3. Same as second,
with the certificate of the new Governor Drew, accord-
ing to a re-canvass of the votes as ordered by the State
law of January 17, 1877. The Democratic counsel
maintained that the returning board had improperly
and illegally thrown out votes, and that the State
Supreme Court had so decided, and also that one of the
Hayes electors, Humphreys, when elected, held an office
under the United States and was thus disqualified. The
Republicans, on the contrary, declared that the commission
had no power to examine into returns made in due form;
that the first return was in due form; that the second
had attached to it the certificate of an officer officially
unknown to the "United States in the capacity of certify-
ing officer, and that the third set was also irregular, having
been prepared after the electoral college had ceased in
law to exist. In Humphreys' case the Republicans main-
tained that he had, previous to his election, sent a letter
of resignation to the officer that had appointed him and
that the absence of that officer was the cause of its not
having been received in time. The Commission in each
case sustained the Republican view by a vote of 8 to 7, a
strictly party vote, February 9, 1877. Louisiana sent
three returns; the first and third were identical, being
the votes of the Hayes electors, as canvassed by the re-
turning board, with the certificate of Governor Kellogg;
the second contained the votes of the Tilden electors
based on the votes as actually cast, with the certificate of
John McEnery, who claimed to be Governor. The
Democrats maintained that the returning board had
illegally cast out votes; that two Hayes electors were
United States officers; that McEnery was the rightful

180 DtCTKNAR y OP aMMRICAH POLtTtCS.

Governor, and various violations of State election laws,"
all of which they offered to prove. The Eepublican
claims, similar to thoso in the case of Florida, were again
upheld by a vote of 8 to 7, February 16, 1877. In,
Oregon one of the three electors. Watts, was, when'
elected a United States officer, being thus disqualified;
the Democratic Governor, Grover, had given a certificate
to the other two Hayes electors and to Oronin, the highest
Tilden elector. The popular vote was not called in ques-
tion. The Hayes electors refused to serve with Oronin
and elected a third Hayes elector, as they were by the law
entitled to do, while Oronin, by reason of their refusal
to serve with him, appointed two other electors; these
voted for Hayes. There were thus two returns, one con-
sisting of three Hayes votes, attached to which was a
statement of the popular vote of the State, certified by
the Secretary of State, and one consisting of two Hayes
votes and and one Tilden vote, with the certificate of the
Governor and the Secretary of State attached. The
Democrats contended that the Governor's certificate
must be considered final, to which the Eepublicans re-
plied that it was the duty of the Oommission to see that
the Governor had correctly certified the return of the
canvassers of the State, and that behind these returns
the Oommission could not go; the Governor's certificate
they could and should review. On February 23d the
Oommission sustained this view 8 to 7. From South
Carolina there were two returns; one, the votes of Hayes
electors based on the canvass of the returning board,
having Governor Ohamberlain's certificate attached; the
other, the vote of the Tilden electors, with the mere
claim of a popular election. The claim was made of
military infiuence in the election, but the Eepublican
return was accepted February 27th, by a vote of 8 to 7.
The commission adjourned sine die March 2, 1877.
The House voted to reject, the Senate to accept the
findings of the commission, and a concurrent vote being
required to reject, its decision was enforced and Hayes
became President.
Electoral Count. — ^If Congress had passed laws ex*

mCTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 181

actly prescribing the method of verification of the votes
of electors for President and Vice-President, the opera-
tion of counting them would have been merely mechan-
ical, and the power to do this would have remained in
the hands of the President of the Senate. As it is.
Congress has arrogated to itself the power of deciding
the validity of returns, a proceeding not contemplated
by the Constitution (see Electoral System), and it ac-
complishes this end by means of joint rules governing
the action of the Houses when assembled to see the
returns opened. On February 3, 1887, the President
approved an act of Congress governing the electoral
count. Its provisions require the electors to meet in their
respective States on the second Monday in January and
to cast their votes. Any contest regarding their election
must be decided at least six days before, as provided by
the State laws. Three lists of the electors, certified by
the executive of the State, are to be prepared and to be
handed to the electors to accompany their list of votes.
Congress is to be in session on tne second "Wednesday in
February to be present at the opening of the certificates.
Objections to the reception of a return must be in writ-
ing, signed by one member of each House. Where
objection is made to the only lawful return sent by a
State, that return will be rejected only by the concurrent
vote of both Houses. Where the contest is as to the
competence of two or more tribunals within the State to
decide which electors were chosen, a return shall be
accepted only by the concurrent vote of both Houses.
If there was no contest within the State, and two or
more returns are received, that signed by the executive
shall be counted unless rejected by the concurrent vote
of both Houses.

Electoral System. — In the convention of 1787
there was diversity of opinion regarding the mode of
electing the President, The majority during ilie greater
part of the time favored his election by Congress. Other
plans were for an election by the Governors, by a general
popular vote, by secondary electors chosen by electors,
the last to bo chosen by a popular vole. The system

182 VICTIOKAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

finally adopted is given in the Constitution, Article 2,
section 1. The Twelfth Amendment (see Amendments
to the Constitution), changing the mode to its present
form, was proposed at the first session of the Eighth
Congress, and first went into operation in the election of
1804. The electors of each State are to be appointed
*'in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct/'
The power thus given is not limited to appointment by
a popular election, but includes any manner whatever,
and, accordingly, in the earlier days of the government,
the electors of many States were chosen by the Legisla-
tures, a practice followed in South Carolina until 1868.
In 1876 Colorado's electors were so chosen. In
March, 1.792, an act was passed by Congress fixing
the first Wednesday in December as the day on which
the electors were to meet, and they were to be elected
within the thirty-four days preceding. This act required
the electors to prepare three certificates of their votes,
these certificates to be certified by the Governor of the
State. Two were to be sent to the President of the
Senate at the capital, one by mail and one by special
messenger, while the third was to be placed in the hands
of the federal judge of the district in which the electors
Voted. If neither of the former reached their destina-
tion by the first Wednesday in January, a special mes-
senger was to be sent to the judge to obtain the third.
On the second Wednesday in February, the President of
the Senate was to open and count the votes. In Jan-
uary, 1845, an act was passed fixing the Tuesday after
the first Monday of November as the day on which the
electors were to be appointed. It had not heretofore
been required that these appointments be made on the
same day throughout the country. It also gave to the
States authority to provide for filling vacancies in their
electoral colleges, and to provide for cases in which the
first elections have resulted in no choice. The words of
the Constitution plainly provide for a count of the votes
by the President of the Senate in the presence of the
two Houses of Congress, and this plain meaning was,
during the earlier years of the government, adhered to.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 183

Gradual encroachments by Congress on tlie authority of
the President of the Senate lead to the present condi-
tion in which the votes are canvassed and passed upon
by the Houses, they assuming the power to accept or to
reject any returns, whereas had Congress passed suffi-
ciently minute general laws relative to the authentifica-
tion of the returns (as it has power to do), no such ques-
tions could ever have arisen, and the counting would
have been a mere numerical operation.

Electoral Vote. {Bee Presidential and Vice-Presi-
dential Electoral Vote, )

Electors. {See Electoral Syst&m,)

Emancipation. — The Constitution of Vermont,
framed in 1777, abolished slavery, but Vermont did not
become a State until 1791. Massachusetts abolished
slavery in 1780, while acts of gradual emancipation
were passed by Pennsylvania in 1780, New Hampshire
in 1783, Ehode Island in 1784, Connecticut in 1784,
New Jersey in 1804. New York did likewise in 1799,
but afterward passed an absolute emancipation act, to
take effect July 4, 1827. The remainder of the thir-
teen colonies allowed slavery, and in the case of new
States the question was settled at the time of admission.
During the Rebellion laws were successively passed, in
1862, forbidding the return by the army of fugitive
slaves, abolishing slavery in the territories, and freeing
the escaped slaves of persons in rebellion. In this year,
too, slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia,
the owners receiving compensation. Then came the
Emancipation Proclamation, followed by the Thirteenth
Amendment, and slav-ery was at an end in 1865.

Emancipation Proclamation. — The Civil War
was fought by the North to maintain the Union, not to
free slaves. If proof of this were needed, it is furnished
by the disavowal by President Lincoln of jproclamations
by Generals Fremont and Hunter, abolishing slavery in
Missouri and South Carolina, respectively. Such steps
as freeing the escaped slaves of rebellious owners were
taken as war measures merely. On September 22,
1862, President Lincoln issued a proclamation giving

184 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

notice to the inhabitants of the States in rebellion that,
unless they returned to their allegiance by January 1,
1863, he would declare their slaves forever free. This
was followed on January 1, 1863, by the Emancipation
Proclamation, declaring free the slaves held in all these
States, except in certain districts of Louisiana and Vir-
ginia then occupied by United States troops. It en-
Joined upon the freed slaves to abstain from violence,
and offered to receive them into the military and naval
services. The proclamation declared that it was issued
as an act of ^^ military necessity ^^ by the President as
Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy. The act
was heartily approved by the North, and rendered cer-
tain what had already become probable, namely, that
slavery could not outlive the war.

Embargo. — An embargo is a prohibition by govern-
ment authority of the departure of ships or merchandise
from some or all of its ports. .It may be issued as a
measure of retaliation to deprive other nations of com-
modities, or as a war measure as a means of seizing
hostile ships in port, or to secure secrecy for an im-
portant expedition, or to obtain ships for government
use. When the embargo affects communication with
one or certain specified nations only, it is termed non-
intercourse.

Embargo Act. — In May, 1806, Great Britain, which
was at that time engaged in a bitter war with France,
proclaimed a blockade of the territory bordering on the
English Channel and the German Ocean from Brest to
the Elbe. Napoleon retaliated in November by his
Berlin Decree, declaring a blockade of English ports.
A year later England issued her famous Orders in Coun-
cil, prohibiting commerce with almost every country of
Europe. The next month, December, 1807, Napoleon
replied with the Milan Decree, forbidding commerce
with England or her colonies. These and similar acts,
although in violation of the laws of nations, were en-
forced by France and England so far as they were able,
and many American vessels were seized. Moreover,
Great Britain revived an old rule prohibiting neutral

DICTIONAR y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 185

vessels from trading with the dependencies of any
nation with whom Lhe was at war. She also claimed
and exercised the right of searching American vessels
for those whom she claimed to be her subjects and
impressing them into her service. In maintaining this
position, the British man-of-war Leopard, in June,
1807, fired on the American frigate Chesapeake. It
was in consequence of these events, although news of
the Milan Decree had not yet been received, that Con-
gress on December 22, 1807, passed an Embargo Act
prohibiting exportations from the United States, hoping
to force France and England to recede from their posi-
tion by showing the importance of our commercial
relations. It had some effect on these nations, but a far
more ruinous result on our own commerce, the exports
for 1808 shrinking to one-fifth of the sum they had
reached in the preceding year. It was a measure of
the Democratic party, and wa!:S approved by the agricul-
tural portions of the United States. The New England
States, deeply interested in foreign commerce, and the
Federalists loudly condemned it. Its opponents, spell-
ing the name backward, called it the ^' 0 grab me^' Act,
and threats of secession were heard from New England.
As a result. Congress fixed March 4, 1809, for the ter-
mination of the embargo. The first embargo in our
history was laid in 1794 for a period of sixty days, and
other minor acts of a similar nature were passed during
the War of 1812. The plan of limiting commercial
intercourse by embargo, non-importation and non-inter-
course acts was called the ''restrictive system."'^ {See
Non-importation; Non-intercourse. )
Embassadors. {8ee Foreign Service,)
Eminent Domain is the supreme right of property
possessed by a State over the articles of private owner-
ship. The right of eminent domain is the right to take
private property for public uses. In the United States
its justification is the common welfare, and the Fifth
Amendment to the Constitution provides that just com-
pensation must be made. The right is usually exercised
in order to secure land for the construction of railroads,
highways and canals.

18(5 DICTIO^AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Endicott, William C, was born at Salem, Massa-
chusetts, November 19, 1826. He was graduated from
Harvard and was admitted to the bar. He is of the
Democratic party. He was for a short time on the bench
of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Al-
though several times nominated, he has never held
elective office. President Cleveland, in March, 1885,
appointed him to his Cabinet as Secretary of War.

Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends. — These
words occur in the Declaration of Independence, which
was written by Thomas Jefferson: ^'^We must, there-
fore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them [the English], as we hold
the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.^'

Entangling Alliances. — Jefferson's inaugural ad-
dress contained the following sentence: *^ Equal and
exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persua-
sion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with
none; the support of the State governments in all their
rights, as the most competent administrations for our
domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-
republican tendencies; the preservation of the General
Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the
sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;
. . . freedom of religion; freedom of the press;
freedom of person under the protection of habeas
corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected — these
principles form the bright constellation which has gone
before us and guided our steps through an age of revo-
lution and reformation. '^

Envoy Extraordinary. {See Foreign Service.)

Equality of States. — In the House of Eepresenta-
tives the members are apportioned according to the
population of the States, those containing most inhabi-
tants thus obtaining preponderance over the others. To
prevent the subjugation and oppression of the smaller
States by the larger, the device of a Senate containing
two members from every State, regardless of size, was
resorted to. That the importance of this provision, as

DICTION AR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. IS*?

a guarantee of the equality of the States in the Union,
was recognized by the framers of the Constitution, is
shown by Article 5 of that instrument, which declares
*' that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived
of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

Equal Rights Party. — This was the name of the
New X ork faction of the Democratic party that subse-
quently became known as the Loco-foco party. i^See
Loco-foco,) In the presidential contest of 1884, Mrs.
Belva A. Lockwood was the candidate of an Equal
Eights party {ivhicli see) advocating woman suffrage.
She had practically no following. Her vote in the
United States was less than 2,500 out of a total of over
10,000,000.

Era of Good Feeling. — The period from 1817 to
1823 is so called. The Federal party was all but dead;
the administration had done its best to conciliate the
minority, and the latter was so well satisfied that the
name of Federal-Republican was adopted by many to
show their sympathy with the party in power. Monroe
was reelected in 1821 and received all but one of the
electoral votes. After the election of John Quincy
Adams in 1825, the Democratic-Republican party grad-
ually split into two parts, from which the Democratio
and Whig parties sprung.

Essex Junto, The. — In 1781 John Hancock ap-
plied this name to a number of public men from Essex
County, Massachusetts, and their followers. The com-
mercial classes were naturally those that desired a strong
federal government, and these men were the ablest
representatives of that class and foremost among the
advocates of the adoption of the Constitution. After
the adoption they formed a part of the Federal party,
and were more particularly adherents of Hamilton.
They thus incurred the opposition of John Adams, who
attempted to make them appear as a "British faction"
hostile to France. It was he, also, that revived the
name that had fallen into disuse. Subsequently the
name came to stand generally for the Federalist spirit
of New England, and the troubles in that section during

188 DICTIOI^AR y OF AMERICA JV POLITICS.

the War of 1812, as the Hartford Convention, etc.,
were attributed to the Essex Junto. Among its mem-
bers were Pickering and Fisher Ames.

Evarts, William M., was born in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, in February, 1818. He was graduated at Yale
and studied law at Cambridge. He was admitted to
the bar in New York. He was of the counsel defend-
ing President Johnson in his impeachment, and served
as Attorney-General in 1868 and 1869. He was one of
the lawyers representing the United States before the
tribunal for the arbitration of the Alabama Claims {see
(rewev^ ^w«r^), and represented the Eepublican inter-
ests before the Electoral Commission (which see). He
was Secretary of State under Hayes. He was elected
United States Senator for New York in 1885. He is a
Republican.

Everett, Edward, was born at Dorchester, Massa-
chusetts, April 11, 1794, and died January 15, 1865.
He was a graduate of Harvard, and subsequently filled
a Unitarian pulpit in Boston. He was a Whig, serving
in the House of Representatives from 1825 to 1835. He
was Governor of Massachusetts, 1835 to 1840; Minister
to Great Britain, 1841 to 1845; Secretary of State under
Fillmore and United States Senator, 1853 to 1854. He
was the candidate for President in 1860 of the Consti*
tutional Union party.

Exchange of Prisoners. (See Cartel.)

Executive, The. — The government of the United
States is divided into three great departments: the
executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The first is
charged with the execution of the laws, and its head,
the President, is known simply as the executive. The
chief executive officers of the States, the Governors, are
similarly called the executives of the respective States.
The qualifications of the President are given in the
Constitution, Article 2, section 1. He must be a
natural-born citizen of the United States, or a citizen
at the adoption of the Constitution. He must be afc
least thirty-five years of age and have been fourteen
years a resident of the United States. The powers of

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 189

the President are defined in Article 2 of the Constitu-
tion. The executive is of necessity the only means of
communication between our government and foreign
powers, and great latitude is allowed to the President
on this subject, his action being subject only to the
approval of the Senate by a two-thirds vote in case of
treaties, and by a majority vote in cases of diplomatic
appointments. The President has limited control over
Congress, the veto enabling him to throttle legislation
to which he is opposed, unless two-thirds of each House
concur in passing the measure over his veto. The ap-
pointing power of the President is subject to the con-
firmation of the Senate. The war powers of the Presi-
dent are the powers vested in him by virtue of his
position as commander-in-chief of the army and navy.
These are never exercised except in the case of actual
war, and are even then subject to the control of Con-
gress, in which resides the power of granting or with-
holding supplies. During the administrations of Wash-
ington and Adams, the annual message of the President
to Congress was read by him to the Houses, and per-
sonal interviews between the President and the Senate
took place on several occasions. With Jefferson these
practices came to an end, and a subsequent attempt to
revive the latter failed. All communications between
the President and Congress now take the form of reso-
lutions on the part of Congress, and of a message to
either or both of the Houses on the part of the Presi-
dent. Kesolutions of inquiry directed to the head of
any department are answered by letters addressed to the
presiding officer of the House desiring the information.
The judiciary and the executive bear no official relations
to each other after the initial appointment of the former
by the latter. The Supreme Court has time and again
refused in any way to interfere with the political acts of
the executive. The President's term is four years. He
is chosen by electors selected as the Legislatures of the
States direct, which is now by a popular vote. {See
Electoral System,) In 1789 the President's salary was
fixed at $25,000 per annum. The Act of March 3,

190 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

1872, increased this amount to $50,000. At the follow-
ing session an attempt was made to repeal this increase.
It passed Congress, was vetoed by Grant, and failed to
pass over the veto. In case of inability on the part of
the President to perform the duties of his office, it
devolves on the Vice-President. The further regula-
tion of this subject is left to Congress. For the rules
established under this power see President; Presidential
Succession.

Executive Departments. [See Interior, Depart-
ment of the; Justice, Department of; Navy, Department
of the; Post Office Department; State Department;
Treasury Department; War Department.^

Executive Session is the name applied to sessions
of the Senate held for the transaction of executive
business; that is, the confirmation of nominations of
the President, or the ratification of treaties. These
sessions are secret. The clerks that are necessarily
present are sworn to secrecy, and violation of the oath
may lead to dismissal and punishment for contempt.
The punishment of Senators for revealing the proceed-
ings is expulsion. Nevertheless, the proceedings appear
in the newspapers with considerable regularity, and to
a great extent the rule is a dead letter. The subject of
making these sessions open is being agitated at present.
Whether any part of the proceedings of either House is
to be public or secret is a matter subject to the exclu-
sive control of the House affected. The rules of the
House of Eepresentatives provide for secret sessions
under certain circumstances.

Exequatur is an official recognition of a consul or
commercial agent by the government to which he is
sent, authorizing him to perform his duties in that
country. It is a Latin word, meaning ^'let him per-
form.^^

Expatriation means the act or state of banishment
from one^s native country, and it also means the volun-
tary renunciation of the rights and liabilities of citizen-
ship in one country to become the citizen or subject of
another. It is in this latter sense that it is used here.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 191

In the early part of this century, the United States was
almost the only nation that claimed for individuals the
right of expatriation without the consent of the govern-
ment of which they were citizens or subjects. The
European nations, as a rule, maintained that the per-
mission of the sovereign was necessary; and the enforce-
ment by England of this claim was one of the causes of
the War of 1812. Fortunately England did not carry
into practice the theoretical extreme of her doctrine,
which would have permitted her to hang as traitors all
prisoners captured in that war who had once been
British subjects. It must be said, however, that not-
withstanding the position of the United States in
regard to citizens or subjects of foreign powers, the
right of voluntary renunciation of allegiance to the
United States by one of our citizens was unsettled, so
far as legislation was concerned, until the Act of Congress
of July 27, 1868, asserted that expatriation '^is a
natural and inherent right of all people,^' but the
action of the Department of State had previously
seemed practically to admit the right. As far as for-
eign states are concerned, however, the United States
has steadily maintained its original position. The first
formal recognition of its claims was secured in an ex-
patriation treaty with the North German Confederation,
signed February 22, 1868. England first recognized
the right of voluntary expatriation by act of parliament
in 1870, and immediately concluded an expatriation
treaty with the United States. All the leading nations
of Europe now recognize the right, including besides
those just mentioned, France, Austria, Eussia, Italy
and Spain. {See Naturalization.)

Expenditures and Receipts of the United
States. — Besides the annual expenditure of the gov-
ernment as given under the heading Appropriations,
there are ^*^ permanent annual appropriations," which
cause expenditure by reason of provisions in existing
laws involving outlays which thus need no especial
appropriations. These are: 1. Specific, including ((i\
cost of collection of customs revenue, $5,500,000; \o)

192 DICTION AR Y OF A M ERIC AN POLITICS,

arming and equiping the militia of the United States,
$200,000; (c) interest at six per cent, to the Smithsonian
Institute on the bequest held by the government for it,
$39,000 per annum; and 2. Indefinite, including interest
on the public debt, amount required for sinking fund,
and numerous similar requirements. The total receipts
of the United States from the beginning of the govern-
ment to the present time, 1892, exclusive of loans, have
been $11,862,357,521, while the expenditures for the
same period have been $12,562,064,702. From 1866 to
1891, the receipts were sufficiently in excess of the ex-
penditures for the accumulation of a surplus of about
$115,000,000. {See Surplus.) By the passage of addi-
tional pension bills, since the latter date, however, the
expenditures of the government are now materially in
excess of the revenue.

Explorations and Important Events.— On the

8d of August, 1492, a little before sunrise, Christopher
Columbus set sail from the port of Palos, in Spain,
under the patronage of Queen Isabella, to discover a
western passage to the Indies, and any lands that might
intervene on the way. On the 13th of October, the same
year, about two hours before midnight, a light was dis-
covered. Morning came, and an island appeared in
view. It was named San Salvador. Thus was the New
World discovered.

1513.— Florida discovered by Ponce de Leon, and taken possession of for

Spain.
1537.— California discovered by Cortez.

1583.— Northeast coast of America taken possession of by the English.
1586.— Tobacco introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh.
1614.—" New England '" so called for the first time.
1619.— Slavery introduced into Virginia by the Dutch.
1620.— Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
1630.— Settlement of Massachusetts Bay Colony at Boston.
1631.— First Vessel built in New England.
1636.— Providence founded by Roger Williams.
1640.— Use of tobacco prohibited by law in Massachusetts.
1652.- A Mint established in New England; " Pine tree" shillings coined.
1673.— New York taken by the Dutch.
1697.— War between the New England Colonies and the Acadians termi-

natetl by the peace of Ryswick.
1699.— Woolen Cloth manufactured in New England.
1708.— Massachusetts first issues paper money.
1752.— Invention of the lightning rod by Dr. Franklin.

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

193

1765.— Stamp Act passed by Parliament.

1770.— Destruction of tea in Boston Harbor.

1774.— First Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia September 8.

1776,— Declaration of Independence, July 4.

1776.— British evacuate Boston.

1778.— British evacuate Philadelphia.

1781.— Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown October 19.

1783,_Treaty of peace with England signed at Paris September 3.

1784.— Ratification of treaty by the Continental Congress.

1787.— Constitution framed in Philadelphia.

1789.— Inauguration of Washington as first President of the United

States.
1790.— Constitution adopted by all the States.

Exports and Imports. — The following table gives
the imports of foreign merchandise into, and exporta-
tion of domestic and foreign merchandise from, the
United States for the years ending June 30th, from
1865 to 1891 :

Ykab.

Exports.

Imports.

Excess.

1865

$166,029,303

$238,745,580

$72,716,277 imports.

1866

348,859,522

434,812,066

85,952,544

1867

294,506,141

395,761,096

101,254,955

1868

281,952,899

357,436,440

75,4a3,541

1869

286,117,697

417,506,379 -

131,388,682

1870

392,771,768

435,958,408

43,186,640 "

1871

442,820,178

520,223,684

77.403,506

1872

444,177,586

626,595,077

182.417,491

18?3

522,479,922

642.136,210

119;656,288

1874

586,28:3,040

567,406,342

18,876,698 exports.

1875

513,442,711

533,005,436

19,562,725 imports.

1876

540,384,671

460,741,190

79,643,481 exports.

1877

602,475,220

451.323,126

151,152,094

18r8

694,865,766

437,051,532

257,814,234

1879

710,439,441

445,777,775

204,661,066 "

1880

&35,6;38,658

667,954.746

167,683,912

1881

902,367,346

642,664,628

259,702,718 "

1882

750,542,257

724,6:39,574

25,902,683

1883

823,8:^9,402

72:3,180,914

100,658,488

1884

740,513,609

667,697,693

72,815,916

1885

742,189,755

577,527,-329

164,662,426 "

1886

679.524,830

. 635,436,186

44,088,694 "

1887

716,183,211

692,319.768

2:3,863,443

1888

69.5,954,.507

723,9.57,114

28,002,007 imports.

1889

742,401,375

74.5,131,652

2,7:30,277

1890

857,828,684

789,310,409

68,518,275 exports.

1891

884,480,810

844,916,196

89,564,614

194 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

The following table shows the exports and imports of
specie for the same period : {Bee Balance of Trade.)

Year.

Exports.

Imports.

Excess.

1865

867,643,226

$9,810,072

$57,833,154 exports.

1866

86,044,071

10,700,092

75,343,979

1867

60,868,372

22,070,475

38,797,897 "

1868

93,784,102

14,188,368

79,595,734

1869

57,138,380

19,807,876

37,a30,504 "

1870

58,155,666

26,419,179

31,736,487

1871

98,441,988

21,270,024

77,171,964

1872

79,877,534

13,743,689

66,133,845

1873

84,608,574

21,480,937

63,127,637 "

1874

66,630,405

28,454,906

38,175,499 "

1875

92,132,142

20,900,717

71,231,425 "

1876

56,506,302

1.5,936,681

40,569,621

1877

56.162,237

40,774,414

15,387,823

1878

33;740,125

29,821 ,.314

3,918,811

1879

24,997,441

20,296,000

4,701,441

1880

17,142,919

• 93,034,310

75,891,-391 imports.

1881

19,406,847

110,575,497

91,168,650

1882

49,417,479

42,472,390

6,945,089 exports.

1883

31,820,333

28,489,391

3,a30,942

1884

67,133,383

37,426,262

29,707,121

1885

42,231,525

43,242,-323

1,010,798 imports.

1886

72,463,410

38,593,656

33,869,7.54 exports.

1887

35,997,691

60,170,792

24,173,101 imports.

1888

33,195,504

59,-337,986

26,142,482

1889

80,214,994

28,902,073

53,252,921 exports.

1890

35,782,189

33,976,326

1,805,863

1891

183,912,816

54,491,014

129,421,802

Exposition, World's Columbian.— The World's
Columbian Exposition was created by an act of Congress
approved April 25, 1890, entitled, '' An act to provide
for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, by
holding an international exhibition of arts, industries,
manufacturers and the products of the soil, mine and
sea, in the city of Chicago, in the state of Illinois. The
act provided for the appointment of commissioners,
who should organize the Exposition, and when these pre-
liminaries were completed, the President was required
to make a public proclamation of the fact and officially
invite *' all the nations of the earth '^ to participate in
the Exposition, This proclamation was issued De-
cember 24, 1890, The ceremonies established by the

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 195

act are in two parts : those to be observed this year,
1892, in the dedication of the buildings of the great
Exposition, and those next year attendant upon the
formal opening of the Exposition to visitors. The
dedicatory ceremonies of this year are as follows :
October 12, 1892, the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of America by Columbus, the President of the
United States, with the Governors of the various States,
and other prominent military and civil dignitaries, will
officially participate in imposing ceremonies at Chicago,
dedicating the grounds and buildings of the Exposition.
The ceremonies are to embrace a four days' celebration.
A military encampment will be held during these four
days, at which will be present about 10,000 of the Na-
tional Guard, and such of the regular army as are
detailed for the duty.

Wednesday, the 12th, will be ushered in by a salute
of forty-eight battery volleys. At ten o'clock the troops
will receive the President at the main building of the
Exposition, which he will enter, attended by such offi-
cials of the Government and members of the diplomatic
corps as may be present. The representatives of the
thirteen original States will be received with appropriate
ceremonies, and of the remaining States in the order of
their admission.

On Thursday, October 13, there will be a grand civic
and industrial display, moving through the principal
streets of Chicago to Jackson Park. In this display,
illustrations of the leading events in the life of Colum-
bus and in the history of our country since its discovery
will be given. A grand dedication ball will be given
Thursday night.

Immediately upon the conclusion of these dedication
ceremomies the work of installing the exhibits will
begin.

Ex Post Facto Laws. — Strictly speaking, an ex
post facto law is one that takes effect retroactively ;
that is, on transactions which took place before its pas-
sage. The provision in the Constitution of the United
States (Article 1, section 9, clause 3), that "no . . .

196 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

ex post facto law shall be passed," has been interpreted
to refer only to crimes, and in that sense the words are
commonly used. The following have been decided to
come within the scope of the phrase : Every law that
makes an action done before its passage, and innocent
when done, criminal, and punishes such action ; every
law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than
when committed ; every law that changes the nature
of the punishment, or makes it greater than at the
time the act was committed ; every law that alters the
rules of evidence so as to make it easier to convict the
offender ; every law that, while not avowedly relating
to crimes, in effect imposes a penalty or the deprivation
of a right ; every law that deprives persons accused of
crime of some lawful protection to which they have
become entitled, as a former acquittal. Such laws are
therefore unconstitutional so far as they apply to acts
committed before their passage.

Expounder of the Constitution. — Daniel Webster
was so called from his exhaustive discussions of the
Constitution.

Ex- Presidents. — (See Presidents.)

Expunging Resolution, Benton's. — The high-
handed manner in which President Jackson disposed of
the United States bank — for a full account of which see
elsewhere in this volume — gave great offense to Con-
gress. As the President's friends in that body were too
numerous, however, to make it at all possible to procure
a vote for impeachment, the Senate determined to inflict
an extra-judicial condemnation on the action of the
Executive. Therefore, after an excited debate of three
months, it resolved, March 28, 1834, by a vote of 26 to
20, *' That the President, in the late executive proceed-
ings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon
himself authority and power not conferred by the Con-
stitution and laws, but in derogation of both." This
resolution made the President quite indignant, and in
% special message April 15, he protested against it on
the ground that it accused him of perjury in his violating
his oath of office, and was thus an indirect and illegal

DICTIOMAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 197

•
method of impeachment, a condemnation against which
he had no opportunity to defend himself. The Senate re-
fused to receive the protest or place it on record on the
journal. Senator Benton, of Missouri, at once gave
notice that he would bring forward, every year, a reso-
lution to expunge the vote of censure. After a struggle
of three years, the friends of the President carried the
expunging resolution, and the resolution of censure was
marked around on the journal with broad black lines,
and the memorandum '" Expunged by order of the Sen-
ate, this 16th day of January, 1837. '^

Exterritoriality. — By a fiction of international law
a sovereign, though temporarily in a foreign country, is
considered as being on his own territory. By an exten-
sion of this principle diplomatic agents that represent
the sovereign, and also those that represent the State (as
embassadors of republics), are said to enjoy the privilege
of exterritoriality, the privilege of living under their own-
laws while accredited to a foreign nation. They preserve
their domiciles as if at home. Their persons, families,
attendants and property are inviolable except in extreme
cases. In case of a crime committed by a diplomatic
representative, unless imperative necessity demands his
seizure, the government to which he is accredited merely
asks his recall.

Extradition is the delivering up to justice of f^i-
tive criminals by one country or State to another. Ex-
tradition '^for treason, felony or other crime, ^' between
one State of the Union and another is provided for by
the Constitution of the United States, Article 4, section
2. An act of Congress passed in 1793 prescribed the
form of the demand for the fugitive criminal. The
usual course is as follows: He is indicted or a warrant
issued for his arrest; a copy of the indictment or war-
rant is submitted to the executive of the State who then
makes a requisition for the criminal on the executive
of the State in which he has taken refuge; the
latter executive, if satisfied that the papers are reg-
ular and sufficient, issues a warrant for the arrest and
delivery of the fugitive to the agent of the State

198 DICTIOMAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

demanding him. The accused may have these proceedings
reviewed by the courts under a writ of habeas cor-
pus. If the governor on whom the requisition is
made for any reason refuses to surrender the criminal
there is no power that can compel him to do so. The
words " or other crime '^ in the section of the Constitu-
tion referred to, have been interpreted differently, but
the weight of opinion (though this has not always con-
trolled) is that they mean any offense against the laws of
the State making the demand. In June, 1887, Gover-
nor Hill, of New York, suggested a conference of gover-
nors to secure uniform action in inter-state extradition
cases. Several States joined with New York in a call
for such a conference, and as a consequence delegates
representing the governors of nineteen States met at Al-
bany in August, 1887. A committee was appointed by
them to submit a bill to Congress for the purpose of
making uniform in some respects the practice in these
cases. — Extradition between foreign nations is some-
times provided for by the internal laws of a state, and
sometimes is a matter of comity, but usually it is pro-
vided for by treaty. The latter is the case as between
the United States and foreign nations, only one case in
our history having occurred (the surrender of Arguelles
to Spain in 1864 by Secretary of State Seward) that
was done as a matter of comity. Treaties sometimes
(those of the United States usually) provide that extra-
dition shall not be granted for acts previously committed
nor for political offenses. It is the general practice that
a request for extradition shall not be granted before the
courts of the country in which the criminal has taken
refuge have determined that the evidence would warrant
his arrest and commitment for trial where he is found
if the offense had been committed there; without this
judicial determination the President of the United States
cannot surrender a fugitive, but even when rendered he
is not thereby forced to do so. The weight of opinion
(though the question is not entirely settled) favors the
view that a person extradited for one offense cannot be
tried for another until he has had an opportunity of

DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 199

leaving the country or another request for his extradi-
tion on the new ground has been granted. The United
States has extradition treaties or stipulations with Great
Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Swe-
den, Norway, Mexico, Italy, Spain and other states.
The chief extraditable crimes under these treaties are
murder, burglary, robbery, arson, forgery, piracy, coun-
terfeiting and embezzlement; but many other crimes are
mentioned in one or another.

Extra Sessions. — Article 2, section 3, of the Con-
stitution of the United States, gives the President power
on **^ extraordinary occasions'' to convene either or both
houses of Congress. A meeting in consequence of such
a call is termed an extra session. Since the formation
of our government but ten extra sessions have been held.

Fabian Policy. {^See American FaMus.)

Fairchild, Charles S., was born at Cazenovia, Madi-
son County, New York, April 30, 1842. He is a lawyer
by profession and a graduate of Harvard. He was in
1874 appointed Deputy Attorney-General of the State of
New York, and subsequently elected Attorney-General.
It was during his incumbency that the Canal Ring suits
were finally disposed of. In 1885 he was appointed As-
sistant Secretary of the Treasury, and on the resignation
of Secretary Manning he was appointed to his place.

Fait Accompli is a French phrase meaning literally
an accomplished fact. In political and diplomatic lan-
guage it means an event, which, having taken place, is
to be accepted and acquiesced in as a fact, and the
effects of which are to be left undisturbed. The phrase
is not often used in this country, but is of continual re-
currence in European politics.

Farewell Addresses. — George Washington, under
date of September 17, 1796, issued a farewell address to
the people of the United States in anticipation of his
retirement from public life in March of the next year.
The document is chiefly the work of "Washington and
Hamilton, though portions of it were taken from a draft
prepared by Madison at Washington's request when the
latter had expected to retire to private life after his first

200 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

term. A farewell address was also issued by Andrew
Jackson March 3, 1837, the last day of his official life,
rehearsing the principles on which he had acted. The
following is Washington's address:

Friends and Fellow-Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the
executive government of the United States being not far dis-
tant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must
be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed
with that'important trust, it appears to me proper, especially
as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public
voice, that I should now apprize you of the resolution I have
formed, to decline being considered among the number of
those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured
that this resolution has not been taken without a strict re-
gard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation
which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and that in with-
drawing the tender of service which silence in my situation
might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your
future interest; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past
kindness ; but am supported by a full conviction that the step
is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the ofllce to
which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uni-
form sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a
deference for what appeared to be your desire. 1 constantly
hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, con-
sistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard,
to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly
drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this previous to
the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address
to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then per-
plexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations,
and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence,
impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as
internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incom-
patible with the sentiment of duty or propriety ; and am per-
suaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services,
that in the present circumstances of our country, you will not
disapprove of my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous
trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge
of this trust, I will only say, that I have with good intentions
contributed toward the organization and administration of
the government the best exertions of which a very fallible
judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the
inferiority of any (qualifications, experience in my own eyes,
perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the
motives to difftdence of myself ; and every day the increasing
weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shad©

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 201

of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Sat.
isfled that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to
my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to
believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the
political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to ter-
minate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit
me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of grati-
tude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors
it has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confi-
dence with which it has supported me ; and for the opportuni-
ties I have thence en^'oyed of manifesting my inviolable attach-
ment, by services faithful and persevering, though in useful-
ness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our
country from these services, let it always be remembered to
your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that
under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every
direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances some-
times dubious — vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging — in
situations in which not unfrequently want of success has
countenanced the spirit of criticism — the constancy of your
support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guaranty
of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly pene-
trated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as
a strong incitement to unceasing wishes that Heaven may con-
tinue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence — that your
union and brotherly affection may be perpetual — that the free
constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly
maintained— that its administration in every department may
be stamped with wisdom and virtue — that, in fine, the happi-
ness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty,
may be made complete, by so careful a preservation, and so
prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory
of recommendinj^ it to the applause, the affection, and adop-
tion of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your
welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the appre-
hension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an
occaf Jon like the present, to offer to your solemn contempla-
tion, and to recommend to your frequent review, some senti-
ments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsid-
erable observation, and which appear to me all-important to
the permancy of your felicity as a people. These will be offered
to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the
disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget,
as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my
ftentimenta on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of
your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify
or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people,
is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar
in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your
tranquility at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of
your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly

202 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes
and from different quarters, much pains will he taken, many
artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of
this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be
most constantly and activelj (though often covertly and in-
sidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should
properly estimate the immense value of your national Union,
to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should
cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it,
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palla-
dium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its
preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing what-
ever might suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be
abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning
of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from
the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together
the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and inter-
est. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that
country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name
of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity,
must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any
appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight
shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners,
habits and political principles. You have in a common cause
fought and triumphed together ; the Independence and Lib-
erty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint
efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address
themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those
which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every
portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for
carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The Northy in an unrestrained intercourse with the Souths
protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in
the productions of the latter great additional resources of
maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of
manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse,
benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture
grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own
channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navi-
gation invigorated ; and while it contributes, in different ways,
to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navi-
gation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime
strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a
like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the pro-
gressive improvement of interior communications, by lani
and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the
commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at
home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to
its growth and comfort — and what is perhaps of still greater
consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of
indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, in-
fluence and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side
of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of inter-

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 203

est ful one nation. Any other tenure oy which the West can
hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own
separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connec-
tion with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While then every part of our country thus feels the immedi-
ate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined
cannot fail to And in the united mass of means and efforts,
greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater se-
curity from external danger, a less frequent interruption of
their peace by foreign nations; and what is of inestimable
value, they must derive from union an exemption from
those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently
afBlict neighboring countries, not tied together by the same
government; which their own rivalship alone would be suffi-
cient to produce, but wuich opposite foreign alliances, attach-
ments and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence
likewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown mili-
tary establishments, which under any form of government are
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as par-
ticularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is,
that your Union ought to be considered as the main prop of
your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to
you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every
reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of
the Union as a primary ooject of patriotic desire. Is there a
doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a
sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere specula-
tion in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope
that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary
agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will
afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair
and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious mo-
tives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experi-
ence shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there
will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who
in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it
occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should
have been furnished for characterizing parties hy geographical
discriminations— iVortTiern, and Southern^— Atlantic and West-
ern; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief
that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One
of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within partic-
ular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other
districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the
jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from these misrep-
resentations ; they tend to render alien to each other those
who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The
inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful
lesson on this head ; they have seen, in the negotiation by the
Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of
the treaty with Spain, and the universal satisfaction at the
event throughout the United States, a decisive proof how un-
founded were the suspicions propagated among them of a
policy in the general government, and in tJi*'^iBnto»*i«.,^tates,

f/T^ Of THE ^ \

((UNIVERSITl)

204 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi : they
have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with
Great Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them every-
thing they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, to-
ward confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom
to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union
by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be
deaf to those advisers, if such they are, who would sever them
from their brethren, and connect them with aliens ?

To the efftcacy and permanency of your Union, a Govern-
ment for the whole is indispensable. Ko alliances, however
strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they
must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions
which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of
this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first es-
say, by the adoptiou of a Constitution of Government better
calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for
the efficacious management of your common concerns. This
Government, the offspring cf your own choice, uninfluenced
and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature de-
liberation, completely free in its piinciples, in i}he distribution
of its powers, uniting security with eneigy, and containing
within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just
claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its
authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its meas-
ures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true
liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the
people to make, and to alter their Constitutions of Govern-
ment. But the Constitution which at any time exists, until
changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people,
is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power
and the right of the people to establish Government, presup-
poses the duty of every individual to obey the established
Government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combina-
tions and associations, under whatever plausible character,
with the real design to direct, control, counteract or awe the
regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities,
are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal ten-
dency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial
and extraordinary force — to put in the place of the delegated
will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful
and enterprising minority of the community ; and, according
to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the pub-
lic administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incon-
gruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent
and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modi-
fied by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above descrip-
tion may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely,
in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by
which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be en-
abled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for
themselves the reins of government ; destroying afterward the
very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Toward the preservation of your government, and the per-

DTCTIOI^AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ^05

manency of your present nappy state, it is requisite, not only
that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its
acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care
the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious
the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect in the
form of the Constitution alterations which will impair the en-
ergy of the system, and thus to uudermine what cannot be di-
rectly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be
invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary
to fix the true character of governments, as of other human
institutions ; that experience is the surest standard by which
to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a
country — that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hy-
pothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change from the
endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember,
especiallyj that for the efQcient management of your common
interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of
as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of lib-
erty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a gov-
ernment, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its
surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where
the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of
faction, to confine each member of the society within the lim-
its prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure
and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties m the
state, with particular reference to the founding of them on
geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more com-
prehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature,
having Its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.
It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or
less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those of the popu-
lar form it is seen in greatest rankness, and it is truly their
worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharp-
ened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension,
which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most
horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads
at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The dis-
orders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of
men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an
individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors,
turns tliis disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on
the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which
nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common
and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to
make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage
and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble
the public administration. It agitates the community with
ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity
of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and

S06 DICTION AR Y 01" AMERICAN- POLITICS,

insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup*
tion, which find a tacilitated access to the government itself
through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and
the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of
another. There is an opinion that parties in free countries are
useful checks upon the administration of government, and
serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain
limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchial
cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor,
upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular char-
acter, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be
encouraged. From their natural tendency it is certain there
will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose.
And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ou^ht to
be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A
fire not to be quenched, it demands uniform vigilance to pre-
vent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it
should consume.

It 13 important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a
free country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its
administration, to confine themselves within their respective
constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers
of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all depart-
ments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of gov-
ernment, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of
Eower, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the
uman heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this po-
sition. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of
political power, by dividing and distributing it into different
depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public
weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by ex-
periments ancient and modern ; some of them in our country
and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as neces-
sary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the
distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in
any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in
the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be
no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance,
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by
which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly over-balance in permanent evil any partial or
transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable sup-
ports. In vain would that man claim the tributes of Patri-
otism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of
human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man,
ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not
trace all their connections with private and public felicity.
Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for
reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert
the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts
of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition
that morality can be maintained without religion, whatever

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 207

may be conceded to the influence of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid
us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary
spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with
more or less force to every species of free government. Who
that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon
attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institu-
tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as
the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it
is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish
public credit. One method of preserving it, is to use it as spar-
ingly as possible— avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating
peace ; but remember also that timely disbursements to pre-
pare for danger frequently prevent much greater disburse-
ments to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt,
not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous
exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which un-
avoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throw-
ing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to
bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your Kepre-
sentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-
operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty,
it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that
toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to
have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be de-
vised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant ;
that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selec-
tion of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difiicul-
ties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of
the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit
of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining reveime which
the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations, cultivate
peace and harmony with all : religion and morality enjoin this
conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally en-
join it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no
distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the mag-
nanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by
an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt but in
the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would
richly repay any temporary advantage which might be lost by
a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not
connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment
which ennobles human nature. AJas! is it rendered impossible
by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothin is more essential than
that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular
nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be ex-
cluded ; and that in place of them just and amicable feelings
toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges
toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is

208 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

in some de^ee a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its
affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its
duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against an-
other, disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to
lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and
intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute
occur. Hence frequent coUisiorfs, obstinate, envenomed and
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resent-
ment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to
the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes
participates in the national propensity, and adopts through
passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the
animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostilitjr in-
stigated by pride, ambition and other sinister and pernicious
motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of
nations has been the victim.

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for an-
other produces a varietj of evils. Sj^mpathy for the favorite
nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common inter-
est in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing
into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a
participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without
adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to conces-
sions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others,
which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the conces-
sions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been
retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will and a disposition
to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are
withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded
citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility
to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, with-
out odium, sometimes even with popularity ; gilding with the
appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation a commendable
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public
good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption,
or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such
attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened
and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they
afford to tamper with domestic factions ; to practice the arts
of sedition, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the
public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, to-
ward a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the
satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign
influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the
jealousy of a free peopleought to be constantly/ awake; since
history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of
the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that
jealousy to be useful must be impartial ; else it becomes the
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a
defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation,
and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actu-
ate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even
second the arts of influence on the other. Ileal patriots, who
may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become
suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the

DICTION-AH V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 209

applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their
interest.

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations,
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them
as little political connection as possible. So far as we have al-
ready formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect
good faith. Here let us stop.

Europe has a set of i)rimary interests, which to us have none,
or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in fre-
quent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign
to our concerns. Hence, theref ore, it must be unwise in us to
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissi-
tudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and col-
lisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to
pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an
efficient government, the period is not far off when we may
defy material injury from external annoyance ; when we may
take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at
any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when
belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisi-
tions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provoca-
tion; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest,
guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by inter-
weaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle
our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition,
rivalship, interest, humor or caprice ?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances
with any portion of the foreign world : so far, I mean, as we
are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as
capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I
hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it,
therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine
sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary, and would be un-
wise to extend them.

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establish-
ments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust
to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are rec-
ommended by policy, humanity and interest.

But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and
impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors
or preferences ; consulting the natural course of things ; dif-
fusing and diversifyingby gentle means the streams of com-
merce, but forcing nothing ; establishing, with powers so dis-
posed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights
of our merchants, and to enable the government to support
them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present
circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary,
and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as ex-
perience and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly keeping
m view, that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested
favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its in-

210 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

dependence for whatever it may accept under that character;
that by such acceptance it may place itself in the condition of
having given ftquivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being
reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can
be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon, real
favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experi-
ence must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old
and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the
strong and lasting expression I could wish — that they will con-
trol the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation
from running the course which has hitherto marked the des-
tiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they
may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional
good ; but they may now and then recur to moderate the fury
of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign in-
trigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriot-
ism ; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for
your welfare by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been
guided by the principles which have been delineated, the pub-
lic records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to
you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own
conscience is, that I have at last believed myself to be guided
by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my procla-
mation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanc-
tioned by your approving voice, and by that of your Repre-
sentatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that
measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any
attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights
I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all
the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was
bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Hav-
ing taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me,
to maintain it with moderation, perseverance and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this con-
duct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only
observe, that according to my understanding of the matter,
that right, so far from being denied by any of the Belligerent
Powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, with-
out any thing more, from the obligation which justice and
humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free
to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity
toward other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will
best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With
me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time
to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions,
and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of
strength and consistency which is necessary to give it,
humanely speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I
am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too

bICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. %l\

sensible of my own defects, not to think it probable that I
may have committed many^ errors. Whatever they may be, I
fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils
to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the
hope that my country will never cease to view them with in-
dulgence ; and that after forty-live years of my life dedicated
to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent
abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be
to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actu-
ated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a
man who views it in the native soil of himself and his pro-
genitors for several generations ; I anticipate with pleasing
expectation, that retreat in which I promise myself to realize,
without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst
of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under
a free governmenl^the ever favorite object of my heart, and
the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors and
dangers.

G. WASHINGTON.
United States,

17th September, 1796.

Father Abraham. — An affectionate nickname ap-
plied to Lincoln.

Father of His Country. — A popular title given to
Washington in recognition of his services in establish-
ing this government.

Father of the Constitution. — This name is ap-
plied to James Madison because he was the author of
the resolution that led to the invitation for the Conven-
tion of 1787, issued by the Virginia Legislature.

Federalist. — The name of eighty-five essays on the
Constitution that appeared in the Independent Gazetteer
of New York, for the purpose of influencing public
opinion in its favor while it was before the people for
ratification. They were written by Hamilton, Madison,
Jay and William Duer. The latter wrote but three
numbers. The brunt of the task fell on Hamilton, and
his name is most strongly associated with them. The
first papers were signed A Citizen of New York, and
the later Puhlius. The Federalist is an authority on
the interpretation of the Constitution. The period of
their publication extends from October, 1787, to March,
1788.

Federal Party. — This name was given to those that

212 DtCTlOMAR V OF AMERICAN- POLITICS.

were in favor of the adoption of the United States Con-
stitution. The looseness of the Union under the Ar-
ticles of Confederation had unsettled business, and all
citizens that were injured by this state of affairs were
in favor of a stronger government. Moreover, the
feeling that thus only could we become a nation among
nations had much weight in inclining the more thought-
ful to favor the Constitution. Washington, Jefferson,
Madison and Randolph were all Federalists in the earlier
and wider meaning of the term. The adoption of the
Constitution left the anti-Federalists without a cause,
and the Federal party went into power with Washing-
ton at its head practically unopposed. During the first
session of Congress the departments of the government
were organized. At the second session Alexander Ham-
ilton introduced his financial measures. The foreign
debt was to be paid in full, the continental debt was to
be paid at par, and the debts of the several States were
to be assumed. To the second of these propositions
Madison dissented, but it was nevertheless carried. The
third aroused enormous opposition, and it was hotly
debated both in and out of Congress. After one defeat
it was reintroduced and carried by means of a bargain.
At the third session a bill taxing distilled spirits was
passed and the Bank of the United States was incor-
porated. These measures Jefferson and Randolph op-
posed. The party had thus gradually strexigthened the
broad construction view of the Constitution and had
attained real principles and party life. It stood com-
mitted to protection of manufactures by import duties,
to building up a navy and an army, and to strengthening
the federal government. The opposition raised by these
centralizing tendencies gradually took form, and headed
by Jefferson, Madison and Randolph, formed the Repub-
lican party, from which sprang the Democratic-Republi-
can party. The work of the Federalists was carried on
in the Second Congress. In the third, the Senate was
theirs by but a small majority, while in the House there
was a small majority against them. The assumption of
the State debts had rendered the prompt establishment

. DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 213

of a navy impossible, and its want now forbade the
energetic assertion of our commercial rights. As a con-
sequence, Jay's Treaty was negotiated. In 1798 the
party favored war with France, and the popularity of
this measure tended to give it temporary prestige, but
trouble was brewing. John Adams and his wing of the
party was strongly opposed by Hamilton and his fol-
lowers. The Alien and Sedition Laws had made the
administration of the former thoroughly unpopular.
Jefferson and Burr had completely organized the oppo-
sition, and the election of 1800 bore heavily against the
Federalists and elected Jefferson. The Federalists, now
in the minority, resorted to obstruction, and offered
opposition even to measures that were in line with those
previously advocated by themselves. Their opposition
to the Louisiana purchase, certainly an instance of
broad construction, is a fair example of these tactics.
To the opposition of this last measure they were not,
however, able to bring their full strength. In 1804
Federalist electors were chosen from but three states.
The party opposed the embargo and other restrictive
measures, and in this they were joined by Eandolph.
Attempts to secure a navy, and opposition to the War of
1812 and to the policy of protection of home manu-
factures, now constituted its programme. It had, in
fact, gone so far as to adopt the strict construction
theory. In the presidential election of 1812 it showed
a decided increase in strength, but thig soon fell off
again, and although it still had influence in some of the
New England States, its national importance was over.
Its supporters became National Republicans, and were
of the elements that subsequently formed the Whig
party. One of the most serious defects of the party
was that it never made any attempt to gain the confi-
dence of the people — its leaders stood aloof. Among
the prominent members of the party, besides those men-
tioned, were John Jay, Fisher Ames, John Marshall,
Roger Sherman, Rufus King and James A. Bayard. ,

Federal- Republican. — In 1820 James Monroe was '^
elected President, receiving all but one of the electoral

214 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. ■

votes. It was an ^' era of good feeling/^ and most of
the Federalists now called themselves Federal-Kepubli-
cans, as indicating their satisfaction with the party in
power.
Female Suffrage. {See Woman Suffrage.)
Fenians, or Fenian Brotherhood. — A political
association which has aimed at the forcible separation of
Ireland from English rule. The name comes from the
ancient Irish warriors, the Finna, Fianna or Fionna.
The brotherhood was founded in New York in 1857.
John O^Mahoney, William R. Eoberts, James Stephens
and O'Donovan Rossa were prominent leaders, the first
two especially so in this country. Their importance in
our history arises from their attempts to make the
United States a base for their operations in Ireland and
Canada against the English. Large sums of money
were collected here from time to time to carry on their
work. Their first congress was held at Chicago in
November, 1863. They seized on the differences which
existed between the United States and Great Britain
during the Civil War and afterward, and tried to widen
the breach, hoping to precipitate these nations into war
and thus increase their chances for freeing Ireland.
Their schemes in this direction, however, were not suc-
cessful. In 1866 they attempted to invade Canada
from the United States. In the spring of that year 500
men gathered at Eastport, Maine, but disbanded when
the United States authorities captured 750 stand of arms
that were intended for them. In May, government
officials seized 1,200 stand of arms at Rouse^s Point, New
York, and about 1,000 stand at St. Albans, Vermont.
On the first of June, 1,500 Fenians, commanded by
Colonel O'Neill, crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo.
After a slight success they were routed, and about 700
were captured on their return by the United States
forces. A similar event took place on the Vermont line.
Two of the prisoners who had been captured by the
Canadian forces were sentenced co death, but were re-
spited largely through the intercession of Secretary of
State Seward and other Americans. Those who had

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 215

been captured by the United States authorities were
released on parole or after a short imprisonment. In
the spring of 1867 a brig, Erin^s Hope, sailed from New
York for Ireland with arms and ammunition, but was
unable to land them, and, after losing by capture some
of her force, returned to New York. In the spring of
1870 another invasion of Canada was attempted, but
General Meade was sent to the scene of operations and
seized the men and arms. Meanwhile, Fenian efforts in
England and Ireland had not relaxed. The account of /y^
them is stirring but does not belong to our history. |^
The brotherhood did not succeed in liberating Ireland;^
though it was perhaps due in some measure to their
agitation that reforms were soon adopted in its govern-
ment by England. Many of the leaders were im-
prisoned and some sentenced to penal servitude for life. ^

Few Die and None Resign. {^See Civil Service w/
Reform.) ^^-^^ L f

Fiat Money. — The word fiat means decree. Money ^
that is constituted money by a mere decree, and that
has nothing of value on which to rest as a basis, is
called fiat money. It is also called credit money. The
only fiat money in circulation in this country is the legal
tender notes.

Fifty-four Forty or Fight. — A cry adopted during
the Northwestern Boundary discussion by those who dis-
approved of yielding our claims to the territory short of
fifty-four degrees forty minutes of latitude, between the
Eocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Fighting Joe. — A name applied to G-eneral Joseph
Hooker during the Civil War. Hooker was born in
1819 and died in 1879. He was at one time commander
of the Army of the Potomac, but soon after his defeat
at Chancellorsville he resigned his command. The
battle in connection with which he is best known is
Lookout Mountain, the Battle Above the Clouds.

Fight it Out on this Line if It Takes all Sum-
mer. {See I Propose to Fight it Out on this Line if
It Takes all Summer.)

Filibusters. — This word comes from the Spanish

216 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

"fUihusteros, who were West Indian pirates. Their name
was derived from a small fast-sailing vessel which thej
employed, called a filibote (originally fly-boat), and said
to have been so styled from the river Vly in Holland.
The term filibusters came to be applied to all military
adventurers. In the United States it has two meanings.
First, it is given to the members of the minority of a
legislative body who seek to delay or defeat the adoption
of measures obnoxious to them by obstruction and dila-
tory tactics, such as constant motions to adjourn, or
calls for yeas and nays. Secondly, the name filibusters
is applied to the adventurers who organized expeditions
in the United States to gain control of West Indian and
Central American regions with the hope of having them
annexed to the United States, and thus extending the
slave territory of the nation. The first of these expedi-
tions was organized by a Cuban, Narcisco Lopez. After
making two attempts in 1849 and 1850 which proved
failures, he sailed from jSTew Orleans with about 500
men and landed in Cuba in August, 1851. His force
was overpowered by the authorities, and he and several
other leaders were executed. The next filibustering
expeditions were undertaken by General William Walker.
In 1853 and 1854 he attempted to conquer Lower Cali-
fornia and the State of Sonora, Mexico, but failed. In
1855 he went to Nicarauga with a few followers. Profit-
ing by internal dissensions in that country, he gained
several victories and had himself elected President. He
reestablished slavery and seized the property of the
Vanderbilt Steamship Company. But his arbitrary acts
created a revolution, and early in 1857 he surrendered
himself to Commander Davis, of the United States
Navy, who took him to New Orleans. He was released
under bonds to keep the peace, but in November he was
found once more in Nicarauga. In December, however,
he surrendered again, this time to Commodore Paulding
of our navy, who carried him to New York. Finding
himself again at liberty, he attempted to start with a
new expedition from New Orleans, but was prevented
by the national authorities. Ilis last expedition was

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 217

directed against Honduras in 1860. In June of that
year he landed with a small force at Trujillo, but was
captured, court-martialed and, on September 12th, shot.
Since then no filibustering expeditions from this country
have been known. {See Ostend Manifesto; Tripartite
Treaty.)

Fillmore, Millard, was born in Cayuga County,
New York, January 7, 1800. He died at Buffalo,
March 8, 1874. His early education was obtained
entirely by his own efforts. He served in Congress from
1833 to 1835, and from 1837 to 1843, as a Whig. He
was of the Silver-Gray faction of the Whigs. In 1848
he was elected Vice-President, and on President Taylor^s
death he succeeded to the presidency. The principal
measure passed during his administration was the Om-
nibus Bill.

Fire Eater is a term used to denote a person of
extreme and violent Southern views.

First in War, First in Peace, and First in
the Hearts of his Countrymen. — These words are
contained in the resolutions prepared by Henry Lee, of
Virginia, that were passed by the House of Eepresenta-
tives on the death of Washington.

First President of the Southern Confederacy.
{8ee CaThoun, John 0.)

Fiscal Tariff. {See- Tariffs of the United States.)

Fishery Treaties. — The right of citizens of the
United States to fish in the open sea has never been
denied, but their privileges of fishing in British waters
or landing on British territory (Canada and Newfound-
land) to dry or cure their catch have been limited by
treaty at various times. The Treaty of Paris of 1783
excluded our fishermen only from drying fish on the
coasts of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and
Cape Breton. Our rights were of course suspended
during the War of 1812, and the Treaty of Ghent
(1814) failed to settle the question anew. Our fishing
vessels were excluded from British harbors and coasts,
and several were seized. On October 20, 1818, commis-
eioners from both countries signed a convention in

21 8 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

London, giving our fishermen the right to catch fish
within extensive prescribed limits, and to land on the
British coasts to dry or cure their catches, denying their
right to fish within three marine miles of other British
territory, and giving them admission to all British
harbors for wood, water, shelter or the repair of
damages. On June 5, 1854, a reciprocity treaty was
signed (confirmed by the Senate, August 3d) which,
besides providing for free trade in certain articles be-
tween Canada and the United States, gave our fisher-
men full rights on the Canadian coasts and British
fishermen similar rights on our coasts north of Cape
May, in latitude thirty-six degrees north, each nation,
however, reserving its shad and salmon fisheries and
certain rivers and mouths of rivers. This treaty ter-
minated on March 17, 1867, in accordance with its pro-
visions and the designated notice given by the United
States. The Convention of London (1818) now came
into operation once more, though for four years our
fishermen could still follow their business in Canadian
waters on the payment of a formal license fee. In 1870
several of our vessels were seized and forfeited for not
paying this license fee. The Treaty of Washington
(1871) touched, among other subjects, on the fisheries,
giving full rights to us on the Canadian coasts and to
British fishermen on our coasts north of latitude thirty-
nine degrees north, except that to each nation were
reserved its shell, shad, salmon and river fisheries.
Free trade was established in most fishery products, and
a commission was appointed to decide on the compensa-
tion which the United States should pay for these privi-
leges. {See Halifax. Fishery Commission.) In 1878
a difficulty occurred under the treaty, for which see
Fortune Bay Outrages. On June 30, 1885, the Treaty
of Washington, so far as it concerned the fisheries,
ceased to be operative, owing to notice given by the
United States in accordance with the treaty. The
Canadian authorities permitted our vessels to finish out
tlie season. In May, 1886, one of our fishing schooners,
the David J. Adams, was seized on the charge of having

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 219

purchased bait within forbidden limits. Several other
seizures were made, and much excitement was caused in
the United States and Canada. The abrogation of the
Treaty of Washington revived the provisions of the
Convention of London, which is not satisfactory to
either party. One point of dispute is whether the three-
mile limit runri from headland to headland, or follows
the indentations of the coast. The difficulties with
Canada led Congress to pass what is known as the Ee-
taliation Act, approved March 3, 1887. This act pro-
vides that whenever the President shall be satisfied that
our fishing vessels are illegally, unjustly or vexatiously
restricted or harassed in the exercise of their business, or
denied the privileges accorded to vessels of the most
favored nations in respect to touching or trading, pur-
chasing supplies and the like, by the authorities of the
British North American dominions, he shall have the
discretionary power to close our ports and waters against
vessels of the British dominions of North America with
such exceptions as to vessels in distress, etc., as he may
deem proper, and to prohibit the importation of fish or
other products of said dominions. The President is to
exercise this power by proclamation; he may make it
applicable to a part only of Canada, and he may revoke,
qualify, limit or renew it as he sees fit. President
Cleveland, however, considered it the part ot wisdom not
to employ this weapon against Canada, preferring to
reach an amicable settlement if possible. With this
object in view, plenipotentiaries of each nation met in
Washington in November, 1887. On the part of
the United States the commissioners were Thomas F.
Bayard, of Delaware, Secretary of State, William L.
Putnam, of Maine, and James B. Angell, of Michigan.
On the part of Great Britain the commissioners were
Eight Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Member of Parlia-
ment, Sir Lionel Sackville West, Minister to the United
States, and Sir Charles Tupper, Minister of Finance of
the Dominion of Canada. *0n February 15, 1888, a
treaty was signed and immediately laid before the gov-
ernments concerned for their ratification. It provide*

220 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

for a joint commission, two members to be named by
Great Britain and two by the United States, to mark
out on charts the waters within which the United States
by the Convention of London renounced the right to
take, dry or cure fish. Great Britain abandons the ex-
treme of her theory that the three-mile limit runs from
headland to headland, and, except as specially mentioned,
in case of bays more than ten miles wide the marine
league is to be measured outward from a line drawn
across them. The United States renounces the right to
fish in certain specified bays, etc. United States fishing
vessels are to have the same rights in Canadian ports as
Canadian fishers and ordinary vessels, except that the
purchase of bait is forbidden. They must procure
licenses, which will be furnished without cost. The
treaty, however, provides that whenever the United
States shall remove its import duties on the products of
Canadian fisheries and their coverings and packages, the
free- right shall be accorded our fishermen of purchasing
bait, ice, seines, etc., of transshipping their catch and
of shipping crews. A protocol signed on the same
day as the treaty provides that pending the ratification
of the latter, for a period not exceeding two years, these
last privileges shall be accorded to our fishermen on the
purchase of an annual license of $1.50 per ton of their
vessels, and that these privileges shall be free if our
duties on the products of Canadian fisheries and their
coverings and packages shall be removed. This treaty
seems to settle long disputed questions in a way satisfac-
tory and just to both parties, by mutual concessions.

Flag of the United States. — During the early
days of the Eevolution flags of various designs, depend-
ing on the taste of different commanders, were in use.
In December, 1775, on the recommendation of a com-
mittee of Congress, what was known as the "grand
Union " flag came into use. It consisted of a fleld of
thirteen red and white stripes like the present national
flag, but its union, or corner, was the same as that of
the British flag, allegiance to Great Britain not having
as yet been renounced by the signing of the Declaration

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 221

of Independence. In June, 1776, when the issue of
some such declaration appeared almost inevitable, "Wash-
ington and a committee of Congress informally substi-
tuted for the British union a union consisting of a five-
pointed star. On June 14, 1777, Congress formally
established a field of thirteen stripes and a union of
thirteen white stars on blue ground, and this new flag
was probably first used at the battle of Brandywine,
September 11, 1777. On January 13, 1794, Congress
ordered two more stripes and two more stars to be added
to the flag, to typify the States of Vermont and Ken-
tucky, admitted in the meanwhile. Notwithstanding
the admission of several more States, the flag was then
left unchanged until the Act of April 4, 1818, changed
the number of stripes to thirteen, which number was to
remain fixed. The number of stars was thereafter to be
equal to the number of States. The arrangement of
the stars in the union was not provided for. Thus the
stripes- typify the original States, the stars the prl^ent
States.

Flag, Presidential. — It is usual in other countries
to have a special ensign to designate the presence on a
vessel of the ruler of the nation. It was not until
lately that the United States had such a flag. President
Arthur suggested it in the early part of 1882, and, as his
Cabinet concurred in his suggestion, decided on the
design of a blue ground with the arms of the United
States in the center. The Navy Department ordered
that this flag should be displayed at the mainmast of
any vessel that bore the President. Arthur first used
it m 1883.

Floaters. — Under the Ohio Constitution of 1851, a
district or county having a fraction of population over
and above the number of inhabitants necessary to the
Senators or Eepresentatives apportioned to it, is treated
as follows: If by multiplying the surplus inhabitants by
five the result is equal to or exceeds the number of in-
habitants required for one member, the county receives
a member for the fifth of the five terms of two years
into which the period between reapportionments ia

222 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

divided. If equal to the number necessary to more
than one member, then for the fifth and fourth terms,
or for as many as required. These members are called
floaters.

Florida was acquired by purchase from Spain in
1821. {^8ee Annexations II.) East and West Florida
were joined in the territory of Florida in 1822, and the
State was admitted to the Union on March 3, 1845. An
ordinance of secession was passed by a State convention
on January 10, 1861, and the State was readmitted to
the Union by Act of June 25, 1868. The capital is
Tallahassee, The population in 1880 was 269,493, and
in the last census (1890) 391,422. Florida is entitled to
two members of the House of Representatives and four
electoral votes. It is claimed by the Republicans to be
at least a doubtful State in national politics, but in 1880
and 1884 it gave majorities for the Democratic candi-
dates. In 1876 the Electoral Commission {which see)
decided that the Republican electors had been chosen.
The name of this State was orginally applied to the
whole neighboring region in 1512 by Ponce de Leon,
who discovered it on Easter Sunday (in Spanish Pasqua
Florida, or the Feast of Flowers). It is sometimes
popularly known as the Peninsula State. {See Gover-
nors; Legislatures.)

Foot's Resolution. — A resolution introduced in
the Senate in December, 1829, by S. A. Foot, of Con-
necticut, designed to limit the sale of Western lands.
Its importance lies in the fact of its having been seized
on by the Southern members as the text for an attack
on the North and the *^^ centralization^^ theory. The
debate is famous for the speeches of Daniel Webster and
Robert Y. Hayne.

Force Bill. — The following acts of Congress are
known by this name: A law passed by Congress, taking
effect March 2, 1833. Its purpose was to enable the
President to enforce the tariff in the face of the efforts
of South Carolina to resist the collection of duty.
Also, to two laws passed in 1870 and 1871, both aimed
at the suppression of interference and intimidation in

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS, 223

Southern elections. These laws gave exclusive junsdic-
tion on this subject to the United States courts. The
second section of the law of 1871, directed at conspiracy
against the Civil Rights Act, was declared unconstitu-
tional by the Supreme Court in 1883. The second bill
declared conspiracy of this nature, if abetted by the
State authorities, to be rebellion, and authorized the
employment of the army and navy and the suspension
of the habeas corpus to aid in repressing it. The opera-
tion of the habeas corpus section was not to extend
beyond the end of the next session of Congress. Efforts
for a renewal thereof failed. These latter bills were also
known as the Ku-Klux Acts. (See Ku-Klux Klan.)

Foreign, Service. — The officers of the foreign ser-
vice of the United States are divided into two branches,
diplomatic and consular. The former, called in general
diplomatic agents, includes envoys extraordinary, minis-
ters plenipotentiary, ministers resident and secretaries of
legation. The first may be appointed for special pur-
poses, but the title is usually added to that of ministers
plenipotentiary. These embassadors have the right to
negotiate treaties and generally to represent our govern-
ment in the state to which they are sent. They are
sent only to great nations. Ministers resident are ac-
credited to less important nations, but their powers are
about the same as those of ministers plenipotentiary.
Secretaries of legation are appointed to assist principal
embassadors. Consular officers include consuls-general,
consuls and commercial agents. Their chief duties and
powers are connected with our commercial interests, to

Erotect ships, seamen and other Americans, to send
ome destitute seamen, and to give certificates for
various purposes. They are sent to the principal ports
or markets of a country. Some diplomatic powers also
attach to their office, and in non-Christian countries
they have sometimes the right, by treaty, to act in a
judicial capacity between citizens of the United States.
A consul-general has jurisdiction over several consuls.
Commercial agents are accredited to smaller places.
The various diplomatic and consular officers are ap-

224 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

pointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The highest salary is 117,500, paid to ministers to great
powers, as England, and from this figure the salaries
run down to a very small amount. Officers of the
foreign service are under the control and direction of the
State Department.

Foreign Valuations. — At the present time the
dutiable value of imports on which ad valorem rates of
duty are levied is the market value at the time of ex-
portation in the principal markets of the country
whence the merchandise is exported. This is called a
foreign valuation, and has been usually adopted by the
tariff laws of this country. The most notable exception
was Clay's Compromise Bill of 1833, which adopted the
plan of home valuations.

Fortune Bay Outrages. — In January, 1878, the
rights of our fishermen under the Treaty of Washing-
ton (1871) were infringed by the inhabitants of Fortune
Bay, Newfoundland, who attacked several Gloucester
vessels that were taking in cargoes of frozen herring,
cut their nets and drove away the crews. A claim was
made that local laws had been violated, but the British
government took a correct view of the matter by decid-
ing that these could not stand in conflict with the
treaty. The claims of the injured fishermen amounted
to $105,305: Great Britain paid £15,000 (nearly
$73,000) to be divided among them as compensation
for the damages inflicted.

Forty-niners. — A term applied to those persons
that rushed to California during the gold fever of 1849,
just after the discovery of gold in that region.

Franklin, or Frankland, State of. — This name was
adopted in 1784 by a convention of the settlers of the
western lands belonging to North Carolina. The tract
was admitted as the State of Tennessee in 1796. (xSee
Tennessee. )

Fraud of '76. — The election of Hayes as President
is thus called by the more violent Democrats. i^See
Disputed Presidential and Vice- Presidential Elections'^
Electoral Commission*

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 225

Free Coinage. {See Coinage; Bi-metallism,

Free Democracy, or Free Democratic party, is a
name by which the Free Soil party was sometimeg
known. {See that title. )

Freedmen's Bureau. — The number of slaves freed
by the end of 1864 is estimated at 3,000,000. Of this
number at least one-third was not only destitute, but
absolutely helpless. Attempts to make them self-sup-
porting by employing them on abandoned plantations
had failed through the mismanagement of the govern-
ment's agents, and they were now overrunning and en-
cumbering the army. They were therefore gathered
into camps, where they were easier to manage and could
be forced to do at least some work. In 1864 the man-
agement of these refugees was transferred to the Treas-
ury Department. In March, 1865, after repeated fail-
ures, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill was passed. To this
bureau, under the control of the War Department, was
given the control of "refugees, freedmen and abandoned
lands.'' It had power to assign not more than forty
acres of abandoned or confiscated land to each refugee,
for three years, and generally to regulate and supervise
the refugees and their concerns. This law created the
bureau for a term of one year. In 1866 a bill was
passed by Congress continuing the bureau indefinitely
and much enlarging its powers. It also gave the Presi-
dent military jurisdiction of attempts to abridge the
civil rights of the freedmen. It was vetoed, and so
failed to pass. In July a new bill, differing from the
February act only in that it extended the bureau for but
two years, was passed, and being vetoed was repassed
over the veto, in June, 1868, it was further extended
for one year. The chief commissioner was General 0.
0. Howard. A law passed in August, 1868, made him
irremovable, and provided for the cessation of all but
the educational functions of the bureau's work on Jan-
uary 1, 1869. These latter did not cease until Julv 1,
1870.

Free Rum. — Prohibitionists are fond of using the
phrase ''free rum" to indicate the ease with which

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

liquor can be procured under a license system in dis-
tinction from the difficulty of obtaining it under pro-
hibitory laws.

Free Soil Democracy. — A name by which the
Free Soil party was sometimes known. (/See Free Soil
Party.')

Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men and Fre-
mont.— A campaign cry of the supporters of Fremont
for President in 1856.

Free Soil Party. — The Southern leaders of the
Democratic party had determined to prevent the nom-
ination of Martin Van Buren for the presidency in the
convention of 1844. This was accomplished by declar-
ing the vote of two-thirds of the convention necessary
to nominate. This rule once adopted, Van Barents
defeat followed naturally. These tactics caused a split
in the Democratic ranks, especially in Van Buren's
State, New York. Van Buren^s faction was there known
as the *' Barn-burners/^ the other as the ^^ Hunkers."
In 1848 both factions sent delegations to the national
convention, which determined to give one-half of the
State vote to each. Both sections withdrew dissatisfied.
Van Buren's faction, joining with the remnants of the
Liberty party, formed the Free Soil party, by which
Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams were nominated.
Their platform was a strong and frank protest against
the extension of slavery, and contained such ringing
phrases as ^^a free soil to a free people," and " Congress
has no more power to make a slave than to make a
king." Van Buren and Adams received no electoral
votes, but their popular vote was 291,342, against
1,219,962 for Cass and 1,360,752 for Taylor. In 1852
the party nominated John P. Hale, of New York, and
again received no electoral votes. During its existence
it always had from fifteen to twenty representatives in
Congress, among them Charles Sumner, Salmon P.
Chase and David Wilmot. It opposed the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, and was finally swallowed up in the
Eepublican party.

Free Soil to a Free People. — This sentence was

DJCTIOATAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 227

contained in the declaration of principles of the Free
Soil Party.

Free Trade is the doctrine of political economy-
maintained by those who hold that trade should be un-
restricted by governmental regulations or interference.
The term is generally used with reference to govern-
mental exactions on importations. Theoretically, free
traders hold that our commerce with other nations
should be as unrestricted as commerce between the
various States of the Union, but practically they admit
that duties on imports are a convenient way of raising a
revenue; so that, as the term is generally used in this
country, a free trader is one who believes in so regulat-
ing the tariff as to raise the necessary revenue with the
least restrictions on foreign commerce, and with abso-
lutely no attempt to protect home industries. He be-
lieves strictly in a tariff for revenue only, or a fiscal
tariff, as it is sometimes called. A brief outline of
some of the most important propositions on which the
free trade argument rests may be given as follows:
every man has a natural right to buy in the cheapest
market and to sell in the dearest; all attempts to check
this right on the part of the government result sooner or
later in an artificial commercial condition and conse-
quent financial disaster ; labor, production, manu'
facture and commerce, being governed by natural laws,
will regulate themselves best if not interfered with; a
nation should devote itself to industries which are
natural to it; to attempt to force others to growth is an
artificial stimulus and a waste of energy ; if other
nations can produce articles cheaper than we can, it is
an unnecessary national extravagance to waste, in mak-
ing them at home, strength that could more profitably
be devoted to other pursuits ; protection benefits only a
minority of the nation at the expense of the large
majority; the advantages which have resulted from
free trade between the several States of the Union
prove that similar advantages would follow from free
trade with foreign nations. In answer to some of the
arguments of the protectionists, free traders say that it

228 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

is ridiculous and untrue to insist that protectiye duties
compel foreigners to pay part of our taxes; that diver-
sified industries are proven by history not to be neces-
sary for a nation, since with wealth all things can be
purchased in these days, and the nation will gain wealth
more rapidly if it devotes itself to natural pursuits and
avoids wasting its energy in unnatural ones; that high
wages in the United States are due to our natural ad-
vantages, not to protection; that, in any case, with
free trade the workman's necessaries would cost much
less and his wages would go as far as before; that it is
unjust to tax the whole country to pay large profits on
invested capital which could be equally well employed
in other channels. A large majority of the Democratic
party are free traders in the sense in which the term is
used here — of favoring a tariff for revenue only; but a
minority, powerful in influence if not in numbers, is
protectionist. {^8ee Protection.^

Free Trade and Sailors* Rights. — A cry used
before and during the War of 1812 by those that re-
sented British interference with our commerce and the
right England maintained of searching American vessels
for seamen whom she claimed to be British subjects, and
impressing them into her service. (/See Embargo Ad;
War of 1812.)

Fremont, John Charles, was born at Savannah,
Georgia, January 21, 1813. He graduated at Charleston
College, and entered the army as second lieutenant. He
rendered distinguished service in the Mexican War, and
his explorations of the Eocky Mountains gained the
title of Pathfinder for him. From 1851 to 1853 he was
United States Senator from California. He was a Free
Soiler. In 1856 he was the Eepublican candidate for
President. In 18*64 the ^^ radical men " of the Repub-
licans nominated him, but he declined in favor of
Lincoln.

French Spoliation Claims. — During the Revolu-
tionary War France and the United States made com-
mon cause as the result of the treaty of 1778, by which,
among other things, each government agreed to permit

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 229

the other to carry on trade with an enemy, and even to
carry the enemy^s goods, provided these were not contra-
band. After our treaty of peace in 1783 with Great
Britain, France found herself once more engaged in
war with that nation. France maintained that by the
treaty of 1778 we were bound to assist her but as our
government did not admit this and maintained a neutral
position, France seized many cargoes of American ves-
sels trading" with England. The United States over-
looked these acts for the time being, but in 1797 and in
1799 the claims of those wlio had lost property by these
'^French spoliations^' were presented to France by our
commissioners. France, however, would not recognize
these unless the United States should admit the com-
pensation which France claimed it owed to her for
breaking the treaty of 1778. As the French position
could not be changed by argument, our representatives
finally agreed to allow one claim to offset the other,
being desirous of effecting an agreement on other
matters. The spoliation claimants now requested Con-
gress to pay their claims, arguing that it was unfair for
the federal government to secure the cancellation of a
public debt at the expense of its individual citizens, and
that having received an equivalent, it was bound to pay
their claims. For four-score years renewals of this pe-
tition came before Congress before the claimants se-
cured any measure of justice. Twice an appropriation
for their relief has passed Congress, but the first time
it was vetoed by Polk (on wliich occasion but one vote
was wanting in the Senate to override the veto) and the
second time by Pierce. Finally, a bill passed Congress
and was approved by President Arthur on January 20,
1885, ordering the Court of Claims to investigate and
report to Congress upon the French spoliation claims,
so that now it would seem as if justice would be done.
Fugitive Slave Laws. — Under the colonial govern-
ments, as well as under the Articles of Confederation,
the surrender of slaves that had escaped to another State
was a matter of comity merely. The Constitution of
the United States contains a cl^-use in Article 4

230 DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS

directing the return of escaped slaves to their masters.
The word *' slave '^ is not, however, used. The first
law under this provision was passed in 1793, and it pro-
vided for the return of escaped slaves and criminals.
One of its provisions, imposing on magistrates of the
States duties under federal statutes, led to some compli-
cations, but an attempt in 1818 to amend it failed. The
Compromise of 1850 provided a new and more stringent
law, under which the refusal of a marshal to execute writs
under the act subjected him to fine. He was also liable
for the value of slaves escaping from his custody. All
good citizens were required to aid the marshal, and a
fine together with imprisonment was the punishment
for obstructing an arrest or attempting a rescue. More-
over, the testimony of the person claimed as slave was
never to be taken. The fee of the commissioner was
ten dollars if the prisoner was adjudged a slave, but
only five dollars if he was declared free. Under this
law the kidnaping of free blacks at the North became
more frequent, and many cases of revolting, inhuman
and almost incredible cruelty occurred. The North
never heartily supported the law, many States passing
'^personal liberty laws" to counteract its effect, and the
South considered this course a breach of faith. The
gulf between them grew still wider, the Civil War fol-
lowed, but it was not until 1864 that the fugitive slave
laws were repealed.

Fusion. — Where a number of ofiicers are elected on
a general ticket, it will sometimes happen when more
than two parties are in the field, that several of the
parties will agree on a joint ticket. Such a ticket is
called a fusion ticket. In the presidential election of
1880, the Democrats and the Greenbackers in Maine
nominated such an electoral ticket. Had this ticket
been elected, it would have cast three votes for the
Democratic and four for the Greenback candidate.
Gadsden Purchase. (See Annexations V.)
Gag Laws. — On February 5, 1836, Henry L. Pinck-
ney, of South Carolina, introduced a resolution into the
House of Representatives providing that all memorials

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 231

praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, be referred to a select committee with in-
structions to report that Congress had no power to inter-
fere with slavery in the States, and that, in the opinion
of the House, it would be a violation of public faith to
interfere with the institution in the District. This was
adopted. This committee recommended that all peti-
tions or papers relating to slavery or its abolition '''shall,
without either being printed or referred, be laid upon
the table." Similar resolutions were adopted at follow-
ing sessions in January, and, on motion of John M.
Patton, of Virginia, in December, 1837. On December
11, 1838, Charles C Atherton, of New Hampshire, in-
troduced a set of resolutions declaring that Congress
can not interfere with slavery in the States, that agita-
tion of the subject in the District '''was part of the
plan of operations to affect thB institution ... in
the several States," that Congress has no right to do
indirectly what it cannot do directly, or to discriminate
against or in favor of the institutions of any section,
'' that all attempts on the part of Congress to abolish,
slavery in the District of Columbia or the Territories,
or to prohibit the removal of slaves from State to State,"
is unconstitutional, and that all papers or memorials in
any way affecting the subject '' be laid on the table
without being debated, printed or referred." This was
adopted. Once more, in 1840, a similar resolution was
adopted on motion of William Cost Johnson, of Mary-
land, declaring that the reception of any such petitions
shall be considered as objected to and the question laid
on the table. This last was adopted as the twenty-first
rule of the House. John Quincy Adams was the mouth-
piece of the petitioners, and at length in December,
1844, his annual motion to rescind the rule was carried.
Gallatin, Albert, was born at Geneva, Switzerland,
January 29, 1761, and died at Astoria, New York, Au-

gust 12, 1849. He was graduated at the University of ^
eneva. In this country he was instructor at Harvard ''
University. In 1785 he settled in Western Pennsyl- \
vania where he took part in the Whisky Insurrection.'^

232 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

He was a member of the House of Representatives from
1795 to 1801. From 1802 to 1814 he was Secretary of
the Treasury. In 1814 he negotiated the Treaty of
Ghent; in 1815 he became minister to France, and in
1826 minister to Great Britain. In 1827 he settled in
New York City, becoming president of a bank.

G. A. R. — An abbreviation for the Grand Army of
the Republic {which see).

Garden of the West. — A name sometimes applied
to the State of Kansas.

Garfield, James Abram, was bom at Orange, Cuy-
ahoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831, and died at
Elberon, New Jersey, September 19, 1881. At an early
age he was obliged to work for a living, but by strenuous
efforts he managed to get an education; he graduated at
Williams College, and subsequently was admitted to the
bar. In 1859 and 1860 he served in the Ohio Senate. In
1861 he enlisted in the Civil War and rose to the rank of
major-general. In 1862 he was elected to Congress, in
which he served until 1881. In 1880 he was elected
Senator, but before he could assume the position he was
nominated for President by the Republicans and elected.
He did not long enjoy the position; a disappointed office-
seeker named Guiteau revenged himself by shooting him
July 2, 1881, and after lingering over two months he
died.

Garland, Augustus H., was born in Tipton County,
Tennessee, June 11, 1832; in his childhood his family
moved to Arkansas. He is a graduate of St. Joseph's
College, Bardstown, Kentucky. He served in the Con-
federate Congress. He was chosen to the United States
Senate, but admission was refused to him. He was in
1874 elected Governor of his State, having previously
served as acting Secretary of State. In 1876 he was
elected to the United States Senate; in 1882 he was re-
elected almost unanimously. . He was appointed Attor-
ney-General in the Cabinet of President Cleveland in
March, 1885.

Garrisonians. — A name applied to those abolitionists
that adhered to William Lloyd Garrison, when in 1838

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 233

a large portion of that body seceded from Ids leadership.
They were the radical wing, and went so far as to con-
sider even voting a compromise with crime, inasmuch as
the Constitution (as they claimed) supported slavery.
They stood squarely on the right of every innocent
human being to equal freedom with every other, and re-
fused to support any other view, even by implication.
At the South their lives were in danger; at the North
odium was heaped upon them, and even there they were
not always safe.

Garrison, William Lloyd, was born at Newbury-
port, Massachusetts, December, 1804. His parents were
poor and his education was obtained by his own efforts.
Having successively tried and abandoned shoe-making
and cabinet-making, he became a printer, and finally
started a newspaper, the Free Press, in his native town.
Moving to Boston, he was the editor of a temperance
journal. The National Philanthropist, until in 1838 he
moved to Bennington, Vermont, to take charge of the
Journal of the Ti^nes. Though ably edited, this journal
was not a success, and in 1829 Garrison, at the instance of
Benjamin Lundy, went to Baltimore as editor of Tlie
Genius of Universal Emancipation. Here his frank
utterances caused him to be fined and imprisoned.
Arthur Tappan, of New York, paid his fine, anticipat-
ing Henry Clay, who had determined to do the same,
and soon afterward Garrison left for Boston, where in
1831 he began the publication of The Liberator, This
journal was the organ of the abolitionists, and its out-
spoken views subjected the editor to much odium and
abuse. The paper was published until 1865, when,
slavery having disappeared its object was accomplished.
Garrison died May 24, 1879. {See Garrisonians.)

General of the Army is the highest grade in that
service. It had been held by Washington for a short
time in 1799, and then lapsed. It was revived especially
for General U. S. Grant, who was appointed thereto
July 25, 1866. On his election to the presidency. Gen-
eral William T. Sherman was nominated to succeed him.
It was decreed by Congress that this grade and that of

234 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Lieutenanfc-General were to lapse after the retirement of
Generals Sherman and Sheridan respectively. General
Sherman having retired November 1, 1883, the grade is
now non-existent.

General Taylor Never Surrenders, was the re-
ply of Mr. Crittenden, who had gone to Santa Anna's
headquarters, to an offer of protection to General Zach-
ary Taylor if the latter would surrender. This was at
the battle of Buena Vista, in the Mexican War.

Genet, Citizen, was the name commonly given to
Edmond Charles Genet, who arrived at Charleston,
South Carolina, in April, 1793, as embassador from
France to the United States. This was during the
French Revolution. Monarchy had been overthrown
and the king beheaded. A reign of terror ensued and
France was at war with England and other European
nations. Genet's object was to secure the active assist-
ance of the TJnited States, and he relied largely on the
treaty of 1778 between our country and France. After
consultation with his Cabinet, and by their unanimous
advice, Washington on April 22, 1793, issued a procla-
mation declaring the complete neutrality of the United
States. Genet, trusting to the sympathy of the people
for the country that had rendered so much assistance in
the Eevolution, and to their hatred for England, used
violent language to our executive government, organized
secret political societies, enlisted men for expeditions
against Florida and New Orleans (then Spanish posses-
sions), and fitted out privateers from our ports. His
defiance of the government and his efforts to discredit
the administration in the eyes of the American people
finally alienated their support of his course, and led
President Washington to ask his recall by the French
government. In January, 1794, Washington was able
to announce that this request had been comj)lied with.
Genet passed the remainder of his life in New York,
where he was married and naturalized.

Geneva Award. — The settlement of the Alabama
Claims was referred by the Treaty of Washington to
five arbitrators, to be appointed by the President of the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 235

United States, the Queen of Great Britain, the King of
Italy, the President of the Swiss Confederation and the
Emperor of Brazil. These rulers, in the above order,
named as arbitrators Charles Francis Adams, Lord Chief-
Justice Sir Alexander Cockburn, Count Federigo Sclopis,
Mr. Jaques Staempfli and Baron Itajuba. J. C. Ban-
croft Davis and Lord Tenterden, respectively, repre-
sented as agents the United States and Great Britain.
The tribunal met at Geneva, Switzerland, on December
15, 1871, and Count Sclopis was made president. Each
government submitted its proofs and arguments, which
were carefully considered by the arbitrators. The
United States claimed damages both for direct and for
indirect losses, and for injuries occasioned by thirteen
vessels. The tribunal decided to allow only direct
losses caused by the Florida and the Alabama, with
their tenders, and by the Shenandoah during part of
her cruise. Various rules of international law were
laid down which supported most of the contentions of
our government. It was decided that the expenses in-
curred in pursuing the cruisers and the prospective
earnings of the destroyed merchant vessels should not
be included in the award; that net, and not gross,
freights should be allowed, and that reasonable interest
should be included. Finally, on the 14th of Sep-
tember, 1872, the tribunal *' awarded to the United
States a sum of $15,500,000 in gold as the indemnity to
be paid by Great Britain to the United States as the
satisfaction of all the claims referred to the considera-
tion of the tribunal.'^ The English representative cast
the only dissenting vote, but Great Britain accepted the
decision and paid the award within a year.

Gentleman George. — A name applied to George H.
Pendleton, of Ohio. Pendleton was born in Ohio in
1825. In 1879 he was elected United States Senator,
and was in 1885 appointed United States Minister to
Germany. He was a Democrat. Died Nov. 24, 1889.

George, Henry, was born in Philadelphia Septem-
ber 2, 1839. While very young he went to sea ; ulti-
mately he settled in California where he became a jour-

236 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICO,

nalist. Li 1879 his book, ''Progress and Poverty/' was
published. In this he states his well-known theory that
the rise of land values is the cause of want, and that the
remedy lies in taxing land to its full rent value. In 1886
he was nominated as mayor of the city of New York by
the United Labor party, receiving 68,110 votes to 90,552
cast for the Democratic and 60,435 for the Eepublican
candidate. He subsequently founded the Standard, a
weekly newspaper devoted to labor interests, which he is
still editing.

Georgia was one of the original States of the Union.
On January 19, 1861, a State convention passed an ordi-
nance of secession, and Georgia was re-admitted to the
Union by act of June 25, 1868; but the State was con-
sidered by Congress to have failed in complying with its
reconstruction policy and the re-admission was not com-
plete till made so by act of July 15, 1870. The capital
is Atlanta. The population in 1880 was 1,542,180, and
in the last census (l890) 1,837,353. Georgia sends ten
representatives to Congress and has twelve electoral votes,
which can always be relied on by the Democratic party.
It was named as a colony in honor of George II, King of
England, and is called popularly the Empire State of
the South. (iS'ee Gherohee Case; Governors; Legisla-
tures \ Territories; Yazoo Fraud.)

German Vote. — The census of 1880 placed the total
population of the United States at about 50,000,000, of
which 43,500,000 was native and 6,500,000 foreign born.
It showed, moreover, about 12,800,000 males of the age
of 21 years or over. The total presidential vote in that
year was 9,200,000. Of the foreign born inhabitants
1,960,000 were of German and 1,850,000 of Irish birth.
Many of these foreigners were of course not yet natural-
ized. The political affiliations of children are apt to run
on the same lines with those of their fathers, and in esti-
mating the influence in elections of foreign voters the
following will be of interest: The total of residents in
the United States in 1880 whose fathers were foreign
(regardless of whether they themselves were native or
foreign born) was about 14,500,000. Of these 4,880,000

btCTlONAR y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. %%*\

were of German and 4,500,000 of Irish fathers. In 1884
the total vote for President was about 9,550,000. In
1888 the population of the United States was about
63,000,000. The importance of these figures lies in the
fact that political parties and demagogues are always
ready to give their support to measures peculiarly adapted
to enlist the sympathy and support of these voters. {^8ee
Population of the United States. )

Gerry, Elbridge, was born at Marblehead, Massa-
chusetts, July 17, 1744, and died November 23, 1814.
He was a graduate of Harvard. He was a member of
the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1780 and 1783 to
1785. He was a member of the Convention of 1787.
He was in Congress from 1789 to 1793, and was a com-
missioner to France. (See X. Y. Z. Mission.) He was
elected Vice-President in 1812 on the Eepublican (Dem-
ocratic-Eepublican) ticket, and died in office.

Gerrymander. — Gerrymandering is the process of so
arranging electoral districts as to give a majority of Con-
gressmen, or State legislators, as the case may be, to the
party having the minority in the total popular vote of
the State. This is accomplished by combining a com-
munity having a large majority in favor of the manipu-
lating party, with another in which that party has a
minority a little smaller than its majority in the former;
the result of the union is a district in which the party
has a small majority. This process has been practiced
all over the Union. Its name arose as follows: In 1814
the Senate districts of Massachusetts were laid out with
the aim of electing to that body a majority of Democrats.
The result was great irregularity in the shape of many of
the districts. One in particular was so distorted that
the Boston Centinel published a colored map of it, to
which a few artistic touches were added for the purpose
of giving it resemblance to some monstrous animal.
This mythical animal they named ^'gerrymander,'' com-
posed of the surname of Eldridge Gerry, Democratic
Governor of the State, and of the termination of
*' salamander.''

Gettysburg Speech. — A speech delivered by Presi-

238 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

dent Lincoln, on the battle-field of Gettysburg, on the
occasion of the dedication of a cemetery for the soldiers
that had fallen in that battle. The speech is given in
full under Lmcoln, Abraliam.

Giddings' Resolutions.— On March 21, 1842,
Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, offered a series of nine
resolutions in the House of Eepresentatives relating to
the Creole Case {which see). They were in effect that
the States had never delegated their jurisdiction of the
subject of slavery to the United States ; that slavery,
an abridgement of a natural right, can exist only by
positive law, and that a United States vessel on . the
high seas is under United States, and no longer under
State, jurisdiction; and, finally, bringing the Creole
into the above class of ships, they declared that no law
was violated by the slaves in securing their freedom, and
that attempts to reenslave the escaped slaves would be
unconstitutional and unrepublican. The House at once
put a stop to all discussion on these resolutions, and
passed a resolution censuring Giddings. He resigned
his seat, but was at once reelected by an overwhelming
majority, with instructions to present the resolutions
again, a thing which he did not, however, succeed in
doing.

Gilded Trap. — A nickname applied to the Consti*
tution while it was before the people for ratification.

Gilmore Peace Negotiations.— In 1864 Colonel
J. F. Jaquess, of the Seventy-third Illinois Infantry,
believing himself inspired by the Almighty to make
peace between the North and the South, appealed to
the president, through Mr. James E. Gilmore, for au-
thority to visit Richmond and begin negotiations. Mr.
Gilmore was an author, and a great friend of President
Lincoln. The president positively declined to appear
openly in the matter, but he rather wished Jaquess to
go, in order to find out informally whether the Confed-
erate government was disposed to treat for peace. Ja-
quess was not successful in getting through the lines,
but his plan suggested to Mr. Gilmore the idea that if
an offer of terms of peace were made to Jefferson Davis,

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 339

and rejected by him, the publication of the fact would
count for much in the presidential election. The North-
ern Democrats were then proposing to run McClellan
on a ''peace with union " platform, and if it could be
shown that the South would consent to nothing less
than independence, the continuation of the war would
appear inevitable. Moved by this argument, Lincoln
allowed Gilmore to go to Richmond, informally and
without diplomatic authority, to sound Davis as to his
willingness to make peace on certain specijSed terms.
These were briefly — (1) the restoration of the union, (2)
the abolition of slavery, (3) full amnesty to all engaged
in rebellion, (4) $400,000,000 in United States bonds
to be distributed among the states to be used in pay-
ment for slaves at one-half their value in 1860. The
Southern states were to have immediate representation
in Congress on the basis of their voting population,
and a National Constitutional Convention was to be
called to make such changes in the Constitution as
might be necessary to perpetuate the new order of
things. Gilmore went to Eichmond and had several
interviews with President Davis, but the latter refused
to negotiate on any basis except those of complete
Southern independence. Mr. Gilmore then returned,
and wished to publish a full account of his mission,
admitting its official character. President Lincoln,
however, positively objected, and made Mr. Gilmore
promise not to reveal the fact that he (Lincoln) had
sanctioned the mission, or make public the terms offered.
This was not done until 1887.

Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death. — Patrick
Henry delivered a speech in the Virginia Convention,
in March, 1775, favoring a resolution "that the colony
be immediately put in a state of defense,^' and con-
cluded as follows : '' Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ?
Forbid it. Almighty God ! I know not what course
others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or
give me death !"

God Reigns, and the Government at Wash-
ington Still Lives. — These were the closing words of

240 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

a brief address made by James A. Garfield, then a repre-
sentative in Congress, to a large assemblage in Wall
Street, New York, on April 15, 1865, the morning after
the assassination of Lincoln. The crowd were about to
move for an attack on the World newspaper office, which
had violently opposed Lincoln. Suddenly Garfield's
voice was heard to calm their passions. He spoke
briefiy as follows: *' Fellow-citizens! Clouds and dark-
ness are round about Him. His pavilion is dark waters
and thick clouds of the skies. Justice and judgment
are the establishment of His throne. Mercy and tmth
shall go before His face. Fellow-citizens! God reigns,
and the government at Washington still lives!"

Gold Bugs. — Those that oppose the compulsory
coinage of standard silver dollars are so called by those
that favor their compulsory coinage. (Bee Silver Ques-
tion.)

Good Enough Morgan Till After Election.-;-
Thurlow Weed was one of the foremost of the anti-
Masonic agitators in New York State. The disappear-
ance of Morgan and the discovery of what was supposed
to be his dead body, created intense excitement. {8ee
Anti-Masonic Party.) Weed took full advantage of
this feeling, and when doubt was cast on the identity of
the body thus found, he is said to have remarked in
private that it was a " good enough Morgan till after
election.*'

Gotham. — A name sometimes applied to New York
City.

Government of the People, by the People, and
for the People, Shall Not Perish from the Earth.
— The last sentence of President Lincoln's Gettysburg
speech. {8ee Lincoln, Abraham.)

Grand Army of the Republic. — Soon after the
close of the Civil War Dr. B. F. Stephenson, who had
been surgeon in a volunteer regiment, suggested the
organization of Union veterans into a national associa-
tion for mutual assistance. In accordance with his sug-
gestion and by his efforts the first post was founded at
Decatur, Illinois, April 6, 1866. Other posts in that

DTCTIOMAR Y OF AMERTCAN- POLITICS 241

and other States were rapidly formed. The " posf is
the local organization. The " department^' is the State
or territorial organization. The whole is under a com-
mander-in-chief and a national council of administra-
tion consisting of one member from each department.
Once a year there takes place a national convention or
encampment at which the commander-in-chief is elected.
A belief that the organization was intended for political
purposes led to a considerable decrease of membership
in 1868; to remedy which a rule was adopted forbidding
any political use to be made of it. The first commander-
in-chief was Stephen A. Hurlburt, elected at the national
encampment at Indianapolis in 1866; the present incum-
bent is John Palmer, elected at the encampment at
Detroit in 1891. The membership is now 398,270.

Grangers. — In 1867 a secret society known as the
Patrons of Husbandry was formed in Washington. Its
object was to aid the farmers by enabling them to co-
operate and purchase their supplies at first hand, and by
offering opportunities for social and educational im-
provement. Lodges called Granges were established in
several Western States. The association received a set-
back through the financial reverses of many of its lodges,
which had, without proper training, engaged in business
enterprises. Nevertheless, they succeeded in 1873 and
1874 in carrying the legislatures of Illinois and Wiscon-
sin; these legislatures passed stringent laws directed
against "extortion and unjust discrimination in the
rates charged for the transportation of passengers and
freights."" These acts were subsequently repealed but
while they were in force had a very unfavorable effect
on the railroads. In Congress their efforts led to con-
siderable discussion yegarding the regulation of inter-
state commerce, since consummated by the act of Feb-
ruary 4, 1887. Similar societies — the Farmers' Alliance,
in the South and Northwest, and the Agricultural Wheel,
in the Middle South — are now becoming influential as
social and agricultural powers. The Grangers have vir-
tually passed out of politics.

Grant, Ulysses Simpson, or Hiram Ulysses Grant,
was born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio,

242 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

April 27, 1822, and died at Mt. McGregor, near Sara,
toga. New York, July 23, 1885. His name was Hiram
Ulysses, but an error on the part of the Congressman
that named him for West Point caused his name to be
entered there as Ulysses S., and by that name he has
since gone; Simpson he adopted, it being a name in his
mother^s family. He graduated at West Point in 1843,
and remained in the army until 1854, serving in the
Mexican War. In 1854 he resigned his commission and
engaged in business. At the outbreak of the Civil War
he raised a company; he was rapidly promoted, and in
1862 had risen to the rank of major-general of volun-
teers. He was made major-general in the regular army
July 4, 1863, lieutenant-general March 2, 1864, and
finally general of the army July 25, 1866. He was for a
short time Secretary of War, ad interum, under John-
son. The crowning event of his military career was the
surrender of Lee to him at Appomattox, April 9, 1865.
In 1868 he was nominated for the presidency by the
Kepublican party and elected. In 1872 he was again
elected. In 1880, one term having intervened, a strong
effort to renominate him was made, but it failed. His
second term was marked by various scandals like the
Whisky Ring, but no one ever connected the President's
name with them. Among the principal events of his
administration are the completion of the Pacific Rail-
ways and the settlement of the Alabama claims. He was
a plain man, possessed of much common sense; unskilled
in public affairs and unfortunate in the choice of his
civil subordinates; to these latter he clung even when
their guilt was clear to other minds, and so made him-
self the target for much abuse. His world-wide reputa-
tion is due to his great military achievements.

Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny. — A phrase sometimes
applied to Gen. William Walker, the filibuster.

Greasers. — A name applied to the Mexicans, especi-
ally during the Mexican War.

— Great Beast with the Great Belly.— A name
which the early Republicans (Democrats) applied to the
navy on account of its expense.

DtCTIO}^Ak V OP AMERICAN- POLITICS, ^43

Great Commoner. — ^A title given to Thaddeus
Stevens and also to Henry Clay. The phrase was origin-
ally used with reference to William Pitt, a great leader
in the English House of Commons in the latter part of
the last century.

Great Pacificator. — This name is applied to
Henry Clay on account of his propensity to suggest
compromises for the purpose of settling disputes. \See
Missouri Compromise; Compromise of 1850; Compromise
Tariff.)

Greeley, Horace, was bom at Amherst, New Hamp-
shire, February 3^ 1811, and died near New York City,
November 29, 1872. He was a printer by trade; turn-
ing his attention to journalism he founded the New York
Tribune in 1841. In 1848 and 1849 he sat in the House
of Representatives as a Whig, and in 1872 he was the
presidential nominee of the Liberal Republicans. His
newspaper became one of the most prominent abolition
papers; through it he also advocated a protective tariff
and internal improvements. Personally he was very
eccentric, one of his peculiarities being his custom of
wearing a white high hat both winter and summer,
a style that became known as '^ Greeley '' hats.

Greenback- Labor Party. — The demand for agri-
cultural products on the part of the government during
the war tended to render farmers prosperous; their pros-
perity was inci eased by the payment in greenbacks of
debts previously contracted, and these concurrent cir-
cumstances have tended to make agricultural sections
look on the unlimited issue of paper money as the cure
for all economic evils. A convention of Grreenbackers
was held in 1874, and it was resolved that it was desir-
able to have all bank currency withdrawn and only
national currency issued, and, moreover, to have the
principal of that portion of the national debt not in
terms made payable in gold, paid in currency. As early
as 1868 this plan had been known as the Ohio Idea.
The Democratic party in 1875 showed some leaning to-
ward these views, but it soon fell off from them. In 1876
the Greenbackers held a national convention, and adopt-

Ui DiCTlOi^AR V OF AM^klCAN- POLITICS.

iiig the name of Independent party nominated Peter
Cooper, of New York, for the presidency. The party
polled a total of about 80,000 votes. Its strength lay
mainly in the agricultural regions, in Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas and Michigan. In 1877 the party's vote
in the State elections was about 185,000. About this
time the labor reform parties assumed greater promi-
nence, and in several States the labor and greenback par-
ties united. In 1878 a national convention adopted the
name of National party. In that year its vote rose to
1,000,000, and a number of National representatives
were elected usually by fusions with whichever party
happened to be in the minority in any district. In 1880
James B. Weaver, of Iowa, was nominated for President,
polling about 300,000 votes; in 1884 the nominee was
Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, who was also the
Anti-Monopoly candidate, the joint ticket being known
as the People's party, and the vote about 130,000. The
principles of the party as constituted at that time are
given under Party Platforms.

Greenbacks. — A familiar name applied to the Na-
tional bank notes and the Legal tender notes by reason
of the appearance of the reverse side.

Green Mountain Boys. — A name applied to the
male inhabitants of Vermont, from the chief range of
mountains in the State, and used especially in referring
to regiments from Vermont in the Kevolution and the
Civil War.

Guano Statesman. (See Peruvian Guano TrouUes.)

Gunboat System. — President Jefferson and the Ee-
publicans {see Democratic- RepuUican Party) opposed
the formation of a navy on the ground of its cost. As
an alternative Jefferson proposed the building of gun-
boats for defensive purposes, and the act of February 28,
1803, appropriated $50,000 for the purpose. In the fol-
lowing years the subject was further amplified and a
complete system of coast defense on this plan was
adopted in 1806. Gunboats to the number of 250 were
to be built, of these a few were to remain in active ser-
vice, the remainder to be properly stored at the princi-

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 245

pal seaports, and in case of danger to be manned b^ local
seamen and militia trained for the purpose. This sys-
tem of coast defense, moreover, included heayy movable
batteries to be placed at convenient points on the coast;
these were to be moved to the spot at which danger
threatened, and to be used against hostile fleets attempt-
ing to land. During the war of 1812 the necessity of a
sea-going fleet became apparent, and the gunboat system
was abandoned.

Habeas Corpus is a writ which takes its name from
its characterizing Latin words ut habeas corpus. There
are several varieties of this writ, but the one referred to
in the Constitution and generally meant is that of habeas
corpus ad subjiciendum, which is issued by a court di-
recting that the body of a prisoner be produced before
it, that it may inquire into the cause of his detention
and discharge him if he is unlawfully restrained. It is
granted as a matter of right on the verified petition of
the prisoner or some one acting in his behalf. The
right to this writ was secured to the English people by
Magna Charta and confirmed by the Petition of Eight.
The Constitution of the United States (Article 1, section
9, clause 2) provides that '' the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in
cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may re-
quire it.^* The States, also, provide for the issuance of
the writ in their several courts. Federal courts grant
the writ when the imprisonment is under pretense of
federal authority or federal rights are involved. The
power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus has been held
by the Supreme Court to rest with Congress alone,
though that body may delegate its authority to the Presi-
dent by statute. In sudden emergencies it is sometimes
necessary for the President to suspend the writ without

Erevious authority, but Congress may afterward validate
is course. Previous to the Ci^ il War the Federal writ
of habeas corpus had never been suspended. At tbo
commencement of that struggle Lincoln found it neces-
sary to suspend it, and Congress subsequently validated
his action, and in March, 1863, gave the I'resident

246 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

almost unlimited discretionary power to suspend the writ.
This was accordingly done, and many arbitrary arrests
were made of persons suspected of disloyalty, with the
result of causing much bitter feeling in the North. In
October, 1864, a court-martial in Indiana sentenced sev-
eral persons to death for treasonable designs; from the
name of the most prominent prisoner the affair was
known as the '' Milligan Oase/^ The United States circuit
court issued a writ of habeas corpus, and being divided in
opinion as to releasing the prisoners, the case was taken
to the Supreme Court. There it was held in 1866 that
the privilege of the writ could not be suspended in dis-
tricts where the action of the civil courts was not inter-
rupted, except that military commissions might be given
jurisdiction to try residents of rebellious States, pris-
oners of war, and persons in the military and naval ser-
vices. In December, 1865, President Johnson pro-
claimed the restoration of the privilege of the writ
throughout most of the North; in April, 1866, every-
where except in Texas; and in August, 1866, in that
State also. The Ku-Klux troubles led to an act author-
izing the local suspension of the writ in 1871 for which
see Ku-Klux Klan and Force Bill. One solitary instance
has occurred of the suspension of the privilege of this
writ in time of peace and when the public safety did not
seem to demand it. In 1865 Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was
in custody of the military authorities, having been con-
demned to death by a military commission for conspiring
in the murder of President Lincoln. A writ of habeas
corpus to produce her and show by what lawful authority
she was held was issued by Judge Wylie of the District
of Columbia and served on Gen. Hancock, the com-
mander of the district. President Johnson, fearing the
defeat of, or a delay in, the execution of Mrs. Surratt,
issued the following order:

Executive Office, July 7, 1866, 10 a. m.

To Major-Oeneral W. S. Hancock, Commanding, etc. :

I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do here-
by declare that the writ of habeas corpus has been heretofore
suspended in such cases as this, and I do hereby especially sus-

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 247

pend this writ, and direct that you proceed to execute the
order heretofore given upon the judgment of the Militarj
Commission, and you will give this order in return to this
writ. Andrew Johnson, President.

Notwithstanding Johnson^s assertion to the contrary,
his action seems to have been without precedent and
wholly unwarranted; but it served the purpose and Mrs.
Surratt was hanged.

Hail Columbia. — The words of this national song
were written by Judge Joseph Hopkinson during Presi-
dent John Adams^ administration. The air was composed
by the leader of the orchestra of the only theatre in the
capital, in honor of George AYashlngton. The com-
poser, named Pfyles, Feyles, or Fyles, called it the
President's March, but after the words had been written
for it, both air and words passed under the name of
Hail Cohtmbia, the opening words of the song.

Half-Breeds. {See Stalwarts.)

Halifax Fishery Commission. — In accordance
with the provisions of the Treaty of Washington {see
Fishery Treaties; Treaty of Washington), the joint
commission to determine the compensation which the
United States should pay to Great Britain for the privi-
leges granted the former by the treaty referred to, met
at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 1877. It
was composed of Hon. Ensign H. Kellogg, appointed
by the President, Sir Alexander T. Gait, appointed by
the Queen, and Maurice Delfosse, selected by the Aus-
trian Minister to Great Britain. Reliable statistics
could not be obtained, but finally by the casting vote of
Delfosse it was decided, in November, 1877, that the
United States should pay to Great Britain 15,500,000.
The award created general surprise and, in the United
States, much indignation, but it was duly paid the next
year.

Hamilton, Alexander, was born on the Island of
Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757, and died at New
York, July 12, 1804, killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.
He left King^s (now Columbia) College and entered the
Continental Army. He was Washington's aide during

248 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

the Revolution. He was a member of the Continental
Congress from 1782 to 1783, and of the Convention of
1787. From 1789 to 1795 he was Secretary of the
Treasury, and in 1798, when Washington was appointed
lieutenant-general, the actual command of the army fell
to Hamilton. His perspicacity and power of thought
were remarkable. In his own day one of the most
abused as well as one of the most lauded of men, the
correctness of his judgment has been again and again
vindicated by events. He was the undisputed head of
the nationalizing element in American politics, the
leader of the Broad Constructionists. (/See Whisky In-
surrection. ) His skill as a financier was well character-
ized by Webster in the words: '^He smote the rock of
the national resources and abundant streams of revenue
gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of public
credit and it sprung upon its feet.'''

Hamlin, Hannibal, was born at Paris, Maine,
August 27, 1809. He was a lawyer. From 1843 to 1847
he served in Congress, and from 1848 to 1857 in the
Senate, as a Democrat. From 1857 to 1861 he was in
theSenateasallepublican, and again from 1869 to 1881.
In this last year he was appointed Minister to Spain,
but resigned in 1882. He died July 4, 1891.

Hancock, Winfield Scott, was born February 24,
1824, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. A gradu-
ate of West Point, he served in the Civil War, rising
to the rank of major-general. After the war he was
placed in command of the fifth military district. An
order, issued by him in 1867 as commander, restoring
the civil tribunals of his district, caused him to be
severely criticised by Republicans, and made him corre-
spondingly popular- with Democrats, to whose party he
belonged. He was the Democratic presidential nom-
inee in 1880. He died February 9, 1886.

Hard Cider Campaign. — In the presidential cam-
paign of 1840 the political enemies of William Henry
Harrison, the Whig candidate, told stories of his having
lived in a log cabin with nothing but hard cider to
drink. His friends claimed that this was rather to his

DICTIOHAR y OF AMEklCAlSr POLITICS. 249

credit than otherwise, and log cabins were used in the
parades of his adherents. ^'Hard cider/' as well aa
"log cabin," became party cries. In fact, the whole
campaign was based on Harrison's sturdy qualities and
his military reputation. One of his best known victories
was at Tippecanoe against the Shawnee Indians in 1811,
while he was Governor of the Territory of Indiana.
This, too, was turned to account, and the cry of " Tip-
pecanoe and Tyler, too," figured prominently in the
campaign. John Tyler was the nominee for Vice-Presi-
dent.
Hards or Hard Shells. {See Hunkers,)
Harrison, Benjamin, was born in North Bend, Ohio,
August 20, 1833. He was graduated at the Miami Uni-
versity, Ohio, and moved to Indiana, where he practiced
law. He served on the Union side in the Civil War,
and became a brigadier-general. He was several times
elected reporter of the State Supreme Court. In 1876
he was defeated for Governor. In 1880 he was elected
United States Senator; at the expiration of his term
he retired to private life. In 1888 the Republican party
named him for President. He is the grandson of Will-
iam Henry Harrison.

Harrison, William Henry, was bom in Charles
County, Virginia, February 9, 1773, and died April 4,
1841. He was an officer of the regular army and fought
against the Indians under General Wayne. In 1801 he
was appointed Governor of Indiana Territory, having
previously served as secretary. As Governor he won the
famous battle of Tippecanoe against the Indians. After
the surrender of Hull during the War of 1812, he was
appointed to command the army in that region, with the
rank, first of brigadier-general and subsequently of major^
general. He served in the House of Representative^
from 1816 to 1819, and in the Senate from 1825 to 1828,
representing the State of Ohio. From 1828 to 1829 he
was Minister to Colombia. In 1836 he was defeated for
the presidency, but at the next election, 1840, he was
successful. He served but one month, dying in office.
In politics he was a Whig,

S50 VICTTONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Hartford Convention. —The War of 1812 against
England had been entered into in the face of the
protest of the New England and northern Middle
States. These being commercial in their pursuits had
everything to lose by war; what they demanded was
a strong navy to protect commerce. In politics they
were Federalists. When the Democratic majority in
Congress had forced the war on the Democratic Presi-
dent, Madison, and hostilities had actually commenced,
these States took no active part in the struggle; they
opposed the war; finally, in October, 1814, Massa-
chusetts passed a resolution inviting the other New
England States to a convention having in view an ulti-
mate convention of all the States for the purpose of a
revision of the Constitution. Connecticut and Rhode
Island and some Counties of New Hampshire and Ver-
mont signified their approval of this course, but these
resolutions explicitly declared that the proposed action
was to be within the limits of the Constitution. The
reverses of the war had put the Democratic party into
no humor for these proceedings; they were denounced;
it was charged that there was a conspiracy to establish a
grand duchy under an English prince; government
agents were sent all over New England to find proofs of
these facts. As a matter of fact the convention of
twenty-six representatives from Massachusetts, Connecti-
cut, fihode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont met
at Hartford, Connecticut, December 15, 1814; this con-
vention disclaimed any intention to dissolve the Union
at that time; such dissolution, it declared, must '* be the
work of peaceable times and deliberate consent. ^^ Among
the grievances it recited were the ^^easy admission of
naturalized foreigners to places of trust, honor and
profit," and the easy formation of new Western States; it
desired the defense of every State to be entrusted to the
State itself, and declared it to be ^' as much the duty of
the State authorities to watch over the rights reserved, as
of the United States to exercise the powers which are
delegated," It desired changes in the Constitution as
follows: Abrogation of the right of Southern States to

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 251

representation for three-fifths of their slaves; require-
ment of a two- thirds vote of both Houses for the admis-
sion of new States or the prohibition of commercial
intercourse or to declare war or to authorize hostilities
except in cases of invasion; embargoes to be limited to
sixty days; foreigners to be disqualified from all civil
offices under the United States; Presidents to be ineli-
gible for a second term, and no two successive Presidents
to be from the same State. Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut sent commissioners to Washington to attempt to
carry out the suggestions of the report, but the war had
in the meantime ended and the commissioners were
ignored. The convention did not meet again; but the
odium attaching to it was so great that its president
placed a copy of the proceedings in the hands of the
Massachusetts Secretaryof State in order thus to disprove
charges of treason.

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, was born at Delaware,
Ohio, October 4, 1822. He was graduated at Kenyon Col-
lege; by profession he was a lawyer. He was at one
time city solicitor of Cincinnati. He served in the Civil
War, rising to the grade of brevet major-general. In
1864 he was elected to Congress. In 1867 he became
Governor of Ohio, a post to which he was again elected
in 1875. In the next year he was nominated for Presi-
dent by the Eepublicans, and after a sharp contest
elected. {^8ee Disputed Presidential and Vice-Presi-
dential Elections; Electoral Commission.) The refund-
ing of the National debt and the resumption of -specie
payments were the most important events of his admin-
istration. Hayes has not held office since his retirement.

Hayne, Robert Young, was born in St. Paul's Par-
ish, South Carolina, 1791. He was admitted to the bar
before he was twenty-one years of age. He served in the
war of 1812, held various offices in his native State, and
in 1823 was elected to the United States Senate; he is
principally known for his debate in that body with Web-
ster on Foot's Eesolution. The scope of the debate on
this resolution concerning Western public land, took in
the topic of ^' State rights,'' which was thoroughly dis-

252 DICTION- AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

cussed, and the speeches on both sides are spendid ora-
torical efforts.

Headquarters, The, of the Army of the Po-
tomac will be in the Saddle. — This rather boastful
order is said to have been issued by General Pope on
assuming command of that army during the Civil War,
though he has always denied it.

He Could Not be Kicked Into a War. — Presi-
dent Madison's extreme reluctance to enter into war
with Great Britain in 1812 led to the above remark
in Congress.

Helderberg" War. {See Anti-Renters.')
Hendricks, Thomas Anderson, was born in
Muskingum County, Ohio, September 17, 1819, and
died at Indianapolis, November 24, 1885. In his child-
hood his family moved to Indiana. He was graduated
at Hanover College and admitted to the bar. He served
in the State House of Eepresentatives and Senate, and
in 1851 was elected to Congress, in which he served one
year. Prom 1855 to 1859 he was Commissioner of the
Land Office, and from 1863 to 1869 United States
Senator. After being twice defeated he was in 1872
elected Governor of Indiana. In 1876 he ran for Vice-
President and was defeated. In 1884 he was again
nominated and this time elected. He was a Democrat.
Henry Affair. i^See Henry Documents.)
Henry Documents. — Sir James H. Craig, the Gov-
ernor of British North America, in January, 1809, sent
an adventurer, John Henry by name, into the New
England States to report the feeling of that section of
the country on the question of secession from th<j
Union, and possibly to increase the discontent already
caused among these people of commercial interests by
the Embargo . Act and the Non-Intercourse system of
the government. Failing of the reward he sought from
the British ministry, Henry sold to President Madison
for $50,000 his correspondence with the English officials,
and these papers became known as the Henry docu-
ments. Madison submitted the letters to Congress and
claimed that they proved a design on the part of Eng-

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 253

land to annex the New England States. They do not
make certain, however, that the Eastern States enter-
tained seriously the idea of secession. This whole epi-
sode is often referred to as the Henry affair.

Hermitage. — By this name was known Andrew
Jackson's home, about twelve miles from Nashville,
.Tenn.

Hero of Appomattox is the name applied to Gen-
eral Ulysses S. Grant. It was at Appomattox Court
House, Virginia, April 9, 1865, that General Lee's
forces surrendered to Grant.

Hero of New Orleans. — General Andrew Jackson
was so called in allusion to his victory over the British
troops at New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

He Smote the Rock of the National Resources
and Abundant Streams of Revenue Gushed
Forth. — Said of Alexander Hamilton by Daniel Web-
ster.

He Touched the Dead Corpse of Public Credit
and it Sprung Upon its Feet. — This was said by
Daniel Webster of Alexander Hamilton.

Higher Law. — William H. Seward, in a speech
delivered March 11, 1850, declared, '^ There is a higher
law than the Constitution,^^ referring to the moral law.

High-flying Federalists. — A nickname applied in
the first years of the government to that portion of the
Federalists that were attached to official pomp and
splendor.

High License. — This term, as used generally at
present, means the enforcement of a high tax on the
retail sellers of intoxicating liquors so as to raise the
price of liquor and prevent its consumption to some
extent, and especially so as to drive out of the business
the low groggeries, which are the birthplaces of most of
the distress and crime that result from drunkenness.
The evils resulting from intemperance are universally
admitted, but how to prevent or decrease intemperance
is a disputed question. Prohibitionists as a rule do not
favor high license. They do not accept it even as a
half-way measure. They contend that prohibition is

254 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

more effectual, and that any form of licensing the
liquor traffic is an admission of its right to exist, which
they deny wholly. Their opponents maintain that pro-
hibition cannot be enforced and that high license can,
as each of the persons who pay a high tax for the privi-
lege of selling liqaor is made an interested party to
secure the enforcement of the law and thus to prevent
those who avoid the tax from maintaining a ruinous
competition 'with him. The advocates of high license
also maintain that prohibition infringes the liberty of
the individual, while there is no such objection to high
license. There seems to be a tendency at present in
both of the chief political parties to quiet the disturb-
ing '^ temperance" element which has begun to play an
important part in politics by passing high license laws.
This tendency is hardly likely to accomplish the political
results desired, for the prohibitionists, as we have
noticed, do not favor it. But the moral objects of the
movement may be more successful. Illinois passed a
high license law in 1883, and Minnesota and Penrsyl-
vania did likewise in 1887. I^ebraska is also trying the
plan. High license seems to meet with success where it
is in force, but the experiment has not been long enough
as yet to warrant a final conclusion. {^See Local Option;
Prohibition. )

High-minded Federalists. — The defeat of the
coalition of Clintonians and Federalists in JSTew York
State in 1815 practically killed the latter party in
that State. What remained of it usually supported the
Clintonians. A small section, however, opposed the
Clintonians, which they called a personal party, and
supported the Bucktails. Their reference to themselves
as ^^ligh-minded" men led to the above nickname.
{8ee Clintonians.)

His Superfluous Excellency. — A title humorously
suggested by the Democrats in 1791 for the Vice-Presi-
dent, in mockery of the title desired by some of the
Federalists for the President, namely, "His highness,
the President of the United States, and protector of
their liberties.^'

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 255

Hoar's Mission. — In 1835 South Carolina passed a
law providing that any colored person arriving at any of
her ports was to be arrested and imprisoned until the
vessel was ready to sail. He was then to be restored to
the vessel on payment of cost of arrest, subsistence, etc. .
In 1844 Massachusetts, many of whose colored citizens
had been thus detained, resolved to test the constitu-
tionality of the law, and sent Hon. Samuel Hoar to
Charleston for the purpose of arranging a test case.
Mr. Hoar was but gruffly received, and after a short
stay was practically compelled to leave the city. He
accomplished nothing.

Home Department. — In the title of the Act of
1849 creating the Depart men-* of the Interior, it is
called the Home Department. It is, however, never
spoken of by that name. (^Bee Interior, Department of
the.)

Home Valuations. — ^Under the principle of home
valuation merchandise on which ad valorem duties are
collected is valued at its market price in this country.
Henry Clay^s Compromise Bill of 1833 adopted this
principle, but the present tariff is based on the principle
of foreign valuations, and this has been usually adopted
by our tariff laws.

Honest Abe. — An affectionate name by which Lin-
coln was known.

Honest John Sherman. — An appellation frequently
applied to that Ohio Senator.

Hoosiers. — The inhabitants of Indiana. The name
is probably derived either from liusher, a Western term
for a bully, or from the ^' rough exclamation when one
knocks at a door, ^ who's yeref" It is also said to come,
however, from a corruption of the word '^ hussar," a
term applied to the light cavalry of European armies.
The name was adopted because the hussars were sup-
posed to be noted for deeds of valor.

H orizontal Tariff Bill. {8ee Morrison Tariff Bill. )
^ Hot Water War.— Soon after the Whisky Rebel-
lion had been overcome a fresh trouble arose from a tax
laid by the Federal government on houses, which were

256 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

classified according to their dimensions, the size and
number of the windows, and so forth. The people ob-
jected to these direct taxes, though they bore more
lightly on the poor than on the rich, and Pennsylvania
was again the scene of the chief resistance. When the
officers went to make the necessary measurements, the
women deluged them with hot water, and hence the dis-
turbance was known as the Hot Water War. But
further violence was offered, and when the United States
Marshal in March, 1799, arrested some offenders, they
were rescued in the town of Bethlehem by an armed
band led by one John Pries. The militia were called
out and they succeeded in restoring order. Fries was
convicted of treason and sentenced to death, and a num-
ber of his followers were condemned to imprisonment.
President Adams, however, soon pardoned them all, and
two or three years later, under Jefferson, the house tax
was abolished.

Holland Purchase, The. — When the territorial
disputes between Massachusetts and New York were
finally settled, in 1786, the former State ceded all
her claims to land west of the Hudson River, except a
pre-emption right to about 5,000,000 acres, which in-
cluded Genesee County and adjacent territory. This
land was soon after sold by the State to two New York
gentlemen for 11,000,000. These extinguished the In-
dian title to part of the land, surveyed it into town-
ships, and sold a large share of it to speculators and
actual settlers. Robert Morris became later a large
purchaser of the land and resold several tracts of it,
but finally had to mortgage an immense tract to one
Wilhelm Willink, of Amsterdam, and eleven associates,
called the Holland Land Company. This company
foreclosed the mortgage, secured full title to the land,
and opened their first land office in Batavia, New York,
in 1801. This foreclosure was the financial ruin of
Robert Morris, and caused him to be be thrown into
a debtor's prison, where he remained some time. The
tract held by these Hollanders was known as "The
Holland Purchase,"

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 257

Homestead Laws. — The treaty of 1783 declared
the territory of the United States to extend westward
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi. A large
part of this land was claimed by certain of the States,
who contended that their original grants gave them the
territory inland to the western boundary of the coun-
try. But when the confederation was formed it was de-
cided to cede all. this territory to Congress, and this was
accordingly done. There were numbers of claims on
these lands, and Congress created eight Boards of Com-
missioners to examine into and settle these. But land
not claimed was to be disposed of without delay, and
Congress in 1785 drew up an ordinance directing the
Secretary of War to draw by lot certain townships in the
surveyed portion for bounties to the soldiers of the Con-
tinental army, and the remainder was to be drawn by
lot in the name of the Western States, to be sold by the
officers of the Treasury at public sale for not less than
$1.00 per acre. This measure, however, was a failure,
and it was intimated that the States which had any
lands of their own to dispose of took pains to make it
inoperative. Meanwhile, settlers began to make entries
on public lands without authority, and the Government
was obliged to resort to force to drive them off. A
company of United States troops was kept going up and
down the Ohio River from the Pennsylvania line to
Cincinnati from 1784 to 1786, burning all cabins and
laying down and burning the fences of these " squat-
ters." Often this operation had to be repeated several
times to drive away the determined pioneers. In 1787
the price of public land was reduced to 66| cents per
aci'e, and during the next year the regulation for draw-
ing the land by States was repeated, and the Treasury
Department, which then had charge of the sale of pub-
lic lands, was empowered to sell them in any part of the
United States at pleasure. The low price attracted set-
tlers, and large tracts for settlement were purchased by
associations of colonists, but the States had also much
land for sale, and they eagerly pushed these in th«
market, underbidding the Government to check western

i^'

258 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

in? migration; and the Spaniards holding land in Illinois
offered farms without charge to actual settlers. After
the meeting of the first Congress under the Constitution
the matter was all referred to Hamilton, who, in July,
1790, submitted to the House of Representatives a plan
for the disposal of the public territory. Congress, how-
ever, was very slow to act in the matter, and neither
adopted Hamilton's plan nor framed any other. In
1796 the present system of surveying lands was in sub-
stance adopted, and provision was made for the public
sale of lands in sections one mile square at a price not
less than $2.00 per acre. In 1800 land officers and land
registers were established, and important changes were
made in the provisions of the land laws that governed
the terms of payment. The lands were to be sold at not
less than $2.00 per acre, but only a fourth part of the
purchase money was required at the time, and the
payment of the balance was to be spread over three
years. In case full payment was not made within one
year after the last instalment had became due, the
lands were to be sold, or to revert to the United States.
The natural result of the scheme was the piling up of
an enormous debt, which the Government never could
collect, and from 1809 to 1824 hardly a year passed
without the passage of a '* relief act" by Congress to
suspend or mitigate the operations of the law in partic-
ular instances or to relieve settlers from their indebted-
ness. In 1820 a law was passed abolishing the credit
system and authorizing the selling of land in half-
quarter sections, and making the minimum price of
11.25 per acre. This caused great dissatisfaction on
the part of the States, since as all lands were at the
same minimum price, the best lands were taken up first
and large tracts of inferior lands were left, which bore
no share, as public lands, of State or local taxation. In
1824, Benton introduced into Congress a bill for grant-
ing pre-emption rights to actual settlers and for gradu-
ating the price of lands, but it was rejected. The
States were now becoming very eager to effect internal
improvements, and regarded the existence of large

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 259

tracts of public land within their limits as a hindrance,
and began to clamor for the restoration of these lands.
Schemes without number were now concocted for the
disposal of the public lands, and in the session of
18:^7-28 Congress actually gave away to States and indi-
viduals— largely on the plea of internal improvement —
no less than 2,300,000 acres of public land, and
the suggestion was seriously made to restore all
the public lands in the States to the State governments.
This was, however, strongly opposed, and many warm
debates were carried on in Congress for several years on
the public land question. These were in a measure
checked by the fever for speculation in public lands
which raged from 1834 till it precipitated the crash of
183?, but were renewed with even greater ardor when
the proposition came up to have the general government
assume the debts of the States which had lost heavily
in the speculative era. The plan of giving the public
lands to States was again thrust forward, and was ad-
vocated by President Tyler in his first message, but
though a number of bills were brought before Congress
proposing such a distribution none actually became
laws, except one providing for a gift of land to new
States, which was passed in 1841, as a part of the first
pre-emption law. The cession of public lands to rail-
roads on a large scale was begun in 1850, and has since
led to the disposal of a very large proportion of the
public lands. About 1852 a homestead law, which was
warmly advocated by the free soil Democracy, became
a national question. Several bills passed one house of
Congress, but failed in the other. In 1860 a homestead
bill actually passed, but was vetoed by President Bu-
chanan, on the plea that its provisions were not fair to
all classes concerned. It was not until 1862 that the
homestead law, as we have it to-day, was adopted. The
public lands undisposed of and open to settlement are
divided into two classes with respect to price, one class
being held at $1.25 per acre as the minimum price, the
other at $2.50 per acre; being the alternate sections re-
served by the United States in land grants to railroads,

260 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

etc. Such tracts are sold on application to the regis-
ters and receivers of the district land offices to legally
qualified parties upon conditions of actual residence and
improvement under the pre-emption laws. Widows,
heads of families, or single persons over twenty-one
years of age, if citizens of the United States, or aliens
who have declared their intention to become citizens,
have the right of pre-emption to the maximum quan-
tity of 160 acres each on becoming settlers and com-
plying with the regulations. Under the homestead
laws a citizen, or an alien having declared his intention
of becoming a citizen, has the right to 160 acres of
either the $1.25 or $2.50 class after actual residence and
cultivation for five years. Under the timber culture
law a citizen, or one who has declared his intention to
become such, if the head of a family, or a single person
over twenty-one years, may acquire title to 160 acres on
cultivating 10 acres of trees thereon for eight years.
Not more than 320 acres can be acquired by one person
under all the land laws. A person who served for 90
days in the army, navy, or marine corps of the United
States during the rebellion, has remained loyal to the
United States government, and has been honorably dis-
charged, is allowed 160 acres of public land, and such
homestead settler shall be allowed six months after
locating his homestead, and filing his declaratory state-
ment, within which to make his entry and commence
his settlement and improvement. The time the settler
has served in the army, navy, or marine corps shall be
deducted from the time heretofore required to perfect
title; or if discharged on account of wounds received or
disability incurred in the line of duty, then the term of
enlistment shall be deducted from the time heretofore
required to perfect title, without reference to the time
he may have served, but no 'patent shall issue to any
homestead settler lolio has 7iot resided upon, improved,
and cultivated his homestead for a period of at least
one year after he shall have commenced his improve-
ments. The desert land act applies only to the States
of California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Idaho,

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 261

Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota, and
the Territories of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Any person desiring to make entry of desert land in any
of these States must file with the oflicers of the land
office for the district wherein the land is situated a
declaration showing that he is a citizen, or intends to
become a citizen, that he intends to reclaim the tract of
land — giving its situation — which he enters; that the
land will not produce crops without irrigation; that
there is no timber growing upon it, and not to his
knowledge any kind of valuable mineral deposited in it.
It is necessary also to procure at least two disinterested
and credible witnesses to make affidavit that the land
is actually desert land. These witnesses must not only
bring presumptive proof of their honesty, but must
also show that they are acquainted with the situation
and character of the land of which they speak. The
applicant for the land must then pay for it at the rate
of twenty-five cents per acre, and he is not allowed to
take up more than one section. If within three years
after this application he can make satisfactory proof
that he has irrigated the land, the applicant can receive
a patent for the land on paying the additional sum of
II therefore. It is provided that the right to use water
from any contiguous natural sources for irrigating
desert land thus taken up shall depend upon bona fide
prior appropriation, and shall not in any case exceed
the amount of water actually needed for reclaiming the
land. The only public land that can be sold to parties
not actual settlers is that situated in the State of
Missouri.

House of Representatives is the name of the
lower House of the Legislature in many of the
States, also of the corresponding House of the United
States Legislature. Article 1, section 2, of the Consti-
tution, treats of the House of Representatives. Its
members are apportioned on the basis of population,
the larger States thus having greater influence than the
smaller. {See Apportionment; Congress; Senate.) Its
members are elected for two years. The salary of Kep-

262 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

resentatives is 15,000 a year, $125 a year additional for
stationery and newspapers, and mileage at the rate of
twenty cents a mile to and from Washington at every
session of Congress, Unexcused absence causes a de-
duction from the salary. To be elected a Congressman
a person, must be at least twenty-five years of age, and
he must have been seven years a citizen; he must, more-
over, at the time of his election be an inhabitant of the
State for which he is chosen. The House of Kepre-
sentatives chooses its Speaker and other officers. The
power of the Speaker is enormous. Unless otherwise-
ordered by the House (which is seldom the case) he
appoints all committees and the method of the House
in transacting its business renders the committees of first
importance. All measures are referred to the standing
committees, and the power over the life or death of a
bill is practically unlimited. A majority of the mem-
bers elected constitute a quorum. The House has sole
power of impeachment; all bills for raising revenue
must originate in the House, and on it falls the duty of
electing the President of the United States when the
vote of the electors fails to result in a choice. Eepre-
sentatives being elected more frequently than Senators,
and being elected directly by the people, are apt
to be more thoroughly informed of the present feelings
of their constituents, and are thus more apt to sway by
them than the Senate. The latter is more conserva-
tive. These differences have led to the terms popular
or lower House, and upper House as applied to the
House of Representatives and the Senate respectively.
Each Territory has a delegate in the House, with the
right to debate on matters pertaining to his Territory,
but no vote.

Houston, Samuel, was born in Eockb ridge County,
Virginia, in 1793. In his early life he had wandered
to Tennessee, where he had lived three years among
the Cherokee Indians. He was then, successively, '*a
gallant soldier in the War of 1812, an Indian agent, a
lawyer, district attorney, major-general of militia, mem-
ber of Congress and Governor of Tennessee/' About

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 263

1830 lie again suddenly joined the Cherokees, among
whom he Jived three years as a chief. Leaving them,
he and a number of other adventurers set out for Texas
with the intention of causing a revolution there and
ultimately annexing it to the United States. Texas
declared her independence in. 1836, and Houston,
though at first compelled to retreat before a large force
under Santa Anna, finally succeeded in dividing and
utterly defeating the opposing army. This assured the
independence of Texas, which was during the next year
acknowledged by the United States. Other powers
soon did the same. Houston had meanwhile been
elected President of the new republic. He served in
that capacity in 1836-8 and 1842-4. Texas was an-
nexed to the United States in 1845. Subsequently
Houston represented her in the Senate in 1846-59, and
in 1859 he was elected Governor. Though elected as a
Union man, it was his lack of energy that threw Texas
into the hands of the secessionists. In 1861 he resigned,
and soon after, in 1863, he died.

How Gold and Silver Coins are Tested. — The

testing of gold and silver coins, which takes place
yearly at the Philadelphia mint, is called the trial of
the pyx. It is a custom of very ancient origin and de-
rives its name from the pyx or chest in which the coins
to be examined are kept. The examination is made in
the presence of the director of the mint and a board of
examiners. For each delivery of coins made by the
chief coiner a certain number are reserved for trial and
deposited in the pyx under the charge of the superin-
tendent of the mint and the assayer. Coins from the
coinage of other mints are transmitted quarterly to the
Philadelphia mint. The examiners make a certified
report of the trial after examination. If this shows the
coins to be within the limit of tolerance in fineness and
weight it is filed, but if not the fact is certified to the
president, and he has power to order all the officers im-
plicated in the error thenceforward disqualified for
holding their offices.

264 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

The word pyx is derived from a Greek word meaning
a box, and is applied in the Roman Catholic Church to
the box in which the sacred host is kept, and mariners
also apply it to the receptacle wherein the compass is
suspended. In early times the mint master in England
was simply a person under contract with the govern-
ment for the manufacture of the coinage, and period-
ical examinations were consequently necessary to see
that the terms of the contract were complied with.
The mint master is now an officer of the crown, but
the manner of conducting the ceremony is substantially
unchanged. The finished coins are delivered to the
mint master in weights called journey- weights — that is,
15 pounds troy weight of gold, containing 701 sover-
eigns, or 1,402 half-sovereigns; of silver 60 pounds
troy. From each journey-weight a coin is taken and
placed in the pyx for the annual trial. The examina-
tion of the coins is made by the Goldsmiths^ Company,
under the direction of the crown, in the presence of the
" Queen's remembrancer," who administers the oath to
the jury and presides over the proceedings. The coins
are compared with pieces cut from trial-plates of stand-
ard fineness, which are in keeping of the *' warden of
the standards. '' If the coins are found to be of stand-
ard fineness and weight, within certain limits, a state-
ment to that effect is testified to by the jurors, and
handed over to the treasurer. The coins to be tested
are kept in the ancient chapel of the pyx at Westmin-
ster Abbey, in joint custody of the lords of the Treas-
ury and the comptroller general. This custom was first
ordered during the thirty-second year of the reign of
King Henry II. (1154-1189), and took place occasion-
ally in subsequent reigns, whenever royalty chose to
order it. King James was present at one of the cere-
monies in 1611. There was one held at the exchequer
office July 17, 1861, and the next February 15, 1870.
During the year 1870 a coinage act was passed by Par-
liament providing for an annual trial of the pyx, and
the ceremony has been observed each year since then.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 265

Hub of the Universe. — A name applied to Boston,
Massachusets, in derision of its pretensions to great im-
portance.

Hudson's Bay Company. — This company was
started in 1670 by means of a charter granted to Prince
Kupert and seventeen other noblemen and gentlemen by
Charles II. The charter secured to them the absolute
proprietorship, subordinate sovereignity, and exclusive
traffic of an undefined territory which, under the name of
Kupert's Land, comprised all the regions discovered, or
to be discovered, within the entrance of Hudson's
Strait. In 1821 they obtained a license for the mo-
nopoly of trade in the vast regions lying to the west of
the original grant. At this time the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany and the Northwest Fur Company amalgated, and
the monopoly of trade was held conjointly. In 1838
the former company obtained a renewal of the license
for themselves alone, which ran until 1859. Since that
date the district has been open to all.

Hunkers. —A name applied to the faction of the
Democratic party in New York opposed to the Barn-
burners. They were the conservative wing, and were
in harmony with the Democratic national administra-
tion. Subsequently they were known as the Hards, or
Hard Shells. {See Free Soil Party.) The origin of
the name Hunkers is uncertain. This name has at
various times been applied to the conservative wing of
the Democratic party in other States.

I am a Republican, Who Carried His Sover-
eignty Under His Own Hat — This remark, origin-
ally made by A. W. Campbell, of West Virginia, in the
Republican national convention of 1880, was quoted
with approval by George William Curtis, on June 4,
1884, at the Republican national convention held in
Chicago. The occasion was similar, namely the opposi-
tion of a motion declaring that every member of the
convention was in honor bound to support the candidate
it might select, whoever he might be, and that no man
who would not agree to give such support was entitled

266 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

to hold a seat m the convention. Curtis made a brills
iant speech, commencing, '^A Republican and a free
man I came to this convention, and by the grace of God
a Republican and a free man will I go out of it," and
the obnoxious motion was withdrawn. "I carry my
sovereignty under my hat," has become the watchword
of the Independents. Curtis was one of the prominent
leaders against Blaine, the Republican candidate, in the
campaign of 1884.

I am Not Worth Purchasing ; but, such as I
am, the King of Great Britain is Not Rich
Enough to do It. — This was the reply of General
Joseph Reed, a member of the Continental Congress, to
an offer of £10,000 and any colonial office in the king^s
gift, as the price of his influence to- restore the colonies
to Great Britain. The offer was made through a lady
soon after the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British
in 1778.

Idaho was acquired by the Louisiana purchase.
{See Annexations /,) It formed successively a part of
Oregon and of Washington Territories. It was sep-
rately organized by Act of March 3, 1863, and was ad-
mitted to the Union as a State by Act of July 3, 1890.
It is entitled to one seat in the House of Representa-
tives and three electoral votes. The population accord-
ing to the last census (1890) was 84,385. The capital is
Boise City. {^e& Governors;- Legislatures.^

I do not Feel that I Shall Prove a Dead-head
in the Enterprise if I Once Embark in it. I See
Various Channels in which I Know I Can be
Useful. — These are the closing sentences of James G.
Blaine's letter to Warren Fisher, dated June 29, 1869.
They came into common use in the presidential cam-
paign of 1884. {See Mulligan Letters.)

I'd Rather be Right than be President of
the United States. — Henry Clay, though he favored
a high tariff, in 1833 introduced a bill reducing the then
existing duties. {See Tariffs of the United States.) Its
object was to pacify the agricultural States, which had
objected veheaaently. In South Carolina the opposition

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POIITICS. 267

had taken a very serious form. {See Nullification.) Hia
friends told Clay that his chances for the presidency
would be injured thereby. His reply is given above.

If a Crow Wants to Fly Down the Shenan-
doah, He Must Carry His Provisions With
Him. — In 1864, after defeating the Confederate General
Early, General Sheriden devastated the valley of the
Shenandoah in order to prevent any further movements
on Washington from that quarter. So thoroughly was
this done that the above remark is said fairly to describe
its condition at that time.

If Any One Attempts to Haul Down the
American Flag, Shoot Him on the Spot. — In
December, 1860, General John A. Dix, Secretary of the
Treasury, ordered two revenue cutters from New Orleans
to New York. New Orleans was at that time practically
in the hands of secessionists, and the captain of one of
the cutters refused to obey the order. Dix telegraphed
to the lieutenant to place .the captain under arrest, and
closed his dispatch as above.

I Have Just Given to England a Maritime
Rival that Will Sooner or Later Humble Her
Pride. — The remark made by Napoleon on the purchase
of Louisiana from France.

mini. {See American Knights.)

I'll Try, Sir. — During the battle of Lundy^s Lane in
the War of 1812, a certain British battery was doing
great damage to the Americans. Colonel Miller was
asked if he could take it and answered as above. The
saying has become historic.

lUuminati. — A Latin word meaning the enlightened.
It had been used by different sects in Europe at differ-
ent times. In United States history the name was
used to denote certain societies of French sympathizers
about the year 1799.

Immigration. — Prior to the year 1820 no official
records of the arrival of alien passengers were kept. It
is estimated, however, that the total number arrived in
the United States from 1775 to the year 1820 was 250,-
000. It has been estimated that prior to the year 1856

268

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

about 98 per cent, of the total aliens arrived were immi-
grants. The following table shows the number of aliens
up to 1859, and the number of immigrants subsequent
to that date arriving in the United States between 1824
and 1892:

Year.

Alien
Passengers.

Year.

Immigrants.

1824

7,912

I860

150,237

1825

10,199

10,837

18,875

27,382

22 520

1861

89,724

1826

1862

89,007

1827

1828

1829

1863

1864

1865

174,524

193,195

247,453

1830

23.322

1866

167.757

1831

1832

1833

22,633

60,482

58,640

65,365

Fiscal Year Ending June 30:

1867 298.967

1834 ,..

1868

282,189

1835

45,374

1869

352,768

1836

1837

1838

76,242

79,340

38,914

1870

1871

1872

1873

387,203

321,350

404,806

459 803

1889

68 069

1840

1841

1842

84,066

80,289

, 104 565

1874

1875

1876

1877

313.339

227,498

169,986

141,857

1843

52,496

78,615

1844

1878

1879

1880

1881

1882

1883

1884

138 469

1845

1846

114,371

154,416

177,826

457,257

669,431

., 788,992

603,322

518 502

1847

1848

1849

1850

234,968

226,527

297,024

369,980

1851

2?'9,466

371,603

368,645

427,833

200,877

195 857

1885

395,346

1852

1886

*334,303

1853

1887

*490,109

1854

1855

1856

1888

1889

1890

1891

546,889

444,427

455,302

560,319

1857

246,945

1858

119,501

Total

1859

118,616

15,814,923

* Immigrants from Canada and Mexico not included.

The nationality of immigrants to the United States for the year ending June
80,1891, was as follows: Germans, 113,554; English, 53,600; Irish, 55,706; Itahans
76,055; Swedes, 36,880; Scotch, 12,557; Norwegians, 12.568; Danes, 10,659;
Swiss, 6,811; French, 6,766; Europe, not specified, 158,829: total Europe, 543-
985; all others, 16,334. Of the whole number of immigrants, 448,403 came
through the customs district of New- York, 40,694 through Baltimore, 30,951
through Boston, 26,152 through Philadelphia, and 114,119 through all others.

DICTlOr^AR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 269

The reported occupations of immigrants who arrived during the year
•nding June 30, 1891, were as follows: Laborers, 139,365; farmers, 29,896;
servants, 28,625; carpenters, 3,776, miners, 3,745; clerks, 3,653; tailors, 3,879;
shoe-malcers, 2,232; blacksmiths, 1,792; The total number of professional
men was 3,236, of skilled laborers, 44,540; of unskilled and miscellaneous,
211,756. (See Population of the United States.)

Illinois. — From the old Indiana Territory (see Terri-
tories) Michigan Territory was separated in 1805 and
Illinois Territory in 1809, the latter including much of
the region north of the present limits of the State.
Illinois was admitted as a State on December 3, 1818.
The capital is Springfield. The population in 1880 was
3,077,871, and in the last census (1890) 3,826,351. Illi-
nois is entitled to twenty seats in the House of Repre-
sentatives and twenty-two electoral votes. The latter
can be relied on by the Republican party. The name is
taken from its principal river, which in turn is derived
from the Indian tribe of the Illini, supposed to mean
''superior men.*^ Popularly the State is called the
Prairie, or Sucker, State, and its inhabitants ''suckers."
(See Governors; Legislatures.)

Impeachment is the accusation and prosecution by
a legislative body of an officer for mal-administration.
The portions of the Constitution relating to impeach-
ment are as follows: Article 1, section 2, clause 5; Ar-
ticle 1, section 3, clauses 6 and 7; Article 2, section 4.
The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of
the United States are liable to impeachment for treason,
bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The
House of Representatives has the sole right of impeach-
ment, drawing up the accusation and appointing persons
to conduct the prosecution before the Senate. The
accused is tried by the Senate, over which, when the
President is impeached, the Chief -Justice of the Supreme
Court presides. A two-thirds vote of the Senators pres-
ent is necessary to conviction. Punishment only ex-
tends to removal from, and disqualification to hold,
office under the United States, but the convicted person
is still liable to an ordinary trial according to law. The
President has not the power to pardon in cases of im-
peachment. Impeachments of State officers are pro-

2'J'O mCnOhTAR V OP AMEklCAM POLITICS.

vided for by the Constitutions of the various States.
Seven impeachments of federal officers are known to
our history. Only two of these resulted in convictions.
I. — William Blount was a Senator from Tennessee. Cer-
tain papers which President Adams transmitted to Con-
gress in July, 1797, showed that Blount had, while
Governor of his State, been engaged in a scheme for
transferring by force from Spain to Great Britain the
territory on the Lower Mississippi. He was expelled
from the Senate. A year later the House presented
articles of impeachment, and the trial commenced in
December, 1798. One of the points raised by Blount's
counsel was that he, as Senator, was not a *^ civil
officer,'' and consequently not liable to impeachment,
and the Senrte upheld this plea and acquitted Blount
for want of jurisdiction. II. — John Pickering was United
States District Judge for the district of N"ew Hampshire.
In March, 1803, he was impeached and tried for making
unlawful decisions, and for drunkenness and profanity
on the bench. By a party vote, the Federalists voting
in his favor, he was convicted on March 12th and re-
moved from office. III. — Samuel Chase, of Maryland,
was an Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States. In the latter part of 1804 he was im-
peached for unwarranted actions in several political
trials, and for language reflecting on the government.
The trial began on January 2, 1805. On some of the
articles of impeachment a majority were in his favor;
on otliers a majority were against him. The largest
vote for conviction on any one article was nineteen to
fifteen. He was therefore acquitted on March 1, 1805,
and held his judicial position till his death, about six
years later. IV. — James H. Peck was United States Dis-
trict Judge for the district of Missouri. He Was im-
peached for arbitrary conduct in a judicial proceeding.
The trial commenced on December 13, 1830, and he was
pronounced not guilty, twenty-one voting for convic-
tion and twenty-four for acquittal. V. — West H.
Humphreys was United States District Judge for the
district of Tennessee. He failed to resign his seat

DICTIOKTAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 271

though engaged on the Confederare side during the
Civil War, and was consequently impeached and con-
victed on June 26, 1862, by a unanimous vote. VI. —
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, had
come into sharp conflict with Congress on the questions
connected with reconstruction, and the breach between
the executive and the national legislature widened till
it grew into an impeachment — the only impeachment of
a President in our history, and one of the most noted
in the world's history. On March 2, 1867, Congress
passed what is known as the Tenure of Office Act. {^See
Term and Tenure of Office.) It was vetoed by the
President and passed over his veto. Edwin M. Stanton,
Secretary of AVar, was not willing to lend himself to
Johnson's schemes of reconstruction. Therefore, on
August 12, 1867, the President suspended him and
appointed General Grant secretary ad interi7n. When
the Senate met, the President laid his reasons for the
suspension before it, but that body, in January, refused
its sanction, and Stanton therefore resumed his office.
On February 21, 1868, Johnson again removed Stanton
and appointed in his place General Lorenzo Thomas.
Stanton, supported by a resolution of the Senate, re-
fused to vacate his office. The House of Kepresentatives
on February 24th adopted a resolution for the impeach-
ment of Johnson by a vote which stood: yeas 126, nays
47, not voting 17; and on the 25th a committee of the
House appeared before the Senate and impeached the
President. The House appointed to conduct the prose-
cution, John A. Bingham, of Ohio; George S. Bout-
well and Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts; James
F. Wilson, of Iowa; Thomas Williams and Thaddeus
Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and John A. Logan, of Illi-
nois. The President was represented by the following
counsel: Henry Stanbery and W. S. Groesbeck, of Ohio;
William M. Evarts, of N6w York; Thomas A. K. Nel-
son, of Tennessee, and Benjamin R. Curtis, of Massa-
chusetts. The articles of impeachment, eleven in
number, were presented to the Senate on March 5th.
In brief, they charged that the President, in violation

272 niCTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

of the Tenure of Office Act, had removed Stanton and
appointed Thomas; that he had been guilty of intimi-
dation of the former and of an attempt to seize unlaw-
fully the property and money of the War Department;
that he had declared that the Thirty-ninth Congress
was not a legally constituted body; and that he had
failed to properly execute its acts. The counsel for the
President replied that the removal of Stanton and the
appointment of Thomas did not come within the pro-
visions of the Tenure of Office Act, but were legal ac-
cording to the laws of 1789 and 1795, which were the
only controlling ones in this case; that he was not
guilty of the other charges, except those in regard to
his declarations concerning Congress, and that as to
those he was protected by the rights of freedom of
opinion and freedom of speech. The Senate was or-
ganized as a court for the trial of the President on
March 5th, Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase, presiding.
After various preliminaries, the taking of evidence com-
menced on March 30th. This was finished by April
20th, and by May 6th the counsel had finished their
arguments. On May 16th a vote was taken on the
article which concerned Johnson^s declaration as to the
constitutionality of the Thirty-ninth Congress and his
desire to prevent the enforcement of its acts. The vote
lacked one of a sufficient number to convict. It stood
thirty-five for conviction and nineteen for acquittal,
seven Republicans voting in the minority with the twelve
Democratic members of the Senate. On May 26th a
vote was taken on the articles involving the legality of
Thomas' appointment with the same result. No vote
was taken on the other articles, the court adjourned sine
die, and by direction of Chief -Justice Chase a verdict of
acquittal was entered. VII. — William W. Belknap in 1876
was Secretary of War under Grant. On the 2d of
March, 1876, the House unanimously voted to impeach
Belknap for having received at different times $24,450
for appointing and retaining in office a post-trader at
Fort Sill, Indian Territory. A few hours before this
resolution was passed Belknap had resigned his office

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

and Grant accepted the resignation. On April 4tli the
articles of impeachment were presented to the Senate.
Belknap claimed that being no longer a civil officer of
the United States he was not liable to impeachment.
During May the Senate debated this question, and finally
by a vote of thirty-seven to twenty-nine, declared that it
had jurisdiction notwithstanding the resignation. Dur-
ing July the trial proceeded, and on August 1st a vote
was taken. On three of the articles the vote stood
thirty-six to twenty-five for conviction, on another
thirty-five to twenty-five for conviction, and on another
thirty-seven to twenty-five for conviction, the minority
holding that Belknap, being out of office, was not liable
on impeachment proceedings. As the necessary two-
thirds vote was not obtained, Belknap was acquitted.

Imports. i^See Exports and Imports.)

Impressment. {8ee War of l^V^.)

Incidental Protection. {See Tariffs of the United
States. )

Income Tax. — An income tax has been levied by
the United States Government but once in its history,
and then it was established because of the necessity for
revenue caused by the Civil War. An act passed in 1861
created a tax of three per cent, on incomes of $800 per
annum and over. The rates of taxation, the amounts
of the incomes taxed, and the proportion of the income
exempt from taxation, were changed by various acts till
in 1872 it was abolished. The amounts collected by this
tax are given in the following table:

1868 $2,741,858

1864 20,294,732

1865 32,050,017

1866 72,982,159

1867 66,014,429

1868 $41,455,598

1869 34,791,856

1870 37,775,874

1871 19,162,651

1872 14,436,862

Some arrears have since been collected, making the
total derived from the income tax $346,911,760.48. {See
Internal Revenue.)

Independents. — This name is applied in politics to
voters whose party fealty is not so strong as to bind them
to the support of the nominee of their party if they dis-

274 DICTION AR V OP AMERICAN POLITICS.

approve of him personally, or to members of a legislative
body acting separately from parties either because chosen
so to do or chosen on a fusion ticket. The latest instance
was the movement caused by the nomination in 1884 of
Blaine by the Eepublicans in causing the defection of a
large body of Independents whose action in the State of
New York probably decided the contest. {^8ee Pivotal
State. ) The leaders in this revolt were George W. Cur-
tis, Carl Schurz and others.

Independence Now and Independence Forever.
{See Sink or Swim, etc.)

Independent Party. — The formal name of the
Greenback-Labor party in 1876. The nominees of the
party in that year were Peter Cooper and' Samuel F.
Gary.

Independent Treasury. {See Sut)- Treasury Sys-
tern. )

Indiana. — In 1800 the Northwest Territory {see Ter-
ritories) was divided, Ohio being separated and the re-
mainder being called Indiana Territory; from this in
1805 Michigan Territory was cut off, and in 1809 Illinois
Territory; what remained was admitted as a State to the
Union December 11, 1816. The capital is Indianapolis.
The population in 1§80 was 1,978,301, and in the last
census (1890) 2,192,404. Indiana has thirteen Congress-
men and fifteen electoral votes. In national politics the
State cannot be considered sure for either party, though
it is generally Eepublican. Since 1860 it has been Ee-
publican, except in 1876 and 1884 when it was Demo-
cratic, owing probably to the name of one of its popular
citizens, Hendricks, on that ticket. The name of the State
was formed from the word ^' Indian^'; popularly its
name is the Hoosier State and the inhabitants are called
Hoosiers. {See Hoosier s; Governors; Legislatures.)

Indiana Territory. {See Territories.)

Indian Territory. — The larger part of this region
was acquired by the Louisana purchase. {See Annexa-
tions I.) It is an unorganized territory of the United
States, set aside for Indian tribes and public lands by act
of June 30, 1834, but its extent has been diminished

DICTION Ak V OP AMERICAN POIITICS. ^75

from time to time. The population in 1880 was esti-
mated at 70,000. {See Oklalioma Boomers; Cimarron.)
Indian Wars. — From the earliest years of our history-
difficulties have been constantly occurring with the In-
dians within our borders. Only one of these has had
any special political significance, and but a brief refer-
ence to some of the principal Indian wars will be at-
tempted. From 1790 to 1795 a war was waged with the
Miami Confederacy in Ohio and neighboring territory.
Generals Harmar and St. Clair met with reverses, but
General Wayne crushed the outbreak in 1793. The In-
dians of the West formed a conspiracy some years later
under Tecumseh and Elkswatama the Prophet, renewed
hostilities, and were defeated in 1811 at Tippecanoe by
General Harrison. During the war of 1812 the Northern
Indians joined their forces with the British and gave us
much trouble; they, together with the British, were de-
feated at the Eiver Thames in 1813 by Harrison, and
Tecumseh was killed. In the same year and the next
General Andrew Jackson conducted operations against
the Creeks in the South, who were brought to terms by
victories at Tallushatchie, Talladega and the Horse Shoe
Bend of the Tallapoosa Eiver. In 1817 the Seminoles
in Georgia and Alabama showed signs of hostility. Gen-
eral Jackson subdued them in the spring of the nex^;
year. In carrying out his campaign, thinking the Span-
iards had encouraged the Indians, Jackson entered
Florida, then a Spanish possession, and captured St.
Marks. He seized two Englishmen, Arbuthnot and Am-
brister, who were tried by court-martial on a charge of
inciting the Indians, found guilty and executed. He
then took possession of Pensacola and captured Fort
Barrancas on the shore of the bay after a slight resist-
ance. The execution of two British subjects raised such
a storm of indignation in England that another war was
threatened, but the English ministry admitted the justice
of the act. Jackson's enemies endeavored to have Con-
gress pass a vote of censure, but that body and the Presi-
dent supported him. Spain also complained of his pro-
ceeding, but without effect. (See Annexations II.) In

2*76 DICTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

1831 and 1832 the Sacs, Foxes and Winnebagoes, led by
Black Hawk, refused to leave lands which they had ceded
to the government, but the Black Hawk War, as the result-
ing disturbance is called, was soon ended and the leader
captured. In 1836 and 1837 there were minor disturb-
ances in the South with the Creeks and Chicopees, con-
nected with their removal west of the Mississippi. From
1835 to 1843 the Seminoles in Florida, led by Osceola,
were in arms, refusing to remove to Western reserva-
tions. In December, 1835, Major Dade with a force of
over a hundred men fell into an ambush and all but four
of the command perished. Various battles were fought,
but the Indians prolonged the war among the swamps of
Florida for seven years. Colonel Zachary Taylor was
among the leaders of our troops. Finally, after the ex-
penditure of many men and much money the persistent
Indians were removed to the West. In 1872 the Modoc
Indians in Oregon refused to go upon a designated reser-
vation. They retreated before the troops to a volcanic
region known as the lava-beds and could not be con-
quered. A peace conference held with them in April,
1873, was broken up by their treacherous murder of
General Canby and Dr. Thomas. About the first of
June, however. General Davis forced them to surrender;
Captain Jack, their leader, and others were executed.
In 1876 the Sioux Indians gave trouble in the Black
Hills region on the borders of Montana and Wyoming.
A large force of regulars was sent against them under
Generals Terry, Crook, Custer and Keno. On June 25,
1876, the two latter attacked at different points a large
Indian village situated on the Little Horn River. Gen-
eral Custer was killed with 261 men of the Seventh Cav-
alry and 52 were wounded. Eeno held his ground till
saved by re enforcements. Additional troops were sent
to the spot and the Indians were defeated in several en-
gagements, and in the beginning of 1877 the Indian
chief. Sitting Bull, escaped to Canada. In 1877 trouble
with the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho, led by their chief
Joseph, came to a head. General Howard was sent
against them, they were soon hemmed in, and in October

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN- POLITICS 277

were completely defeated by Colonel Miles. In 1879
an outbreak of the Ute Indians cost the lives of the gov-
ernment agent Major Thornburgh and a number of
soldiers before it was quelled.

Ingalls, John James, was born in Middleton,
Massachusetts, December 29, 1833. He is a graduate
of Williams College and a lawyer by profession. In 1858
he moved to Kansas, holding several territorial offices.
In 1873, he entered the United States Senate and was
constantly re-elected until 1891 when he was defeated
by the Farmers Alliance candiclate. He was President
^ro tempore of the Senate from 1887 to 1891.

Innocuous Desuetude. — March 1, 1886, President
Cleveland sent a special message to the Senate on the
subject of removals from office. In it he used the above
words in referring to certain laws which had become
dead letters.

Insolvent Laws. {See Bankruptcy.)

Insurrection. — The Constitution, Article 1, section
8, clause 15, gives Congress the power to call forth the
militia to suppress insurrections. Acts were passed in
1792, 1795 and 1807, giving the President power to call
forth the militia when notified by an associate justice of
the Supreme Court or a district judge that the execution
of the laws is obstructed, and on application of a legis-
lature or a governor, when the legislature could not be
convened, and to employ also the land and naval forces
of the United States. The Whisky Insurrection was
directed against the federal authority, and the President
employed force to suppress it on notification by the fed-
eral judge. During the Buckshot War the Governor of
Pennsylvania asked for assistance, but it was refused.
The Governor of Rhode Island made a similar applica-
tion during the Dorr Rebellion and the regulars were
held ready for action, but their aid proved unnecessary.
These last two cases came under Article 4? section 4, of
the Constitution, which provides that '^ that the United
States shall protect^' each State ''on application of the
legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature
cannot be convened), against domestic violence.'^ When

378 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

the Civil "War broke out, the President was obliged to
take prompt steps in calling out the militia, though no
application had been made to him as required by the
acts of 1792 and 1795. His action was justified by Ar-
ticle 2, section 3, of the Constitution, providing that
'^ he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,^'
but Congress on August 6, 1861, formally validated and
made legal all Lincoln^s previous acts, proclamations and
orders. The Force Bill of April 20, 1871, gave the
President power to call forth the militia and to employ
the forces of the United States to suppress disorders in-
tended to deprive any portion of the people of their con-
stitutional rights, even if the State authorities should be
unwilling to restore order. During the reconstruction
period federal troops were called for in all the States
that had seceded, except G-eorgia and Florida, to pre-
serve the peace, which had been disturbed by attempts
to overthrow the newly established Eepublican adminis-
trations in those States. During the railroad strikes in
1877 federal troops were employed Avith good effect in
Pennsylvania and in Baltimore.

Interior, Department of the. -One of the executive
departments of the government, established in 1849 and
called Home Department in the title of the act creating
it. To it was assigned the charge of patents, copy-
rights, censuses, public documents, public lands, mines
and mining, judicial accounts, Indian affairs and pen-
sions. To these were subsequently added railroads, pub-
lic surveys, territories. Pacific railways and the charge of
certain ciiaritable institutions of the District of Colum-
bia. The Secretary of the Interior is at the head of the
department; his principal subordinates and their salaries
are given below:

SALARY

Assistant Secretary $4,500

Assistant Secretary 4,000

Chief Clerk 2,750

Commissioner ©f Patents 5,000

Commissioner of Pensions 5,000

Commissioner of Land Office 4,000

Commissioner of Indian Affairs 4,000

Commissioner of Railroads 4,500

Commissioner of Education 3,000

Commissioner of Labor 5,000

Director Geological Survey 6,000

Chief Census Division 6,000

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 279

The Secretary receives a salary of $8,000; he is ap-
pointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate,
and is (by custom, not by law) a member of the Presi-
dent's Cabinet. A list of the Secretaries of the Interior
is appended:

Thomas Ewlngf, Ohio 1849-1850

James A. Pearce, Maryland 1850-1850

Thomas M. T. McKennon, Pennsylvania 1850-1850

Alexander H. H. Stuart, Virginia 1850-1853

Robert McClelland, Michigan ... 1853-1857

Jacob Thompson, Mississippi 1857-1861

Caleb B. Smith, Indiana 1861-1863

John P. Usher, Indiana, Jan. 8, 1863, and re-ap-
pointed March, 4 and April 15, 1865 186.S-1865

James Harlan, Iowa 1865-1866

O. H. Browning, IlUnois 1866-1869

Jacob D. Cox, Ohio 1869-1870

Columbus Delano, Ohio, 1870, and re-appointed

March 4, 1873 1873-1875

Zachariah Chandler, ]Michigan.. 1875-1877

Carl Schurz, Missouri 1877-1881

SamuelJ. Kirkwood, Iowa 1881-1882

Henry M. Teller, Colorado 1882-1885

L. Q. C. Lamar, Mississippi }'^\^c.

William F. Vilas, Wisconsm 1887-1889

John W. Noble, Missouri 1889 ....

Interior, Secretary of the. {See Interior, Depart-
ment of the.)

Internal Improvements.— From the beginning of
this government until the year 1860 the question of a
system of internal improvements carried on by the gen-
eral government was a party question. The Republican
(Democratic-Republican), and after it the Democratic
party as the party of strict construction, opposed such
a system. Improvements, the property in which remains
in the general government, as light-houses and the like,
were not opposed, but improvements on rivers and roads,
the benefits of which passes to the States, were the objects
of attack. Most of the earlier States were on the sea-
coast, and the improvement of their harbors was at first
carried on by means of tonnage taxes on the commerce
of the port, levied with the consent of Congress (see
Constitution, Article 1, section 10, clause 3). But a tax
on tonnage is a tax on the consumer of the goods carried
in the vessel, and the growth of inland States rendered

280 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

it unjust thus indirectly to tax them in the price of ar-
ticles consumed in order to improve the harbors of the
sea-coast States, and although this practice was in iso-
lated cases continued until the middle of the century, it
was generally discontinued much earlier. As early as
1806 the improvement of roads by the National gov-
ernment was conceived in order to indemnify the in-
terior States {see Cumlerland Road), and in 1823 the
improvement by the National government directly of
rivers and harbors was begun. The Eepublican (Demo-
cratic-Republican) Presidents, Jefferson, Madison and
Monroe, opposed these improvements as unconstitu-
tional, although toward the end of his term Monroe be-
came more favorable to the system. John Quincy Adams
was a warm advocate thereof and Jackson its stern op-
ponent. Although the Democrats opposed any general
system of improvements they continued to apply funds
to particular purposes. The "Whigs now adopted the
system originated by the Democrat Jackson, namely, the
distribution of the surplus among the States. {See Sur-
plus. ) But once did the Whigs attempt to put this into
execution, and then in 1841 the veto of President Tyler,
at odds with his party in Congress, put an end to that
scheme, which has not since been revived. The intro-
duction of railroads has done away with the question of
improvements for roads, while a system of assistance to
the railroads by means of the grant of land along the
line of their route has sprung up. These grants have
been made to many railroads in new sections of the
country; enormous tracts, in several cases between forty
;md fifty million acres being so granted. From this
policy a revulsion has now set in, and the present ten-
dency is to the recovery of as much of the land so granted
as has not been earned by a strict compliance with the
terms of the grant. To this both of the great political
parties stand committed. {See Party Platforms.) The
aid rendered the Pacific railroads is referred to under
that head. In 1860 both parties favored the completion
of this work by the government, {^See also River and
Harhor Bills.)

DtCTtO^Ak V OF AMkniCAN' POLiTTCS. ^81

Internal Revenue. — The moneys collected under
the internal revenue bureau in the Treasury Department
are called the internal revenue of the TJnited States.
The term includes most of the receipts from national
taxes except customs duties, but as commonly restricted
it does not embrace receipts from the sale of public
lands, patent fees, postal receipts, and the like, which
are really sources of internal revenue. Under Article
1, section 8, clause 1, of the Constitution, Congress has
power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and
excises . . . but all duties, imposts and excises
shall be uniform throughout the United States.^' Sec-
tion 9, clause 4, of the same article, provides that direct
taxes shall be apportioned among the States only in
proportion to the population. The first internal revenue
tax imposed by Congress was by the Act of March 3, 1791,
Avhich provided for a tax on distilled spirits of domestic
manufacture, discriminating in favor of those produced
from domestic materials and against those produced
from foreign materials. The enforcement of this tax
led to the Whisky Insurrection {which see). In 1794
taxes were levied on carriages, retail selling of wines
and foreign distilled liquors, on snuff, sugar and sales
at auction. In 1797 taxes were laid on stamped vellum,
parchment and paper. In 1798 the first direct tax of
its kind, one of $2,000,000, was apportioned among the
States, and it was proposed that it should be levied on
dwelling-houses, slaves and land. The tax of 1791 was
levied to establish the principle of national taxation;
that of 1794 from fear of hostilities with England; that
of 1798 because of the threatened war with France.
On Jefferson's accession to the presidency, and on his
recommendation, all internal taxes were repealed in
1802, and no others were authorized till 1813. Then
the war with England necessitated an increased revenue,
and most of the old taxes were re-imposed. These were
to cease a year after the close of the war, for the main-
tenance of which they were levied, but they were after-
ward continued for a while for the payment of the
national debt. In 1814 increased need of money led to

282 DTCTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

an augmentation in the amount of these direct and
other internal taxes, and to the first imposition of taxes
on other domestic manufactures than sugar, snuif and
spirits, such as iron, candles, hats, playing-cards, um-
brellas, beer, ale, harness, boots, plate, household furni-
ture, gold and silver watches, etc. The return of peace
brought the abolition of direct taxes, excise duties and
other internal taxes, and from 1818 to 1861 none of
these were levied. The Civil War forced a renewal of
the internal revenue system, and in 1861 a direct tax of
$20,000,000 was apportioned among the States, though
it was not collected till a year later. On July 1, 1862,
an exhaustive internal revenue act was passed, levying
taxes on all sorts and kinds of articles too numerous to
mention, on trades, incomes, sales, manufactures, lega-
cies, etc. The bill was ill-considered and needed
frequent modifications. More than twenty-five acts on
the same subject were passed within the next six years.
A few industries were taxed out of existence, but all
were more or less disturbed. However, enormous reve-
nues were raised and the people submitted without
opposition to the necessities of the case. Extensive
reductions were made after the war had ceased, by
various acts in 1866, 1867 and 1868. Further reduc-
tions were made in 1872, when, among others, stamp
taxes, except that of two cents on checks, drafts and
orders, were abolished. Various acts since 1872 have
reduced the subjects of internal revenue taxation to
their present numbers, tobacco, spirits, fermented
liquors, bank circulation and, by Act of August 2,
1886, oleomargarine.

The total amount derived from internal revenue from
1865 to 1891 inclusive, iucluding commissions allowed
on sales of adhesive stamps, was $3, 965,454,451.

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 283

International Expositions.— The idea of an ex-
hibition of the industries of all nations is said to have
been suggested by Mr. Whishavv, secretary of the So-
ciety of Arts, London, in 1844. The first direct move-
ment in favor of it, however, was made by Prince
Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. He was presi-
dent of the Society of Arts, and June 30, 1849, called a
meeting of the society at Buckingham Palace, and pro-
posed that it should take the initiative in getting up an
industrial fair, to which all the countries of the world
should be invited to contribute. The society at once
took up the idea and used all the means in their power
to promote it. Early in 1850 they appointed a formal
commission, with Prince Albert at its head, to promote
the scheme. A few days later a meeting was held at
the Mansion House, London, to raise funds, and £10,-
000 were at once subscribed. In a short time a guaran-
tee fund of £200,000 was obtained and the project was
fairly begun. The first nation to follow the brilliant
example of Great Britain was, of course, the United
States, and the second ^'Exhibition of the Industry of
All Nations " was opened at New York, July 14, 1853.
It was held like that of Great Britain in a crystal pal-
ace, a building constructed entirely of glass and iron,
and built expressly for it. The preparation and man-
augement of this exhibition were undertaken by a
stock company. The exhibition on this occasion was
probably even more complete and magnificent than that
of Great Britain, for the idea had gained in favor now
with all nations, and no civilized country failed to send
samples of its best work in art and manufacture. This
fair was open four months. Since then international
exhibitions have been held in all the principal cities of
Europe, and in this country the Centennial Exposition
held at Philadelphia in 1876 demonstrated the popu-
larity of these exhibitions.

International Law consists of ryles for the conduct
of different nations and their subjects with respect to
each other, which rules are deducted from reason, justice

284 DlCTlOKtAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

and the nature of governments. In the ancient world
one nation had few rights which another was bound to
respect. International law in anything like a systematic
shape is a modern product, and the general recognition
of it is yet more recent. Many of its important princi-
ples are still in the stage of development, though "minor
questions, such as the treatment of embassadors, have
long been settled. Treaties, declarations of war and in-
ternational documents and discussions generally, together
with the works of great writers, constitute the body of
international law. It may be divided into three depart-
ments: first, principles regulating the conduct of states
to each other; second, principles regulating the rights
and obligations of individuals arising out of international
relations; third, principles regulating the conduct of in-
dividuals as affected by the internal laws of other
nations. International law differs from the internal law
of States in this, that there is no final authority to com-
pel its observance or punish its breach; yet public
opinion and combinations of other nations are a potent
check on the one that would disregard its obligations.
During the last generation much has been done to secure
recognition from civilized nations of certain general
rules governing their actions toward each other, such as
the rights of neutrals and the question of blockades, and
long steps have been taken toward the substitution of
arbitration in place of war in the settlement of interna-
tional disputes.

Inter-State Commerce Act, The, was passed by the
Senate January 14, 1887, by a vote of 45 to 15, and by
the House on January 21, 1887, by a vote of 178 to 41;
it was approved by President Cleveland Februarys, 1887.
The act provides for the appointment of an Inter-State
Commerce Commission, consisting of five members.
These shall not be connected in any way with common
carriers subject to the provisions of the act, nor are they
to engage in other busmess; not more than three are to
be of the same political party; they are appointed by the
President and confirmed by the Senate, the first mem-
bers for the terms of two, three, four, five and six years

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 285

respectively, ana their successors for the terms of six
years each; they each receive a salary of 17,500 per an-
num. The act applies to common carriers conveying
merchandise or passengers between one State, Territory
or the District of Columbia, to another one of those di-
visions. Unjust and unreasonable charges and unjust
discrimination are prohibited; the latter is defined to be
the demanding from one person of greater compensa-
tion than is asked from another for a like service. It is
made unlawful to give undue advantage to one person,
locality or kind of traffic over another, or to discriminate
between connecting lines. The ''long and short haul
clause " provides that the rate for a short haul shall not
equal nor exceed the rate for a long haul under like con-
ditions, except as the Commission may provide or may
relieve from the operations of this section. Freights
cannot be pooled with connecting lines; schedules of
rates, which must be conformed to, are to be made pub-
lic, and ten days notice of any advance must be given.
Combinations to prevent continuous carriage are pro-
hibited. Persons suffering by reason of violations of the
act may secure damages in the United States Courts, or
they may complain to the Commission, who have power
to compel the attendance of persons and the production
of papers, and who shall investigate and order reparation
or the ceasing of the violation of the act, and the circuit
courts of the United States are given power to enforce
these orders, subject to an appeal to the Supreme Court
in certain instances. Each willful violation of the act is
a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000.
Common carriers subject to the act are to submit annual
reports to the commission; the commission is to make a
yearly report to the Secretary of the Interior who shall
transmit the same to Congress. Certain exceptions are
made in the operation of the act; reduced rates may be
granted on property for governmental and charitable
purposes, for purposes of exhibitions and fairs, reduced
rates may be made for excursion tickets, etc., and for
ministers, and passes may be given to officers or em-
ployes of railroads. The commission is at present

286 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

constituted as follows: Jas. W. McGill, of Iowa, chair-
man; William R. Morrison, of Illinois, Augustus Schoon-
maker, of New York, Alfred C. Ohapia, of New York,
and Wheelock G. Veazey, of Vermont.

Inter-State Extradition. {8ee Extradition,)

In the Line of Succession. — Thomas Jefferson was
Secretary of State under Washington; James Madison
held the office under Jefferson; James Monroe under
Madison; John. Quincy Adams under Monroe. Each
one of these secretaries had subsequently become Presi-
dent, in every case, except that of Jefferson, immedi-
ately after the President under whom he served in that
capacity. Henry Clay was Secretary of State under
John Quincy Adams, and when in 1832 he ran for the
presidency against Andrew Jackson, he was therefore said
to be in the lineof succession.

In the Name of the Great Jehovah and the
Continental Congress. — In May, 1775, Ethan Allen
surprised Fort Ticonderoga, then in the hands of the
British. To Allen's demand for surrender the com-
mander replied, ^'By whose authority ?'' to whiicli Allen
answered: '^In the name of the Great Jehovah and the
Continental Congress.-"

Invisible Empire. — A name by which the Ku-Klux
Klan was sometimes known.

Iowa. — This State originally constituted part of the
region acquired by the Louisiana purchase. (See An-
nexations I. ) It f ornied at one time part of the Terri-
tory of Missouri. [See Territories.) After the admis-
sion of Missouri to the Union, Iowa was neglected till
1834 when it was placed under the jurisdiction of Michi-
gan; in 1836 it was transferred to Wisconsin, and in
1838 was erected into the separate Territory of Iowa; it
was admitted as a State December 28, 1846. The capital
is Des Moines. The population in 1880 was 1,624,615,
and inthe last census (1890) 1,911,896. Iowa is entitled
to eleven Congressmen and thirteen electoral votes; it
is Republican in politics. Its name is derived from its
principal river, which in the Indian tongue is variously
stated to mean **'the beautiful land," ''the sleepy ones/'

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 287

and '^ this is the place ;*^ popularly it is called the Hawk-
eye State. i^See Governors; Legislatures.)

I Propose to Fight it out on this Line, if it
Takes all Summer. — This sentence was contained in
the dispatch of General Grant to the Secretary of War
after the battle of Spottsylvania, May, 1864.

Irish Vote. {See German Vote.)

Iron-clad Oath of Office. — A popular name for the
oath of office prescribed July 2, 1862, in which the
person not only promises to defend the Constitution of
the United States against all enemies, foreign or domes-
tic, but also swears that he has never given aid or en-
couragement to its enemies, or accepted office under any
government hostile to the United States.

Irrepressible Conflict. — The conflict beetween free-
dom and slavery was referred to by William H. Seward
in a speech delivered October 25, 1858. He declared
that "it is an irrepressible conflict between opposing
and enduring forces.^'

I Was Born an American, I Live an Ameri-
can, I Shall Die an American. — This sentence is
from a speech of Daniel Webster, delivered July 17,
1850.

Jackson, Andrew, was born at Waxhaw Settlement,
North Carolina, March 15, 1767, and died at ''The
Hermitage, '^ his residence near Nashville, Tennessee,
January 8, 1845. As a boy he fought in the Revolu-
tionary army. He then studied law and was admitted
to the bar. His early education had been neglected, nor
was this shortcoming ever thoroughly repaired. He
served in the House of Representatives from 1796 to
1797, and in the Senate from 1797 to 1798. He had
made a name for himself in Tennessee as prosecuting
attorney. He had won military glory in fights with the
Indians, and his services in the Creek AVar increased
his reputation. He was made a Major-General, and in
1815 won the battle of New Orleans against the British.
From 1823 to 1825 he again served as Senator, and in
1824 was defeated for the presidency by John Quincy
Adams. In the next presidential content he defeated

288 DICTJONAR V OF AMERICA AT POLITICS.

Adams. As President he served two terms, from 1829
to 1837. The principal events of his administration
were Indian wars, controversies about the United States
Bank, nullification troubles, tariff agitation and changes,
and tl^e removals from office effected by him. At the
end of his second term he retired to private life at
''The Hermitage.^^ Jackson was a Democrat. (^8ee
Democratic-Republican Party.) From his time dates a
new departure in the politics of this country, namely,
the principle of rotation in office for the subordinate
employes of the government and the distribution of the
offices to political retainers as spoils of the campaign/
In character Jackson was stern, bluff, uncompromising
and most determined. It was due to his energy that
the nullification troubles were so promptly quelled, and
this same trait was well shown in the persistence of his
fight against the United States Bank. His comment
on a decision by the Supreme Court in the Cherokee
Case is indicative of the man. He said: '' Well, John
Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce
it.'' {^Bee Cherokee Case.)

Jackson Men. — A name assumed by the followers
of Andrew Jackson about 1828 to distinguish them
from the followers of John Quincy Adams and Henry
Clay. These latter, called at first Adams and Clay
Kepublicans, came to be known as National Republicans,
and they were one of the elements that subsequently
formed the Whig party, while the Jackson men soon
came to be known as Democrats merely. Jackson men
were known also as Jackson Republicans. (8ee Demo-
cratic-Repuhlican Party; National Republican Party;
Whig Party.)

Jack the Giant- Killer. — A nickname applied to
John Randolph, of Virginia, because in debate he com-
pared himself to David and his opponent to Goliah.

Jay, John, was born in New York City, December
23, 1745, and died at Bedford, New York, May 17,
1829. He was a graduate of Columbia and a lawyer by
profession. He took part in the formation of a State
Constitution in 1776, and served in the Continental

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 289

Congress from 1774 to 1777 and in 1778 and 1779, dur-
ing the latter years as its president. He was also Chief-
Justice of his State. In 1779 he became Minister to
Spain, and in 1783 was one of the negotiators of the
Treaty of Paris. He then became Secretary of Foreign
Affairs until 1789, when he was appointed Chief -Justice
of the United States. He was next engaged in the
negotiation of the treaty that became known as Jay's
Treaty (which see). From 1795 to 1801 he was Gover-
nor of New York State. He then retired to private
life.

Jay's Treaty. — The treaty of 1783, which closed the
Kevolution, provided that the British should evacuate
all forts within the territory of the United States. En-
gland's delay in fulfilling this stipulation, her authoriza-
tion to privateers to seize neutral vessels trading in the
French West Indies, and the rights of search and im-
pressment which she claimed, led President "Washington
in the early part of 1794 to appoint Chief -Justice tfohn
Jay minister extraordinary to Great Britain for the pur-
pose of negotiating a treaty. The result of Jay's efforts
was submitted to the Senate for ratification in June,
1795, and soon received the sanction of that body and
was completed by Washington's signature. It provided
for a speedy evacuation of the forts on what were then
our northern and northwestern frontiers, arranged for
compensation for illegal seizures, and regulated commer-
cial questions to some extent, but it recognized by impli-
cation the right of search and was not wholly satisfactory
in other points. The question of its endorsement by the
government led to a bitter discussion, during which copies
of the treaty and effigies of Jay were publicly burned
and the most outrageous charges were made against
Washington ''in terms,'' as he said, "so exaggerated and
indecent as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notori-
ous defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket." The
President, nevertheless, believing the treaty on the
whole to be the best that could be obtained, lent the
weight of his influence in its favor, and the House of
Representatives in April, 1796, by » vote of 51 to 4S

290 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. .

finally decided to carry it into effect. The discussion in
the House gave occasion to Fisher Ames, of Massachu-
setts, for a remarkable speech in defense of the treaty.

Jefferson Democrats. {8ee Clintonian Democrats.)

Jeffersonian Democrat. — Democrats delight in ap-
plying this designation to any public man of their party
whose simplicity, directness, sympathy with the people
and views on public economy meet their approbation.

Jeffersonian Simplicity. — Thomas Jefferson in-
tensely disliked all display. He objected even to the
title of Mister; he refused to wear knee-breeches and
wore pantaloons; he abolished the presidential levees,
and in going to the Capitol to his inauguration he rode
on horseback alone. The Democratic party, deriving as
it does, many of its principles from Jefferson, has always
affected to follow him in the matter of simplicity.

Jefferson, Thomas, was born at Shadwell, Virginia,
April 2, 1743; he died on the same day with John
Adams, July 4, 1826, at Monticello. Virginia. He
graduated at William and Mary College and became a
member of the bar. He was a member of the House of
Burgesses from 1769 to 1774; between 1775 and 1778 he
was a member of the Continental Congress; it was he
that wrote the Declaration of Independence (but few
changes were made in his draft of that document). In
1779 he became Governor of Virginia, and retained the
post until 1781. He represented this country abroad
first generally and then in France. He became Secre-
tary of State under Washington, and represented in the
latter^s Cabinet those principles of strict construction
that formed at least the theoretical basis of the party
founded by him, the Democratic-Eepublican. Elected
Vice-President under Adams in 1797, he was elected in
1801 to succeed the latter, and served as President two
terms. The principal events of his administration were
the purchase of Louisiana (by far the most important)
{see Annexations I.), the war with the Barbary pirates,
and the embargo. At the end of his second term he
retired to his home at Monticello where he passed the
remainder of his life. He was the founder of the Demo-

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 29t

cratic-Republican party, a party that has existed to the
present day. Though of aristocratic birth his sympa-
thies were intensely popular; he hated display and pomp
and carried his love of simplicity to the extreme of ob-
jecting even to so harmless a title as Mister, His influ-
ence on the government has been to check the tendency
to extreme centralization which, if developed, might
have led to a nation too unpliable and unwieldy for
long life, and has made it the admirable combination of
pliability and resistance that it is. {See State Sov-
ereignty; Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.)

Jingoism. — This word arose in British politics. Dur-
ing the war between Eussia and. Turkey, English sympa-
thy was most strongly with Turkey and hostile to Eussia.
A song became popular the refrain of which was:

" We don't want to fight, but, by Jingo, if we do—
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money, too."

From this arose the name jingoism as applied to the
war feeling against Eussia. The term has, however,
come to mean in politics, any advocacy of national
bluster. It is sometimes used in this country.

Johnny Reb was a name by which the Union soldiers
during the Civil War familiarly called the Confederates.
Eeb is of course an abbreviation for rebel.

Johnson, Andrew, was born at Ealeigh, North Car-
olina, I)ecember 29, 1808, and died in Carter County,
Tennessee, July 31, 1875. He was mayor of Greenville,
Tennessee; member of the State Legislature in 1835 and
State Senate in 1841; Congressman from Tennessee
from 1843 to 1853. He was at this time a Democrat.
From 1853 to 1857 he was Governor of Tennessee, and
United States Senator from 1857 to 1862. In 1862 he
was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, and in
1864 the Eepublicans nominated him as Vice-President.
On Lincoln^s assassination he became President. He
began almost at once to quarrel with Congress, and his
impeachment marked the culmination of that conflict.
(See Impeachments.) The most important matter during
his administration was Eeconstruction (tvMch see).

292 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Johnson^s early education had been neglected to such an
extent that it was only after his marriage that he learned
to read and write. He was persistent and determined,
but blind to the political signs of the times. In 1875 he
was elected United States Senator, but served only at the
extra session, dying in July.

Johnson, Reverdy, was bom at Annapolis, Mary-
land, May 21, 1796, and died at the same place February
10, 1876. He was a lawyer. He served as Senator from
1845 to 1849, and as Attorney-General under Taylor;
during this time he was a Whig. From 1863 to 1868
he was again Senator, this time as a Democrat, and in
1869 he was Minister to Great Britain.

Johnson, Richard Mentor, was born at Bryant's
Station, Kentucky, October 17, 1781; he died November
19, 1850. He served in the War of 1812. He was a
Democrat, and as such served in Congress from 1807 to
1819; from 1820 to 1829 he was in the Senate, and from
1829 to 1839 again in the House. He was the Demo-
cratic vice-presidential candidate in 1840.

Judge Lynch. — A popular name for a body of per-
sons who take the law into their own hands in punishing
criminals or those suspected of being such. {8ee Lyndi
Law,)

Judiciary. — 1. Natiois"AL. The third Article of the
Constitution provides for the establishment of United
States courts to have Jurisdiction both in law and in
equity. This jurisdiction is in general distinct from,
but is sometimes concurrent with, that of the State
courts. The system which Congress adopted at its first
session remains unaltered in its essentials to the present
time, except for the addition of the Court of Claims in
1855. The judges are nominated by the President and
confirmed by the Senate. They retain office during

§ood behavior. The judicial power of the United
tates is vested in a Supreme Court, nine Circuit
Courts and sixty-one District Courts, besides the Court
of Claims. The Supreme Court has original jurisdic-
tion only of '' cases affecting ambassadors, other public
ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 293

be a party ;^^ that is, only such cases can be commenced
therein, but cases decided in the other federal courts,
under certain prescribed conditions, can be reviewed by
the Supreme Court by virtue of its appellate jurisdic-
tion. The limits of the original jurisdictions of the
District and Circuit Courts, and the appellate jurisdic-
tion of the latter over the former, are provided by law.
Beside other matters, the Circuit Court has exclusive
jurisdiction of patent suits and the District Court of
admiralty cases. The Court of Claims has jurisdiction
of claims against the United States. The Justices of
the Supreme Court, besides their functions as such, are
each assigned to one of the circuits, being then known
as Circuit Justices. There is also a separate Circuit
Judge for each circuit, and a District Judge for each
district. Circuit Courts may be held by the Circuit
Justice, by the Circuit Judge or by the District Judge
sitting alone, or by any two of these sitting together.
As constituted at first, the Supreme Court consisted of
a Chief-Justice and five Associate-Justices, but the
number of the latter has been changed from time to
time, and there are at present eight. {^8ee Chief-
Justice.^ The salary of the Chief-Justice is $10,500,
and of Associate- Justices 110,000 per annum. The
Court is at present constituted as follows: Chief- Justice,
Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois; Associate- Justices,
Stephen J. Field, California; Joseph P. Bradley, New
Jersey; Jno. M. Harlan, Kentucky; Horace Gray, Mass-
achusetts; S. Blatchford, New York; L. Q. C. Lamar,
Mississippi; D. J. Brewer, Kansas; H. B. Brown, Mich-
igan. Besides these regular federal courts, the Senate
sits when necessary as a court of impeachment; the
District of Columbia has a Supreme Court over which
the Supreme Court of the United States has appellate
jurisdiction; and Territorial Courts are provided, the
judges of which are nominated for terms of four years
by the President, and confirmed by the Senate, and
over which the Supreme Court has also appellate jurisdic-
tion. Cases decided in the highest court of any State
may also be reviewed by the Supreme Couit. but only

294- DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

when federal questions are involved ; that is, when the
controversy deals with the Constitution, laws or treaties
of the United States.

II. State. The judicial systems of the several States
are too widely different to permit of brief explanation.
In some of them courts of equity are distinct from
those of law, while in others the same tribunals exercise
both functions, and in still others all distinction between
actions at law and suits in equity is abolished.^ The man-
ner of selecting judges also varies in different" States and
from time to time. At the period of the formation of
the United States the election of judges by the people
was unknown except in Georgia. At the present time,
however, the people elect judges in twenty-four of the
States. Judicial terms vary from two to twenty-one
years, the average being about ten years. The question
has been much discussed whether the judiciary should
be elective by the people, or appointive by the executive
or Legislature, or '^councils of appointment." Most
of the States have decided in favor of the former alter-
native, but many of these have found it necessary to
lengthen the terms of their elective judiciary in order to
lessen the necessary evils of the system, which tends to
supplant judicial justice by political shrewdness. The
elective system seems to have been a growth of the
" spoils " doctrine as a means of rotation in office.

Junketing". — Any trip, excursion or entertainment
by an official at public expense under the guise of public
service, is popularly called a '^ junket." The form these
junkets most frequently take, is a legislative investigation
requiring travel to various points and large hotel bills.

Jfury. — A jury is a body of impartial persons sworn to
inquire into the truth of facts presented to them and to
render a verdict or decision on the evidence. The right
to a trial by jury is insured by the fifth, sixth and
seventh amendments to the Constitution of the United
States and by most of the State constitutions. In crim-
inal cases the right is universal in this country; in civil
cases it is general, but may usually be waived by consent
of both parties. The petit or trial jury is usually com-

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 295

posed of twelve persons, but sometimes a smaller num..
ber is used. Their verdict must be unanimous in crim-
inal cases and generally in civil cases. A special or
struck jury is ordered by the court in extraordinary
cases where it is shown that a fair and impartial trial
cannot be had by an ordinary jury. A struck "jury is
obtained as follows: From the complete list or panel of
jurors an officer selects forty-eight whom he considers
most impartial and in every way best fitted to try the
case at issue; from this list each party strikes off, alter-
nately, twelve names; from the remaining twenty-four
the trial jury is selected in the ordinary way. A grand
jury is composed of twenty-three persons; its function
is to inquire concerning the commission of crimes and
to present indictments against offenders, where it thinks
proper, to a court having jurisdiction to try the case;
twelve must concur to find an indictment, or a true bill,
as it is called; its proceedings are secret. The Consti-
tution of the United States and all the State constitu-
tions provide that no person shall be tried for a capital
or otherwise infamous crime except after indictment by
a grand jury. A coroner's jury, or jury of inquest, is
composed of from nine to fifteen persons, and its duty is
to inquire into the causes of sudden deaths or dangerous
woundings. Sheriff's juries try the title to property held
by the sheriff when it is claimed by a third party.
Juries are also employed for other special purposes,
among which is the determination of the value of prop-
erty taken under the right of eminent domain. The
province of a jury is usually to judge merely of the truth
or falsity of the facts alleged, the court deciding ques-
tions of law; but in some cases and in a few of the States
the jury decides both as to the law and the facts.

Justice, Department of. — This department was
organized June 22, 1870, and the Attorney- General,
whose office was created by act of September 24, 1789,
was placed at its head. The Attorney-General is ap-
pointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate;
his salary is $8,000; he is a member of the Cabinet.
The establishment of this department bjfuighUifider hia

f( UNIVERSITY j

296 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

control all United States district-attorneys and marshals,
and secured uniformity in the trial and prosecution of
cases. The Attorney-General rarely argues cases, this
work being done by his subordinates. These are as
follows:

SALARY.

Solicitor-General... $7,000

Assistant Attorney-General 5,000

Assistant Attorney-General. 5,000

Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department.. 6,000

Assistant Attorney General 5,000

Assistant Attorney General for the Post-Offlce Department 4,000

Solicitor of the Treasury 4,500

Solicitor of Internal Revenue 4,500

Examiner of Claims (State Depaitment) 3,500

The Solicitor-General takes the place of the Attorney-
General in the latter^s absence. He has charge of the
conduct of cases in the courts at Washington. The At-
torneys-General of the United States are given below:

Edmund Randolph, Virginia 1789-1794

William Bradford, Pennsylvania 1794-1795

< Charles Lee, Virg-inia 1795-1801

Theo. Parsons, Massachusetts 1801-1801

V LeviLincoln Massachusetts 1801-1805

\ Robert Smith, Maryland 1805-1805

John Breckenridge, Kentucky 1805-1807

Caesar A. Rodney, Pennsylvania 1807-1811

William Pinkney, Maryland 1811-1814

Richard Rush, Pennsylvania 1814-1817

William Wirt, Virginia 1817-1829

John M. Berrien, Georgia 1829-1831

Roger B. Taney, Maryland 1831-1833

Benjamin F. Butler, New York 1833-1888

Felix Grundy, Tennessee 1838-1840

Henry D. Gilpin, Pennsylvania 1840-1841

John J. Crittenden, Kentucky 1841-1841

Hugh S. Legare, South Carolina 1841-1843

John Nelson, Maryland , 1843-1845

John Y. Mason, Virginia 1845-1846

Nathan Clifford, Maine 184&-1848

Isaac Toucey, Connecticut 1848-1849

Reverdy Johnson, Maryland 1849-1850

John J. Crittenden, Kentucky 1850-1853

Caleb Gushing, Massachusetts 1853-1857

Jeremiah S. Black, Pennsylvania 1857-1 860

Edwin M. Stanton, Pennsylvania 1860-1861

Edward Bates, Missouri 1861-1863

T. J. Coffey, Pennsylvania 1863-1864

James Speed, Kentucky 1864-1866

Henry Stanbery, Ohio . 1866-1868

William M. Evarts, New York 1868-1869

E. Rockwood Hoar, Massachusetts 1869-1870

Amos T. Ackerman, Georgia 1870-1871

George H. Williams, Oregon 18n-1875

Edwards Pierrepont, New York 1875-1876

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 297

Alphonso Taft, Ohio 1876-1877

Charles Devens, Massachusetts 1877-1881

Wayne McVeagrh, Pennsylvania 1881-1881

Benjamin H. Brewster, Pennsylvania 1881-1885

Augustus H. Garland, Arkansas 1885-1889

W.H. H. Miller, Indiana 1889-

Kanawha is a name at first proposed for West Vir-
ginia {which see).

Kansas. — The larger part of Kansas constituted a
portion of the Louisiana purchase {see Annexatio7is I.),
but the southwestern corner was ceded by Texas to the
United States in 1850. It formed part of Missouri
Territory {see Territories) till 1821, and then remained
unorganized till, in 1854, by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
{which see) the Territory of Kansas was erected, which
included part of the present State of Colorado. After
much trouble and not a little bloodshed, caused by the
opposing attempts to make Kansas a slave State and a
free State {see Border War; Brown, John) it was ad-
mitted to the Union under the Wyandotte Constitution,
which prohibited slavery, January 29, 1861. The capi-
tal is Topeka. The population in 1880 was 996,096,
and in the last census (1890) 1,427,096. Kansas has
seven Congressmen and nine electoral votes. It is
solidly Republican. The State is called after the river
of the same name, which in the Indian tongue means
"smoky water. '^ Popularly it is known as the Garden
State, or the Garden of the West. {See Governors;
Legislatures.)

Kansas Aid Society, was a congressional society
formed in 1854 for the purpose of aiding free-state
emigration to Kansas, in which region the struggle be-
tween the free State and the slave parties was then at
its height. {See Border War.)

Kansas-Nebraska Bill. — The Missouri Compromise
©f 1820 had excluded slavery from the Louisiana pur-
chase north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north
latitude, except from the State of Missouri, and the
Compromise of 1850 was not regarded as having dis-
turbed that arrangement. That part of this region
lying west and northwest of Missouri, and stretching to
the Rocky Mountains, was known as the " Platte Coun-

298 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

try/' In 1851-52 petitions for a territorial organization
of this region were presented to Congress, and in 1853
a bill organizing it as the Territory of Nebraska was re-

forted in the House." This bill failed in the Senate,
n the next Congress substantially the same bill was
reported to the Senate from the Committee on Terri-
tories by Stephen A. Douglas. In the meantime, A.
Dixon, of Kentucky, had given notice that he would
move an amendment exempting this Territory from the
operations of the Missouri Compromise. Douglas, not
to be outdone in the service of slavery, had the bill re-
committed, and reported the following measure: Two
Territories were to be organized, Kansas to include all
of this region in the latitude of Missouri and west of
that State, and Nebraska the remainder. The southern
boundary of Kansas was moved to thirty-seven degrees
north latitude, the strip between thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes and thirty-seven degrees being left to the In-
dians. Moreover, in order to carry into effect the prin-
ciple of the Compromise of 1850 (so said tlie bill), it was
provided that: 1. The question of slavery was to be left
to the people. 3. Questions involving the title to slaves
were to be left to local courts with the right to appeal
to the United States Supreme Court. 3. The fugitive
slave laws were to apply to the Territories. Further^
so far as this region was concerned, the Missouri Com-
promise was declared repealed. In this shape the bill,
known as the Kansas- Nebraska Bill, was passed and
signed by President Pierce. This measure divided the
Whig party, most of the Southern Whigs joining the
Democrats. All Northerners opposed to the measure
were known as '^Anti-Nebraskas,-" and these joined the
party known soon after as Eepublican.

Kentuc. — A name applied to the Kentucky boatmen
about 1800. They are described as ''half-horse, half
alligator, tipped with snapping-turtle," lawless and a
terror to the neighborhood.

Kentucky was originally a pan of Virginia, but was
ceded to the national government in 1784, though the
cession was not finally settled for several years. {^8ee

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 299

Territories.) In 1790 it became a separate Territory.
By Act of February 4=, 1791, taking effect June 1, 1792,
[j^entucky was admitted to the Union. During the
Civil War it did not secede, though represented in the
Confederate Congress by members chosen by Ken-
tuckians who were fighting on the Southern side. Mar-
tial law was proclaimed in Kentucky by Lincoln on
July 5, 1864, and the State was restored to the civil
authorities by Johnson on October 18, 1865. The
capital is Frankfort. The population in 1880 was
1,648,690, and in the last census (1890) 1,858,635. Ken-
tucky is entitled to eleven members of the House of
Representatives and thirteen electoral votes. It is
solidly Democratic. The name is of Indian derivation,
and means **^the dark and bloody ground,^' alluding to
the frequent battles of the Indian tribes. Popularly it
is called the Corn Cracker State, and its inhabitants are
known as Corn Crackers. (See Governors; Legislatures.)

Kentucky Resolution of 1799. {See Kentucky
Resolutions of 1798.)

Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, were introduced
in the Kentucky Legislature in that year by George
Nicholas, but Thomas Jefferson is now known to have
been the author. They were directed against the Alien
and Sedition Laws, and against acts passed to punish
frauds on the Bank of the United States. They opposed
broad construction of the Constitution, and affirmed
that instrument to be a ^' compact, '' each State being
one party, " its co-States forming as to itself the other
party. ■*' These resolutions and similar ones, prepared by
James Madison, passed by Virginia in 1799, were sub-
mitted to other States for their approval, but such States
as returned answers expressed non-concurrence in the
views there formulated. The Kentucky Resolution of
1799 repeated the former statements regarding the Con-
stitution, and entered a solemn protest against the
abuses complained of.

Kickers. — To kick means to show opposition, and in
politics kickers are members of a party that do not
accept its nominations or fiats with good grace. When

300 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

a kicker carries his dissatisfaction to the length of with-
drawing from his party, he becomes a bolter {which see).

Kid-glove Politics. — Movements looking to reform,
especially in local politics, are frequently undertaken by
those classes of the community that are in good circum-
stances. This is natural, as these have more leisure to
devote to the task. Such movements are naturally
odious to corrupt machine politicians, and as one means
of discrediting these efforts among laboring men, they
seek to awaken class prejudice. Kid-glove politics and
kid-glove politicians are terms employed to create this
prejudice.

King" Caucus. — A term applied to the Congressional
Caucus by reason of its absolute power. {See Congress-
ional Caucus.)

King of the Feds w^as a nickname applied to Alex-
ander Hamilton, the ablest of the Federalist leaders.

King, Rufus, was born at Scarborough, Massachu-
setts (now Maine), March 24, 1755. He died at Jamaica,
New York, April 29, 1827. He was a graduate of Har-
vard, served in the Continental Congress, and in 1788
moved to New York. From 1789 to 1796 he was United
States Senator, from 1796 to 1803 Minister to Great
Britain, from 1813 to 1825 again Senator, and in 1825
and 1826 again Minister to Great Britain. He was a
Federalist, and from 1800 to 1812 he was each time his
party's nominee for Vice-President.

King, William Rufus, was born in Sampson
County, North Carolina, April 7, 1786, and died at
Cahawba, Alabama, April 18, 1853. He was graduated
at the University of North Carolina. By profession he
was a lawyer, in politics a Democrat. He served in
Congress from 1811 to 1816, and in the Senate from
1819 to 1844. From 1844 to 1846 he was Minister to
France, and from 1846 to 1853 again a Senator. In
1852 he was elected Vice-President.

Kitchen Cabinet is a name applied to a certain
circle of intimate friends of President Andrew Jackson.
These friends were said to have more influence with the
President than his official Cabinet, The principal

DICTION' Ak V OP AMUklCAN- POLITICS, 30l

member of the Kitchen Cabinet was Duff Green, of
St. Louis, who established the newspaper. The United
States Telegraph, in Washington. This paper was the
President's organ until 1831, when Green, siding with
Calhoun against Jackson, lost the latter's confidence.
The Globe, John C. Rives and Francis P. Blair, editors,
then became the President's organ, and Blair became a
member of his Kitchen Cabinet. Other members were
William B. Lewis, of Nashville, who was appointed Second
Auditor of the Treasury; Isaac Hill, of Kew Hampshire,
who was made Second Comptroller of the Treasury, and
Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, who was made Fourth
Auditor of the Treasury and finally in 1835 joined the
the official Cabinet as Postmaster-General. The term
has also been applied to certain advisers of President
John Tyler and of President Andrew Johnson, but
Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet is meant when the term is
used without qualification.

Knifing is a form of political treachery practiced by
political organizations against candidates of their own
party distasteful to the organization. Although openly
pretending to support and aid the candidate of the
party, the organization secretly uses its influence against
him, and on election day either fails to furnish ballots
bearing the candidate's name, or distributes those bear-
ing the name of his opponent. This form of treachery
is allied to trading, but differs from it in motive. The
motive in trading is not directly a desire to defeat this
particular candidate of its own party, but the desire
either to elect some other member of the party or to
gain the pecuniary reward offered, the defeat of the
candidate traded off being merely incidental. In knif-
ing the motive is revenge o^ hate of the candidate
knifed, the trading necessary to accomplish this end
being merely incidental. Both of these forms of treach-
ery may usually be discovered by comparison, district
by district, of the votes for the particular candidate
with the vote for other candidates of the party, and
with the vote of previous years. i^See Trading.^

Knights of Labor. (See Order of Knights of Labor. )

302 DiCTtOMAR y OP AMERICAN POLITICS.

Knights of the Golden Circle. {See American
Knights. )

Knights of the Mighty Host. (See American
Knights. )

Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty.
{See America7i Knights.)

Knights of the White Camelia. — One of the
names by which the Ku-Klux Klan was known.

Know-Nothing Party. {See American Party.)

Koszta Affair. — One of the leaders in the Hungarian
rebellion of 1849 against Austria was Martin Koszta.
When the revolt was crushed he fled and finally took
refuge in the United States where he commenced the
steps necessary to secure full citizenship in this country.
In 1854 he went to Turkey on business, received a pass-
port from the American consul at Smyrna, and went
ashore. The Austrian consul caused him to be thrown
into the bay, from which he was picked up and put on
board an Austrian frigate. Our representative de-
manded his release, which was refused. Thereupon Cap-
tain Ingraham of the United States sloop of war St.
Louis cleared his ship for action and threatened to open
fire. This spirited action caused the Austrian officials
to surrender Koszta to the charge of the French consul
until the question should be settled. A lengthy discus-
sion ensused between Baron Hiilseman, Austrian min-
ister at Washington, and William L. Marcy, then Secre-
tary of State under Pierce. As a result of Marcy^s able
arguments Koszta was released and he returned to the
United States.

Ku-Klux Klan was an organization that sprung up
at the South during the period of reconstruction. Its
objects were the suppression of the negro as a factor in
politics; its means, terrorization, ending in many cases
in murder. It was a secret organization; its origin is
unknown, but it is supposed to have sprung about 1867
from numerous local associations all having the same
end in view. Such information as we have in regard to
it is founded on a copy of its constitution (prescript as
it was termed), and on a congressional investigation

DICTION A R y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 303

made in 1871. In this prescript the name of the asso-
ciation is never mentioned, two asterisks (**) being in-
serted instead; their local lodges were called dens; the
masters, cyclops; the members, ghouls. A county was a
province; governed by grand giant and four goUins. A
congressional district was a do7ninionj governed by a
grand Titan and six furies. A State was a realm, gov-
erned by a grand dragon and eight hydras. The whole
country was the empire, governed by a grand wizard
and ten genii. Their banner was triangular, a black
dragon on a yellow field with a red border; their mys-
teries were never to be written, but only orally communi-
cated; the distinctive feature of their dress was a cover-
ing for the head descending to the breast, holes being
cut for the eyes and mouth; the covering being decor-
ated in any startling or fantastic manner. The order
succeeded in its purpose; the midnight raids of men
thus clad, who administered whippings or other punish-
ment, had the effect intended, and the Ku-Klux became
a terror to all negroes, keeping them either from exer-
cising their political rights or else causing them to act
with their persecutors. The order, however, outran its
original purpose, and where mere whippings did not ac-
complish the desired end as with Northern whites that
had come South and with the bolder negroes, murder
was resorted to. The disorders grew, and in March,
1871, a congressional investigating committee was ap-
pointed; in the same month President Grant in a mes-
sage to Congress asked for legislation to enable the
restoration of order at the South, as neither life nor
property were there secure, and as the transportation of
the mails and the collection of the revenue were interfered
with. The Ku-Klux Act or Force Bill was promptly
passed. This bill provided for the punishment by fine
or imprisonment, or both, of attempts to interfere with
the privilege of any citizen to vote, giving the federal
courts cognizance of suits arising thereunder and giving
federal judges power to exclude from juries persons
whom they judged to be in sympathy with the accused.
In cases where State authorities were unable or unwilling

304 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

to give adequate protection the President was authorized
to employ the military and naval power of the United
States to secure the same, and suspend the writ of habeas
corpus. The second section of the bill, declaring the
punishment for any conspiracy to prevent a person from
enjoying his legal rights was declared unconstitu-
tional by the Supreme Court in 1883. The haheas cor-
pus provision was to remain in force only to the end of
the next session of Congress. An attempt to renew it
failed in 1872. In October, 1871, President Grant
issued two proclamations, the first ordering certain asso-
ciations in South Carolina to surrender their arms and dis-
guises within five days; the second, at the expiration of
the five days suspending the writ of haheas corpus.
Many arrests and convictions followed, and the associa-
tion was crushed within four months. The Ku-Klux
Klan was known by various other names, as White
League and Invisible Empire. The name Ku-Klux has
ever since been applied in a general way to troubles be-
tween the negroes and whites at the South.

Labor Parties. {See Progressive Lahor Party;
Union Lahor Party; United Lahor Party.)

Laissez Faire — Laissez Passer are two French
phrases, in the imperative, meaning let work and allow
exchange. They sum up the demands of those econom-
ists that advocate freedom of labor and freedom of com-
merce. Their meaning has at times been perverted and
made to extend to the theory of freedom from all re-
straint for the individual in morals and in politics. But
the well recognized application of the terms is to the
theory of political economy that demands the abolition
of restraints on labor and trade.

Lamar, Lucius Q. C, was born in Putnam County,
Georgia, September 17, 1825. He graduated at Emory
College, and was admitted to the bar. In 1849 he
moved to Mississippi, where he was for a while professor
of mathematics in the State University. Returning to
Georgia and the practice of law, he was in 1853 elected
to the Legislature. In 1854 he again moved to Missis-
sippi, which State he represented in the Thirty-fifth and

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 305

Thirty-sixth Congress. In 1860 he resigned, seceding
with his State. He served in the Confederate army and
also as emissary to Kussia for the Confederacy. He
acted as professor, first of political economy and then of
law, in the University of Mississippi. He served in the
Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congress, and in 1876
was elected to the Senate. He was reelected, but re-
signed in order to accept the post of Secretary of the
Interior in President Cleveland's Cabinet. In January,
1888, his nomination as Associate- Just ice of the Su-
preme Court was confirmed by the Senate, and he now
occupies that place.
L* Amistad Case. (See Amistad Case, The. )
Land Grants. — By tnis name is known the grant of
land to corporations to encourage and aid the construc-
tion of railroads in portions of the country in which it
would otherwise be unprofitable. These grants are
usually made directly to the companies. Before 1862
they were made to the States in order to enable them to
extend aid to corporations within their borders. To
every State, at its admission. Congress has granted five
per cent, of the public lands within its limits on condi-
tion of the exemption of the remainder from State taxa^
tion. In 1850 the first grant • for railroad purposes was
made. It consisted of about 2,500,000 acres granted to
the State of Illinois, and it was used to aid the Illinois
Central Eailroad. In 1856 about 2,000,000 acres went
to Florida, a similar amount was received by Arkansas,
while various other States received large tracts all more
or less used to encourage railroad building. But the
grant of colossal areas began with the construction of
the Pacific Railroads {wliicli see). The Union Pacific
received 2,000,000; the Kansas Pacific 6,000,000; tKe~^
Central Pacific (as successor of the Western Pacific)
1,100,000, and on its Oregon Branch 3,000,000; the
Oregon and California 3,500,000; the Southern Pacific
6,000,000; and the Southern Pacific branch line 3,500,-
000 acres. Among others that received large grants
were the Burlington and Missouri Eiver and the Hanni-
bal and St. Joseph. But the most stupendous grants

306 DTCTIONAR V OP AMERICAN- POLITICS.

were those of 47,000,000 acres to the Northern Pacific
and of 42,000,000 acres to the Atlantic and Pacific.
From these generous grants a revulsion has set in, and
at every session of Congress bills are now introduced
and every effort is made to forfeit such portions of the
land as are not earned by a strict compliance with the
terms of the grant, thus saving the land for settlement.
Bills revoking the grant of lands not as yet earned have
been passed; among the principal roads affected are
the Atlantic and Pacific, Texas Pacific and Iron Mount-
ain, and over 50,000,000 acres have thus been recovered,
(iS'ee 8ul)sidies.)

Land of Steady Habits. — The State of Connecticut
is sometimes so called.

Late Unpleasantness, The, is a euphemistic
phrase sometimes used in speaking of the Civil War.

Latter Day Saints. — The name by which the Mor-
mons call themselves.

Lava Beds. {See Indian Wars.)

Law and Order League. {See Citizens' Law and
Order League of the United States.)

Law and Order Party. — While there have been
many local parties calling themselves by the above name,
it is generally understood in United States history as
applying to the opponents of Dorr in the Dorr Eebellion
{which see).

Law of Nations. {See International Law.)

Laws, Sumptuary. — Sumptuary laws are those in-
tended to limit the expenses of citizens in the matters
of food, clothing and the like. They were very common
in ancient times and still exist in many countries. In
the colonies, before the formation of the United States,
sumptuary laws were generally adopted, but at present
they are rare, or, if found on the statute books, are
seldom enforced. The tendency of to-day is to supply
their place by levying higher taxes on luxuries than on
other articles.

Laying" Pipes. — A politician is said to be laying
pipes when he is making extensive plans and prepara-
tions to accomplish' some particular end, frequently his
own political advancement.

DTCTIOKAk y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 307

Lecompton Constitution.— In 1857 the majority
of the inhabitants of the Territory of Kansas were of
the Free State party. In former years the intimidation
and frauds of armed bands from Missouri, called border
ruffians, had invariably resulted in the election of pro-
slavery Legislatures. The election of October, 1857,
resulted in the choice of a Free State Legislature The
old Legislature, foreseeing this, had met at Lecompton,
in September, 1857,- and had adopted a pro-slavery
Constitution. The Free State party had never recog-
nized the old Territorial Legislature, and had not voted
on the only clause of the Constitution that was sub-
mitted for popular approval, and so that clause was of
course carried. The new Free State Legislature sub-
mitted the whole Constitution to the people and it was
overwhelmingly rejected. President Buchanan favored
the Lecompton Constitution, as did also the Senate, but
the opposition of the Northern Democrats sufficed to
turn the House against it. A conference committee of
Congress therefore submitted a proposition for certain
changes to the people of Kansas, and it was agreed to
regaid the rejection thereof as the rejection of the Le-
compton Constitution. The vote was largely against it.

Legislature. — This word as applied to the federal
government refers to Congress, composed of the Senate
and the House of Kepresentatives, and is discussed under
those heads. In the States and Territories the term is
commonly used to designate the legislative branch of the
government, though the official title in twenty-three of
the States is '^general assembly^' in two '^general
court, ^^ and in one State and the Territories '^ legislative
assembly,^' the remaining twelve using ''^legislature^' as
the official as well as the popular title. In all the States
the Legislature is composed of two houses, though Penn-
sylvania up to 1790 and Vermont up to 1836 had but one
house. The upper House is called the Senate in the
States and the Council in the Territories; the lower is
called the House of Representatives in the Territories
and in most of the States, but is known as the House of
Delegates, the Assembly or the General Assembly in a
few of the States.

Bos DICTIONARY OP AMERICAN POLITICS.

Locke's Carolina Constitution.— In 1669 Lord
Shaftesbury, one of the proprietaries of the Carolina
colony, had a constitution prepared by the philosopher
John Locke, for the government of that colony, by
means of which an endeavor was made to establish in
America what can only be called a feudal empire. The
constitution contained 120 articles. The eight proprie-
taries who held the grant of the Carolina colonies were
to combine the dignity and power of a Governor and an
upper house of the Legislature. Their position and rule
were to be hereditary, and their number was never to
be increased or diminished ; for in case of death of a
member without heirs liis survivors elected a successor.
The territory contained in the grant was divided into
counties, each containing 480,000 acres, and this was
again divided into five parts, of which one remained
the inalienable property of the proprietaries, and
another formed the inalienable and indivisible es-
tate of the nobility, of which, according to the
constitution, there were two orders — one earl and
two barons for each county. The remaining three-fifths
were reserved for the people, and might be held by
lords of the manor who were not hereditary legislators.
The members of the nobility might neither be increased
nor diminished, election supplying all places left vacant
for want of heirs. All political rights were dependent
upon hereditary wealth. The cultivators of the soil
were each allowed the use of ten acres at a fixed rent,
but could not purchase land or exercise the right of
suffrage. They were adscripts to the soil, were under
jurisdiction of their lord without right of appeal to the
courts. The supervision of everything in the colonies
was vested in a Court of Appeals and seven inferior
courts, but no lawyers were allowed to plead for
money or reward The religion was to be that of the
Church of England. Of course all attempts to foist
such a scheme of government on the few scattered
Huguenots, who formed the population, met with de-
served failure, and after twenty years was abandoned.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 309

League, Republican. {See RepuUican League of
the United States.)

Legal Tender Notes. (See Currency.)

Legislative Caucus. {See Caucus, Legislative.)

Let No Guilty Man Escape. — When the revela-
tions in regard to the Whisky Eing in 1875 were laid
before President Grant, he endorsed the above sentence
on one of the papers.

Letters of Marque and Reprisal. {See Priva-
teer.)

Lewisites. {See Clintonians.)

Liberal Republican Party. — Many Republicans
were dissatisfied with Grant^s first term as President.
They believed that the national government had ex-
ceeded the proper limits of its power in its treatment of
reconstruction problems. These Republicans met in
Convention at Cincinnati in 1872. Carl Schurz was
elected chairman. A platform was adopted demanding
civil service reform, local self-government and universal
amnesty, recognizing the equality of all men, recom-
mending the resumption of specie payments, but re-
mitting the questions of protection and free trade to
Congress because of the existence in the convention of
'•honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion^' on
that subject. Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown were
named for President and Vice-President. This plat-
form and these nominations were adopted by the regular
Democratic convention of- that year. Nevertheless,
about 30,000 members of that party voted for Charles
O^Conor, of New York, and John Quincy Adams, of
Massachusetts, the nominees of a purely Democratic
convention, notwithstanding that these candidates had
declined the nomination. Some of the members of the
Cincinnati convention, deeming the nominations there
made to be a mistake, met in New York in June
and named William S. Groesbeck, of Ohio, and Fred-
erick L. Olmstead, of New York. The Republican
nominee. Grant, was elected by an enormous majority,
and the Liberal Republican party was thereafter prac-
tically dead, although a few Congressmen still clung to
the name.

310 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Liberty and Union Now and Forever, One and
Inseparable. — The concludingwords of Daniel Web-
ster's second speech in reply to Hayne in the debate of
Foot's Eesolution (which see).

Liberty Party. — A meeting of abolitionists held at
Warsaw, NewYork, in 1839, had incidentally nominated
James G-. Birney for President and Francis J. Lemoyne
for Vice-President. The nominations were confirmed
by a convention, ostensibly national, that met at Albany,
April 1, 1840, and here the name **^ Liberty party'' was
adopted. Its platform was the abolition of slavery.
These candidates received 7,059 votes in spite of their
having declined the nominations. Thereafter candi-
dates for various local offices were put in nomination.
On August 30, 1844, the national convention of the
party met. The topic of greatest interest at that time
was the annexation of Texas, and the consequent in-
crease in our slave territory. On August 16th, a letter
of Clay's had been published in which he declared
"that, far from having any personal objection to the
annexation of Texas, / should he glad to see it, without
dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the
Union and upon just and fair terms." This caused the
convention to name its own candidates, and Birney and
Thomas Morris, of Ohio, were nominated. The total
vote for Birney was 62,263. Had the electoral vote of
New Tork gone to Clay, it would have elected him. In
that State the popular vote stood: Polk 237,588, Clay
232,482, Birney 15,812. Had Birney not been nomi-
nated, it is probable that enough of his vote to elect
Clay would have been so cast— certainly none of it
would have gone to Polk. The same is true in Michi-
gan. Thus Polk, the candidate representing annexa-
tion, was elected by the votes of those opposed to the
project. This lesson was not forgotten, and the party
did not again name its own candidates. In 1848 and
1852 they supported the Free Soil party, and thereafter
the Republicans.

Liberty Poles were poles, frequently surmounted by
flags bearing inscriptions, erected during the early history

DICTIO]\rAR Y OF AMERICAN POLTTICS, 311

of the country by the Democrats, as the partisans of
France were then known. These opposed the first ex-
cise tax, thus causing the Whisky Insurrection. ^ These
poles came to bo regarded as one of the distinctive em-
blems of the party, and were variously known as Sedition
poles or Anarchy poles.

Lieutenant-General is at present the highest grade
in the United States Army. The grade of General of
the Army \wliich see^ was created for a particular pur-
pose, and while in existence ranked that of Lieutenant-
General. This latter office was first created by Congress
for George Washington in 1798 during our troubles with
France. It then lapsed until renewed by Congress for
General Winfield Scott, who was made Lieutenant-Gen-
eral by brevet. In 1864 it was once more revived for
General Grant and continued for Generals Sherman and
Sheridan. The latter was the last incumbent. Upon his
death in 1888, Congress decreed that the grade should
be again stricken from the list. The senior major-gen-
eral, Jno. M. Schofield is now commander of the army.

Lincoln, Abraham, the sixteenth President of the
United States, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky,
February 12, 1809. In 1830 he moved with his father
and family to Macon County, Illinois. From there he
made several trips to New Orleans as flat-boatman, and
on his return superintended a flouring-mill near Spring-
field. In 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War and
was elected captain. When he returned to civil life he
entered politics and ran for the State Legislature, but
was defeated, his first and only defeat in a popular elec-
tion. He then returned to business pursuits, in which he
was unsuccessful. His schooling had been inconsider-
able, but he had taken advantage of every opportunity
for improvement, and after his want of success in business
he was for a while a surveyor, but financial troubles com-
pelled him to drop that employment in 1837. During
this time he was studying law in his leisure hours, and in
1836 he was admitted to the bar. In 1834 he had been
elected to the Legislature of Illinois, in which he served
fouT successive terms; he twice received the vote of his

312 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

party, the Whigs, for the speakership, but was neither
time elected. After retiring from the Legislature he
practiced law, and in 1846 was elected to Congress, being
the only Whig Congressman from Illinois. He declined
a renomination and was defeated as a candidate for the
Senate, and then returned to his law practice. Lincoln
and Douglas had been opposed to each other in so many
debates that people naturally turned to the former to an-
swer any of Douglas' speeches. In 1858 Douglas stumped
the State to aid his canvas for the United States Senate;
Lincoln was nominated to oppose him, and the two held
seven joint debates at difPerent points in the State. This
debate attracted universal attention and largely increased
Lincoln^s reputation. The Republican popular vote was
larger than the Democratic, but the election was by the
Legislature, which chose Douglas. In 1859 the Ohio
Democrats summoned Douglas to aid them in their can-
vass for Governor, and the Republicans naturally appealed
to Lincoln, who responded. In 1860, at the request of
the Young Men's Republican Club of New York, he de-
livered an address in that city on the political situation,
closing with the words: ''Let us have faith that right
makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to
do our duty as we understand it."'* On May 18, 1860, the
Republican National Convention met at Chicago and
nominated Lincoln for the presidency. He was elected,
and March 4, 1861, he was inaugurated. His adminis-
tration was marked by the Civil War, for particulars
in regard to which see Amnesty Proclamation; Civil War;
Emancipation Proclamation; War Poioers, etc. In 1864
he was reelected. On the evening of April 14, 1865, he
was shot while attending a performance at Ford's Thea-
ter, Washington, by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern
sympathizer. He lingered until the next morning, when
he died. As before stated Lincoln was self-educated, and
the simplicity and generosity that characterized his early
life was maintained by him throughout his career. Even
during the darkest hours of the war, with the weight of
the whole struggle resting upon him, while numberless
matters engrossed his attention, none were refused an

DiCTiONAR V OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 313

audience, and in every case of appeal to executive
clemency relief was granted if there were any miti-
gating circumstances. Though abhorring slavery and
opposing its extension, he was not an abolitionist,
as has frequently been charged; he was of the people,
and always kept in touch with them. His humor
was irrepressible, and even the gravest subject was en-
livened by a story; but in his disposition there was a
streak of profound melancholy most strongly manifest
while the responsibility of the war lay heaviest upon him.
Below are given the speech made by Lincoln at the dedi-
cation, in November, 1863, of a portion of the battle-field
of Gettysburg as a cemetery for those that had fallen
there, and the close of his second inaugural address:
Gettysburg Speech — *^^ Four-score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new
nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi-
tion that all men are created equal . Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation
so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we
cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have
consecrated it far above our power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we
say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It
is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that
from those honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom, and that government of
the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not

314 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

perish from the earth." Close of his second inaugural
address — ^^ With malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the
right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations/'

Lincoln Brotherhood. — A name given to many of
the organizations effected among the negroes at the
South during the reconstruction period for the protec-
tion of their newly-acquired rights.

Line of Succession. \See In the Line of Succes-
sion. )

Little Band. {See Burr, Aaron.)

Little David. — A nickname of John Eandolph, of
Virginia, given him because in debate he compared him-
self to David and his opponent to Goliath.

Little Giant. — A popular name of Stephen A.
Douglas, given in recognition of his small stature and
great power as a speaker.

Little Mac. — An affectionate name by which General
George B. McClellan was called by his soldiers. Mc-
Clellan was born at Philadelphia in 1826. He graduated
at West Point, but had left the army before the out-
break of the Civil War. He was made a Major-General,
and was the first commander of the army of the Poto-
mac. He ran for President against Lincoln in 1864.
He resigned his commission in that year. He died in
1885.

Little Magician. — A name popularly given to Mar-
tin Van Buren because of his shrewdness and success as
a politician.
r Xittle More Grape^ Captain Bragg.— At the
I battle of Buena Vista m 1847, during the Mexican
War, the Americans under General Zachary Taylor were
attacked by overwhelmingly superior numbers under
Santa Anna. Toward the close of the day the Ameri-
cans were being beaten back, when Captain Braxton
Bragg's battery was brought to within a few feet of the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 315

has
uthj

enemy, where even its first discharge of grape staggered
the Mexicans. Seeing the effect, Taylor shouted: '*A
little more grape. Captain Bragg/' The phrase has
lived and is still used as an exclamation of encourage
ment for a particularly successful first effort. The truth
of this anecdote is denied by some.

Little Rhody, or Rhoda, are familiar names of the
State of Rhode Island.

Lobby, The, is a term applied collectively to men
that make a business of corruptly influencing legislators.
The individuals are called Lobbyists. Their object is
usually accomplished by means of money paid to the
members, but any other means that is considered feas-
ible is employed. In many cases women are engaged in
this profession, for such it has come to be. The lobby-
is sometimes facetiously called the Third House. The
term lobby, literally meaning the ante-rooms of the halls
of Congress, has come to be applied to these men that
frequent them.

Local Option. — Where the Prohibitionists can not
secure a general law for a whole State, prohibiting the
sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, they seek to
have passed a general law authorizing each city or town
to adopt a prohibitory law as regards itself. This rele-
gating of the decision to the separate communities is
called local option. Many of the States have been will-
ing to go at least as far as this in meeting the wishes of
the Prohibitionists, and the tendency to do so is not
likely to be checked at present. Among the States that
permit local option are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New
York, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro-
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and
Missouri. {See High License; Prohibition. )

Lockwood, Belva A., was born at Royalton, New
York, in October, 1830. Her maiden name was Bennett.
She taught school for several years, and then, at the age
of eighteen, married a man named McNall. After his
death she studied at several institutions, and in 1857 was
graduated at Genesee College, Lima, New York. She

316 DICTIONAK V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

then acted as principal in different schools, and in 1868
removed to Washington and opened a school. In the

"^iame year she married Dr. Lockwood. She then began
the study of law. In 1873 she received the degree of
Bachelor of Law from the National University Law
School. She canvassed the South for Horace Greeley in
1872. In 1873 she was admitted to the bar of the Su-
preme Court of the District of Columbia. Attempts to
secure admission to the bar of the United States Su-
preme Court failing, she directed her efforts to the pas-
sage of a bill in Congress enabling women to practice at
that bar. She was successful, and in 1879 she was ad-
mitted to practice. In 1884 she ran for President as the
candidate of the equal rights party {which see).

Loco-Focos. — Previous to 1846 the system of incor-
porating banks in the State of New York had been by
means of special legislation. The removal, in 1833, of
United States deposits from the Bank of the United
States to State banks, and the prospects of failure of the
attempts to have that bank^s charter renewed led to the
formation of many new banks. The practice of former
days of purchasing these charters from the Legislature

- was revived, and the scandal assumed such proportions
that in 1835 a number of Democrats in New York City,
chiefly members of Tammany Hall, organized for the
purpose of opposing the banks. They called themselves
the Equal Eights party. A meeting of this faction,
held in Tammany Hall October 29, 1835, was also at-
tended by the regular or Tammany Democrats, who at-
tempted to control the proceedings. Failing in this,
they turned out the gas. The equal rights men lit loco-
foco matches and proceeded to hold their meeting.
Their opponents. Democratic and Whig, seized on this
circumstance to give them a nickname, and the term
clung first to them only and subsequently to the whole
Democratic party for some years, for the Whigs de-
lighted to brand their opponents as opposed to the
"moneyed interests of the country, '' and would not re-
linquish a nickname so well suited to their purpose.
The administration of Van Buren, committed as it was

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 317

fco the sub-treasury system, drew the loco-f ocos back into
their party^ but their influence, while it lasted, was
potent, especially in New York, and to their efforts are
due many of the features of the Constitution of 1846 of
that State.

Log Cabin Campaign. {See Hard Cider Cam-
paignT)

Log Rolling. — A member of a legislative body will
sometimes find it impossible to pass some bill in which
he is interested. Under these circumstances the neces-
sary support is often procured by promising support to
the pet measures of other members similarly circum-
stanced in regard to their own bills. This practice is
termed log rolling. The allusion is to the custom of
men in cutting timber, to aid each other in rolling heavy
logs from the forest to the water. By this means some
of the most extravagant River and Harbor Bills have
been passed, each member refusing to vote for the bill,
necessary in some of its provisions, unless the improve-
ment asked for by his particular locality be granted.

Long and Short Haul. {See Inter-State Commerce
Act.)

Loose Construction. {See Construction of the Con-
stitution.)

Louisiana was part of the region purchased from
France in 1803. {See Annexations I.) In 1804 the ter-
ritory of Orleans was formed with nearly the same
boundaries as the present State of Louisiana, which was
admitted to the Union April 30, 1812. {See Territories.)
On January 26, 1861, a State convention passed an ordi-
nance of secession, and the State was re-admitted to the
Union by act of June 25, 1868. The capital was at first
and is now New Orleans, but between 1849 and 1868 the
seat of government was at Baton Rouge. The population
in 1880 was 939,946, and inthe last census (1890) 1,118,
687. Louisiana has six representatives in Congress
and eight electoral votes. The State is thoroughly
Democratic at present and has cast its electoral votes for
the Democratic candidates in the last two national elec-
tions, but in 1872 the returning board and in 1876 the

318 DICTJONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

electoral commission {which see) decided the State vote
to have been cast for the Republicans. Louisiana was
named after Louis XIV. of France by its discoverer. La
Salle, in 1682; popularly it is known as the Pelican
State, or Creole State. {8ee Governors; Legislatures.)
Louisiana, Purchase of. {See Annexations I.)
Louisiana, Territory of. (See Territories.)
Lovejoy, Elijah P., was born in Maine in 1802.
Soon after his graduation he went West, where, after
teaching for some time, he became the editor of a politi-
cal journal. Coming under religious influences he
joined the Presbyterian Church, and in 1833 was licensed
to preach. Soon afterward he became the editor of the
St. Louis Observer, a religious weekly. At first a be-
liever in colonization, he gradually became strongly anti-
slavery, but he always opposed immediate and uncondi-
tional abolition. Nevertheless his articles created great
excitement and when his office was finally wrecked by a
mob he determined to remove his paper to Alton, Illi-
nois. This was in 1836. As soon as his press was
landed at Alton it was seized by a mob and destroyed.
Another press was obtained and the publication contin-
ued for nearly a year, when the second press was de-
stroyed. His third press was destroyed before it could
be used. His fourth was placed in a stone warehouse,
which Lovejoy and some of his friends defended. The
house was surrounded by a mob and the roof set on fire.
In attempting a sally Lovejoy was shot and killed, No-
vember, 1837.

Loyal League. — A name given to many of the or-
ganizations effected among the negroes at the South dur-
ing the reconstruction period, for protecting their newly-
acquired rights.

Lynch Law is the punishment of persons charged
with crimes by those who are not legally authorized to
act. The name is said to be derived from a farmer of
I North Carolina, John Lynch, who, finding that the au-
thorities of the early colonial period in which he lived
failed to protect 'him against the fugitive slaves and
criminals infesting the Dismal Swamp, took the law

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 319

into his own hands. Some have derived the name from
one Lynch, of Virginia, who caught a thief and flogged
him with his own hands.

Machine, The. — When the organization of a party
falls into the hands of professional politicians, who use
it corruptly to serve their own political or personal ends,
it is commonly known as the machine. " The machin-
ery of a party " is a phrase first used by Aaron Burr.

Mad Anthony Wayne. — Anthony Wayne was
called '^mad'^ because of his impetuosity, bravery and
apparent rashness. His most signal exploit during the
Eevolution was the surprise and capture of Stony Point,
on the Hudson, on the night of July 15, 1779. In 1794
he completely routed the Miami Indians after the suc-
cessive failures of Generals Harmar and St. Clair.

Madison, James, was born at Port Conway, Vir-
ginia, March 16, 1751, and died at Montpelier, in
the same State, June 28, 1836. He graduated from
Princeton College and was admitted to the bar. In 1776
•he was a member of the Virginia Legislature. From
1780 to 1783, and from 1786 to 1788 he served in the
Continental Congress. He was also a member of the
convention of 1787; in fact, a resolution offered by him
in the Virginia Legislature led to that convention. Be-
tween 1789 and 1797 he served in Congress. He was
Secretary of State under Jefferson, and was elected to
succeed him as President in 1809. His administration
was forced into the War of 1812 with England, and that
struggle is the principal event of his administration.
He served two terms. He was in close sympathy with
Jefferson, whose views he shared and by whom he was
implicitly trusted. He was an able writer and one of
the founders of the Democratic-Eepublican party.

Magna Charta, (Latin words meaning '^ great
charter,") called also the Charter of Liberties, was an
instrument signed at Runnymede, June 15, 1215, by
King John of England, who was forced thereto by the
barons of the kingdom. Besides restraining certain
royal prerogatives that had been abused, and introducing
various improvements into the law, it provided for the

320 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

protection of every freeman from loss of life, liberty or
property, except by the judgment of his peers or the law
of the land, and the king declared, **we will sell to no
man; we will not deny or delay to any man right or jus-
tice/^ Magna Charta was the foundation of English
liberties, and its chief protective provisions have been
incorporated in the Constitution of this country and the
eeparate States. {See Bill of Rights; Petition of
Right. )

Magnetic Statesman. — James G. Blaine is some-
times BO called. His friends claim for him the quality
80 prominent in Henry Clay, of personal magnetism —
the personal charm that makes followers even of oppo-
nents.

Maine. — The State of Maine was for thirty years after
the formation of this nation a part of Massachusetts. In
1819, the Legislature of the latter submitted the ques-
tion of separation to a popular vote of the people of
Maine who voted in favor of it by a large majority. It
was admitted to the Union in 1820 by an Act of March
3d, taking effect March 15th. The capital is Augusta.
The population in 1880 was 648,936 and in the last
census (1890) 661,086. Maine has four represetatives in
Congress and six electoral votes. In politics it is counted
a certain Eepublican State. It was named for a district
in France, and is known popularly as the Pine Tree or
Lumber State, from its principal industry. [See Gov-
ernors; Legislaticres; Northeast Boundary.)

Maine Law. {See ProhilUion.)

Man, A, Who Was in the Public Service for
Fifty Years, and Never Attempted to Deceive
His Countrymen. — This occurs in the eulogy on Henry
Clay, delivered by John C. Breckenridge.

Man, The, With the Sling. — A nickname of John
Eandolph, of Virginia, given him because in debate he
compared himself to David, and his opponent to Goliath.

Manning, Daniel, was born at Albany, New York,
August 16, 1831. He received an elementary public
school education, and at the age of eleven entered the
office of the Albany Argus as office boy. He rose step

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 321

by step and finally became manager and president of the
Argus Company. He became identified with various
commercial enterprises; was director in several banks
and president of one of them. After 1874, he was in
various ways closely identified with the management of
the Democratic party in his State^, although he never
held elective office. President Cleveland appointed him
Secretary of the Treasury, a post that he filled with re-
markable ability until ill health compelled his resigna-
tion. From this illness he never recovered; he died
December 24, 1887.

Man of Destiny, The. — A name applied to Grover
Cleveland in allusion to his rapid rise from Mayor of
Buffalo and an unknown man in 1881, to President in
1885.

Marshall, John, was born at Cermantown, Yir-
ginina, September 24, 1755, and died at Philadelphia,
July 6, 1835. He was a lawyer. In politics he was
a Federalist. In 1797 and 1798 he was an envoy to
France. {See X. Y, Z. Mission.) He served in Con-
gi'ess in 1799 and 1800. He was Secretary of State
under Adams. In 1801 he was appointed Chief -Justice
and served until his death. In his early life he was
sometimes known as '' General Marshall,'^ a title acquired
in the mititia.

Martial Law, is that system of government which
is established over civil affairs in the discretion of the
commander of a military force occupying a region of ter-
ritory. It supersedes all ordinary government for the
time being. It is only justified by necessity. It may be
authorized by a State Legislature, when the public safety
demands it. Congress has power to declare it when neces-
sary, but not in a State not engaged in war and where
the ordinary forms of justice are not obstructed.

Martling Men. — The combination of the Lewisites
and Burrites against the Clintonians in New York State
politics. (See Clintonians.)

Maryland was one of the original States of the Union.
The capital is Annapolis. The population in 1880 was
934,943 and in the last censas (1890) 1,042,390. Mary-

322 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

land sends six representatives to Congress and has eight
electoral votes. It is a sure Democratic State. The
original colony of Maryland was named after Henrietta
Maria, wife of Charles 1. of England, {See Governors;
Legislatures.)

Mason and Dixon*s Line. — This line was originally
the parallel of latitude 39 deg. 43 min. 26.3 sec, which
separates Pennsylvania from Maryland. It received its
name from Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two
English mathematicians and astronomers, who traced the
greater part of it, between the years 1763 and 1767,
though the last thirty-six miles were finished by others.
It was practically the dividing line between the free and
the slave States in the East. During the discussion
in Congress on the Missouri Compromise, John Randolph,
of Roanoke, Virginia, made free use of the phrase,
and thereafter it became popular as signifying the divid-
ing line between free and slave territory throughout the
country. The boundary, as thus extended by popular
usage, followed the Ohio River to the Mississippi, and
west of that was the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min., the
Southern boundary of Missouri, though Missouri itself
was a slave State.

Mason and Slidell. (^8ee Trent Affair.)

Massachusetts was one of the original States of the
Union. Maine, originally a part of it, was seperated in
1819-20. The capital is Boston. The population in 1880
was 1,783,085, and in the last census (1890) 2,238,043.'
Massachusetts sends twelve representatives to Congress,
and is entitled to fourteen electoral votes. In national
politics it has been Republican. The name is an Indian
one; popularly the State is called the Old Colony, the
Bay State, or the Old Bay State. i^See Governors; Legis-
latures, )

Masterly Inactivity. {See All Quiet Along the Po-
tomac. )

Mat tie Van Buren. — Martin Van Buren was some-
times familiarly called ^^Mattie."

Maximilian. — During the Civil War Napoleon III.,
then on the throne of Prance, sent over troops to enforce

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 323

certain claims against Mexico. The French soldieFs en-
tered the city of Mexico in June, 1863, and forced the
Republican President, Juarez, to retreat. Maximilian,
Archduke of Austria, was asked by France to accept the
throne of Mexico. An election was held by which the
Mexicans were made to seem desirous of having him rule
over them. He accepted the throne under the title of
Maximilian I., Emperor of Mexico, and arrived at the
capital in June, 1864. The United States government
made frequent remonstrances against this violation of
the Monroe Doctrine, but had too much on their own
hands to permit their interference. The French troops
were finally withdrawn and Maximilian, being left to
his own resources, was unable to hold his position against
Juarez. He was captured, condemned to death, and
shot at Queretaro on June 19, 1867.

McClellan Minute Men. {See American Knights.)
McDonald, Joseph E., was born in Ohio August
29, 1819. His family removed to Indiana in his child-
hood. In early youth apprenticed to a saddler; was ad-
mitted to the bar; served as prosecuting attorney; was
elected to Congress in 1849; served two terms as At-
torney-General of his State; served in the United States
Senate 1875 to 1881. He was a Democrat. Died
June 21, 1891.

McLeod Case. — In 1840 one Alexander McLeod
came to New York State on business and boasted of his
part in the taking of the Caroline {see Canadian Rebel-
lion) a few years previously. He was arrested in Lock-
port and indicted for murder. The British Minister
demanded his release on the ai'ounds that McLeod had
acted under orders and that the courts of the State of
New York had not jurisdiction to interfere in a case that
lay only between the national governments of Great
Britain and the United States. Our federal government
admitted the justice of the British position, but stated
that McLeod could only be released by operation of the
law. The Attorney-General of the United States pro-
ceeded to Lockport to give McLood all possible assistance.
The discharge of the prisoner Avas sought for under a
writ of habeas corpus, but the court held that there was

324 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

no ground for releasing him. The outcome of the whole
affair was that McLeod finally proved an alibi in October,
1841, and was acquitted. In July, 1842, Great Britain
apologized to our government for the violation of terri-
tory made in the seizure of the Caroline, with regrets
that explanation and apology had not been made sooner.
Our government accepted the apology and expressed
its satisfaction.

Mecklenburg Declaration. — This declaration was
adopted, it is said, in May, 1775, at a midnight meeting
of representatives of the militia of Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina. It declares that the people of that
county are free and independent of the British crown,
and not only is its general tenor that of the Declaration
of Independence, but many phrases are word for word
as they appear in that document. The minutes of the
midnight meeting are said to have been destroyed by
fire in 1800. Whether the Declaration of Independence
followed the words of the Mecklenburg Declaration or
whether the latter, having probably been replaced from
memory, was tinctured with the former, is a disputed
question.
Mediterranean Fund, {bee Barhary Pirates.)
Mending Fences is a phrase sometimes used to sig-
nify that a politician is quietly laying plans and promot-
ing his own interest. It originated as follows: Just* be-
fore the Eepublican National Convention of 1880 John
Sherman, one of the most prominent candidates for the
Republican nomination, was visiting his farm at Mans-
field, Ohio. One day while in a field with his brother-
in-law. Colonel Moulton, engaged in replacing some rails
of a fence, a reporter found him and sought some politi-
cal news by inquiring what Sherman was doing. Colonel
Moulton avoided the necessity of a direct reply by ex-
claiming: " Why, you can see for yourself; he^s mend-
ing his fences.-"

Message. {See President's Message.)
Me Too. — In 1881 James A. Garfield, then recently
elected President, in appointing the Collector of the
Port of New York ignored the custom of making

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 325

federal appointments within a State on the advice of
his party's Senators from that State. (See Courtesy of
the Senate.) Thereupon Eoscoe Conkhng and Thomas
C. Piatt, the New York Senators, and both Republicans,
resigned and immediately sought reelection for the pur-
pose of thus demonstrating that the party endorsed
them rather than the President. After a long struggle
they failed of reelection. Conkling, foremost among
the leaders of his party, was believed to have been the
active spirit in the quarrel, while Piatt it was thought
had merely followed in his trail. During the contest a
New York City newspaper, foreseeing the result, pub-
lished a cartoon comprising a large tombstone on which
Conkling's name was inscribed, followed by a few words
'of eulogy. Next to it was a much smaller one, similar
in design, on which appeared only "Me too, T. Piatt."
This phrase has become current.

Metropolis of America. — A name sometimes ap-
plied to New York City because of its great size, popu-
lation and importance.

Mexican War. — The Mexican War grew out of the
acquisition of Texas. (See Annexations III.) Texas
claimed the Rio Grande as her southwestern frontier,
and Mexico insisted on the Nueces River. The United
States supported the position taken by Texas. In 1845
diplomatic intercourse was broken off between tlie gov-
ernments of Mexico and the United States, and the
latter ordered General Taylor into the disputed terri-
tory. In obedience to further orders, he advanced to
the Rio Grande in the sj)ring of 1846. On April 26th
the first blood was shed in an affray which resulted in
the capture of a small body of United States troops on
the eastern side of the Rio Grande. President Polk
announced to Congress that Mexico had "invaded our
territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on
our own soil.'' Congress at once responded (May 11,
1846,) by declaring that "by the act of the Republic of
Mexico a state of war" existed, and authorized the
President to call for 50,000 volunteers. This bill passed
the House by 174 to 14, and the Senate by 40 to %,

326 DICTIONAii V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Congress also voted 110^000,000 for expenses. The war
was supported most strongly by the South and the
Democratic party,, while the !N"orth and the Whigs were
not so heartily in favor of it. However, except that it
was caused by the Southern scheme for the annexation
of Texas, it was not a party measure. California and
New Mexico were overrun by Fremont and Kearney.
Taylor gained important victories in Mexico, and in
1847 General Scott marched from Vera Cruz to the City
of Mexico, pushing back Santa Anna, captured the
capital on September 14, 1847, and thus virtually ended
the war; but a few minor engagements followed. For
the treaty which concluded the war, and the results of
the conflict, see Annexations IV, and the Treaty of
Ouadaloupe- Hidalgo.
Miami Confederacy. {See Indian Wars.)
Michig'an was once a part of the Northwest Territory
(see Territories), and then of Indiana Territory, from
which it was separated under its own name in 1805. Its
boundaries were enlarged by several acts, but in 1836
Wisconsin was cut off from it, leaving its limits much
as they are at present. {See Toledo War.) It was ad-
mitted to the Union January 26, 1837. The capital is
Lansing. The population in 1880 was 1,636,137 and in
the last census (1890) 2,093,880. Michigan has eleven
seats in the House of Eepresentatives and thirteen elec-
toral votes. It is considered a Eepublican State in na-
tional politics, though the Democrats gained heavily in
1884. Its name is of Indian derivation and means
^' great lake.'' Popularly it is called the Wolverine State
or Lake State, and its inhabitants are known as Wolver-
ines. {See Governors; Legislatures.)

Midnight Judges. — In the presidential election of
1800 the Federalists were defeated. In order to gain
every possible advantage for their party the Federalists
in Congress constituted twenty-three new judgeships,
although there was no necessity for such an increase.
President John Adams was busy until after midnight on
the last day of his term in signing judicial commissions,
and the judges so commissioned were in contempt called
midnight judges.

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 327

Milan Decree. {^See Emlargo Act.)

Mileage. — Compensation for traveling expenses at so
much a mile is called mileage. This allowance is made
by law to members of Congress for their journeys to and
from Washington. Constructive mileage is an allowance
for journeys which are merely supposed to be made, as
when Congress adjourns and a new President takes office,
or an extra session is called. Constructive mileage is
now prohibited by law.

Mileage Expose. — On December 22, 1848, Horace
Greeley published a statement showing the distance by
the shortest post-route from the residence of each mem-
ber of Congress to Washington, the distance for which
he received mileage, the amount paid him, and the ex-
cess over what he would have received on the basis of
the shortest mail-route. The total of this excess for the
Thirtieth Congress was $73,492.60, and the excess in
miles was 183,031. Almost every Congressman had
failed to make his journey as short as possible. Gree-
ley's expose caused considerable ill-feeling against him;
its immediate effect was seen in the adoption of shorter
routes by Congressmen in traveling, and several years
later the rate of mileage Avas reduced one-half and con-
structive mileage was abolished by law.

Military Academy at West Point. {See United
States Military Academy at West Point.)

Military Necessity. — The Emancipation Proclama-
tion declares that it is issued as an act of " military ne-
cessity" by the President as Commander-in-chief of the
army and navy. This phrase is used to emphasize the
fact that the President issued the proclamation merely
in his military capacity.

Mill Boy of the Slashes. — Henry Clay was often
so called in reference to his life as a poor boy when he
was sent on errands to a mill at a place near his home
called ^^the Slashes. ''

Milligan Case. {See Habeas Corpus.)

Millions for Defense, but Not One Cent for
Tribute. {See X. Y, Z. Mission.)

Minimum Duties. {Sae Customs Duties.)

328 DtCTlONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Minister Plenipotentiary. {^See Foreign Service.)
Minister Resident. [See Foreign Service.)
Minnesota. — The portion of Minnesota east of the
Mississippi once formed part of the Northwest Terri-
tory (see Territories), and the portion west of the
Mississippi was a part of the Louisiana purchase. (See
Annexations I.) The present Minnesota and Dakota
were organized into a Territory, under the former of
those names, in 1849, and the State of Minnesota was
admitted to the Union May 11, 1858. The capital is
St. Paul. The population in 1880 was 780,773, and in
the last census (1890)1,301,826. Minnesota is entitled to
five seats in the House of Eepresentatives and has seven
electoral votes. It is a strong Eepublican State. The
name is Indian in origin and means ''sky-tinted water."
Popularly Minnesota is known as the Gropher State. (See
Governors; Legislatures. )

Minority Representation. — Where the vote of the
majority of a community or district elects the delegate
for that district it is evident that the minority is disfran-
chised— unrepresented. Minority representation seeks
to secure for this portion of the community a voice in
the Legislature, in the proportion that it bears to the
whole. To accomplish this various plans have been sug-
gested. One provides for the election of several delegates
from a district, each voter casting a ballot for but one
individual, but indicating a second and third choice, and
60 on, in case his first choice has already received votes
enough to elect him; thus no vote is wasted and every
opinion is represented in proportion to its following.
Another plan provides for one vote by every voter in dis-
tricts laid out on a large scale. Every person receiving
more than a fixed number of votes (say 1,000) is con-
sidered elected and is entitled in the legislative body to
one vote in that body for every 1,000 votes cast for him.
Mint. (See Coinage.)
Misprision of Treason. (See Treason.)
Mississippi. — The larger portion of the present State
of Mississippi came into the possession of the IJnited States
by the Treaty of Paris (which see) in 1783. . Georgia,

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 329

however, claimed this region and it was included in her
cession of 1802 to the national government. A strip
along the Northern edge was ceded by South Carolina in
1790, and the Southern portion was part of the Louisiana
purchase of 1803. (See Annexations I; Territories.)
The organization of Mississippi Territory, which in-
cluded what is now Alabama, was commenced in 1798,
and was completed two years later. The State was ad-
mitted to the Union on December 10, 1817. On January
9, 1861, a State convention passed an ordinance of
secession. Mississippi was re-admitted to the Union by
Act of February 23, 1870. The capital is Jackson. The
population in 1880 was 1,131,597, and in the last census
(1890) 1,289,600. Mississippi has seven seats in the
House of Eepresentatives and nin6 electoral votes. In
1872 the electoral vote was cast for the Eepublican can-
didates, but since then it has been Democratic by large
majorities. This State is named after the great river of
the country, which in the Indian tongue is ^' great
river, '^ or ''great father of waters;" popularly it is known
as the Bayou State. {8ee Governors; Legislatures.)
Mississippi Territory. {See Territories.)
Missouri. — Was originally a part of the Louisiana
purchase. {See Annexations I.) In 1805, Louisiana
Territory was formed, of which Missouri was a part, and
to which it gave its name in 1812, when the State of
Louisiana was admitted to the Union. The question of
the admission of Missouri gave rise to much commotion
in Congress {see Missouri Compromise), but finally
on August 10, 1821, President Monroe, pursuing the
ac^s of Congress, proclaimed it to be a State. The
capital is Jefferson City. The population in 1880, was
2,168,380, and in the last census (1890) 2,679,184. Mis-
souri sends fourteen Eepresentatives to Congress and has
sixteen electoral votes. It is a certain Democratic State.
The name of the State and river is of Indian origin and
means ''muddy water;" popularly Missouri is sometimes
called the Pennsylvania of the West. {See Governors;

Missouri Compromise. — On the admission of

330 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Louisiana as a State, the remainder of the Lonisiana
purchase was organized as the Territory of Missouri.
In 1818 the portion now comprising the State of Mis-
souri applied for admission to the Union. In 1819 a
bill for this purpose, containing a clause prohibiting
slavery, was passed by the House, but it was defeated
by the Senate. In 1820 a bill was sent by the Senate to
the House providing for the admission of Maine^ and
containing a rider authorizing Missouri to organize.
There was no objection, to the admission of Maine, the
House having already passed a bill for that purpose, but
it refused to allow the Senate to force its views on the
Missouri question upon it. The Senate bill was accord-
ingly disagreed to. A compromise was now patched up
on the basis of a resolution of Senator Thomas, of Illi-
nois. The Missouri and Maine bills were to be sepa-
rated. Missouri was to be admitted as a slave State, but
slavery was to be prohibited in the remainder of the
Louisiana purchase north of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes north latitude. There was also a clause provid-
ing for the return of fugitive slaves. A provision in
the Constitution adopted by Missouri, forbidding its
Legislature to emancipate slaves and ordering it to pre-
vent the immigration of free negroes, led to further
opposition, and at the next session of Congress, in
February, 1821, Missouri was required to bind herself
that the citizens of other States should enjoy all privi-
leges "to which they are entitled under the Constitu-
tion of the United States.^'' Henry Clay was largely
instrumental in bringing about this compromise ; he
was chairman of the last committee. Yet so little did
he foresee its consequences, that he is reported to have
said to a Missouri delegate after its passage: "Now, go
home and prepare your State for gradual emancipation.''^
Maine was admitted in 1820, Missouri in 1821.

Missouri, Territory of. {See Territories,)

Modoc War. {See Indian Wars.)

Monetary Conference. {See Paris Monetary Con-
ference. )

Mono-Metallism. {See Bi-Metallism.)

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 331

Monroe Doctrine. — President Monroe's annual
message to Congress in 1823 contained the following
sentences: ''We owe it to candor and to the amicable
relations existing between the United States and the
allied powers, to declare that we should consider any
attempt on their part to extend their system to any por-
tion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and
safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of
any European power we have not interfered, and shall
not interfere; but with the governments which have de-
clared their independence and maintained it, and whose
independence we have, on great consideration and just
principles, acknowledged, we could not view an interpo-
sition for oppressing them, or controlling in any other
manner their destiny, by any European power, in any
other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly dis-
position toward the United States/^ Also, ''the Ameri-
can continents should no longer be subjects for any new
European colonial settlement/^ These expressions em-
body what is known as the Monroe Doctrine. President
Monroe's mention of these subjects was occasioned by
the formation in Europe, a few years previously, of
what was called the "holy alliance'' — an alliance be-
tween Eussia, France, Austria and Prussia to maintain
the monarchical svstem of government in Europe. ^ It
was supposed that they desired to extend their operations
to the New World also, especially with reference to tlie
colonies of Spain, some of which had asserted, and ob-
tained from the United States the recognition of, their
independence. England sided with our country on this
question, and the result was that the allies did not carry
out their project. As popularly understood, the Monroe
doctrine meant a political protection and a guaranty of
freedom from European interference to all states of
North and South America. It was not, however, in-
tended to, and by its words it did not, declare that the
United States would take up arms against European
interference on these continents, nor was its intention
to limit or embarrass the policy of our nation in the
future. It merely declared that the United States would

332 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

regard as unfriendly any such acts of European inter-
meddling with the political aifairs of the two Americas,
and it left to be determined by the circumstances of
each particular case how far the United States would
find it wise to go in opposing it.

Monroe, James, was born in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, April 29, 1758. He died July 4, 1831. lie
graduated at William and Mary College, served in the
Continental army and then read law under Jefferson.
He was a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1782,
and of the Continental Congress in 1783, where he
served until 1786. From 1790 to 1794 he was United
States Senator, from 1794 to 1796 Minister to France,
and Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802. He was
then, in succession. Minister, again to France to nego-
tiate for the purchase of Louisiana, to Great Britain and
to Spain. Once more Governor of Virginia in 1811, he
became Secretary of State during Madison's administra-
tion and retained that post to the end of the latter's
second term. He was then chosen President, 1817, and
he served two terms. During his incumbency of the
office, party feeling died away entirely and the era of
good feeling set in. The Monroe Doctrine was his most
important official act, and the Missouri Compromise by
far the most important measure of his administration.
{See those titles.) In 1831 he removed to New York,
where he died. He was of the Eepublican party of his
day {see Democratic- RepuUican Party), and of the
more extreme and radical wing.

Montana was originally part of the Louisiana pur-
chase. {See Annexations I ; Territories.) It was or-
ganized as a separate Territory in 1854. On November
8,1889 it was admitted as a State. The population by
the census of 1890 was 132,159. It has one seat in the
House of Repieseutatives and three electorial votes.
The capital is Helena.

Moral Leper. — A leper is one afflicted with leprosy,
a disgusting and loathsome skin disease. By calling a
man a moral leper it is intended to indicate that his
moral nature is as disgusting as the physical nature of

DICTIONAR V OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 33S

the leper. The phrase was used by some opponents of
Grover Cleveland in the presidential campaign of 1884.

Morey Letter. — About two weeks before the presi-
dential election of 1880, a letter purporting to have been
written by James A. Garfield, the Republican candidate,
to H. L. Morey, of the Employers^ Union, Lynn, Massa-
chusetts, was published. It was a short note relating to
the Chinese question. It asserted the writer^s belief
that *' individuals or companies have the right to buy
labor where they can get it the cheapest,^' that our
treaty with the Chinese government should be "religi-
ously kept^' until abrogated, and added that he was
'^ not prepared to say that it should be abrogated " just
then. The letter appeared in a New York daily paper,
and fac-similes were at once published in all the Demo-
cratic newspapers and circulated by Democratic cam-
paign committees. It was thought that a large part of
the labor vote of the country would be alienated from
Garfield. Garfield at once declared the letter a forgery,
but several prominent men familiar with his handwrit-
ing declared their belief in its authenticity. An em-
ploye of the paper that first published it was arrested on
the charge of forging it, but the prosecution of the case
was subsequently abandoned. In the judicial examina-
tion, however, evidence was produced to show that there
was no such person as H. L. Morey, of Lynn. A wit-
ness that had sworn to the authenticity of the letter was
subsequently convicted of perjury and sentenced to
eight years' imprisonment.

Morgan, NVilliam. {See Anti-Masonic Party;
Good Enough Morgan Till After Election.')

Mormons. — The Mormons are a religious sect who
also take the name "The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. '^ Their founder was Joseph Smith,
who claimed to have discovered by divine direction
certain golden plates bearing a written revelation. This
was in 1827, and near Palmyra, New York. The con-
tents of the plates, being deciphered by Smith, formed
what is known as the "Book of Mormon.'' This was
printed in 1830, and it was at once charged by unbe-

334 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

lievers to be nothing more than a romance, written some
years previously, by one Spaulding, but never published.
The same year the church was organized with Smith as
president. From time to time the head of the churcli
has announced special revelations on various subjects.
One of these, privately announced in 1843, but not
publicly made known till nine years later, reversed the
teaching of the Book of Mormon and sanctioned polyg-
amy. With the main body of the Mormons, polygamy,
though not practiced by all, is defended, praised and
encouraged. In 1831 the church removed to Ohio,
where they became obnoxious and were driven out.
Mormons had meanwhile begun to settle in Missouri.
They were driven hence in 1838, and then removed to
Illinois, where on the banks of the Mississippi they
founded a city called Nauvoo (''beautifur^). Here also
they became obnoxious because of their resistance to the
legal government, and their supposed immoralities. In
1844 the Governor of the State called out the militia,
but Smith and his brother surrendered on the Governor's
pledge of their safety. A mob, however, broke into the
jail where they were confined and killed both of them.
Brigham Young took Smith's place at the head of the
church, and resistance to the legal authorities was con-
tinued. In 1846 the emigration of the Mormons to a
new and unsettled region west of the Rocky Mountains
began. In 1848 they were collected at Salt Lake City
and in other parts of Utah, which is still their strong-
hold, though the neighboring Territories and even more
distant places contain some of the sect. They attempted,
without success, in 1850 to obtain Utah's admission to
the Union as *^the State of Deseret" (''the land of
the honey-bee"). When Utah was organized as a Terri-
tory in that year. Young was appointed Governor by
President Fillmore. The Mormons for many years con-
tinued a course of terrorizing, which drove away federal
officers, judges and other *' gentiles," as they called
non-believers, and Young was removed from the gover-
norship. In 1857 the Mormons were guilty of the
murder of a hundred emigrants. This ''Mountain

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 335

Meadows massacre '^ was not avenged till 1877, when
John D. Lee was executed for his participation in it.
From 1857 to 1859 federal soldiers were in the neighbor-
hood to support the national officials, and they met with
some resistance. On March 14, 1882, Congress passed
what is known as the Edmunds' Bill, approved March
22d, making polygamy a misdemeanor and practically
denying the franchise to polygamists. In 1877 Young
died and was succeeded by John Taylor as head of the
church. The admission of Utah to the Union is not
likely to occur so long as there is a possibility of its es-
tablishing polygamy on a legal basis when it has the
powers and functions of a State.

Morrill Tariff.— A tariff bill passed in 1861.

Morrison Tariff Bill.— On March 11, 1884, William
R. Morrison, of Illinois, reported from the Committee
of Ways and Means to the House of Representatives a
bill reducing most of the existing duties on imports
twenty per cent, and putting additional articles on the
free list of the tariff. The bill is called the "Morrison
bill " and the " horizontal bill.'' On May 6th, by a vote
of 159 to 155 (10 not voting), the House struck out the
enacting clause, thus killing the bill. Of the majority
42 were Democrats, and of the minority 4 were Repub-
licans.

Morton, Levi Parsons, was born at Shoreham,
Vermont, May 16, 1824. From a clerk in a country
store be became a prominent and successful merchant.
Having removed to New York he founded, in 1863, the
banking house of Morton, Bliss & Co. In 1878 he was
elected to Congress, and he was reelected in 1880. He
was Minister to France from 1881 to 1885. In 1888 he
was nominated by the Republicans for Vice-Presi-
dent.

Mother of Presidents. — Virginia is sometimes so
called because it was the birth-place of seven Presi-
dents.

Mother of States. — A name occasionally given to
Virginia because several States have been partly or
wholly formed of territory that once be\onged to it.

336 zicTioNAR y oj^ amMjRICan- politics.

Mountain Meadows Massacre. {See Mormons.)

Mud-Sill is another name for the cross-ties used as a
foundation for the rails in railroad building. In 1858
Senator Hammond in referring to the working classes
as the foundation of society and government, used the
words, the '^very mud-sill of society/^ The term spread
and was considered an equivalent for tTie working classes.
During the Civil War, the Southerners, who had aristo-
cratic tendencies, often referred to inhabitants of the
manufacturing States of the North, as '* Northern
mud-sills/'

Mugwump. — This word is said to be derived from
the language of the Algonquin Indians among whom it
meant a chief or person of importance. It came to be
applied derisively to persons who exaggerated their wis-
dom and importance, and during the presidential cam-
paign of 1884 it was used to designate those Eepublicans
that refused to support Blaine, the candidate of their
party. The name was adopted by these Independents
who lost sight of the reproach it had been intended to
convey. (See Independents.)

Mulligan Letters. — This name has been applied to
two series of letters between James G-. Blaine and War-
ren Fisher on certain business transactions. In 1876
charges of corruption in connection with legislation fa-
voring the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad, and with
other official transactions were made against Blaine. A
resolution to investigate these matters was passed by the
House of Representatives of which Blaine was a mem-
ber. The letters above referred, to, had been written in
relation to this matter and they had passed into the
hands of one Mulligan, a former clerk of Fisher. Mul-
ligan came to Washington at the instance of the investi-
gating committee; in an interview Blaine obtained
possession of the letters and confronted the committee
with them and a statement which he had prepared show-
ing his connection with the matter. This was just prior
to the meeting of the National Republican convention.
During the meeting of the convention Blaine was sun-
struck and the investigation was dropped. The charges

DtCTlONAR y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. Z^^

were again brought up against him during his candidacy
for the presidency in 1884. During that campaign
another series of Mulligan letters relating in part to the
same and in part to other matters were published. His
friends have always declared their inability to see any-
thing improper or incriminating in either series; his
opponents believe them to be perfect proof of guilt.
Certain it is, that many of the detached sentences have a
suspicious sound, and during the campaign these were
industriously disseminated and many have passed into
currency.

Mutual Protection Society. {See American
Rmglits.)

National Banking: System. — A system of national
banks, authorized to issue bank notes secured by the
pledge of United States bonds, was recommended to
Congress in the report of Secretary of the Treasury
Chase in December, 1861, as a means of raising the
revenue necessary to carry on the war. The alternative
put by him was a further issue of demand notes, of
which fifty millions had already been issued, and the
continuance of which he regarded as dangerous. The
advantages claimed by him for the national bank system
were a safe and uniform currency, greater ease for the
government in obtaining loans, a decreased rate of in-
terest (equivalent to the participation of the people in
tiie profits on circulation), avoidance of a money monop-
oly, and the distribution ol government securities among
the monied institutions of the country, thus identifying
their interests with those of the government. The sug-
gestion was not acted upon at that time, and legal
tender treasury notes, amounting in the aggregate to
$300,000,000, were authorized. At length, on February
25, 1863, the National Bank Act, having been passed by
Congress, was signed by the President. It provided for
the organization of national banks by not less than five
persons; for all capital stock to be fully paid up; for cir-
culation to the extent of ninety per cent, of the market
value of government bonds deposited, but not to exceed
ninety per cent, of the par value; the circulation was

338 DlCTIOr^AR Y OF AMERICAM POLITICS.

guaranteed by the government, wliicli had in return a
first lien on all the assets of the bank to cover any
deficit provided the bonds deposited did not fully pro-
tect it/ The total cdrculation was limited to $300,000,-
000. This was subsequently, in 1870, raised to $354,
000,000, and finally, in 1875, all restrictions on the total
amount of circulation were removed. On October 5,
1887, the total circulation outstanding was $272,387,176,
$102,719,440 of which had been withdrawn and legal
tender notes deposited for its redemption. No bank
was allowed to organize with a capital stock of less than
$50,000, and then only in towns of less than 6,000 in-
habitants; in larger places a minimum of $100,000
capital, and in cities of 50,000 inhabitants or
more, of $200,000 is required. The conversion of
State banks into national banks was authorized, but
only a few banks availed themselves of the privilege
until the passage of the Act of 1865, which placed a tax of
ten per cent, on all notes of State banks or of individuals
used as circulation or paid out by them. July, 1864,
there existed 467 national banks; January, 1865, 638;
July, 1865, 1,294; and on November 1, 1887, this num-
ber had been increased to 3,061, divided as follows:

Number
National

Banks
Obg'nized

Number
Failed.

Gone Into
Voluntary
Liquidation.

Total number of State banks con-
verted into national banks to
above date

586
3,219

19
100

Total number of new national
banks organized to above date.

656

Total organized

3,805

744

119

625

Total gone out of existence

744

Total number in existence

3,061

The aggregate capital stock, November 1, 1887, was
over $580,000,000. The banks are subject to rigid
government supervision, and beside reports made at

DICTIOKAR V OP AMEklCAN- POLITICS, . 339

stated intervals, they are liable to be called upon at any
moment for a statement of their affairs, or to subject
themselves to an examination at the hands of the bank
examiner. They are prohibited from making loans on
real estate, or on the shares of their own capital stock,
or on their own notes, or on legal tender notes, or from
making loans to any one concern to the extent of more
than one-tenth of their capital stock. The national banks
are subject to a national tax of one per cent, on their
circulation and of one-half per cent, on their average
deposits, beside the tax of the State in which they are
located. The banks have answered the expectations of
their promoters, for they have provided a currency uni-
formly safe and current everywhere. They proved dur-
ing the war and immediately after it a valuable aid in
placing government loans. The currency, indeed, is
regarded as too valuable a feature of the system to be
allowed to perish, a fate to which the rapid extinction
of the public debt at present seems to point. The
system has been denounced as one peculiarly favorable
to the banks organized under it, but when it is con-
sidered that United States four per cent, bonds are now
(1888) selling at a premium of about twenty-six per
cent., that bonds purchased at that price yield but two
and one-half per cent, to the investor, that the banks
are allowed to issue circulation to the extent of but
ninety per cent, of the par value of such bonds, and
that a tax of one per cent, on circulation is exacted,
while lawful money to the extent of five per cent, of
the circulation is required to be kept with the United
States Treasurer, and the expenses of redemption are
borne by the bank; under these circumstances it is
plain that the profit to banks on circulation is not large.
As a matter of fact, when money is worth six per cent.,
circulation secured by four per cent, bonds purchased at
a premium of twenty-five per cent., yields a profit of
about five-eighths of one per cent. January 25, 1884,
the McPherson Bill, as it is called, was reported to the
Senate. Its provisions allowed national banks to issue
circulation up to the par value of the bonds. It failed.

340 DlCTtOJ^Ak V OP AMPktCAN- POLITICS.

however, in the House. The purchase by the govern-
ment of United States bonds would retire the basis of
the national bank circulation. The plans suggested to
avoid this contingency are given under Surjjlus.

National Bank Notes. {See Currency; National
Banhing System.)

National Christian Association was formed at a
convention held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May,
1868. Its main principle is opposition to secret societies.
The association has spread widely, and now has branches
in many States. About 1872 it began action as a politi-
cal party, for an account of which see American Party IL

National Debt. {See Debt of United States.)

National League of Democratic Clubs. — A
movement started by the Young Men^s Democratic Club
of Kew York, resulted in a meeting of representatives
from Democratic clubs in various parts of the country
in lN"ew York City on April 21, 1888. An association
was formed with the above name. The general objects
are the support of the principles of the Democratic
party. In particular it indorses the policy proposed in
President Cleveland's tariff message to Congress in
December, 1887, and also the civil service laws. It
advocates legal prohibition of the formation of 'trusts,"
and the reservation of public lands for actual settlers,
and it maintains that federal taxation shall not be ^^for
the benefit of individual or class interests." The man-
agement of the league is entrusted to a general com-
mittee, of which Charles Ogden, of Omaha, was elected
chairman. Soon after the formation of the league a
call was issued for a convention to assemble at Balti-
more, Maryland, on July 4, 1888.

National Party. — The formal name of the Green-
back-Labor party, adopted at the convention of 1878.

National Republican Party. — During the admin-
istration of John Quincy Adams, the unity that had so
long prevailed in the Democratic-Republican party
showed signs of coming to an end. The differences
between the Adams and Clay Republicans and the Jack-
son Republicans were not merely on the surface, they

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 341

had roots deep down. Each acknowledged the other to
be members of the same party, it is true, but they
nevertheless contained the elements of distinct parties.
The Adams section was devoted to principles much re-
sembling those of the old Federalists, but they brought
to politics many of the popular elements of Jefferson's
methods. They favored a national bank, internal im-
provements and a protective tariff. In the election of
1828, though defeated, they made an excellent showing,
polling 509,000 popular votes to 647,000 for Jackson.
Through lack of tact Adams forfeited, the support of
many followers, and the leadership naturally fell to Clay,
and by common consent the name of National Eepubli-
can was adopted about 1830. In 1831 the party nomi-
nated Clay, but adopted no platform. An address to
the voters was issued, declaring its principles to be as
above stated, but the party was defeated. In practice,
its main aim was now opposition to the President, Jack-
son, and it welcomed as allies men of all shades of
opinions on other topics — the nullifiers of South Caro-
lina, the State 's-right factions of other States. To all
these heterogeneous elements the name of Whigs was
applied in 1834, and a large proportion of them formed
the Whig party, whose existence dates from that year.

Nativism is the principle that all political power
should be in the hands of natives of the country, or
that the requisites for naturalization should be rendered
very stringent, so as to exclude aliens as far as possible
from participation in the government. (See American
Party I.)

Nat Turner's Rebellion. — In August, 1831, a slave
revolt broke out in Southampton County, Virginia. It
was led by Nat Turner, who believed himself inspired to
do this, an eclipse of the sun in February of that year
being the sign. The excitement of the supposed revela-
tion, however, caused him to fall ill, and it was not
until August that the design was executed. He and his
fifty followers gave no quarter. The uprising was at
once put down, however, and Turner was executed.
About sixty whites and one hundred negroes lost their
lives in the struggle.

343 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, _

Naturalization is the investment of an alien with
the rights and privileges of citizenship. In accordance
with the power conferred on Congress by Article 1, sec-
tion 8, clause 4, of the Constitution, an act was passed
in 1790 providing for the naturalization of aliens. A
residence of two years in the United States, and of one
year in the State, was required. The Act of 1795 in-
creased the term of residence in the United States to
five years, and this was lengthened to fourteen years by
the Act of 1798. The Act of April 14, 1802, remains
unaltered in most respects, and is still in force. At
present, previous residence in the United States for five
successive years, and residence in the State for one year,
are required before the applicant can be naturalized.
Two years before the naturalization he must declare,
under oath or on affirmation, that he intends to become
a citizen, and he must renounce all allegiance to any
foreign sovereign or state. Persons coming to this
country under the age of eighteen may dispense with
this declaration. Certain exceptions are made in favor
of aliens honorably discharged from the armies of
the United States and in favor of seamen on United
States vessels. When the terms required have expired,
the good and law-abiding character of the applicant is
to be proven. He must take oath or affirmation that he
renounces all titles and orders of nobility, and that he
will support the Constitution of the United States, and
then he may be granted naturalization papers conferring
citizenship upon him. The Circuit and District Courts
of the United States, and State courts having a common-
law jurisdiction and a seal and clerk, have power to
grant naturalization papers. The declaration of inten-
tion, when this is needed, may be made before the clerk
of any of the above courts. i^8ee Exj^atriation; Citizen-
ship.)

Naval Academy. (See United States Xaval Acad-
emy.)

Navigation Laws. — The navigation laws of the
United States remain to-day practically the same as
when passed in 1792 ?ind 1793. They are too long and

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN P Oil TICS, 343

complicated to admit of full description., but their chief
features may be briefly stated as follows: No vessel is
deemed American and entitled to the protection of the
American flag unless she is wholly built in this country
and wholly owned and officered by Americans. Foreign
vessels can not engage in our coasting trade, which is
held to include voyages from Atlantic to Paciflc ports.
American vessels cease to be such if even a part owner
(except in a few instances) resides abroad for a short
time. An American vessel once transferred by any pro-
cess to foreigners, can never sail under our flag again.
Duty must be paid on the value of all repairs which an
American vessel makes in foreign ports on her return
to this country. Restrictions are placed on the repair-
ing of foreign vessels in our ports with imported ma-
terials. Vessels engaged in trade to ports not in North
or Central America, and a few specified adjacent places
(except fishing and pleasure vessels), pay a tax on entry
of six cents per ton of their burden, but the maximum
aggregate tax in any one year does not exceed thirty
cents. This is called a tonnage tax. Foreign vessels
pay the same tax, but an American vessel is forced to
pay an additional tax of fifty cents per ton if one of
her officers is an alien. Materials for the construction
of vessels for foreign trade may be imported free of
duty, but the duty must be paid if the vessel engages
for more than two months a year in the coasting trade.
Foreign vessels, often at great inconvenience, must un-
load at a port of entry, which is a single designated port
in each customs district of the United States, except
when laden with coal, salt or similar merchandise in
bulk. American vessels may unload at any port of
delivery in the district. Foreign capital is thus kept
out of our ship-building and ship-repairing industries.
While England and other states have been modifying
their old rigid navigation laws, the United States has
kept hers practically unchanged for a century. In the
earlier years of that period we were developing a fine
carrying trade and a prosperous ship-building industry.
The result of these laws has been to drive our commer-

344 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

cial marine from the seas, to divert our capital into
other channels or to foreign shipping, to close our ship-
yards and to deprive us of a valuable interest, ship-
repairing. The navigation laws and their operation are
not easy to be grasped thoroughly by the people gener-
ally, but the effect they have had on our shipping in-
terests shows that they are radically defective and have
failed to accomplish the object intended, namely, the
protection and encouragement of these interests.

Navy, Department of the. — This is one of the
executive departments of the government. It was
created in 1798. The Secretary of the Navy, its head,
is a member of the President's Cabinet, by custom, not
by law. He is appointed by the President and con-
firmed by the Senate. His salary is $8,000. This de-
partment has charge of the vessels, navy yards, guns
and all other matters pertaining to the navy. More-
over, the hydrographic office at which nautical charts
with sailing directions are prepared for the use of sea-
men, is under the direction of the department, as is
also the preparation of the Nautical Almanac, a work of
incalculable use to seamen. The heads of the bureaus
into which the department is divided are chosen from
the officers of the navy above the rank of captain.
They hold office four years, and draw the sea pay of
their grade or rank, not less than commodore. These
assistants are the chiefs of:

Bureau of Yards and Docks.
Bureau of Navigation.
Bureau of Ordnance.
Bureau of Provisions and Clothing-.
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
Bureau of Construction and Repair.
Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting.
Bureau of Steam Engineering.
Judge- Advocate General.
Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Below is given a list of all the Secretaries of th^
N'avy:

DICTION AR V OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 345

Nahb.

State.

Years.

George Cabot

Massachusetts

Maryland

1798—1798

Benjamin Stoddert

Kobert Smith ...

1798—1801

1801—1805

Jacob Crowninshield

Massachusetts

South Carolina

Pennsylvania

Massachusetts

New York

1805-1809

Paul Hamilton

1809—1813

William Jones

1813—1814

B. W. Crowninshield

1814—1818

1818—1823

Samuel L Southard

New Jersey

1823—1829

John Branch

North Carolina

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

1829—1831

Levi Woodbury

Mahlon Dickerson

James K. Paulding

1831—1834
1834- -1838
1838—1841

Gcorg'e E. Badger

Abel P. Upshur

North Carolina

Virginia

1841—1841
1841—1843

David Henshaw

Thomas W. Gilmer

Massachusetts

Virginia

1843—1844
1844—1844

1844—1845

George Bancroft

Massachusetts

Virginia

1845—1846

John Y. Mason

1846—1819

William B Preston

1849—1850

William A. Graham

North Carolina

Maryland

1850—1852

John P Kennedy .. ..

1852—1853

James C. Dobbin

Isaac Toucey

North Carolina

Connecticut

1853-1857
1857—1861

Gideon Welles

1861—1869

Adolph E. Borie

Pennsylvania

New Jersey —

Indiana

West Virginia

Louisiana

New Hampshire

New York

1869—1869

George M. Robeson

Richard W. Thompson

1869-1877
1877-1881

Nathan Goff

1881—1881

William L. Hunt

1881—1882

William E. Chandler

William C- Whitney

1882-1885
1885—1889

fienj F. Tracv ~

1889—....

Navy of the United States.— During the Eevolu-
tion this country had practically no navy, the largest
force at any one time being twenty-five vessels in 1776.
After that year the navy dwindled, and by the end of
the war but few vessels remained, and those were sold.
Under the stress of threatened war with France and of
actual war with the Barbary pirates (see Algerine War),
vessels were constructed, but of these only a few were
retained after the immediate necessity for their use had
passed. The Federalists favored the establishment of a
navy; the Eepublicans (Democrats) opposed it. The
complications between this country and Great Britain,
about the year 1812, caused fresh activity, and steps
were taken to the formation of a navy. At that time

546 DICTION AR V OP AMERICAN POLITICS.

we had but three first-class frigates, the Constitution,
the President and the United States. In 1812, $200,000
annually for three • years was appropriated for the con-
struction of a navy, and its permanent establishment
dates from that year. Thereafter it was recognized as a
necessity by both parties. In 1816, $1,000,000 annually
for eight years was appropriated. During the next year
live oak and red cedar on government lands were ordered
to be withdrawn from future sales and reserved for
building war vessels, and agents to supervise and protect
these woods were appointed, but in 1861, when this
provision might have been of use, the necessary papers
could not be found. The navy was not used actively in
the Mexican War, and the outbreak of the Civil War
found it again in a dilapidated condition. Moreover, at
this time many officers resigned, and the government
property in the Southern States was seized. At the out-
break of that war there were forty-two vessels in com-
mission. Of these twenty-six employed steam as auxil-
iary motive power, thirteen were sailing vessels, and
three were store-ships. Only twelve were of the home
squadron, and of these only four were in Northern
ports. The strides made under these discouraging con-
ditions were enormous. Over 3,500 miles of coast were
to be blockaded, besides vessels for the Mississippi River
and the capture of privateers and cruisers were needed.
Moreover, armor was just coming into use, and the
government yards were in no condition to turn out
modern vessels. In 1862 there were 427 vessels, carrying
3,268 guns; in 1863 there were 588 vessels, carrying
4,443 guns; in 1864 there were 671 vessels, carrying
4,610 guns. By December, 1866, the war being over,
these had decreased to 115 vessels in active service. But
this number has become still further reduced, as shown
below. Large sums have annually been spent on the
navy, but they have been used in repairing the old
vessels, which, owing to the enormous changes in naval
warfare in recent years, have become antiquated.

There were in the naval service in 1887 about 7,500
enlisted men and 750 boys. In 1883 forty-seven vessels

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN- POLITICS.

34?

were condemned and sold for a total sum of $384,753.
Of late the absolute necessity of immediate action has
been appreciated, if our navy is to be maintained even
in a condition of moderate effectiveness. The follow-
ing table shows what has been done and what it is
proposed to do. The double-turreted monitors,^ the
cruisers Chicagd., Boston,. Atlanta, Dolphin, and gun-
boats numbers 1 and 2, were authorized prior to 1884.
The armored cruisers numbers 1 and 2 were authorized
in 1886, the cruisers Charleston and Baltimore in 1885,
the Newark in 1886, the dynamite-boat in 1886, cruisers
numbers .1 and 2, and gunboats numbers 3 and 4, in
1887, the first-class torpedo-boat in 1886. The second-
class torpedo-boat Stiletto was originally built and used
as a yacht, but her extraordinary speed caused the
government to purchase her.

VESSELS OF THE NAVY IN 1887.

Propulsion.

§1

Class.

Serviceable

First
Second
Third
Fourth

10
41
6
12
18

3
10
39

5
13

12630

29250

81243

3900

'22886

34287

114

106

Tugs

• 3

Wooden Sailing: Vessels

" Un-
serviceable

76
63

Total

184196

414

The pay of seamen is $258 per annum; or ordinary
seamen 1210. The pay of the retired list of naval
officers is seventy-five per cent, of the sea pay of the
rank held at the time of retirement. They are to be
retired from active service at the age of sixty-two years,
or may (except in certain grades) b© retired after forty

348 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

years of service regardless of age. The present retired
list contains rear-admirals to the number of thirty-three.
The United States Navy Yards are situated as follows:

1. Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y.

2. Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, Mass.

3. Grosport Navy Yard, near Norfolk, Virginia.
4.Kittery Navy Yard, opposite Portsmouth, N. H.

5. League Island Navy Yard, seven miles below Philadelphia, Pa.

6. Mare Island Navy Yard, near San Francisco, Cal.

7. New London Naval Station (unfinished), New London, C!onn.

8. Pensacola Navy Yard, Pensacola, Fla.

9. Washington City Navy Yard, Washington, D. C.
10. Norfolk Navv Yard, Norfolk, Va.

There are naval stations at New London. Conn., Port Royal, S. C, and
Key West, Fla., and a torpedo station at Newport. R. I.

The officers of the navy are trained for their profes-
sion at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis
(which see). The United States marine corps consists
of 2,000 men, including 81 commissioned officers. Col-
onel Charles Hayward is commandant. The President
is commander-in-chief of the navy (Constitution, Arti-
cle 2, section 2). He acts through the Secretary of
the Navy, who is at the head of the Navy Department.
{See Navy Department of the. ) The old vessels of tlie
navy still in commission consist of seven steel and iron
vessels and one torpedo boat — all steam vessels; twenty-
three wooden steam vessels, three wooden steam receiv-
ing ships, twelve iron and wooden steam tugs, one
wooden sailing practice vessel, two wooden sailing
school ships, one wooden sailing store ship, six wooden
sailing receiving ships. On all these vessels the heavy
ordnance consists entirely of old muzzle-loading guns.
Within the last few years the necessity of increasing the
strength and formidability of our navy has been recog-
nized by the Government, and as a result the present, or
what is known as the '' New United States Navy," con-
sists of the following armored and unarmored vessels:
Chicago, 26 guns; Boston, 20 guns; Atlanta, 20 guns;
Charleston, 22 guns; Baltimore, 24 guns; Newark,
Philadelphia, San Francisco, 29 guns each; Maine, 32
guns; Texas, 30 guns; Cincinnati, Raleigh, 25 guns
each; Cruiser, No. 9, Cruiser No. 11, Detroit, 20 guns
each; New York, 34 guns; Cruiser, No. 6, 38 guns;

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 349

Monterey, 16 guns; Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon,
40 guns each; Concord, Yorktovvn, Petral, Benning-
ton, 15 guns each; Puritan, 20 guns; Miantonomah,
Terror, Monadnock, 10 guns each, and a number of
smaller vessels used for harbor defences, etc. It is the
custom of foreign ships-of-war entering the harbor, or
in passing in the vicinity of a fort, to hoist at the fore
the flag of the country in whose waters they are and
salute it; on the completion of the salute to the flag, a
salute (of 21 guns) is returned as soon as possible by the
nearest fort or battery; if there are several forts or bat-
teries in sight, or within the radius of six miles, the
principal fort returns the salute. The Presidential
salute of twenty-one guns was adopted that a uni-
formity in national salutes might be maintained,
it being the same number of guns as the royal
salute of England. The reason why twenty-one should
have been selected as the number of guns has been a
source of search and guess, with no satisfactory
results. Of the many surmises, the two carrying the
most weight of opinion are: firsts that twenty-one was
the same number of years fixed by English law as the
age of majority; the second, that seven was the original
salute, and three times seven would signify one seven
for each of the divisions, England and Wales, Scotland
and Ireland. It is also asserted that the United States
adopted this salute to signify to the mother country
that her child had reached his majority, and was pre-
pared, in law, to inherit the land; and to this end fired
the *'gun of 1776," the figures of which year added to-
gether equalled twenty-one. The salutes given in addi-
tion to the presidential salute are as follows: To the
vice-president of the United States and the president of
the Senate, 19 guns; members of cabinet, chief justice
of U. S., speaker of House of Representatives, 17 guns;
rear admiral, 13 guns; commodore, 11 guns; captain, 9
guns; to a sovereign or chief magistrate of any foreign
country, 21 guns, to the heir apparent or consort of a
reigning sovereign, 21 guns. A salute in accordance
witn their rank is also given to the viceroy, governor-

350 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

general or governors of provinces belonging to foreign
states, to ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary,
to envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary,
to ministers resident accredited to the United States, to
charges d'affairs in charge of missions in the United
States, to consuls general accredited to the United
States and to officers of foreign services. The salary
of the principal officers of the United States navy is as
follows: .Rear-admiral, at sea $6,000, on shore duty
15,000, leave or waiting orders $4,000; commodore, at
sea $5,000, on shore duty $4,000, leave or waiting
orders $3,000; captain, at sea $4,500, on shore duty
$3,500, leave or waiting orders $2,800; commander, at
sea $3,500, on shore duty $3,000, leave or waiting
orders $2,300; lieut. -commander, first four years, at
sea $2,800, thereafter $3,000, on shore duty $2,400,
thereafter $2,600, leave or waiting orders $2,000, there-
after $2,200; lieutenant, first five years, at sea $2,400,
thereafter $2,600, on shore duty $2,000, thereafter
$2,200, leave or waiting orders $1,600, thereafter
$1,800; lieutenant, junior grade, first five years, at sea
$1,800, thereafter $2,000, on shore duty $1,500, there-
after $1,700, leave or waiting orders $1,200, thereafter
$1,400; ensign, first five years, at sea $1,200.

Nebraska was originally a part of the Louisiana
purchase. {^8ee Annexations I.; Territories.) In 1854
it was organized as a separate territory, including Mon-
tana, Dakota, Wyoming and part of Colorado, as these
now exist. On March 1, 1867, the President's procla-
mation, following an act of Congress, declared it to be
a State. The capital is Lincoln. The population in
1880 was 452,402, and in the last census, 1890, 1,058,-
910. Nebraska has three seats in the House of Repre-
sentatives and five electoral votes. It is Republican in
politics. Its name is of Indian origin, and is supposed
to mean * ^shallow water." {See Governors; Legislatures.)

Neutrality is the abstention from engaging in a war
carried on between other nations and the preservation of
complete impartiality toward all tlie belligerents. The
territory of the neutral is inviolable, but if permission to
use it is granted to one belligerent it must be granted to

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Zh\

all. War vessels with their prizes may enter neutral
ports unless forbidden; by the laws of the United
States prizes are not admitted to our ports. The right
of belligerents to raise forces in a neutral country, if

f ranted to one, must be granted to all; the United
tates permits this to none. It is practically recognized
at present that a neutral flag protects both vessel and
cargo, except articles contraband of war, and that
neutral goods, with the same exception, are protected
even on a belligerent vessel. Neutral vessels must be
provided with proper papers and must submit to reason-
able examination. {^See Blockade; Contraband of War.)
The persons and property of belligerents are protected
while in neutral jurisdiction. War ships of belligerent::
must preserve peace with each other while in neutral
harbors, or within a marine league of a neutral coast.
If a war-ship leaves a neutral port, war-ships of its
enemy are not permitted to leave till a day later; this
is called the "twenty-four hour rule.^^ The person and
property of a neutral are inviolable even when among
belligerents, so long as he abstains from participating in
hostilities.

Nevada was originally a part of Mexico and was
ceded to us by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
{See Annexations IV.) It was organized as a separate"
Territory in 1861, and was admitted to the Union on
October 31, 1864, by the President's proclamation, in
accordance with an act of Congress. The capital is
Carson City. The population in 1880 was 62,266 and in
the last census (1890) 45,761. Nevada has one represen-
tative in Congress and three electoral votes. In 1872
and 1880 the vote for President was Democratic and in
1876 and 1884 Republican. Its name is of Spanish
origin and means '^snow covered.^' Popularly it is
known as the Sage Hen State. {See Governors; Legis-
latures. )

New Breeches. — A nickname applied to the Con-
stitution while it was before the people for ratification.

New England Emigrant Aid Company, was a
corporation chartered by the Massachusstts Legislature

352 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

in 1855, to aid free State emigration to Kansas, in
which region the struggle between the free State and
the slave parties was then at its height. (/See Border
War.)

New Hampshire was one of the original States of
the Union. The capital is Concord. The population in
1880 was 346,991, and in the last census (1890) 376,530.
New Hampshire has two representatives in Congress and
four electoral votes. It is considered a Kepublican
State. It was named for Hampshire County in Eng-
land, and is known familiarly as the Granite State, from
its extensive granite quarries. [See Governors; Legisla-
tures.)

New Jersey was one of the original States of the
Union. The capital is Trenton. The population in
1880 was 1,131,116, and in the last census (1890) 1,444,-
933. New Jersey is entitled to seven seats in the House
of Representatives and nine electoral votes. It may be
considered a Democratic State, though somewhat doubt-
ful. Throughout and since the Civil War, except in
1872, the Democratic electors have been chosen. It
was named for the Island of Jersey, one of the Channel
Islands. (See Governors; Legislatures.)

New Mexico was organized as a Territory of the
United States by Act of September 9, 1850, from terri-
tory ceded by Mexico. (See Annexatiojis IV.) In 1854
the region acquired by the Gadsden purchase (see An-
nexations V.) was added to New Mexico, which then in-
cluded Arizona and parts of Nevada and Colorado, as
these now exist. A few years later the northwestern
and northeastern corners were given to Nevada and Col-
orado, respectively, and in 1863 the western half was
formed into the Territory of Arizona. Santa Fe is the
capital. The population in 1880 was 119,565 and in
the last census (1890) 153,593. It would probably have
been made a State before this, but for the fear that its
semi-Mexican population would practically establish a
State church. (See Governors; Legislatures.)

New Roof. — A nickname applied to tlie Constitu-
tion while it was before the people for ratification.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 353

New York was one of the original States of the
Union. The capital is Albany. The population in
1880 was 5,082,871, and in the last census (1890) 5,997,-
853. New York has thirty-four seats in the House of
Representatives and thirty-six electoral votes. It is a
doubtful State, and the most important one in national
politics. In 1872 and 1880 it was carried for the Repub-
lican national candidates, and in 1876 and 1884 by the
Democratic. It was named in honor of the Duke of
York, one of its colonial governors. Popularly it is
known as the Empire State, from its importance, and
as the Excelsior State, from the motto on its coat of
arms. {See Governors; Legislatures,)

Nez Perce War. {See Indian Wars.)

Nicholas Biddle's United States Bank. — Under
this name the second United States Bank was known,
after it was re-chartered by the State of Pennsylvania in
1836. The bank paid the State 'S2,000,006 for the
charter. Nicholas Biddle, the president, claimed for
the bank a large surplus after paying for the charter.
The bank failed in 1841. In 1838 the stock was quoted
as high as 125; in 1841 it dropped to 3^.

Night-Soilers. — A derisive name applied by the
Hunkers to those members of the Democratic party that
called themselves Free-Soilers. {See Free- Soil Party.)

Noblest Roman of them All. — This phrase oc-
curs in Shakespeare's tragedy of Julius Caesar^ and is
applied to Brutus. Allen Gr. Thurman, of Ohio, is
sometimes popularly so-called.

No Man's Land. {See Cimarron.)

Nominating Conventions. — When the con2:res-
sional caucus came to an end the present system of nom-
inating conventions sprang up. In this country the
earliest political influences were wielded by groups of
leaders. Then followed the caucus in the Legislature for
the nomination of State officers, and the congressional
caucus {lohich see) to nominate the President. The present
system had its origin in the State of New York, where
it was suggested by the Tammany Society as early as
1813. The caucuses of the Legislatures had from time

354 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

to time admitted citizens to their councils. This caucus,
containing only members of the Legislature, did not, of
course, represent those parts of the State in which the
opposite party had been successful, and in 1817 these
unrepresented parts in New York sent delegates to the
caucus. Here was laid the foundation of the present
system, but it was not fairly adopted even in New York
until 1824, and by 1830 it was well established in most
of the States. By 1835 the system, including the
national conventions, was completely established. The
first adoption of the system was by the Democratic
party. Its opponents were slower in making use of it,
and it was not until 1844 that the Whig party had a
complete organization on this basis. The voters of a
party in a town or election district hold a primary con-
vention, as it is called, and this primary is the unit
which is compounded into the county. State and
national conventions of the party, each of these nomi-
nating the officers for its respective domain. The
national conventions of both the Democratic and the
Eepublican parties admit from each State two delegates
for every electoral vote, but while the Eepublicans give
a vote to two delegates from every territory, the Demo-
crats do not. In Democratic national conventions every
State votes as a unit, the will of the majority determin-
ing the choice of the State delegation, the vote of two-
thirds of the delegates being required to nominate. (It
has never been determined whether two-thirds of all the
delegates to the convention, or two-thirds of those
present, is requisite.) In the convention of 1884 the
opposition to Cleveland made strong efforts to break the
'*unit rule." In Eepublican national conventions every
delegate votes as an individual merely, and a majority
vote is sufficient to nominate. The only real attempt
to introduce the ''unit rule," or vote by States, was
made in 1880, in the interest of Grant's nomination for
a third term (his second term expired in 1877), but it
failed. These rules have been adopted by convention
after convention, although their adoption by any subse-
quent convention is in no way assured.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 355

The Territorial delegates, who are admitted in the
Republican Convention but not in the Democratic, are
chosen in the same way as a Congressional delegate.

Non- Importation. — An act of Congress prohibiting
the importation of certain merchandise, or merchandise
from specified countries, is known as a non-importation
law. The chief one in our history was passed in April,
1806, forbidding the importation of certain articles pro-
duced by England or her colonies. It went into effect
in November, but was soon suspended, and afterward
the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts took its place.

Non -Intercourse. — Congressional prohibition of
commerce with a particular nation, or with particular
nations, is called a non-intercourse law. On March 1,
1809, a Non-Intercourse Act was passed to take the place
of the Embargo Act. It prohibited commerce with En-
gland and France, and forbade the entrance of vessels
of those nations or goods produced by them or their
colonies. With several modifications it remained in
force against Great Britain till the War of 1812.

Non-interference, Doctrine of. — A name applied
to the doctrine of Calhoun, that Congress had no right
to interfere with slavery in the States and Territories.
It is best explained by the following resolution, intro-
duced in the national Democratic Convention of 1848,
by William L. Yancey, of Alabama: '' Resolved, That
the doctrine of non-interference with the rights of
property of any portion of the people of this confed-
eracy, be it in the States or Territories thereof, by any
other than the parties interested in them, is the true
Republican doctrine recognized by this body.'' At that
time it was rejected. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, passed
in 1854, is the first law countenancing this principle,
notwithstanding the faci that this bill refers to the
Compromise of 1850 as having recognized it.

North Carolina was one of the original States of
the Union. A State convention passed an ordinance of
secession on- May 21, 1861, and by Act of June 25,
1868, the state was re-admitted. The capital is Raleigh.
The population in 1880 was 1,399,750, and in the last

356 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

census (1890) 1,617,947. North Carolina has nine repre-
sentatives in Congress and eleven electoral votes. It is a
Democratic State in national politics. The two Caro-
linas were named after Charles II., of England (in
Latin, Carolus). Popularly it is called the Old North
State, the Tar State and the Turpentine State. \See
Governors; Legislatures. )

Northeast Boundary.— The Treaty of 1783, be-
tween Great Britain and the United States, defined the
northern boundary of the latter between the St. Law-
rence and the Atlantic. For nearly sixty years, how-
ever, the meaning of the language used was in dispute,
especially as to the " highlands ^^ and the true source of
the Connecticut River. Commissioners appointed under
Jay's Treaty of 1794 helped to settle some of the bound-
ary marks, but the question remained unsettled, as a
whole, despite efforts made in 1803, in 1814 by the
Treaty of Ghent, in 1827 and in other years. By the
convention of 1827, the matter was referred for arbitra-
tion to the king of the Netherlands, but his award,
rendered in 1831, was accepted by neither nation. In
1838 and 1839 there were some hostilities on the border
(called the Aroostook disturbance), Maine ^ent armed
men thither and erected forts, and Congress authorized
the President to resist encroachments of British subjects.
General Scott, however, arranged for a truce and a joint
occupation. Great Britain finally appointed Lord Ash-
burton to settle the matter with our government, and he
concluded a treaty (see AsJiburton Treaty) with Daniel
Webster, then Secretary of State, on August 9, 1842.
This treaty fixed the boundary line favorably to British
claims on the whole, though New York and New
Hampshire gained some territory. Maine and Massa-
chusetts were to be compensated by the United States
for territory given up, grants of land in the disputed
region were confirmed and the navigation of the St.
John River was made free for people of both nations.
Much popular indignation was felt in this country at
the yielding of any portion of our claims.

Northwest Boundary. — Russia, Spain, Great Brit-

DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 357

ain and the United States have each at one time or an-
other laid claim to part or all of the territory lying west
of the Rocky Mountains and between latitude forty-two
degrees north, the present northern boundary of Cali-
fornia, and fifty-four degrees, forty minutes north.
This whole region was known as Oregon. Eussia with-
drew her claims to the territory south of fifty-four de-
grees, forty minutes (the present southern limit of
Alaska) by a treaty with the United States of 1824 (rati-
fied by our government January 11, 1825), and by a
treaty with Great Britain of February, 1825. The claim
of Spain passed to France by treaty, along with the
region known as Louisiana in 1800, and was transferred
to the United States in 1803 by the purchase of Louisi-
ana. (6fee Annexations /. ) Spain still held what is now
apart of our Pacific coast, but by the treaty of 1819 (rati-
fied by Spain in 1821) she named the latitude of forty-
two degrees as the northern limit of her territory.
(See Annexations II.) Great Britain and the United
States were now the only claimants to Oregon.
Both based their claims on discovery, exploration and
occupation. Great Britain, however, showed a will-
ingness to compromise on the Columbia River as the
boundary, while the United States would not entertain
the thought of compromise short of the forty-ninth de-
gree. At the same time our government claimed as far
north as the headwaters of the Columbia, in about lati-
tude fifty-two degrees, and a strong popular opinion pre-
vailed that the territory up to fifty-four degrees forty
minutes belonged to us. This was probably caused by
the terms of the treaty with Russia, which of course
had no force as between this country and Great Britain.
The Treaty of Peace of 1783, which closed the Revolu-
tion, settled our northern boundary as far west as the
Mississippi, which was at that time the western limit of
our territory. After the purchase of Louisiana, the
convention of 1818 between England and the United
States carried the boundary as far west as the Rocky
Mountains, along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude,
leaving the region west of those mountains open to joint

358 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

occupation for ten years. A convention, ratified by the
United States in April, 1828, continued this joint occu-
pation indefinitely, providing, however, that either
nation might terminate the arrangement by a yearns
notice. The yielding to British claims as to the North-
east Boundary {which see) by the Treaty of 1842, led to
a popular desire, especially marked in the Democratic
party, to enforce our extreme claims in the northwest,
and gave rise to the political cry of ^' fifty-four forty or
fight. ^' In the latter part of Tyler's administration
(1844-45) Calhoun, then Secretary of State, had made
an offer to accept the forty-ninth degree as the bound-
ary, which a calm view of the facts seems to show was
the utmost the United States could rightfully claim.
England, however, insisted on the Columbia Eiver from
the forty-ninth parallel to the Pacific. On Calhoun's
refusal an arbitration was proposed, which was also de-
clined. A strong war feeling was now aroused in Great
Britain, to avoid the consequences of which Polk's Sec-
retary of State, Buchanan, in July, 1845, again offered to
accept the forty-ninth parallel. This was refused by
England and also withdrawn by Buchanan, because of
the indignation aroused in this country at the thought
of yielding. Congress debated the matter and advised
giving the notice necessary to terminate the joint occu-
pancy, which was done. Great Britain was avowedly
making war preparations. Finally, however, in June,
1846, the British ambassador made an offer to accept as
the boundary the forty -ninth parallel, as far as the chan-
nel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland, and
from that point a line through the middle of that chan-
nel and the Strait of Fuca to the Pacific. Both
nations were to have free navigation of the channel and
the Columbia Eiver. By the advice of the Senate rati-
fications were exchanged to a convention on this basis on
July 17, 1846. The Treaty of Washington, 1871, pro-
vided for the decision by the Emperor of Germany of a
dispute which had arisen under the settlement of 1846.
The United States claimed the Canal de Haro as the
channel through which the boundary was to run, while

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 359

Great Britain claimed the Bosario Straits; San Juan
and other islands were thus in dispute; Emperor Will-
iam in 1872 decided in favor of the United States, and
the boundary was thus at last and completely defined.

Northwest Conspiracy. — By this name is known a
plot that was hatched by Southern sympathizers at the
North, during the Civil War, for the purpose of aiding
the South by an insurrection of large proportions. It
takes its name from the section of the country in which
it was formed. Illinois was probably the headquarters.
In June, 1864, exposures in regard to it were made,
arms seized and leaders arrested. The execution of the
design was thus thwarted.

Northwest Territory, {bee Territories.)

No Union With Slaveholders. — One of the
mottoes of the abolition newspaper. The Liierator, {See
Abolitionists.)

Nullification is the act of nullifying or declaring
void a law. In our history the term is applied to the
nullification by a State of a national law. The Cher-
okee Case is the first successful instance of it, but the
word usually has relation to the case of South Carolina,
where the result was different. The nullification doc-
trine of Hayne differed slightly from that of Calhoun,
Hayne declaring that the right to nullify resided in the
State Legislature, while Calhoun maintained that it
must be exercised by the people in a State convention.
These doctrines were called into being under the follow-
ing circumstances. The tariffs of 1824 and of 1828 had
gradually introduced a system of protection of home
manufactures. The South, employing unskilled and
untaught slave labor, had no manufactures, and there-
fore objected to a system protecting Northern manu-
factures at its expense. A tariff bill, slightly reduc-
ing some duties, became a law July 14, 1832, but the
South, and preeminently South Carolina, was not satis-
fied. This State now took steps to carry into execution
threats previously made. A State convention was called
to meet November 19, 1832, and on November 24th an
ordinance of uallification was passed. This ordinance

360 DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS.

declared the Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1832 void; forbade
the payment of duty under these acts after February 1,
1833; declared an appeal to the Supreme Court of the
United States regarding the validity of the ordinance to
be contempt of the State court; caused every juror and
every State officer to swear to support the ordinance;
and declared that if force were used against her, she
would consider herself no longer a member of the
Union. President Jackson acted with energy. He
issued a proclamation pointing out that nullification was
inconsistent with the Constitution, and *' disunion by
armed force ^^ treason. General Scott was ordered to
Charleston. The collector of that city was instructed
to take precautions to insure the payment of duties,
and a naval force entered its harbor. In January, 1833,
a private meeting of the nullifiers had decided to post-
pone the operations of the ordinance until after the
adjournment of Congress, and duties were paid after the
1st of February as they had been before. Nullification
had been crushed by the energy of Andrew Jackson.
Toward the end of February, 1833, a new tariff bill was
passed, though by no means one entirely satisfactory to
the South, and on March 16th a State convention re-
pealed the ordinance of nullification.

Offensive Partisans. — This phrase occurs in a con-
fidential circular letter of Postmaster-General Vilas,
dated April 29, 1885. It treats of the removal from
office of certain Republican postmasters and the ap-
pointment of Democratic successors, and declares that
in order to secure a removal, proof must be furnished
that the incumbent was an *' offensive partisan." The
phrase has become common.

Office of President is Essentially Executive
in Its Nature. — Grover Cleveland in his letter of
August 18, 1884, accepting the presidential nomination
of the Democratic party used the following words, which
have since passed into current use: "The office of
President is essentially executive in its nature."

O Grab Me Act. — The opponents of the Embargo
Act of 1807, spelling the name backwards, called it the

. DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 361

'' 0 grab me " Act, in allusion to the inequality with
which it bore on the different sections of the country,
favoring the agricultural interests of the South at the
expense of the shipping and commercial interests of
New England.

Ohio was cut off from the Northwest Territory in 1800,
and organized separately. i^See Territories.) It is
somewhat doubtful whether the date of its admission to
the Union should be November 29, 1802, or that of the
act of February 19, 1803, but probably the former. The
capital is Columbus. The population in 1880 was
3,198,062, and in the last census (1890) 3,672,316.
Ohio has twenty-one Congressmen and twenty-three
electoral votes. It is a Kepublicau State. The name
is of Indian origin and means '' beautiful river!" Pop-
ularly Ohio is called the Buckeye State and its inhabi-
tants Buckeyes, from the buckeye-tree, a species of
horse-chestnut, which abounds in the State. {8ee
Governors; Legislatures ; Toledo War.),

Ohio Idea. — The suggestion that such parts of the
United States debt as were not in terms made payable
in coin be paid in greenbacks passed under the above
name. {See Greenback- Labor Party.)

Oklahoma Territory was originally a part of the
Indian Territory, but was organized as a separate Terri-
tory by Act of May 2, 1890. Previous to its organ-
ization several attempts were made to settle in it by
white men who were known as *' Oklahoma Boomers,"
but as the land there belonged to the Indians this was
not permitted. The population according to the last
census (1890) was 61,834. The capital is Guthrie. (See
Governors ; Legislat ures. )

Old Abe. — A familiar name by which Abraham Lin-
coln came to be known among the people.

Old Bullion was a nickname given to Thomas H.
Benton, of Missouri, by reason of his advocacy, during
the discussion as to re-chartering the United States
Bank in Jackson's administration, of the adoption of
gold and silver as the currency of the country.

Old Colony. — A familiar name for the State of
Mass^chusettSf

362 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, •

Old Dominion. — A term frequently applied to Vir*
ginia. Its origin is not settled.
Old Guard Dies, But Never Surrenders. — The

flower of Napoleon's army was known as the Old Guard.
In the battle of Waterloo they were reserved to make
the final and decisive charge, which, though gallantly
carried out, was unsuccessful. All hope of a French
victory was lost, and retreat was ordered. The Old
Guard were surrounded and called on to surrender.
Then General Cambronne is said to have replied (though
the phrase is claimed by some to have been an after
invention) ''The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders, '*
and making another charge, they perished almost to a
man. In our political history the supporters of Grant
in the Republican convention of 1880 were known as
the Old Guard, and of this famous but unsuccessful
''Three Hundred and Six'' it was said, "The Old
Guard dies, but never surrenders."

Old Hickory. — A sobriquet of Andrew Jackson,
first given by his soldiers in 1813. It is supposed by
some to have originated in the example Jackson set his
soldiers, when short of rations, of feeding on hickory
nuts. But Parton says: "It was not an instantaneous
inspiration, but a growth. First of all, the remark was
made by some soldier who was struck with his com-
mander's pedestrian powers, that the general was
'tough.' Next it was observed that he was as 'tough
as hickory.' Then he was called 'Hickory.' Lastly,
the affectionate adjective 'old' was prefixed, and the
general thenceforth rejoiced in the completed nick-
name, usually the first-won honor of a great com-
mander."

Old Man Eloquent. — John Quincy Adams was so
called.

Old Pathfinder. — A popular name given to John C.
Fremont, in allusion to his success as an explorer.

Old Public Functionary is a phrase by which
James Buchanan was known. He applied the term to
himself in his annual message to Congress in 1857.
During his life he was referred to as 0. P. F.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 363

Old Rough and Ready. — A nickname of General
Zachary Taylor.

Old Saddle-Bags is a name applied to Joseph E.
McDonald, of Indiana (see Ms name).

Omnibus Bill, The. (/S'ee Compromise of 1850.)

Omnibus Bills. — Bills ** embracing numerous dis-
tinct objects " are called omnibus bills.

Once an Englishman Always an English-
man. {8ee War of 1812.)

On the Fence. — In political parlance a man is said
to be on the fence when he is undecided whether or not
to support a particular measure or man, or when
he stands between two parties, allied with neither.
The comparison implied will be still plainer when we
add the contemptuous phrase sometimes applied to a
political time-server, that he is "on the fence ready to
drop on either side.^^

On to Richmond. — This cry, started during the
Civil War by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune,
was reechoed by the federal army and those who advo-
cated an immediate forward movement on the Confeder-
ate capital.

On to Washington. — This was the cry of the Con-
federate army in the early part of the Civil War, when
they were crowding toward the capital and thought it
lay within their grasp.

Open Letter. — An open letter is one published in a
newspaper or other public print instead of being sent as
usual to the person addressed. This course is sometimes
pursued where the controversy is of general interest
either from its nature or from the peculiar circumstances
of the case.

Order of American Knights. {8ee American
Knights.)

Order of Knights of Labor is the name of one of
the largest national labor organizations of the United
States. It is a secret order and was established in 1869.
It is at present composed of about 200,000 members,
comprising about 3,400 assemblies. At its head is the
General Master Workman, Its object is the ameliora^

364 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

tion of the condition of its members, that is, laboring
men, and to that end strikes are resorted to, but only
when absolutely necessary, arbitration being preferred.
The General Master Workman at present is T. V. Pow-
derly.

Order of the Sons of Liberty. {See American
Kniglits. )

Order of the Star Spangled Banner. (8ee Amer-
ican Party.)

Orders in Council. {8ee Emhargo Act.)

Ordinance of 1784. — At the close of the Eevolu-
tion it was regarded as unjust that the States having
unsettled western possessions should hold the same
solely for their own benefit, and it was agreed that these
should be ceded to the general government. In 178.4
Jefferson presented to the Continental Congress, at Phil-
adelphia, Virginia's deed of cession of all her territory
northwest of the Ohio, and, as chairman of a committee
appointed for the purpose, he submitted a plan for the
government of that tract and of any other that might
be ceded within certain geographical limits. This is
known as the Ordinance of 1784. As reported, it pro-
vided, among other regulations, for the division of the
territory into embryo States, and ordained that it should
forever remain a part of and subject to the government
of the United States, and finally it abolished slavery in
the territory after the year 1800. Its concluding section
declared it to be a compact between the thirteen original
States and "those newly described, '' and to be unalter-
able -except by the consent of Congress and of the State
concerned. The vote on the section prohibiting slavery
showed six States in favor of the section and three
against it, but as it could not be adopted by less than a
majority of all the States, it failed. In this shape the
ordinance was carried.

Ordinance of 1787. — ''An ordinance for the gov-
ernment of the Territory of the United States north-
west of the river Ohio,'Vas reported to the last Continental
Congress at New York, in 1787, by a committee ap-
pointed for the purpose. This ordinance followed the

JbiCtlONAR y OF AMERICAN POUtICS. ^65

lines of Jefferson^s Ordinance of 1784, from which it
differed, among other things, in providing for the imme-
diate abolition of slavery. As the act applied only to
territory north of the Ohio, and as, moreover, it con-
tained a provision for the return of fugitive slaves, the
Southern States offered no opposition, and it was
adopted by the unanimous vote of the States.

Oregon was acquired by purchase from France in
1803. {See Annexations I.) Its southern boundary was
defined by the Treaty of 1819 with Spain {see Annexa-
tions II.), and its northern boundary by the convention
of 1846. {8ee Northwest Boundary.) It was organized
as a Territory, including what are now Washington and
Idaho Territories, in 1848. On February 14, 1859, it
was admitted to the Union. The capital is Salem. The
population in 1880 was 174,768, and in the last census
J1890) 313,767. Oregon is entitled to only one seat
in the House of Kepresentatives, and has three electoral
votes. It is Republican, though not by large majorities.
{See Electoral Commission.) Its name is of Spanish
origin, and means ''wild thyme.'' {See Governors;
Legislatures. )
Oregon Boundary. {See Northwest Boundary.)
Orleans, Territory of. {See Territories.)
Ossawattomie Brown ; or, John Brown, of
Ossawattomie. — A name which John Brown acquired
while in Kansas. His sons had settled near the village
of Ossawattomie, in that State, and here he joined
them. {See Brown, John.)

Ostend Manifesto. — The expeditions of Lopez in
1850 and 1851 to assist the Cubans in their revolution-
ary plans, and Secretary of State Everett's declination
in 1852 to engage with France and England in the
proposed Tripartite Treaty {see Filibtisters and Tri-
partite Treaty), attracted much attention to the
question of annexing Cuba to the United States.
President Pierce in 1854 directed our ministers to
Great Britain, France and Spain — James Buchanan,
John Y. Mason and Pierre Soule — to meet and con-
sider the subject. Accordingly they met at Ostend,

366 DtCTIOI^AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

in Belgium, whence they adjourned to Aix la Chapdle.
From this place, in October, 1854, they addressed a
letter to our government declaring that the purchase
of Cuba would be advantageous, both to Spain and
to the United States, but urging that if the island
could not be acquired by purchase it was advisable, and
would be justifiable for our own protection, to seize it.
This dispatch is known as the Ostend Manifesto and
was chiefly the work of Buchanan. No practical results
followed. In 1856 it was denounced by the Republican
platform and not defended by the Democratic. But the
latter party in 1860 advised the acquisition of Cuba by
purchase.

►ur Country is the World — Our Countrymen
are all Mankind. — One of the mottoes of the aboli-
tion newspaper. The Liberator, (See Abolitionists.)

Our Country, Right or Wrong.— At a dinner in
Norfolk, Virginia, in 1816, Commodore Stephen Deca-
tur gave the following toast: *^ Our country! In her
intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the
right; but our country, right or wrong.''

Our Federal Union, It Must be Preserved. — On
April 13, 1830, a dinner was given in the city of Wash-
ington in honor of Jefferson's birthday. One of its ob-
jects was, if possible, to commit the Democratic party
to the doctrine of nullification. The regular toasts had
been adapted to that end, but when they were over a call
on Jackson for a toast of his own, drew out the above.

Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred
Honor. — These are the closing words of the Declara-
tion of Independence, which is from the pen of Thomas
Jefferson.

Our Own Evarts. — A name by which William M.
Evarts, of New York, is known.

Pacific Blockade is a blockade enforced while there
is no war existing between the blockading and the block-
aded countries. It is hardly justified by international
law, but is sometimes employed as a coercive measure
by a powerful nation against a weak one.

Pacific Mail Subsidies. {See Subsidies,)

DICTION AR y OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 367

Pairs. — An agreement between two members of a
legislative body, that would, have voted on opposite sides
of a question, for each to abstain from voting, is called a
pair; the result is thus left unaffected and one or both
of the members is enabled to be absent.

Pacific Railroads. — This name is applied collectively
to various railroads, as stated below, to which the aid of
the national government was extended in order to facili-
tate railroad connection between the Pacitic coast and the
remainder of the country. Such communication had
long been regarded as necessary to prevent a gradual
utter divergence of interests between these sections and
consequent ultimate separation. As early as 1846 the
scheme had been broached. In 1855 surveys were made,
and in 1860 both of the great political parties recom-
mended government aid to the project. In 1862 an act
was accordingly passed granting to the companies five
sections of public land and $16,000 in government
bonds for every mile constructed, the land and bonds
for every stretch of forty miles to be turned over to the
company only on the completion of such stretch. For
different portions of the route the grants of bonds
varied, some being as high as $48,000 per mile for the
more difficult. On the other hand, all transportation
or other service performed for the government was to
be applied to its reimbursement for the principal and
interest of the bonds so issued. Meanwhile the bonds
were to be a first lien on all the property of the com-
pany. In 1864 the grant of land per constructed mile
was increased from five to ten sections. (See Land
Grants.) The stretch of forty miles required to be
completed each time before bonds and land on any part
of it were granted, was reduced to twenty miles, and the
company was authorized to issue bonds not exceeding
the amount of the government bonds, the mortgage of
the latter in favor of the government to be postponed
to that of the new bonds; moreover, it was provided
that only one-half of the value of the company's ser-
vices to the government was to be retained to extinguish
the debt; the other half was to bo paid in cash

368 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

to the company. The Union Pacific Road was
built westward over the mountains, and the Central
Pacific Road was built eastward from Sacramento.
These two lines were joined, with impressive cere-
monies, at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869.
The last tie, of laurel wood, with a plate of silver upon
it, was laid, and the last spike, made of iron, silver, and
gold, was driven in the presence of distinguished men.
The officers of the road, and a large concourse of visit-
ors from East and West were present. Telegraph
wires were attached to the last rail, and the last blows
were signaled upon bells in Washington and other large
cities. In many places large crowds had gathered to
receive the first intimation conveyed almost instantane-
ously over the electric wires, that the great work was
complete. When the signal was received in San Fran-
cisco and elsewhere all the church bells Avere rung, and
cannon were fired.

In May, 1878, an act, known as the Thurman Act,
was passed, prescribing more stringent terms for the
repayment of government advances. In addition to the
amounts retained out of sums due for government ser-
vice, the Act of 1862 provided for the payment of five
per cent, of the net earnings of the company. The Act
of 1878 retained the entire amount due to the companies
for government service, one-half to be applied to interest
payments, one-half to form a sinking fund for the prin-
cipal, and it required, moreover, the annual payment of
a fixed sum ($850,000 for the Union Pacific and $1,200,-
000 for the Central Pacific), or so much thereof as
might be necessary to make the total obtained by adding
the five per cent, of net earnings and the whole of the
compensation retained, equal to twenty-five per cent, of
the net earnings. The method of computing the net
earnings was prescribed, and it was provided that the
additional payments thus required were not to be ex-
acted unless the net earnings were sufficient to meet the
interest on the bonds prior in lien to the government
mortgage.

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 369

Panic of 1837 and Wild-Cat Banks.— After the

closing up of the United States banks iu 1832, and the
transfer of its deposits to State banks, there was a
great increase in the number of small banks, especially
in the South and West, where the influx of population
was a constant stimulus to the desire for speculation.
The scarcity of capital in those regions made it easy to
put in circulation anything that purported to be money.
Thus, any enterprising individual could, with a very
limited capital, or indeed with no capital at all, open a
bank, issue 110,000 or more in small notes, and pass
them over in easy loans to land speculators. Another
way of playing the same game was to nominally estab-
lish the headquarters of a bank in a remote or inacces-
sible point in the State, say of Georgia or Illinois,
where the bills purported to be issued and to be pay-
able. The real place of business, however, for the cir-
culation of the notes of the bank was a distant city.
New Orleans, perhaps, or Buffalo. These institutions
were called wild-cat banks, and this mode of doing
business wild-cat banking. It took only about four
years of this method of swindling to bring on the crash
of 1837, one of the most painful and prolonged crises
in our financial history.

Pan Electric Scandal. — The Pan Electric Com-
pany is a company claiming patents which would be
valuable if the Bell Telephone patents were declared in-
valid. The promoters of the scheme are alleged to have
distributed some of the stock among Senators in order to
secure, if possible, legislation favorably affecting their
company. A. H. Garland, at that time Attorney-General,
received some of this stock while Senator, it is charged,
and when the Pan Electric Company applied to the
Attorney-General to begin suit in the name of the
United States government for the annulment of the Bell
patents, comment was naturally rife. The application
was heard by the Solicitor-General, the Attorney-
General being on a vacation, >^nd after mature delibera-

StO JblCTiONAR V- OF AMERICAN- POLirlCS.

tion favorably decided. The holding of this stock by
the Senators had previously been the subject of inquiry
by a congressional committee.

Panics. {See Commercial Crises.)

Paper Blockade. [See Bloclcade.)

Pardon.— A pardon in its legal sense is the remission
of the penalty imposed for the commission of a crime.
"When partial it is called a commutation of sentence.
The effect of a full pardon is to restore the criminal to
all his rights and privileges as a citizen. It is regarded
as a deed and must be accepted to be valid. It cannot,
however, be recalled when once made complete by de-
livery and acceptance. The pardoning power is inherent
in the sovereign. In the United States the power of
granting pardons for offences against federal laws is del-
egated to the President. In the States it is usually
given to the Governor, but it may be left to the Legisla-
ture, or entrusted to a Court of Pardons, as in New
Jersey.

Paris Monetary Conference. — There have been
three such conferences. I. The Conference of 1867
met in Paris, June 17, 1867, at the invitation of France.
The United States was represented by Samuel B. Eug-
gles, of New York. The Conference voted in favor of
the single gold standard, ^ leaving each State the liberty
to keep its silver standard temporarily, '' and also in
favor of the five-franc gold piece of France as the com-
mon denominator for an international coinage. The
conclusions of the Conference were to be referred to the
governments taking part in it. The answers were to be
sent to France, to which nation the power of re-
assembling the Conference was given. The Conference
adjourned July 6th. It was not re-assembled. II. The
Act of Congress of 1878, authorizing the coinage of the
standard silver dollar {see Coinage), directed the Presi-
dent to invite the European governments to a confer-
ence for the purpose of fixing the relative value of gold
and silver, and of promoting international bi-metallism.
The Conference assembled in Paris, August 16, 1878,
the United States being represented by Reuben E. Fen-

DiCTiONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 3'J'l

ton, of New York; W. S. Groesbeck, of Ohio; Francis
A. Walker, of Connecticut, and S. Dana Horton, Sec-
retary. The Conference voted that silver as well as
gold was necessary for use as money, but that all ques-
tions connected with its adoption as a standard alone, or
together with gold, ought to be left to each country to
settle for itself; that the restriction of the coinage of
silver was similarly a question for the determination of
each nation for itself, and that the establishment of a
fixed ratio between the two metals was impossible, in
view of the differences of opinion that prevailed. The
Conference adjourned August 29th. III. The Conference
of 1881 was called by France and the United States for
the purpose of devising a plan for the establishment '^ of
the use of gold and silver as bi-metallic money,'' and of
fixing a ratio between these metals. The Conference
met at Paris April 19, 1881. S. Dana Horton again
represented the United States, as did also William M.
Evarts, of New York; Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, and
Timothy 0. Howe, of Wisconsin. After considerable
discussion the delegates of Prance and the United States
declared their belief that the fluctuations in the relative
value of silver and gold were injurious to commerce,
that free coinage {see Bi-Metallism) of gold and silver
by the principal commercial countries would give the
stability desired. That the ratio of 15^- to 1 was the
ratio best adapted to the purpose, and that the agree-
ment of England, France, Germany and the United
States would suffice to insure the success of any such
combination. An adjournment was requested to give
time for diplomatic negotiations, and it was voted to
adjourn until April 12, 1882. The Conference never
re-assembled.

Particularists were those American Whigs that, in
the early history of our government, feared that* the
federal government would be unduly strengthened to
the detriment of the independence of the States.

Party Conventions. {See Nominating Conven*
tions.)

Patriot War. {See Canadian Rebellion,)

372 DtCTIOHAR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS.

Paternalism means the system of government that, in-
stead of confining its attention to the preservation of order
and the enforcement of justice, descends to the regula-
tion of the details in the life of an individual. These,
experience has shown, can best be left to the individual
himself. As the term implies it is fatherly care and
supervision over the individual by the state. One of
the most highly developed examples thereof is the Ger-
man Empire of to-day.

Pathfinder. — A popular name given to John 0. Fre-
mont, in allusion to his success as an explorer.
Patronage. {See Civil Service Reform,)
Patrons of Husbandry. {See Grangers.)
Patrons of Industry. {See Grangers.)
Patton Resolutions. {See Gag Laws.)
Pauper Labor is a phrase which we hear chiefly in
connection with a discussion of free trade and protection,
the advocates of the latter doctrine maintaining that
protective duties are necessary to prevent the competi-
tion between American labor and so-called European
pauper labor. The lower wages and less comfortable
position of laborers abroad has led to the adoption of
the phrase. It came into use about 1842 and has been
reiterated ever since.

Peace Conference, Congress or Convention. —
In January, 1861, several States having already seceded,
Virginia issued an invitation to the other States of the
Union to send delegates to a conference to be held at
Washington for the purpose of devising a plan for the
peaceable settlement of the existing difficulties. The
Conference met February 4th, fourteen free States and
seven slave States being represented. The voting was
by States. Ex-President John Tyler was chosen to pre-
side. A committee of one from each State was ap-
pointed to report *' what they may deem right, necessary
and proper to restore harmony and preserve the Union."
There were several minority reports: the majority re-
port was, however, adopted. It recommended several
amendments to the Constitution, as follows: 1. In the
Territories north of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 373

slavery was to be prohibited. In Territories south of that
line the institution was to remain as it then was, and no
law was to be passed abridging the right of a man to
take his slave thither. The status of new States was to
be determined by the Constitution adopted by them. 2.
No new territory was to be acquired except by discovery
or for naval and commercial stations or depots, without
the concurrence of a majority of the Senators from the
free States and a majority of the Senators from the
slave States. 3. Neither the Constitution nor any amend-
ment thereof was to be construed as giving Congress power
to interfere with slavery in any State; nor to abolish it
in the District of Columbia without the consent of the
State of Maryland and of the owners, nor without com-
pensation to the latter; nor to prohibit representatives
and others from taking their slaves to the District and
bringing them away again; nor to prohibit slavery in
any place under the jurisdiction of the United States, if
within a slave State; nor to prohibit the inland slave
trade between slave States, but not in or through free
States. The slave trade in the District was prohibited.
Section 4 provided for the delivery of fugitive slaves,
section 5 for the prohibition of the foreign slave trade,
section 7 for the payment to owners by the United
States of the value of slaves that might escape by reason
of the interference of mobs with federal officers, and
for '^securing to the citizens of each State the privileges
and immunities of citizens in the several States,'' while
section 6 ordained that sections 1, 3 and 5 and Article 1,
section 2, clause 3, and Article 4, section 2, clause
3, of the Constitution were to be amended or abol-
ished only by the unanimous consent of the States.
This plan was introduced into the Senate, but was voted
down, and in the House it likewise failed. It was satis-
factory to neither party.
Peace Organization. {See American Knights.)
Peace with Dishonor. {8ee War, the, a Failure.)
Peanut Politics is an expression used to indicate
political acts having in view some peculiarly small party
advantage.

374: DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLl TlCb.

Pendleton Bill. {^See Civil Service Reform. )

Pennsylvania was one of the original States of tha
Union. The capital is Harrisburg. The population in
1880 was 4,282,891, and in the last census (1890) 5,258,-
014. Pennsylvania is entitled to twenty-eight seats in
the House of Eepresentatives and to thirty electoral
votes. It is Republican .in national politics. It was
named after William Penn, its founder. Popularly it is
called the Keystone State, because it occupies the place
of the keystone in an arch representing the thirteen
original States. {8ee Gover7iors; Legislatures.)

Pennsylvania of the West. — A name applied to the
State of Missouri.

People's Party.— In 1884 Benjamin F. Butler, of
Massachusetts, was nominated for the presidency by the
Anti-Monopoly party at Chicago, May 14th, and by the
Greenback- Labor party at its convention in Indianapolis,
May 27th and 28th. This common ticket of the two
parties was known as the People^s party.

Pensions. — A pension is a regular payment of money
to a person by the government in consideration of past
services in 'its employ. Pensions were formerly granted
in the United States only to enlisted men of the army
or navy who had suffered during our various wars, ex-
cept in a few special instances. But in 1869 an act was
passed providing pensions at the rate of their salary to
United States judges who have served ten years and
resigned at seventy years or upward. Pensions have
also been granted to the widows of former Presidents,
Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Tyler.
Employes in the life-saving service, in the quarter-
master's and paymaster's departments, and nurses have
also received them. Private pension bills are often
passed, but by far the largest number of pensioners of
the United States are such under general laws. As
early as 1806 the United States had adopted a system of
pensions for those who had become disabled in its mili-
tary and naval services. In 1818 the system was ex-
tended to persons in reduced circumstances who had
served at least nine months at any period of the Revo-

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 375

lutiou, whether disabled or not. Abuses at once began
to be apparent, and many persons received money who
were not entitled to it. From that time till the period
of the Civil War, the general rule in the many successive
pension acts that were passed was to extend the govern-
ment's bounty. Since 1862 the pension laws have been
more numerous and generous than ever, especially for
the last few years, when a surplus in the national treas-
ury has made Congress liberal in the extreme. One of
the most conspicuous of these laws was the "Arrears of
Pensions Act," approved by President Hayes on January
25, 1879. It provided for the payment of pensions
from the date of discharge or disability, and not from
the date of application, as previous laws had provided in
case the claim was not made within a certain time. The
political parties seem of late years to be afraid of alien-
ating the votes of soldiers if they refuse to pass the
most extravagant laws. This particular bill was a meas-
ure rushed through by the claim agents almost without
debate, and has given rise to countless abuses. Widows
(till remarriage) of soldiers or sailors who have died of
wounds contracted in the line of duty in the United
States service, children undej* sixteen, and mothers, and
sisters under sixteen, who were dependent on the de-
ceased, are entitled to a pension in the above order of
priority. Only one full pension is allowed, and if it
goes to children or to sisters, it is equally divided be-
tween them. It is impossible to enumerate all the
causes for which pensions are granted, or the circum-
stances under which they are allowed. The United
States is probably the most liberal nation in the world
in this respect. The Forty-ninth Congress passed a
multitude of private pension bills, most of which were
vetoed by President Cleveland, and only one of which
was passed over his veto. The amount paid by the gov-
ernment in pensions in 1791 was $175,813.88. The
smallest amount paid in one year was $62,902.10, in
1803; the largest was $118,548,959.71, in 1891. The
largest amount paid up to the Civil War was $4,589,-
152.40, in 1833. The following table shows the number

376 DICTION AR Y OF A M ERICA N POLITICS.

of pensioners on the roll, and the disbursements on ac-
count of pensions since 1861 :

FisCAii Tear Ending June

1861.
1862.

1864.
1865.

1867.

1870.
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874.
18r5.
1876
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
188.3.
1884
1885
1886.
1887.

Total $1,274,261,264 07

Number op

Pensioners on

Disbursements.

Roll.

8,636

$ 1,072,461 55

8,159

790,384 76

14,791

1,025,139 91

51,135

4,504,616 92

85,986

8,525,153 11

126,722

13,459,996 43

153,183

18,619,956 46

169,643

24,010,981 99

187,693

28,4-22,884 08

198,686

27,780,811 81

207,495

33,077,383 63

232,229

30,169,341 00

238,411

29,185,289 62

236,241

30,593,749 56

234,821

29,683,116 63

232,137

28,351,599 69

232,104

28,580,157 04

223,998

26,844,415 18

242,755

33,780,526 19

250,802

57,240,540 14

268,830

50,626,538 51

285,697

54,296,280 54

303,658

60,431,972 85

322,756

57,273,536 74

345,125

65,693,706 72

365,783

64,584,270 45

» 406,007

74,815,486 85

4r)2,557

76,646,146 37

489,725

89,131,968 44

537,944

106,493,890 19

676,160

118,548,959 71

Pernicious Activity. — On July 14, 1886^ President
Cleveland directed a circular letter '^ to the heads of de-
partments in the service of the general government,^''
warning them and their subordinates against using "their
official positions in attempts to control political move-
ments in their localities.'^ The letter contained the fol-
lowing sentence: *' Office-holders are neither disfran-
chised nor forbidden the exercise of political privileges;
but their privileges are not enlarged, nor is their duty to
party increased to pernicious activity by office-holding."''
■^ — Personal Liberty Laws. — A name given to laws
passed by many of the Northern States for the purpose
of impeding the operation of "fugitive slave laws.^'

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 87^

They generally forbade tlie use of State jails for the
purposes of the fugitive slave laws; forbade the State
magistrates to act under them; provided counsel for the
fugitives, and secured to them trial by jury and the benefit
of ' 'habeas corpus/^ The fugitive slave law of 1850 placed
its operation entirely in the hands of federal officers.
Changes were made in the personal liberty laws to cor-
respond to the increased stringency of the laws of 1850.
Most of the Northern States passed acts of this nature,
and thus was the Compromise of 1850 met in the North.
This was one of the main grievances that at this time so
increased Southern bitterness against the North.

Personal Liberty Party. — The strict enforcement
in New York of laws directed against the sale of liquor
on Sundays, caused the formation there of an organiza-
tion favoring the abolition of such restrictions on the
sale of liquor as are deemed to conflict with the liberty
of the individual, that is, the total prohibition of its
sale on Sunday. This organization took the name of Per-
sonal Liberty Party, and in New York, on October 6,
1887, adopted a platform declaring that laws of the
above description have notoriously failed to improve
morality while they interfere with the personal liberty of
the individual, and citing as people whose habits of life
are thus interfered with the German element of our
population who are *' assiduous, temperate and law
abiding people.^'

Personation is a fraud practiced in elections and
consists in voting under different names at the same
polling place.

Peruvian Guano Troubles. — In the early part of
1881 Chili had practically brought Peru to her feet in
a war which the two countries had been waging against
each other. Chili seemed inclined to press for a cession
of the southern part of Peru as part of the war indem-
nity. This region is especially rich in guano deposits
which have been found to be very valuable. Claims for
discovering these deposits — the two principal ones being
known as the Landreau and Cochet Claims — had for
many years been pressed on the Peruvian government

878 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

without success, though the government had virtually
acknowledged their justice. At this time they were
owned by Americans, who, fearing that their claims
would be hopeless if the territory should be trans-
ferred to Chili, sought the aid oi our govern-
ment to prevent Chili from acquiring the territory;
it is asserted that the diplomacy of Blaine, Secretary of
State at the time, was exerted in favor of this scheme,
by reason of which fact he is sometimes referred to as
the '^ guano statesman/^ and his foreign plans as a
** guano policy/^ Our Minister to Peru, General Stephen
A. Hurlbut, seems to have threatened the displeasure of
the United States should Chili insist on the cession.
This was unwarranted, even by Blaine^s instructions, and
of course unjustified by the rules of international comity
in a war with which we had nothing to do. When,
however. Chili arrested Calderon, the President of that
one of the two conflicting governments in Peru which
we had recognized. President Arthur in December, 1881,
sent a special envoy, William H. Trescott, of South
Carolina, accompanied by Walker Blaine, son of the
Secretary of State, to the scene of the difficulties.
Blaine^s instructions to Trescott implied that the ad-
ministration felt some reason to suppose that Chili had
intentionally offended us by the arrest of Calderon, and
that we had determined to assume a severer tone with
Chili. About this time Frelinghuysen succeeded Blaine.
He revoked part of Blaine^s instructions to Trescott
and ordered a more pacific course, and Trescott was soon
recalled. Chili subsequently secured the coveted ter-
ritory. It is asserted by some that government officials
were interested in the guano claims and secured the fol-
lowing of a policy, so long as Blaine was Secretary, that
must soon have plunged us into a war with Chili, had
not a more pacific tone been adopted and our interfer-
ence with Chili been brought to an end.

Pet Banks. — A name applied to the State banks in
which United States funds were deposited by President
Jackson after he had removed these funds from the
United States Bank.

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 379

Petition of Right. — The arbitrary course of action
of Charles I., of England, led Parliament in 1628 to
draw up a "petition of right/' which demanded that
the king should not levy taxes without the consent of
Parliament, nor try the people by court martial, nor
imprison any one without due process of law. Charles
agreed to it, and the liberties which had been secured to
Englishmen by Magna Charta were thus confirmed and
enlarged. The Petition of Eight is one of the steps by
which English-speaking people secured their protection
from tyrannical acts of the government. {See Magna
Charta; Bill of Rights.)

Petition, Right of. — The right of petition is a right
antedating the Constitution. It is embodied in Mag-
na Charta, and again in the English Bill of Eights.
It was a part of the common law in this country at the
time of the adoption of the Constitution. The First
Amendment to that instrument created no new right by
providing that " Congress shall make no law . . .
abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to
assemble and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances. '' It simply declared an old right, and
guarded it from interference on the part of Congress.
The power to protect the right was not taken from the
States. That power had resided in them, and it was
left in their hands. Citizens must look to the State
governments for its enforcement. But the right is im-
plied in the idea of a republican government, and is
therefore guaranteed by the national government (Con-
stitution, Article 4, section 4). Minnesota, Virginia
and West Virginia are the only States whose Constitu-
tions make no mention of the right. A petitioner is not
guilty of libel on account of the facts recited in his peti-
tion, even if these be false, unless malice is proven.
Before December 12, 1853, all petitions to the House of
Eepresentatives were presented in the House, and the
introductioil of petitions relating to the abolition of
slavery led to heated debates, and between 1836 and
1844 to rules that practically nullified the right. (See
Oag Laws,) On the above date the rules were modified

UNIVERSITY

380 DlCTtOMAk V OF AMERICAN- POLITICS.

SO that now petitions are endorsed witli the name of tlie
member presenting them and the committee to which
they are to be referred; they are sent to the clerk, who
enters them in full on the journal and transmits them to
the proper committee; they appear in the Congressional
Record,

Pewter Muggers was a name given to a faction of
the Democratic party in New York City about 1828, in
which year, with the help of the Adams men (the ad-
ministration party) and the anti-Masons, they defeated
the Tammany candidates for several important offices.
The name originated from the resort in Frankfort Street
which the leaders of the faction patronized extensively.

Pierce, Franklin, was born at Hillsborough, New
Hampshire, November 23, 1804, and died at Concord,
New Hampshire, October 8, 1869. He was a lawyer and
a gi-aduate of Bowdoin. In politics he was a Democrat.
He was a member of the State Legislature from 1829 to
1833, and a Congressman from 1833 to 1837. From
1837 to 1842 he was a Senator. During the
Mexican War he held a commission as major-general
and saw some active service. In 1852 he was elected
President. The principal events of his administration
were the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the
Gadsden Purchase and the exploits of filibusters. He
retired to private life at the expiration of his term. He
was an anti-war Democrat during the Civil War.

Pinckney's Resolutions. {See Gag Laws.)

Pivotal State. — Any State upon the result of whose
vote an election depends (the votes of the other States
being so equally divided) is called a pivotal state. The
title has been more particularly earned by New York,
which in every presidential election, in any way doubt-
ful, has been carried by but small pluralities or majori-
ties. Thus in 1884 a different result in New York
would have meant a different result in the election of
President, and the successful party carried New York by
but 1,047 plurality, in a total of 1,150,000.

Platforms, Party. — The platform of a political
party is the public declaration of the principles that the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 381

party represents. Below are given the national plat-
forms adopted in 1884 by the principal parties. For the
platforms of 1888, see Appendix.

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLATFOEM.

Adopted at Chicago, July 10, 1884.

The Democratic party of the Union, through its representa-
tives in National Convention assembled, recognizes that as the
nation grows older new issues are born of time and progress,
and old issues perish. But the fundamental principles of the
Democracy, approved by the united voice of the people, re-
main, and will ever remain, as the best and only security for
the continuance of free government. The preservation of
personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, the
reserved rights of the States, and the supremacy of the federal

fovernment within the limits of the Constitution, will ever
orm the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surren-
dered without destroying that balance of rights and powers
which enables a continent to be developed in peace, and social
order to be maintained by means of local self-government.

But it is indispensable for the practical application and en-
forcement of these fundamental principles that the govern-
ment should not always be controlled by one political party.
Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant
recurrence to popular will. Othet wise abuses grow, and the

f:overnment, instead of being carried on for the general wel-
are, becomes an instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens
on the many who are governed, for the benefit of the few who
govern. Public servants thus become arbitrary rulers.

This is now the condition of the country. Hence a change is
demanded. The Republican party, so far as principle is con-
cerned, is a reminiscence ; in practice, it is an organization for
enriching those who control its machinery. The frauds and
jobbery which have been brought to light in every department
of the government are sufRcient to have called for reform
within the Republican party ; yet those in authority, made
recklens by the long possession of power, have succumbed to
its corrupting influence, and have placed in nomination a
ticket against which the independent portion of the party are
in open revolt.

Therefore a change is demanded. Such a change was alike
necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then defeated
by a fraud which can never be forgotten nor condoned. Again,
in 1880, the change demanded by the people was defeated by
the lavish use of money contributed by unscrupulous con-
tractors and shameless jobbers, who had bargained for unlaw-
ful profits or for high office.

The Republican party, during its legal, its stolen and its
bought tenures of power, has speedily decayed in moral char-
acter and political capacity.

Its platform promises are now a list of its past failures.

It demands the restoration of our navy. It has squandered
hundreds of millious to create a navy that does not exist.

382 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

It calls upon Congress to remove the burdens under which
American shipping has been depressed. It imposed and has
continued those burdens.

It professes the policy of reserving the public lands for small
holdings by actual settlers. It has given away the people's
heritage till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, in-
dividual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all
our farms between the two seas.

It professes a preference for free institutions. It organized
and tried to legalize a control of State elections by federal
troops.

It professes a desire to elevate labor. It has subjected
American workingmen to the competition of convict and im-
ported contract labor.

It professes gratitude to all who were disabled or died in the
war, leaving widows and orphans. It left to a Democratic
House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both
bounties and pensions.

It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of our tariff.
It created and has continued them. Its own Tariff Commission
confessed the need of more than twenty per cent, reduction.
Its Congress gave a reduction of less than four per cent.

It professes the protection of American manufactures. It
has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufactured
goods and a hopeless competition with manufacturing nations,
not one of which taxes raw materials.

It professes to protect all American industries. It has im-
poverished many to subsidize a few.

It professes the protection of American labor. It has de-
pleted the returns of American agriculture — an industry fol'
lowed by half our people.

It professes the equality of all men before the law. Attempt-
ing to fix the status of colored citizens, the acts of its Congress
were overset by the decisions of its courts.

It " accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress
and reform." Its caught criminals are permitted to escape
through contrived delays of actual connivance in the prosecu-
tion. Honey-combed with corruption, outbreaking exposures
no longer shock its moral sense. Its honest members, its inde-
pendent journals no longer maintain a successful contest for
authority in its counsels, or a veto upon bad nominations.

That change is necessary is proved by an existing surplus of
more than $100,000,000, which has yearly been collected from a
suffering people. Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation.
We denounce the Republican party for having failed to relieve
the people from crushing war taxes which have paralyzed
business, crippled industry and deprived labor of emj)loyment
and of just reward.

The Democracy pledges itself to purify the administration
from corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law,
and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due
regard to the preservation of the faith of the nation to its
creditors and pensioners.

Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting the
occupations of the people should be cautious and conservative
in method— not in advance of public opinion, but responsiT e

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 383

to its demands— the Democratic party is pledged to revise the
tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests.

But in making reduction in taxes it is not proposed to in-
jure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their
healthy growth. From tho foundation of this government
taxes collected at the Custom House have been the chief
source of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be.
Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation
for successful continuance, so that any change of law must be
at every step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved.
The process of reform must be subject in the execution of this
plain dictate of justice.

All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of economi-
cal government. The necessary reduction in taxation can,
and must, be effected without depriving American labor of
the ability to compete successfully nith foreign labor, and
fvithout imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to
corer any lucreased cost of production which may exist in
consequeuce of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this
country.

Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses of the federal
government, economically administered, including pensions,
interest and principal of the public debt, can be got under our
present system of taxation from Custom House taxes on fewer
imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury, and
bearing lightest on articles of necessity.

We therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff, and,
subject to the preceding limitations, we demand that Federal
taxation shall be exTclusively for public purposes, and shall not
exceed the needs of the government economically adminis-
tered.

The system of direct taxation known as "internal revenue"
is a war tax, and so long as the law continues the money de-
rived therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the
people from the remaining burdens of the war, and be made a
fund to defray the expenses of the care and comfort of worthy
soldiers disabled in the line of duty in the wars of the Repub-
lic, and for the payment of such pensions as Congress may
from time to time grant to such soldiers, a like fund for the
sailors having been already provided, and any surplus should
be paid into the treasury.

We favor an American continental policy based upon more
intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen
sister Republics of North, Central and South America, but en-
tangling alliances with none.

We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of
the Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into
such money without loss.

Asserting the equality of all men before the law, we hold
that it is the duty of the government, in its dealings with the
people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens of
whatever nativity, race, color or persuasion — religious or po-
litical.

We believe in a free ballot and a fair count, and we recall to
the memory of the people the noble struggle of the Democrats
in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a re-

384 DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

luctant Republican opposition was compelled to assent to leg-
islation making everywhere illegal the presence of troops at
the polls, as the conclusive proof that a Democratic adminis-
tration will preserve liberty with order.

The selection of federal officers for the Territories should be
restricted to citizens previously resident therein.

We oppose sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and inter-
fere with individual liberty ; we favor honest civil service re-
form, and the compensation of all United States officers by
fixed salaries; the separation of church and state, and the
diffusion of free education by common schools, so that every
child in the land may be taught the rights and duties of
citizenship.

While we favor all legislation that will tend to the equitable
distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly, and
to the strict enforcement of individual rights against corpo-
rate abuses, we hold that the welfare of society .depends upon a
scrupulous regard for the rights of property as defined by law.

We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and
most enlightened. It should, therefore, be fostered and cher-
ished. We favor the repeal of all laws restricting the fre«
action of labor, and the enactment of laws by which labor
organizations may be incorporated, and of all such legislation
as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true relations
of capital and labor.

We believe that the public lands ought, as far as possible, be
kept as homesteads for actual settlers ; that all unearned lands
heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corporations by
the action of the Republican party, should be restored to the
public domain, and that no more grants of land shall be made
to corporations or be allowed to fall [into the ownership of
alien absentees.

We are opposed to all propositions which, upon any pretext,
would conver^i the general government into a machine for
collecting taxes to be distributed among the States or the citi-
zens thereof.

In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic platform
of 1856, that "the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in
the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned by the Con-
stitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum
of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal
principles in the Democratic faith," we nevertheless do not
sanction the importation of foreign labor, or the admission of
servile races, unfitted by habits, training, religion, or kindred
for absorption into the great body of our people, or for the
citizenship which our laws confer. American civilization
demands that against the immigration or importation of Mon-
golians to these shores our gates be closed.

The Democratic party insists that it is the dutjr of this gov-
ernment to protect, with equal fidelity and vigilance, the
rights of its citizens, native and naturalized, at home and
abroad, and to the end that this protection may be assured,
United States papers of naturalization, issued by courts of
competent ^jurisdiction, must be respected by the executive
and legislative departments of our own government, and by
all foreign powers.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 385

It is an imperative duty of this government to efflcientljr
protect all the rights of persons and property of ever> Ameri-
can citizen in foreign lands, and demand and enforce full
reparation for any invasion ttiereof.

An American citizen is only responsible to his own govern-
ment for any act done in his own country, or under her flag,
and can only he tried therefor on her own soil and according
to her own laws, and no power exists in this government to
expatriate an American citizen to be tried in any foreign land
for any such act.

This country has never had a well-defined and executed
foreign policy, save under Democratic administration ; that
policy has ever been, in regard to foreign nations, so long as
they do not act detrimental to the interests of the country, or
hurtful to our citizens, to let them alone ; that as the result of
this policy we recall the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Cal-
ifornia, and of the adjacent Mexican territory by purchase
alone ; and contrast these grand acquisitions of Democratic
statesmanship with the purchase of Alaska, the sole fruit of a
Republican administration of nearly a quarter of a century.

The federal government should care for and improve the
Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic,
so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap trans-
portation to tide- water.

Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy our mer-
chant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of out-
stripping that of Great Britain.

Under twenty years of Republican rule and policy our com-
merce has been left to British bottoms, and almost has the
American flag been swept off the high seas.

Instead of the Republican party's British policy, we demand
for the people of the United States an American policy.

Under Democratic rule and policy our merchants and sail-
ors, flying the stars and stripes in every port, successfully
searched out a market for the varied products of American
industry.

Under a quarter of a century of Republican rule and policy,
despite our manifest advantages over all other nations in high-

§aid labor, favorable climates and teeming soils ; despite f ree-
om of trade among all these United States; despite their
population by the foremost races of men and an annual immi-
gration of the young, thrifty and adventurous of all nations ;
despite our freedom here from the inherited burdens of life
and industry in old-world monarchies — their costly war
navies, their vast tax-consuming, non-producing standing
armies ; despite their twenty years of peace — that Republican
rule and policy have managed to surrender to Great Britain,
along with our commerce, the control of the markets of the
world.

Instead of the Republican party's British policy, we demand,
in behalf of the American Democracy, an American policy.

Instead of the Republican party's discredited scheme and
false pretense of friendship for American labor, expressed by
imposing taxes, we demand, in behalf of the Democracy, free-
dom for American labor by reducing taxes to the end that
these United States may compete with unhindered powers

386 DTCTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

for the primacy among nations in all the arts of peace and
fruits of liberty.

With profound regret we have been apprised by the vener-
able statesman through whose person was struclfthat blow at
the vital principle of republics (acquiesence in the will of the
majority), that he cannot permit us again to place in his hands
the leadership of the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the
achievement of reform in the administration of the federal
government is an undertaking now too heavy for his age and
failing strength.

Rejoicing that his life has been prolonged until the general
judgment of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that
that wrong were righted in his person, for the Democracy of
the United States, we offer to him in his withdrawal from
public cares, not only our respectful sympathy and esteem,
but also that best homage of freemen, the pledge of our devo-
tion to the principles and the cause now inseparable in the
history of this Repn jlic from the labors and the name of
Samuel J. Tilden.

With this statement of the hopes, principles and purposes of
the Democratic party, the great issue of reform and change in
administration is submitted to the people in calm confidence,
that the popular voice will pronounce in favor of new men,
and new and more favorable conditions for the growth of in-
dustry, the extension of trade, the employment and due re-
ward of labor and of capital, and the general welfare of the
whole country.

NATIONAL EEPUBLIOAN PLATEOEM.

Adopted at Chicago, Juke 5, 1884.

The Republicans of the United States, in convention assem-
bled, renew their allegiance to the principles upon which they
have triumphed in six successive presidential elections, and
congratulate the American people on the attainment of so
many results in legislation and administration by which the
Republican party has, after saving the Union, done so much
to render its institutions just, equal and beneficent— the safe-
guard of liberty and the best thought and hi§:hest purposes of
our citizens. The Republican party has gamed its strength
by quick and faithful response to the demands of the people
for the freedom and the equality of all men; for a united
nation assuring the rights of all citizens ; for the elevation of
labor; for an honest currency; for purity in legislation, and
for integrity and accountability in all departments of the
government ; and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the
work of progress and reform.

We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound
statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of
a strong and successful administration, a promise fully real-
ized during the short period of his office as President of thft
United States. His distinguished success in war and in peace
has endeared him to the hearts of the American people.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 387

In the administration of his ofBce we recognize a wise, con-
servative and patriotic policy, under which the country has
been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his
eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty
approval of every citizen. It is the first duty of a good govern-
ment to protect the rights and promote the interests of its
own people ; the largest diversity of industry is most product-
ive of general prosperity, and of the comfort and independ-
ence of the people.

We, therefore, demand that the imposition of duties on
foreign imports shall be made not for "revenue only," but
that, in raising the requisite revenues for the government,
such duties shall be so levied as to afford security in our diver-
sified industries and protection to the rights and wages of the
laborer, to the end that active and inteU-igent labor, as well as
capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his
full share in the national prosperity.

Against the so-called economical system of the Democratic
party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard,
we enter ourearnes' protest; the Democratic party has failed
completely to relieve the people of thv. burden of unnecessary
taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus.

The Republican party pledges itself to correct the inequali-
ties of the tariff and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious
and indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by
such methods as will relieve the tax-payer without injuring
the laborer or the great productive interests of the country.

We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in ,the
United States, the serious depression which it is now experi-
encing and the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and
we, therefore, respect the demands of the representatives of
this important agricultural interest for a readjustment of
duty upon foreign wool in order that such industry shall
have full and adequate protection.

We have always recommended the best money known to the
civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite
all commercial nations in the establishment of the interna-
tional standard, which shall fix for all the relative value of
gold and silver coinage.

The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and be-
tween the States is one of the most important prerogatives of
the general government, and the Republican party distinctly
announces its purposes to support such legislation as will fully
and efficiently carry out the constitutional power of Congress
over inter-state commerce. The principle of the public regu-
lation of railway corporations is a wise and salutary one for
the protection of all classes of the people, and we favor legis-
lation that shall prevent unjust discrimination and excessive
charges for transportation, and that shall secure to the people
and to the railways alike the fair and equal protection of the
laws.

We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor,
the enforcement of the eight hour law, and a wise and judi-
cious system of general education by adequate appropriation
from the national revenues wherever the same is need.

We believe that everywhere the protection to a citizen of

388 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

American birth must be secured to citizens by American
adoption, and we favor the settlement of national differences
by international arbitration.

The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave
labor, and in a desire that all men may be free and equal, is
unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competi-
tion with any form of servile labor, whether at home or
abroad. In this spirit we denounce the importation of con-
tract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offense
against the spirit of American institutions, and we pledge our-
selves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese immigra-
tion, and to provide such further legislation as is necessary to
carry out its purposes.

The reform of civil service, auspiciously begun under Re-
publican administration, should be completed by the further
extension of the reform system already established by law — to
all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The
spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all
executive appointments, and all laws at variance with the
objects of existing reform legislation should be repealed, to the
end that the dangers to free institutions which lurk in the
power of official patronage may be wisely and effectively
avoided.

The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United
States, and should be reserved as far as possible for small hold-
ings by actual settlers. We are opposed t the acquisition of
large tracts of these lands by corjjoratronj or individuals,
especially where such holdings are in the hands of non-resi-
dent aliens, and we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as
will tend to correct this evil.

We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all land
grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with
acts of incorporation, in all cases where there has been no
attempt in good faith to perform the conditions of such
grants.

The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the
Union soldiers and sailors of the late war, and the Republican
party stands pledged to suitable pensions to all who were dis-
abled and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the
war. The Republican party pledges itself to the repeal of the
limitation contained in the Arrears Act of 1879, so that all
invalid soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions shall be-
gin with the date of disability or discharge, and not with the
date of application.

The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us
from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which
shall give the ri^ht to expect that foreign nations shall refrain
from meddling in America, and the policy which seeks peace
can trade with all powers, but especially with those of the
Western Hemisphere.

We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time
strength and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the
rights of American citizens and the interests of American com-
merce, and we call upon Congress to remove the burdens
under which American shipping has been depressed, so that it
may again be true that we have a commerce which leaves ho

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 389

sea unexplored, and a navy which takes no law from superior
force.

Resolved^ That appointments by the President to offices in
the Territories should be made from the bona fide citizens and
residents of the Territories wherein they are to serve.

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws
as shall promptly and effectuallv suppress the sjrstem of
polygamy within our territory, and divorce the political from
the ecclesiastical power of the so-called Mormon Church, and
that the law so enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil
authorities, if possible, and by the military if need be.

The people of the United States in their organized capacity
constitute a nation and not a mere confederacy of States.
The national government is supreme within the sphere of its
national duty, but the States have reserved rights which
should be faithfully maintained ; each should be guarded with
jealous care so that the harmony of our system of government
may bo preserved, and the Union kept inviolate.

The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the mainte-
nance of a free ballot, an honest count, and a correct return.

We denounce the fraud and violence practiced by the Demo-
cratic party in Southern States, by which the will of the voter
is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free institu-
tions, and we solemnly arraign tlie Democratic party as being
the guilty recipient of the fruit of such fraud and violence.

We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of
their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and
pledge them our most earnest efforts to promote the passage of
such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever
race and color, the full and complete recognition, possession,
and exercise of all civil and political rights.

GEEE:t^BAOK NATIONAL PLATFORM.

Adopted at Indianapolis, May 28, 1884.

Eight years ago our young party met in this city for the first
time, and proclaimed to the world its immortal principles, and
placed before the American people as a presidential candi-
date that great philanthropist and spotless statesman, Peter
Cooper. Since that convention our party has organized all
over the Union, and through discussion and agitation has been
educating the people to a sense of their rights and duties to
themselves and their country. These labors have accom-
plished wonders. We now have a great, harmonious party,
and thousands who believe in our principles in the ranks of
other parties.

"We point with pride to our history." We forced the
remonetization of the silver dollar ; prevented the refunding
of the public debt into long-time bonds ; secured the payment
of the Donds, until the " best banking system the world ever
eaw " for robbing the producer now totters because of its con-
tracting foundation ; we have stopped the squandering of oar
public domain upon corporations ; we havejstopped the whole-

390 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

sale destruction of the greenback currency, and secured a de-
cision of the Supreme Court of the United States establishing
forever the right of the people to issue their own money.

Notwithstanding all this, never in our history have the
banks, land-grant railroads, and other monopolies, been more
insolent in their demands for further privileges — still more
class legislation. In this emergency the dominant parties are
arrayed against the people and are the abject tools of the
corporate monopolies.

In the last Congress they repealed over $12,000,000 of annual
taxes for the banks, throwing the burden upon the people to
pay or pay interest thereon.

Both old parties in the present Congress vie with each other
in their efforts to further repeal taxes in order to stop the pay-
ment of the public debt, and save the banks whose charters
they have renewed for twenty years. Notwithstanding the
distress of business, the shrinkage of wages and panic, they
persist in locking up on various pretexts, $400,000,000 of money,
every dollar of which the people pay interest upon and need,
and most of which should be promptly applied to pay bonds
now payable.

The old parties are united— as they cannot agree what taxes
to repeal — in efforts to squander the income of the govern-
ment upon every pretext rather than pay the debt.

A bill has already passed the United States Senate making
the banks a present of over $10,000,000 more of the people's
money in order to enable them to levy a still greater burden
of interest- taxes.

A joint effort is being made by the old party leaders to over-
throw the sovereign constitutional power of the people to con-
trol their own financial affairs and issue their own money, in
order to forever enslave the masses to bankers and other busi-
ness. The House of Representatives has passed bills reclaim-
ing nearly 100,000,000 acres of lands granted to and forfeited
by railroad companies. These bills have gone to the Senate, a
body composed largely of aristocratic millionaires who, ac-
cording to their own party papers, generally purchase their
elections in order to protect great monopolies which they
represent. This body has thus far defied the j)eople and the
House, and refuses to act upon these bills in the interest of the
people.

Therefore we, the National party of the United States, in
national convention assembled, this 29th day of May, A. D.
1884, declare :

1. That we hold the late decision of the Supreme Court on
the legal-tender question to use a full vindication of the theory
which our party has always advocated on the right and
authority of Congress over the issue of legal-tender notes, and
we hereby pledge ourselves to uphold said decision and to de-
fend the Constitution against alterations or amendments in-
tended to deprive the people of any rights or privileges con-
ferred by that instrument. We demand the issue of such
money in sufficient quantities to supply the actual demand of
trade and commerce, in accordance with the increase of
population and the development of our industries. We de-
mand the substitution of greenbacks for national bank notes

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 391

and the prompt payment of the public debt. We want that
money which saved our country in time of war, and which has
given it prosperity and happiness in peace. We condemn the
retirement ot the fractional currency and the small denomina-
tion of greenbacks and demand their restoration. We demand
the issue of the hoards of money now locked up in the United
States Treasury, by applying them to tne payment of the pub-
lic debt now due.

2. We denounce as dangerous to our Republican institutions,
those methods and policies of the Democratic and Republican
parties which have sanctioned or permitted the establishment
of land, railroad, money and other gigantic corporate mon-
opolies; and we demand such governmental action as may be
necessary to take from such monopolies the powers they have
so corruptly and unjustly usurped and restore them to the
people, to whom they belong.

3. The public lands being the natural inheritance of the
people, we denounce that policy which has granted to corpora-
tions vast tracts of land, and we demand that immediate and
vigorous measures be taken to reclaim from such corporations,
for the people's use and benefit, all such land grants ^s have
been forfeited by reason of non-fulfilment of contract, or that
may have been wrongfully acquired by corrupt legislation,
and that such reclaimed lands and other public domain be
henceforth held as a sacred trust, to be granted only to actual
settlers in limited quantities; and we also demand that th«
alien ownership of land, individual or corporate, shall be pro-
hibited.

4. We demand congressional regulation of inter-state com-
merce. We denounce ''pooling," stock-watering and dis-
crimination in rates and charges, and demand that Congress
shall correct these abuses, even if necessary, by the construc-
tion of national railroads. We also demand the establishment
of a government postal telegraph system.

5. AH private property, all forms of money and obligations
to pay money, should bear their ^just proportion of the public
taxes. We demand a graduated income tax.

6. We demand the amelioration of the condition of labor by
enforcing the sanitary law in industrial establishments, by the
abolition of the convict labor system, by a rigid inspection of
mines and factories, by a reduction of the hours of labor in
industrial estsblishments, by fostering educational institutions
and by abolishing child labor.

7. We condemn all impDrtations of contracted labor, made
with a view of reducing to starvation wages tlie workingmen
of this country, and demand laws for its prevention.

8. We insist upon a constitutional amendment reducing the
terms of United States Senators.

9. We demand such rules for the government of Congress as
shall place all representatives of the people upon an equal foot-
ing, and take away from committees a veto power greater
than that of the President.

10. The question as to the amount of duties to be levied upon
various articles of import has been agitated and quarreled
over and has divided communities for nearly a hundred years.
It is not now and never will be settled unless by the abolition

392 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

of indirect taxation. Jt is a convenient issue — always raised
when the people are excited over abuses in their midst. While
we favor a wise revision of the tariff laws, with a view to rais-
ing a revenue from luxuries rather than necessaries, we insist
that as an economic question its importance is insigniiacant as
compared with financial issues; for whereas we have suffered
our worst panics under low and also under high tariff, we have
never suffered from a panic nor seen our factories and work-
shops closed while the volume of money in circulation was
adequate to the needs of commerce. Give our farmers and
manufacturers money as cheap as you now give it to our
bankers, and they can pay high wages to labor, and compete
with all the world.

11. For the purpose of testing the sense of the people upon
the subject, we are in favor of submitting to a vote of the
people an amendment to the Constitution in favor of suffrage
regardless of sex, and also on the subject of the liquor traffic.

12. All disabled soldiers of the late war should be equitably-
pensioned, and we denounce the policy of keeping a small
army of office-holders whose only business is to prevent, on
technical grounds, deserving soldiers from obtaining justice
from the government they helped to save.

13. As our name indicates, we are a National party, knowing
no East, no West, no North, no South. Having no sectional
prejudices, we can properly place in nomination for the high
offices of state as candidates, men from any section of the
Union.

14. We api)eal to all people who believe in our principles to
aid us by voice, pen and votes.

NATIONAL PROHIBITION PLATFORM.

Adopted at Pittsburg, Pa., July 23, 1884.

First — The Prohibition Home Protection party, in national
convention assembled, acknowledge Almighty God as the
rightful sovereign of all men, from whom the first powers of
government are derived, to whose laws human enactments
should conform, and that peace, prosperity and happiness only
can come to the people when their laws of the National and
State Government are in accord with the divine will.

Second— That the importation, manufacture, supply and sale
of alcoholic beverages, created and maintained by the laws of
the National and State Governments, during the entire history
of such laws, is everywhere shown to be the promoting cause
of intemperance, with resulting crime and pauperism, making
large demands uiDon public and private charity, imposing large
and unjust taxation and public burdens for penal and shelter-
ing institutions upon thrift, industry, manufactures, and com-
merce, endangering the public peace, desecration of the
Sabbath, corrupting our politics, legislation and administra-
tion of the laws, shortening lives, impairing health, and
diminishing productive industry, causing education to bo
neglected and despised, nullifying the teachings of the Bible,
the Church and the school, the standards and guides of our

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 393

fathers, and their children in the founding and growth under
God of our widely-extended country, and while imperiling the
perpetuity of our civil and religious liberty, are baleful fruits
by which we know that these laws are alike contrary to God's
laws and contravene our happiness, and we call upon our fel-
low-citizens to aid in the repeal of these laws, and the legal
suppression of this baneful liquor traffic.

The fact that during the twenty-four years in which the
Republican party has controlled the general government and
that of many of the States no effort has been made to change
this policy. Territories have been created from the National
domain and governments for them established, and States
from them admitted into the Union, in no instance in either of
whicih has this traffic been forbidden or the people of these
Territories or States been permitted to prohibit.

That there are now over two hundred thousand distilleries,
breweries, wholesale and retail dealers in these drinks, hold-
ing certificates and claiming the authority of the government
for the continuation of a business which is so destructive to
the moral and material welfare of the people, together with
the fact that they have turned a deaf ear to remonstrance and
petition for the correction of this abuse of civil government, is
conclusive that the Republican party is insensible to or impo-
tent for the redress of those wrongs, and should no longer be
intrusted with the powers and responsibilities of government;
that although this party in its late National Convention was
silent on the liquor question, not so its candidates, Messrs.
Blaine and Logan. Within the year past Mr. Blaine has pub-
licly recommended that the revenues derived from the liquor
traffic shall be distributed among the States, and Senator
Logan has by a bill proposed to devote these revenues to the
support of the schools; thus both virtually recommend the
perpetuation of the traffic, and that the State and its citizens
shall become partners in the liquor crime.

The f a(^t that the Democratic party has, in its national deliv-
erance of party policy, arrajed itself on the side of the drink-
makers and sellers by declaring against the policy of prohibi-
tion of such traffic under the false name of ''Sumptuary
Laws," and when in power in some of the States in refusing
remedial legislation, and in Congress of refusing to permit the
creation of a Board of Inquiry to investigate and report upon
the effects of this traffic, proves that the Democratic party
should not be intrusted with power or place.

That there can be no greater peril to the nation than the ex-
isting competition of the Republican and Democratic parties
for the liquor vote. Experience shows that any party not
openly opposed to the traffic will engage in this competition,
will court the favor of the criminal classes, will barter away
the public morals, the purity of the ballot and every trust and
object of good government for party success, and patriots and
good citizens should find in this practice sufficient cause for
imn\ediate withdrawal from all connection with their party.

That we favor reforms in the administration of the govern-
ment, in the abolition of all sinecures, useless offices and offi-
cers, in the election of the post-offlqp officers of the govern-
ment instead of appointment by the President ; that compe-

394 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

tency, honesty and sobriety are essential qualifications foi
holding civil office, and we oppose the removal of such persons
from mere administrative offices, except so far as it may be
absolutely necessary to secure effectiveness to the vital issues
on which the general administration of the government has
intrusted to a party; that the collection of revenues from
alcohol, liquors and tobacco should be abolished as the vices of
men and not a proper subject for taxation ; that revenues for
customs duties should be levied for the support of the govern-
ment economically administered, and when so levied the fos-
tering of American labor, manufactures and industries should
constantly be held in view ; that the public land should be
held for homes for the people and not for gifts to corporations,
or to be held in large bodies for speculation upon the needs of
actual settlers.

That all money, coin and paper, shall be made, issued and
regulated by the general government, and shall be a legal
tender for ali debts, public and private.

That grateful care and support should be given to our sol-
diers and sailors, their dependent widows and orphans, dis-
abled in the service of the country.

That we repudiate as un-American, contrary to and sub-
versive of the principles of the Declaration of Independence,
from which our government has grown to be the government
of flfty-flve millions of people and a recognized power among
the nations, that any person or people shall or may be ex-
cluded from residence or citizenship, with all others who may
desire the benefits which our institutions confer upon the op-
nressed of all nations.

That while there are important reforms that are demanded
for purity of administration and the welfare of the people,
their importance sinks into insignificance when compared
with the reform of the drink traffic, which annually wastes
$800,000,000 of the wealth created by toil and thrift and drags
down thousands of families from comfort to poverty; which
fills jails, penitentiaries, insane asylums, hospitals and institu-
tions for dependency ; which destroys the health, saps industry
and causes loss of life and property to thousands in the land,
lowers intellectual and physical vigor, dulls the cunning hand
of the artisan, is the chief cause of bankruptcy, insolvency and
loss in trade, and by its corrupting power endangers the per-
petuity of free institutions.

That Congress should exercise its undoubted power, and
prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages
in the District of Columbia, the Territories of the United
States, in all places over which the government has exclusive
jurisdiction; that hereafter no State shall be admitted into
the Union until its Constitution shall expressly prohibit

Eolygamy and the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
overages.

We earnestly call the attention of the laborer and the me-
chanic, the miner and manufacturer, and ask investigation of
the baneful effects upon labor and industry caused by the
needless liquor business, which will be found the robber who
lessens wages and profits, the destroyer of the happiness and
family welfare of the laboring man; and that labor and all

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 395

legitimate industry demand deliverance from taxation and
loss which this trafQo imposes; and that n9 tariff or other
legislation can so healthily stimulate production, or increase a
demand for capital and labor, or produce so much of comfort
and content as the suppresiing of this traffic would bring to
the laboring man, mecnanio or employer of labor throughout
our land.

That the activity and co-operation of the women of America
for the promotion of temperance has, in all the hisrory of the
past, been a strength and encouragement, which we gratefully
acknowledge and record. In the latter and present phase of
the movement for prohibition of the licensed traffic by the
abolition of the drink saloon, the purity of purpose and
method, the earnestness, zeal, intelligence and devotion of the
mothers and daughters of the Women's Christian Temperance
Union have been eminently blessed by God. Kansas and Iowa
have been given her as "sheafs" of rejoicing, and the educa-
tion and arousing of the public mind, and the demand for con-
stitutional amendment now prevailing, are largely the fruit of
her prayers and labors, and we rejoice to have our Christian
women unite with us in sharing the labor that shall bring the
abolition of traffic to the polls. She shall join in the grand
*' Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," when by law our
boys and friends shall be free from legal drink and tempta-
tion.

That we believe in the civil and political equality of the
sexes, and that the ballot in the hand of woman is a right for
her protection, and would prove a powerful ally for the aboli-
tion of the drink saloon, the execution of law, the promotion
of reform in civil affairs, and the removal of corruption in
public life ; and thus believing, we relegate the practical out-
working of this reform to the discretion of the Prohibition
party in the several States, according to the condition of pub-
lic sentiment in those States. That, gratefully, we acknowl-
edge and praise God for the presence of His Spirit, guiding our
counsels and granting the success which has been vouchsafed in
the progress of temperance reform; and looking to Him from
whom all wisdom and help come, we ask the voters of the
United States to make the principles of the above declaration
a ruling principle in the government of the Nation and of the
States.

Resolved, That henceforth the Prohibition Home Protection
party shall be called by the name of the Prohibition party.

396 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

PARTY PLATFORMS.

DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLICAN, PROHIBITION.

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

Adopted at St. Louis, June 7, 1888.

The Democratic party of the United States, in National Con-
vention assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to Demo-
cratic faith and reaffirms the platform adopted by its repre-
sentatives in the convention of 1884, and indorses the views
expressed by President Cleveland in his last annual message to
Congress as the correct interpretation of that platform upon
the question of tariff reduction ; and also indorses the efforts
of our Democratic representatives in Congress to secure a
reduction of excessive taxation.

Chief among its principles of party faith are the main-
tenance of an indissoluble union of free and indestructible
States, now about to enter upon its second century of unex-
ampled progress and renown ; devotion to a plan of govern-
ment regulated by a written Constitution, strictly specifying
every granted power and expressly reserving to the States or
people the entire ungranted residue of power ; the encourage-
ment of a jealous popular vigilance directed to all who have
been chosen for brief terms to enact and execute the laws, and
are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring
equality and establishing justice.

The Democratic partv welcome an exacting scrutiny of the
administration of the Executive power, which four years ago
was committed to its trust in the election of G rover Cleveland,
President of the United States; and it challenges the most
searching inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the
pledges which then invited the suffrages of the people.

During a most critical period of our financial affairs, result-
ing from overtaxation, the anomalous condition of our cur-
rency and a public debt unmatured, it has, by the adoption of
a wise and conservative course, not only averted disaster, but
greatly promoted the prosperity of the people.

It has reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the
Republican party touching the public domain, and has re-
claimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic,
and restored to the people nearly one hundred millions ol
acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for
our citizens.

While carefully guarding the interest of the taxpayers and
conforming strictly to the principles of justice and equity, it

DICTION AR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 397

haa paid out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiersi
and sailors of the Republic than was ever paid before during
an equal period.

By an intelligent management and a judicious and economi-
cal expenditure of the public money it has set on foot the
reconstruction of the American Navy upon a system which
forbids the recurrence of scandal and insures successful re-
sults.

It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent
foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations while scru-
pulously maintaining all the rights and interests of our gov-
ernment and people at home and abroad.

The exclusion from our shores of Chinese laborers has been
effectually secured under the provisions of a treaty, the oper-
ation of which has been postponed by the action of a Republi-
can majority in the Senate.

Honest reform in the Civil Service has been inaugurated and
maintained by President Cleveland, and he has brought the
public service to the highest standard of efficiency, not only
by rule and precept, but by the example of his own untiring
and unselfish administration of public affairs.

In every branch and department of the government under
Democratic control, the rights and welfare of all the people
have been guarded and defended ; every public interest has
been protected, and the equality of all our citizens before the
law, without regard to race or section, has been steadfastly
maintained.

Upon its record thus exhibited and upon th3 pledge of a con-
tinuance to the people of the benefits of good government, the
National Democracy invokes a renewal of popular trust by
the re-election of a Chief Magistrate who has been faithful,
able and prudent.

They invoke an addition to that trust by the transfer also to
the Democracy of the entire legislative power.

The Republican party, controlling the Senate and resisting
In both Houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and un-
equal tax laws, which have outlasted the necessities of war
and are now undermining the abundance of a long peace, deny
to the people equality before the law and the fairness and the
justice which are their right.

Thus the cry of American labor for a better share in the re-
wards of industry is stifled with false pretences ; enterprise is
fettered and bound down to home markets; capital is dis-
couraged with doubt ; and unequal, unjust laws can neither
be properly amended nor repealed.

The Democratic party will continue, with all the power con-
fided to it, the struggle to reform these laws in accordance
with the pledges of its last platform endorsed at the ballot-
box by the suffrages of the people.

Of all the industrious freemen of our land, an immense ma-
jority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage
from excessive tax laws ; but the price of nearly everything
they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system
of tax legislation.

All uunecesaary taxation is unjust taxation.

398 - DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy that by such tax.
ation the cost of the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably
increased to all our people.

Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the peo-
ple are betrayed, when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and
combinations are permitted and fostered, which, while unduly
enriching the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens
by depriving them of the benefits of natural competition.
Every Democratic rule of governmental action is violated
when through unnecessary taxation a vast sum of money,
far beyond the needs of an economical administration, is
drawn from the people and the channels of trade and accu-
mulated as a demoralizing surplus in the National Treasury.

The money now lying idle in the Federal Treasury resulting
from superfluous taxation amounts to more than $125,000,000,
and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than
$60,000,000 annually.

Debauched by the immense temptation the remedy of the
Republican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant ap-
propriations and expenditures, whether constitutional or not,
the accumulations of extravagant taxation.

The Democratic remedy is to enforce frugality in public ex-
pense and abolish needless taxation.

Our established domestic industries and enterprises should
not, and need not, be endangered by a reduction and correc-
tion of the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and
careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the
difference between the wages of American and foreign labor,
must promote and encourage every branch of such industries
and enterprises by giving them assurance of an extended
market and steady and continuous operation.

In the interest of American labor, which should in no event
be neglected, the revision of our tax laws contemplated by
the Democratic party would promote the advantage of such
labor by cheapening the cost of the necessaries of life in the
home of every workingman, and at the same time securing to
him steady and remunerative employment.

Upon this great issue of tariff reform, so closely concerning
every phase of our national life, and upon every question in-
volved in the problem of good government, the Democratic
party submits its principles and professions to the intelligent
suffrages of the American people.

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PLATFOKM.

Adopted at Chicago, Juke 21, 1888.

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their
delegates in National Convention, pause on the threshold of
their proceedings to honor the memory of their first great
leader, the immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the
people — Abraham Lincoln ; and to cover also with wreaths of
imperishable remembrance and gratitude the heroic names of
©ur later leaders who have more recently been called away

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 399

from our councils— Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Loffan, Conklinff.
May their memories be faithfully cherished. vVe also recall
with our greetings, and with prayer for his recovery, thenamo
of one of our living heroes, whose memory will be treasured in
the history both of Republicans and of the Republic— the
name of that noble soldier and favorite child of victory, Philip
H. Sheridan.

In the spirit of those great leaders, and of our own devotion
to human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of des-

Sotism and.oppression, which is the fundamental^ idea of the
-e publican' party, we send fraternal congratulation to our
fellow-Americans of Brazil upon their great act of emancipa-
tion, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the
tvio American continents. We earnestly hope that we may
soon congratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the
peaceful recovery of home rule for Ireland.

We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the National Con-
stitution and to the indissoluBle union of the States ; to the
autonomy reserved to the States under the Constitution; to
the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the States
and Territories in the Union, and especially to the supreme
and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor,
native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot
in public elections, and to have that ballot duly counted. We
hold the free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal
representation of all the people to be the foundation of our
republican government, and demand effective legislation to
secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the
fountains of all public authority. We charge that the present
Administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe
their existence to the suppression cf the ballot by a criminal
nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

We are uncomprisingly in favor of the American system of
protection; we protest against its destruction as proposed by
the President and his party. They serve the interests of
Europe ; we will support the interests of America. We accept
the issue and confidently appeal to the people for their judg-
ment. The protective system must be maintained. Its aban-
donment has always been followed by general disaster to all
interests, except those of the usurer and the sheriff. We
denounce the Mills Bill as destructive to the general business,
the labor and the farming interests of the country, and we
heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Re-
publican Representatives in Congress in opposing its passage.

We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to
place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties there-
on shall be adjusted and maintained so cis to furnish full and
adequate protection to that industry.

The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of
the national revenue by repealing the taxes upon tobacco,
which are an annoyance and burden to agriculture, and the
tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechanical purposes,
and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check
imports of such articles as are produced by our people, the
produotiou of which gives employment to our labor, and

4:00 DICTIO^TAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

release from import duties those articles of foreign production
(except luxuries) the like of which cannot be produced at
home. If there shall still remain a larger revenue than is
requisite for the wants of the Government, we favor the entire
repeal of internal taxes rather than the surrender of any part
of our protective system, at the joint behests of the whisky
ring and the agents of foreign manufacturers.

We declare our hostility to the introduction into this coun-
try of foreign contract labor and of Chinese labor, alien to our
civilization and our Constitution, and we demand the rigid
enforcement of the existing laws against it, and favor such
immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our
shores.

We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital,
organized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the con-
dition of trade among our citizens; and we recommend to
Congress and the State Legislatures, in their respective juris-
dictions, such legislation as will prevent the execution of all
schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their sup-

Slies, or by unjust rates for the transportation of their pro-
ucts to market. We approve the legislation b^ Congress to
prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations be-
tween the States.

We reafflrm the policy of appropriating the public lands of
the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and
settlers, not aliens, which the Republican party established iu
1862, against the persistent opposition of the Democrats in
Congress, and which has brought our great Western domain
into such magnificent development. The restoration of
unearned railroad land grants to the public domain for the
use of actual settlers, which was begun under the Administra-
tion of President Arthur, should be continued. We deny that
the Democratic party has ever restored one acre to the people,
but declare that by the joiilt action of the Republicans and
Democrats about 50,000,000 of acres of unearned lands origin-
ally granted for the construction of railroads have been
restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the cocditions
inserted by the Republican party m the original grants. We
charge the Democratic Administration with failure to execute
the laws securing to settlers title to their homesteads, and
with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass in-
nocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false
pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law.

The government by Congress of the Territories is based
upon necessity only, to the end that they may become States
in the Union ; therefore, whenever the conditions of popula-
tion, material resources, public intelligence and morality are
such as to insure a stable local government therein, the people
of such Territories should be permitted, as a right inherent iu
them, the right to form for themselves constitutions and State
governments, and be admitted into the Union. Pending the
preparation for Statehood, all officers thereof should be
selected from the bona fide residents and citizens of the Terri-
tory wherein they are to serve.

South Dakota should of right be immediately admitted as a
State iu the Union, under the const! tutiou framed aud adopted

DiCTION-AR Y OF AMERlCAiSr POLITICO, 401

by her people, and we heartily indorse the action of the Re«
publican Senate in twice passing bills for her admission. Thtj
refusal of the Democratic. House of Representatives, for par«
tisan purposes, favorably to consider these bills, is a willful
violation of the sacred American principle of local self-
eovernraent, and merits the condemnation of all just men.
The pending bills in the Senate for acts to enable the people
of Washington, North Dakota and Montana Territories to
form constitutions and establish State governments should be
passed without unnecessary delay. The Republican party
l^ledges itself to do all in its power to facilitate the admission
of the Territories of New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Ari-
zona to the enjoyment of self-government as States, such of
them as are now qualified as soon as possible, and the others
as soon as they become so.

The political power of the Mormon Church in the Terri-
tories as exercised in the past is a menace to free institutions,
a danger no longer to be suffered. Therefore we pledge the
Republican party to appropriate legislation asserting the
sovereignity of the Nation in all Territories where the same is
questioned, and in furtherance of that end to place upon the
statute books legislation stringent enough to divorce the
political from the ecclesiastical power, and thus stamp out the
attendant wickedness of polygamy.

The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and
silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic
administration in its efforts to demonetize silver.

We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per
ounce.

In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and
the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by
the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign— the
people — should possess intelligence. The free school is the
promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us a free
nation; therefore the State or Nation, or both combined,
should support free institutions of learning sufficient to afford
to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a
good common school education.

We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by
Qongress in ihe enactment of such legislation as will best
secure the rehabilitation of our American merchant marine,
and we protest against the passage by Congress of a free ship
bill, as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the
wages of those engaged in preparing materials as well as
those directly employed in our ship-yards. We demand appro-
priations for the early rebuilding of our navy ; for the con-
struction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance and
other approved modern means of defence for the protection of
our defenceless harbors and cities; for the payment of just
pensions to our soldiers ; for the necessary works of national
importance in the improvement of harbors and the channels
of mternfll, coastwise and foreign commerce for the encour-
agement of the shipping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf and
Pacific States, as well as for the payment of the maturing
public debt. This policy will give employment to our labor,
activity to our various industries, increase the security of our

402 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

country, promote trade, open new and direct markets for out
produce and cheapen the cost of transportation. We affirm
this to be far better for our country than the Democratic
policy of loaning the Goverment's money without interest
to "pet banks."

The conduct of foreign affairs by the present Administration
has been distinguished by its ineflaciency and its cowardice.
Having withdrawn from the Senate all pending treaties
effected by Republican Administrations for the removal of
foreign burdens and restrictions upon our commerce and for
its extension into better markets, it has neither effected
nor proposed any others in their stead. Professing adher-
ence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen with idle complacency
the extension of foreign influence in Central America and of
foreign trade everywhere among our neighbors. It has re-
fused to charter, sanction or encourage any American
organization for constructing the Kicaragua Canal, a work of
vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine,
and of our national influence in Central and South America;
and necessary for the develoi)ment of trade with our Pacific
territory, with South America and with the islands and
further coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

We arraign the present Democratic Administration for its
weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and
its pusillanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which
our fishing vessels are entitled in Canadian i)orts under the
treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830 and
the comity of nations, and which Canadian fishing vessels re-
ceive in the ports of the United States. We condemn the
policy of the present Administration and the Democratic
majority in Congress toward our fisheries as unfriendly and
conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to destroy a valu-
able national industry, and an indispensable resource of
defence against a foreign enemy.

The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the
Republic and imposes upon all alike the same obligation of
obedience to the laws. At the same time that citizenship is-
and must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it,
and protect him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his
civil rights. It should and must afford him protection at
home, and follow and protect him abroad in whatever land he
may be on a lawful errand.

The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884 and
continue to adhere to the Democratic party have deserted not
only the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of
freedom, of purity of the ballot, but especially have deserted
the cause of reform in the Civil Service. We will not fail to
keep our pledges because they have broken theirs, or because
their candidate has broken his. We therefore repeat our
declaration of 1884, to wit: " The reform of the Civil Service
auspiciously begun under the Republican Administration
Bhould be completed by the further extension of the reform
system already established by law to all the grades of the
service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of
the reform should be observed in all Executive appointments,
and all laws at variance with the object of existing reform

DICTJOJ^AR Y OF AMERICAJST POLITICS. 403

legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to
free Institutions which lurk in the power of offtcial patronage
may be wisely and effectually avoided."

The gratitude of the Nation to the defenders of the Union
cannot be measured by laws. The legislation of Congress
should conform to the pledge made by a loyal people, and be
80 enlarged and extended as to provide agamst the possibility
that any man who honorably wore the Federal uniform
should become the inmate of an almshouse, or dependent
upon private charity. In the presence of an overflowing
Treasury it would be a public scandal to do less for those
whose valorous service preserved the Government. We de-
nounce the hostile spirit of President Cleveland in his
numerous vetoes of measures for pension relief, and the action
of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even
a consideration of general pension legislation.

In support of the principles herewith enunciated, we invite
the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, and especially
of all workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened
by the free-trade policy of the present Administration.

we reafftrm our unswerving devotion to the personal rights
and liberties of citizens. The first concern of all good govern-
ment is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of
the home. The Republican party cordially sympathizes with
all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temper-
ance and morality.

NATIONAL PEOHIBITION PLATFORM.

Adopted at Indian"apolis, May 31, 1888.

The Prohibition party in National Convention assembled,
acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in
government, does herebjr declare :

That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transporta-
tion and sale of alcoholic beverages shall be made public
crimes aud prohibited and punished as such.

That such prohibition must be secured through amend-
ments of our National and State Constitutions, enforced by
adequate laws adequately supported by administrative
authority, and to this end the organization of the Prohibition
party is imperatively demanded in State and Nation.

That any form of license, taxation or regulation of the
liquor traffic is contrary to good government ; that any party
which supports regulation by license or tax enters into an
alliance with such traffic and becomes the actual foe of the
State's welfare, and that we arraign the Republican and Demo-
cratic parties for their persistent attitude in favor of the
licensed iniquity, whereby they oppose the demand of the

Seople for prohibition and through open complicity with the
quor cause defeat the enforcement of law.
For the immediate abolition of the internal revenue system.
Whereby our National Government is deriving support from
our greatest national yice*

404 JbiCTlONARY OF AMEktCAM POLITICS.

That an adequate public revenue being necessary, it may
pr«^perly be raised by import duties, but import duties should
be so reduced that no surplus shall be accumulated in the
treasury, and the burdens of taxation should be removed
from foods, clothing and other comforts and necessaries of
life, and imposed on such other articles of import as will give

{)rotection to the manufacturing employer and producing
aborer against the competition of the world.

That Civil Service appointments for all civil offices, chiefly
clerical in their duties, should be based upon moral, intel-
lectual and physical qualifications, and not upon party
service or party necessity.

The right of suffrage rests on no mere circumstance of race,
color, sex or nationality, and that where, from any cause, it
has been withheld from citizens who are of suitable age and
mentally and morally qualified for the exercise of an intelli-
gent ballot, it should be restored by the people through the
legislatures of the several States on such educational basis as
they may deem wise.

For the abolition of polygamy and the establishment of uni-
form laws governing marriage and divorce.

For prohibiting all combinations of capital to control and to
increase the cost of products for popular consumption.

For the preservation and defense of the Sabbath as a civil
institution without oppressing any who religiously observe
the same on any other day than the first day of the week.

That arbitration is the Christian, wise and economic method
of settling national differences, and the same method should
by judicious legislation be applied to the settlement of dis-
putes between large bodies of employes and employers; that
the abolition of the saloon would remove the burdens, moral,
physical, pecuniary and social, which now oppress labor and
rob it of its earnings, and would prove to be the wise and suc-
cessful way of promoting labor reform; and we invite labor
and capital to unite with us for the accomplishment thereof.

That monopoly in land is a wrong to the people, and public
land should be reserved to actual settlers, and that men and
women should receive equal wages for equal work.

That our immigration laws should be so enforced as to pre-
vent the introduction into our country of all convicts, inmates
of dependent institutions and others physically incapacitated
for self-support, and that no person shall have the ballot in
any State who is not a citizen of the United States.

Recognizing and declaring that the prohibition of the liquor
traffic has become the dominant issue in national politics, we
invite to full party fellowship all those who on this one
dominant issue are with us agreed in the full belief that this
party can and will remove sectional differences, promote
national unity, and insure the best lyeUare o£ our native land.

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 406

PARTY PLATFORMS.

DEMOCRATIC, REPUBLICAN, PROHIBITIOU, PEOPLE'S.

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

Adopted at Chicago, Jui^^e 22, 1892.

The representatives of the Democratic party of the United
States, in National Convention assembled, do reaffirm their alleg-
iance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jefferson and
exemplified by the long and illustrious line of nine of his success-
ors in Democratic leadership from Madison to Cleveland.

We believe the public welfare demands that these principles be
applied to the conduct of the Federal Government through the
accession to power of the party that advocates them, and we
solemnly declare that the need of a return to -these fundamental
principles of a free popular Government, based on home rule and
individual liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the
tendency to centralize all power at the Federal Capitol has become
a menace to the reserved rights of the States, that strikes at the
very roots of our Government under the Constitution as framed by
the fathers of the Republic.

We warn the people of our common country, jealous for the
preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of Federal
control of elections, to which the Republican party has com-
mitted itself, is fraught with the gravest dangers, scarcely less
momentous than would result . from a revolution practically es-
tablishing monarchy on the ruins of the Republic. It strikes at
the North as well as the South and injures the colored citizen
even more than the white; it means a horde of deputy marshals
at every polling place armed with Federal power, returning
boards appointed and controlled by Federal authority, the outrage
of the electoral rights of the people in the several States, the sub-
jugation of the colored people to the control of the party in power
and the reviving of race antagonisms, now happily abated, of the
utmost peril to the safety and happiness of all; a measure de-
liberately and justly described by a leading Republican Senator as
* ' the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the
Senate."

Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the dominance
of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of office-holders, and the party
first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged from power

iOQ DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people to resist op-
pression, which is inherent in all self-governing communities.

Two years ago this revolutionary policy was emphatically con-
demned by the people at the polls; but in contempt of that ver-
dict the Republican party has defiantly declared in its latest au-
thoritative utterance that its success in the coming elections will
mean the enactment of the Force Bill and the usurpation of des-
potic control over elections in all the States.

Believing that the preservation of Republican Government in
the United States is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of
legalized force and fraud, we invite the support of all citizens
who desire to see the Constitution maintained in its integrity with
the laws pursuant thereto, which have given our country a hun-
dred years of unexampled prosperity, and we pledge the Demo-
cratic party, if to be intrusted with power, not only to the defeat
of the Force Bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Repub-
lican policy of profligate expenditure which, in the short space of
two years, has squandered an enormous surplus and emptied an
overflowing treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon
the already overtaxed labor of the country.

We denounce the Republican protection as a fraud. The labor
of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of
the few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the
Democratic party that the Federal Government has no constitu-
tional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the
purposes of revenue only — and we demand that the collection of
such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the Government,
when honestly and economically administered.

We denounce the McKinley tariff law, enacted by the Fifty-
first Congress, as the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we
indorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present Con-
gress to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of
free raw materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter
into general consumption; and we promise its repeal as one of the
beneficient results that will follow the action of the people in in-
trusting power to the Democratic party.

Since the McKinley tariff went into operation there have been
ten reductions of the wages of the laboring men to one increase.
We deny that there has been any increase of prosperity to the
country since that tariff went into operation, and we point to the
dullness and distress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron
trade, as the best possible evidence that no such prosperity has re-
sulted from the McKinley act.

We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that
after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of
foreign wealth in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the
homes and farms of the country have become burdened with a
real estate mortgage debt of over $2,500,000,000, exclusive of al]

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 407

other forms of indebtedness; that in one of the chief agricultural
States of the West, there appears a real estate mortgage debt
averaging $165 per capita of the total population, and that similar
conditions and tendencies are shown to exist in the other agricul-
tural exporting states.

We denounce a policy which fosters no industry so much as it
does that of the sheriff.

Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantages of the
countries participating is a time honored doctrine of the Demo-
cratic faith, but we denounce the sham reciprocity which juggles
with the people's desire for enlarged foreign markets and freer
exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations for a
country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agricul-
tural products with other countries that are also agricultural
while erecting a Custom-House barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes
against the rich and the countries of the world that stand ready to
take our entire surplus of products and to exchange therefor com-
modities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our
own people.

We recognize in the trusts and combinations, which are designed
to enable capital to secure more than its just share of the joint
product of capital and labor, a natural consequence of the pro-
hibitive taxes which prevent the free competition which is the
life of honest trade; but we believe their worst evils can be
abated by law, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws
made to prevent and control them, together with such further
legislation in restraint of their abuses as experience may show to
be necessary.

The Republican party, while professing a policy of reserving
the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, has given
away the people's heritage, till now a few railroad and non-resi-
dent, aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than
that of all our farms between the two seas.

The last Democratic Administration reversed the improvident
and unwise policy of the Republican party touching the public
domain, and reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien
and domestic, and restored to the people nearly one hundred
million acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads
for our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy
until every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed
and restored to the people.

We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sher-
man act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, fraught with possibili-
ties of danger in the future which should make all of its sup-
porters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal.

We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard
money of the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver
without discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage,

408 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

but tbe dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal
intrinsic and exchangeable value or be adjusted through inter-
national agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as shall
insure the maintenance of the purity of the two metals and the
equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the
payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall
be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin.

We insist upon this policy as especially necessary for the pro-
tection of the farmers and laboring classes, the first and most de-
fenseless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency.

We recommend that the prohibitory 10 per cent, tax on State
bank issues be repealed.

Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declaration of
the Democratic National Convention of 1876 for the reform of the
civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all laws
regulating the same. The nomination of a President, as in the
recent Republican Convention, by delegations composed largely
of his appointees, holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous
satire upon free popular institutions and a startling illustration of
tbe methods by which a President may gratify his ambition.

We denounce a policy under which Federal office-holders usurp
control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the
Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses
which threaten individual liberty and local self-government.

The Democratic party is the only party that has given the coun-
try a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, compelling respect
abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While avoiding en-
tangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly relations with
other nations and especially with our neighbors on the American
continent whose destiny is closely linked with our own, and we
view with alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation and bluster
which is liable at any time to confront us with the alternative of
humiliation or war.

We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all pur-
poses of national defense and to promptly maintain the honor
and dignity of the country abroad.

This country has always been the refuge of the oppressed from
every land — exiles for conscience sake — and in the spirit of the
founders of our Government we condemn the oppression practiced
by the Russian Government upon its Lutheran and Jewish sub-
jects, and we call upon our National Government, in the interest
of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means, to use its
prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel
persecutions in the dominions of the Czar and to secure to the op-
pressed equal rights.

We tender our profound and earnest sympathy to those lovers
of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the great caus«
of local self-government in Ireland.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 409

We heartily approve of all legitimate efforts to prevent the
United States from being used as the dumping ground for the
known criminals and professional paupers of Europe, and we de-
mand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigra-
tion or the importation of foreign workmen under contract to de-
grade American labor and lessen its wages, but we condemn and
denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of the
industrious and worthy of foreign lands.

This Convention hereby renews the expression of appreciation
of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union in the
war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pensions
for all disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents, but
we demand that the work of the Pension Office shall be done in-
dustriously, impartially, and honestly.

We denounce the present administration of that office as in-
competent, corrupt, disgraceful and dishonest.

The Federal Government should care for and improve the Mis-
sissippi River and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to
secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to
the tidewater.

When any waterway of the Republic is of sufficient importance
€o demand the aid of the Government — that such aid should be
extended by a definite plan of continuous work until permanent
improvement is secured.

For purposes of national defense and the promotion of com-
merce between the States, we recognize the early construction of
the Nicaragua Canal and its protection against foreign control as
of great importance to the United States.

Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a national
undertaking of vast importance, in which the General Govern-
ment has invited the co-operation of all the powers of the world,
and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the
invitation extended and the broadest liberal efforts being made by
them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of
the opinion that Congress should make such necessary financial

Provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national
onor and public faith.

Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffer-
age, we recommend to the several States most liberal appropria-
tions for the public schools. Free common schools are the nur-
sery of good government, and they have always received the fos-
tering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means of
increasing intelligence. Freedom of education being an essential
of civil and religious liberty as well as a necessity for the devel-
opment of intelligence, must not be interfered with under any
pretext whatever.

We are opposed to State interference with parental rights and
rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringe-

410 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

ment of tlie fundamental Democratic doctrine tliat the largest in-
dividual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the
highest type of American citizenship and the best government.

We approve the action of the present House of Representatives
in passing bills for the admission into the Union as States of
the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early
admission of all the Territories having necessary population and
resources to admit them to Statehood, and while they remain.
Territories we hold that the officials appointed to administer the
government of any Territory, together with the Districts of Co-
lumbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the Territory
or District in which their duties are to be performed.

The Democratic party believes in home rule and the control of
their own affairs by the people of the vicinage.

We favor legislation by Congress and State Legislatures to pro-
tect the lives and limbs of railway employees and those of other
hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inactivity
of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican Senate,
for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this
class of wage- workers.

We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws for
abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract
convict labor and for prohibiting the employment in factories of
children under fifteen years of age.

We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interference with
the individual rights of the citizen.

Upon this statement of principles and policies the Democratic
party asks the intelligent judgment of the American people. It
asks a change of administration and a change of party in order
that there may be a change of system and a change of methods,
thus assuring the maintenance, unimpaired, of institutions undei
which the Republic has grown great and powerful.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 411
NATIONAL KEPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

Adopted at Minj^eapolis, Ju]S"E 9, 1893.

The representatives of the Republicans of the United States,
assembled in general convention on the shores of the Mississ-
ippi River, the everlasting bond of an indestructible Republic,
whose most glorious chapter of history is the record of the Re-
publician party, congratulate their countrymen on the majestic
march of the nation under the banners inscribed with the prin-
ciples of our platform of 1888, vindicated by victory at the polls
and prosperity in our fields, workshops and mines, and make the
following declaration of principles.

We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call
attention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous
condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue leg-
islation of the Republican Congress.

We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the
United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, and
that on all imports coming into competition with the products of
American labor there should be levied duties equal to the differ-
ence between wages abroad and at home.

We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general
consumption have been reduced under the operations of the
Tariff act of 1890.

We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the
House of Representatives to destroy our tariff laws piecemeal, as
is manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and lead ores, the
chief products of a number of States, and we ask the people for
their judgment thereon.

We point to the success of the Republican policy of recipro-
city, under which our export trade has vastly increased, and new
and enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our
farms and workshops.

We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Demo-
cratic party to this practical business measure, and claim that,
executed by a Republcian Administration, our present laws will
eventually give us control of the trade of the world.

The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bime-
tallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold
and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under
such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure
the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so
that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether
of silver, gold or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests
of the producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen,
demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Govern-
ment shall be as good as any other.

412 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our
Government to secure an international conference to adopt such
measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver
for use as money throughout the world.

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be
allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public
elections, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as
cast; that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure
to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign born, white
or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the Constitution.

The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal repre-
sentation of all the people as well as their just and equal pro-
tection under the laws, are the foundation of our Republican in-
stitutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the
integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully
guaranteed and protected in every State^

We denounce the continued inhuman outrages perpetrated
upon American citizens for political reasons in certain Southern
States of the Union.

We favor the extension of our foreign' commerce, the restora-
tion of our mercantile marine by home-built ships and the crea-
tion of a Navy for the protection of our National interests and
the honor of our flag ; tke maintenance of the most friendly re-
lations with all foreign Powers, entangling alliances with none,
and the protection of the rights of our fishermen.

We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe Doctrine, and believe
in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the Republic in its
broadest sense.

We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations
for the restriction of criminal, pauper and contract immigration.

We favor efficient legislation by Congress to protect the life
and limbs of employees of transportation companies engaged in
carrying on inter-state commerce, and recommend legislation by
the respective States that will protect employees engaged in State
commerce, in mining and manufacturing.

The Republican party has always been the champion of the
oppressed, and recognizes the dignity of manhood, irrespective of
faith, color or nationality; it sympathizes with the cause of Home
Rule in Ireland, and protests against the persecution of the Jews
in Russia.

The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelli-
gence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among men.
We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought
and conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and
instrumentalities which contribute to the education of the chil-
dren of the land; but, while insisting upon the dullest measure
of religious liberty, we are opposed to any union of Church and
State.

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 413

We reafSrm our opposition, declared in the Republican plat-
form of 1888, to all combinations of capital organized in trusts or
otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our
citizens. We heartily indorse the action already taken upon this
subject, and ask for such further legislation as may be required
to remedy any defects in existing laws, and to render their
enforcement more complete and effective.

We approve the policy of extending to towns, villages and
rural communities the advantages of the free delivery service,
now enjoyed by the larger cities of the country, and reaffirm the
declaration contained in the Republican platform of 1888, pledg-
ing the reduction of letter postage to one cent, at the earliest pos-
sible moment consistent with the maintenance of the Post-Office
Department, and the highest class of postal service.

We commend the spirit and evidence of reform in the Civil
Service, and the wise and consistent enforcement by the Repub-
lican party of the laws regulating the same.

The construction of the Nicaragua Canal is of the highest im-
portance to the American people, both as a measure of National
defence and to build up and maintain American commerce, and it
should be controlled by the United States Government.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the
earliest practical date, having due regard to the interests of the
people of the Territories and of the United States. All the Fed-
eral officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from
bona fide residents thereof, and the right of self government
should be accorded as far as practicable.

We favor cession, subject to the Homestead laws, of the arid
public lands to the States and Territories in which they lie,
under such Congressional restrictions as to disposition, reclama-
tion and occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum bene-
fits to the people.

The World's Columbian Exposition is a great National under-
taking, and Congress should promptly enact such reasonable
legislation in aid thereof as will insure a discharge of the expenses
and obligations incident thereto, and the attainment of results
commensurate with the dignity and progress of the Nation.

In temperance we sympathize with all wise and legitimate
efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and pro-
mote morality.

Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who
saved the life of the Nation, we pledge anew to the veteran
soldiers of the Republic a watchful care and recognition of their
just claims upon a grateful people.

We commend the able, patriotic and thoroughly American Ad-
ministration of President Harrison. Under it the country has
enjoyed remarkable prosperity, and the dignity and honor of the
Nation, at home and abroad, have been faithfully maintained, and
we offer the record of pledges kept as a guarantee of faithful per-
formance in the future.

414 DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.
NATIONAL PEOHIBITION PLATFOKM.

Adopted at Omaha, June 30, 1892.

The Proliibition party in National Convention assembled, ac-
knowledging Almighty God as the source of true government and
his law as the standard to which all human enactments must con-
form to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity, presents the
following declaration of principles:

The liquor traffic is a foe to civilization, the arch enemy of
popular government and a public nuisance. It is the citadel of the
forces that corrupt politics, promote poverty and crime, degrade
the nation's home life, thwart the will of the people and deliver
our country into the hands of rapacious class interests. All laws
that, under the guise of regulation, legalize and protect this
traffic or make the Government share in its illgotten gains are
" vicious in principle and powerless as a remedy."

We declare anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture,
sale, importation, exportation and transportation of alcoholic
liquors as a beverage by Federal and State legislation, and the full
powers of the Government should be exerted to secure this result.
Any party that fails to recognize the dominant nature of this
issue in American politics is undeserving of the support of the
people.

No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of sex,
and equal labor should receive equal wages without regard to
sex.

The money of the country should be issued by the general Gov-
ernment only, and in suflBcient quantities to meet the demands of
business and give full opportunity for the employment of labor.
To this end an increase in the volume of money is demanded, and
no individual or corporation should be allowed to make any profit
through its issue. It should be made a legal tender for the pay-
ment of all debts, public and private. Its volume should be fixed
at a definite sum per capita and made to increase with our in-
crease in population.

Tariff should be levied only as a defense against foreign gov-
ernments which levy tariff upon or bar out our products from
their markets, revenue being incidental. The residue of means
necessary to an economical administration of the Government
should be raised by levying a burden upon what the people pos-
sess instead of upon what we consume.

Railroad, telegraph and other public corporations should be
controlled by the Government in the interest of the people, and
no higher charges allowed than necessary to give fair interest on
the capital actually invested.

Foreign immigration has become a burden upon industry, on©

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 415

of the factors in depressing wages and causing discontent, there-
fore our immigration laws should be revised and strictly enforced.
The time of residence for naturalization should be extended, and
no naturalized person should be allowed to vote until one year
after he becomes a citizen.

Non-resident aliens should not be allowed to acquire land in
this country, and we favor the limitation of individual and cor-
porate ownership of land. All unearned grants of land to rail-
road companies or other corpdrations should be reclaimed.

Years of inaction and treachery on the part of the Republican
and Democratic parties have resulted in the present reign of mob
law, and we demand that every citizen be protected in the right
of trial by constitutional tribunals.

All men should be protected by the law in their right to one
day's rest in seven.

Arbitration is the wisest and* most economical and humane
method of settling National differences.

Speculation in margins, the cornering of grain, money and pro-
ducts and the formation of pools, trusts and combinations for the
arbitrary advancement of prices should be suppressed.

We pledge that the Prohibition party, if elected to power, will
ever grant just pensions to disabled veterans of the Union Army
and Navy, their widows and orphans.

We stand unequivocally for the American public schools and
opposed to any appropriation of public moneys for sectarian
schools. We declare that only by united support of such com-
mon schools, taught in the English language, can we hope to
become and remain an homogeneous and harmonious people.

We arraign the Republican and Democratic parties as false to
the standards reared by their founders, as faithless to the prin-
ciples of the illustrious leaders of the past to whom they do
homage with the lips; as recreant to the " higher law " which is
inflexible in political affairs as in personal life, and as no longer
embodying the aspirations of the American people or inviting the
confidence of enlightened progressive patriotism. Their protest
against the admission of "moral issues "into politics is a con-
fession of their own moral degeneracy.

The declaration of an eminent authority that municipal misrule
is " the one conspicuous failure of American politics," follows as
a natural consequence of such degeneracy, and is true alike of
cities under Republican and Democratic control. Each accuses
the other of extravagance in Congressional appropriations, and
both are alike guilty, each protests when out of power against
the infraction of the civil service laws, and each when in power
violates those laws in letter and spirit, each professes fealty to
the interests of the toiling masses, but both covertly truckle to
the money power on their administration of public affairs.

Even the tariff issues as represented in the Democratic Mills

416 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

bill and the Republican McKinley bill is no longer treated by
them as an issue upon great and divergent principles of govern-
ment, but is a mere catering to different sectional and class
interests.

The attempt in many States to wrest the Australian ballot
system from its true purpose, and to so deform it as to render it
extremely difficult for new parties to exercise the rights of suf-
frage, is an outrage upon popular government . The competition
of both the parties for the vote of the slums, and their assiduous
courting of the liquor power, and subserviency to the money
power, has resulted in placing those powers in the position of
practical arbiters of the destiny of the nation.

We renew our protest against these perilous tendencies, and in-
vite all citizens to join us in the upbuilding of a party that, as
phown in five national campaigns, prefers temporary defeat to
an abandonment of the claims of justice, sobriety, personal rights
and the protection of American homes.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 417
THE PEOPLE'S PARTY PLATFORM.

Adopted at Omaha, July 4, 1892.

Assembled upon the one hundred and sixteenth aniversary of
the Declaration of Independence the People's party of America,
in their first National Convention, invoking upon their action the
blessing of Almighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf
of the people of this country, the following preamble and delara-
tion of principles.

The conditions which surround us best justify our co5peration;
we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, po-
litical, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box,
the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of
the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have
been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to pre-
vent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are
largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business
prostrated; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impover-
ished, and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists.
The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-
protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; a
hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established
to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into Euro-
pean conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly
stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the
history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise
the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb
of the governmental injustice we breed the two great classes —
tramps and millionaries.

The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich
bondholders; a vast public debt, payable in legal tender currency,
has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions
to the burdens of the people.

Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of his-
tory, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of
gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as
human labor, and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to
fatten usurpers, bankrupt enterprises, and enslave industry.

A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two
continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If
not met and overthrown at once, it forebodes terrible social con-
vulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the establishment of
an absolute despotism.

We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the
struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder.

418 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

wliile grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering
poor. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both
these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to
develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them.
Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have
agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue
but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered
people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that
capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered
stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppressions of th«
usurers may be all lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our
homes, lives, and children on the altar of Mammon; to destroy
the multitude in order to secure corrupt funds from the million-
aires.

Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation,
and filled with the spirit of the grand generation who established
our independence, we seek to restore the Government of the re-
public to the hands of "the plain people," with which class it
originated.

We assert our purposes to be identical with the purposes of the
national Constitution — to form a more perfect Union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common de-
fence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

We declare that this republic can only endure as a free govern-
ment while built upon the love of the whole people for each other
and for the nation; it cannot be pinned together by bayonets; that
the civil war is over, and that every passion and resentment
which grew out of it must die with it, and that we must be in
fact, as we are in name, the United Brotherhood of Freemen.

Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which
there is no precedent in the history of the world; our annual
agricultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value,
which must within a few weeks or months be exchanged for bil-
lions of dollars of commodities consumed in their production; the
existing currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this ex-
change; the results are falling prices, the formation of combines
and rings, and the impoverishment of the producing class. We
pledge ourselves that if given power we will labor to correct
these evils by wise and reasonable legislation, in accordance with
the terms of our platform.

We believe that the powers of Government — in other words, of
the people — should be expended (as in the case of the postal ser-
vice) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent
people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the end
that oppression, injustice and poverty shall eventually cease in
the land.

While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 419

the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelli-
gent, virtuous, and temperate, we nevertheless regard these ques-
tions— important as they are — as secondary to the great issues
now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individ-
ual prosperity, but the very existence of free institutions depend;
and we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are
to have a republic to administer before we differ as to the condi-
tions upon which it is to be administered; believing that the
forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move for-
ward until every wrong is remedied, and equal rights and equal
privileges securely established for all the men and women of this
country.

We declare therefore,

1. That the union of the labor forces of the United States this
day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual — may its
spirit enter into all hearts for the salvation of the Republic,
and the uplifting of mankind.

2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar
taken from industry, without an equivalent, is robbery. ' ' If
any man will not work neither shall he eat." The interests of
rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical.

3. We believe that the time has come when the railroad corpor-
ations will either own the people or the people must own the
railroads, and should the Government enter upon the work of
owning and managing any and all railroads we should favor an
amendment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in
the Government service shall be placed under a civil service regu-
lation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of
the power of the National Administration by the use of such addi-
tional Government employees.

We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible,
issued by the general Government only, a full legal tender for all
debts, public and private, and that without the use of banking
corporations, a just, equitable, and eflBcient means of distribution
direct to the people, at a tax not to exceed two per cent, per
annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-Treasury plan of
the Farmers' Alliance or some better system; also by payment in
discharge of its obligations for public improvements.

We demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold
at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1.

We demand that the amount of the circulating medium be
speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita.

We demand a graduated income tax.

We believe that the monies of the country should be kept as
much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we de-
mand that all national and State revenues shall be limited to the
necessary expenses, economically and honestly administered.

We demand that postal savings banks be established by the

420 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and
to facilitate exchange.

Transportation being a means of exchange and a public neces-
sity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the
interest of the people.

The telegraph and telephone, like the Post Office system, being
a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and
operated by the Government in the interest of the people.

The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the
heritage of all the people, and should not be monopolized for
speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be pro-
hibited. All lands now held by railroads and other corporations
in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by aliens
should be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual set-
tlers only.

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

421

Presidential Popular Vote in 1884 and 1888.

PRESIDENTIAL POPULAR VOTE, 1884.

States.

Alabama

Arkansas ...-
California —

Colorado

Connecticut . .

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

KansHfl

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland ..
Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota —
Mississippi —

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

N. Hampshire
New Jersey...
New York ....
N. Carolina...

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island.

S.Carolina

Tennessee ....

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia
Wisconsin

Total

Plurality

Per cent

Whole Vote

92,973

72,927

89,288

27,603

67,182

16,976

31,769

94,653

312,584

244,992

177,316

90,132

152,961

62,546

51,656

96,866

122,352

189,361

70,065

76,510

235,988

54,391

5,578

39,187

127,778

563,048

142,952

368,286

24,604

392,785

12,391

69,764

133,270

223,679

17,331

145,497

67,317

146,459

4,911,017

62,683

48.87

59,144

50,895

102,416

36,166

65,898

13,053

28,031

47,692

337,411

238,480

197,089

154,406

118,122

46,34'"

71,716

85,748

146,724

192,669

111,685

43,509

202,929

76,903

43,250

123,366

562,001

125,068

400,082

26,860

473,804

19,030

21,733

124,090

91,701

39,514

139,356

63,096

161,157

4,848.334
"**48.25

762
1,847
2,017
1,961
1,685
10

135
10,849
8,293

16',34i

1,693

120

3,994

578

24,382

753

3,583

552

3,456

17,002

5,170

726

17,002

957
3,321

785

"805

133,825

610

2,494

. 72

168
.2,005
3,028
1,472
4,954
3,139

838
2,143

18,403
4,684

2,i53

1,571

6,153

25,001

454

11,269

492

15,737

1,151
8,508
1,752
138
939
7,656

151,809
""\M

GO ^

6 t

3,738
46,961

6,5i2

34,839
16,199

ii'iis

33,001
33,059

4,412

1,047

17,884

48,031

9,180

131,978

6,141
4,221

10,048,061

422

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

PRESIDENTIAL POPULAR VOTE, 1888,

States.

i 1

3
d

o ;^
to "^

Alabama

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut. . . .

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

IlUnois

117,320

R5,962

117,729

37,507

74,920

16,414

39,561

100,499

348,278

261,013

179,877

102,745

18:3,800

85,032

50,481

106,168

151,a55

213,469

104,385

85,471

261,974

80,552

5,326

43,382

151,493

635,757

147,902

396,455

26,522

446,633

17,530

65,825

158,779

234,883

16,788

151.977

78.677

155,2:32

56,197

58,752

124.816

50,774

74,584

12,973

26,657

40,496

370,473

263,:361

211,598

182,904

155,134

30,484

73,734

99,986

183,892

2:36,387

142,492

30,096

236,257

108,425

7,229

45,724

144,:344

648,759

134,784

416,054

:33,291

526 091

21,968

13,7:36

138,988

88,422

45,192

150,438

78,171

176,553

5&3

641

5,761

2,191

4,234

400

423

1,808

21,695

9,881

3,550

6,779

5,225

160

2,691

4,767

8,701

20,942

15,:311

218

4,539

9,429

1,566

7,904

30,231

2,789

24,356

1,677

20,947

1,250

5,969
4,749
1,460
1,678
1.084
14,277

10,613

' l',266
240

'*'i36

7,090

2,694

9,105

37,788

622

1,344

' 4,.555

1,094

18,632
4,226

"■■13

"'626

3,496

363

3,873

" " *48
29,459

' i',.568
8,552

"'ho

* 2,668

' 'I'sgi

Indiana

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Massachusetts .

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

N. Hampshire.

New Jei'sey

New York

N. Carolina

Ohio

......

Oregon

Pennsylvania..
Rhode Island..

S. Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

•••"'•

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia..
Wisconsin

......

Total

Pluralities

5,538,233
98,017

5,440,216

249,907

148,105

2,808

1,591

Whole Vote-.

11,380,860

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 423

Plumed Knight.-— A sobriquet of James G. Blaine,
origiaatiiig in a speech of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll,
who said: "' Like an armed warrior, like a plumed
knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the
American Congress and threw his shining lance full
and fair against the brazen forehead of every defamer
of this country and maligner of its honor/'

Political Bargain is a corrupt arrangement whereby
a politician promises support to a measure or man in
consideration of similar support to be given to some
measure or man of his choice. The election of John
Quincy Adams in 1824 was charged to a bargain be-
tween him and Henry Clay, the price being the Secre-
taryship of State. Clay was, as a matter of fact, appointed
to this position, but although the charge clung to him,
and in after years injured him politically, there is no
proof of its truth. Clay always denied the charge.
Political bargains are now so common as not to be matters
either for surprise or comment.

Political Boss is a politician that absolutely controls
his party or faction. Such were Tweed and Kelly in
New York. ' v^^ ia-v' /v^^ ' ? *.>-., {■■, ^.>'j-^.^

Political Workers. {See Boys, The.J
Polk, James Knox, was born in Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina, November 2, 1795. He died
at Nashville, Tennessee, June 15, 1849. He was gradu-
ated at the University of North Carolina and admitted
to the bar. In politics he was a Democrat. He was a
member of the House of Representatives from 1825 to
1839, and during the last four years was speaker. From
1839 to 1843 he was Governor of Tennessee; from 1845
to 1849 he was President. During his administration
the Mexican War was fought and the Oregon boundary
dispute was settled.

Poll Tax. — A poll tax is a tax levied on every head
or poll of the population. It is a direct tax, and in its
original form bears necessarily more heavily on the poor
than en the rich; the tendency at present, therefore, is
to supply its place with an income tax. Congress has
power, by Article 1, section 9, of the Constitution, to

4:24: DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

levy a poll tax in proportion to the census, but this
power has never been exercised. The States, however,
have very generally levied such taxes. In 1860 it was
employed by twenty-seven of the States and Territories.
It is not now so common, and some of the State Consti-
tutions forbid it. In some States, as in Massachusetts,
its payment is a necessary pre-requisite for voting.
"Where it is employed it is not uncommon to except cer-
tain classes, as ministers, from its payment.

Pond Tax Law. {See ProhiUtion.)

Poor Man's Dollar. — The silver dollar is so-called
by those favoring its compulsory coinage. {8ee Silver
Question. )

Poor Richard. — In 1732 Benjamin Franklin began
the publication of '^ Poor Eichard^s Almanac.''' It has
become renowned by reason o| the homely but striking
maxims it contained.

Popular Sovereignty. — This name was applied to
the doctrine that the principle of slavery '^ should be
kept out of the national Legislature, and left to the peo-
ple of the Confederacy in their respective local govern-
ments.'^ It was first stated as above by Lewis Cass in
1847. Behind this doctrine the Northern Democrats
sought refuge, both from the Wilmot Proviso and from
the Southern demands for active measures in benalf of
slavery. On the other hand, Calhoun maintained that
a man's right to his property, even though it be in slaves,
must everywhere be maintained, so that a man could
take his slave into any territory regardless of the wishes
of the inhabitants thereof. Calhoun nicknamed the
doctrine '^ squatter'' sovereignty. Douglas, its chief
supporter, maintained that it was the basis of the com-
promise of 1850, and in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill an-
other attempt to apply it was made. But when it be-
came evident that this doctrine meant the admission of
all future Territories as free, the interpretation was
strained so as to bring it within Calhoun's declarations,
on the ground that a Territory could not manifest its in-
tentions on the subject until it was ready to be admitted
as a State, in other words, not through its Territorial

DICTION AR V OF AMERICA JV POLITICS. 425

government. A disagreement on this subject led to the
withdrawal of a part of the Democratic national con-
vention which nominated Douglas in 1860.

Population of the United States.— The table on
page 399 gives the population of the United States as
shown by the decennial census which the Constitution
provides for (Article 1, section 2, clause 3). Indians
not taxed are excluded, as are also the whole populations
of Alaska and Indian Territory, which have not yet
been fully organized. The first were estimated In 1881
at 245,000; the second, in 1880, at 30,178; and the
third, in 1880, at 70,000. The total population, actual
and estimated, in 1880 was about 50,500,000. ^ The
totals of the last three censuses include a few Chinese,
Japanese and civilized or taxed Indians, who together
numbered 1,054 in 1880.

According to the census of 1890 the total population
of the United States was 62,622,250.

The following table shows the population of the
various States and Territories for 1890:

States and Territories.

1890. States and Territories.

Alabama 1,513.017

Arizona 59,620

Arkansas 1,128,179

California 1,208, 130

Colorado 41 9, 198

Connecticut 746,258

Dakota

Delaware 168,493

District of Columbia 230,392

Florida 391,422

Georgia 1,837.353

Idaho 84,:385

Illinois 3,826,351

Indiana 2,192,404

Iowa 1,911.896

Kansas 1 ,427, 096

Kentucky 1 ,858,635

Louisiana 1,118,587

Maine 661,086

Maryland 1,042,390

Massachusetts 2,238,943

Michigan 2,093,889

.Minnesota 1,301,826

Mississippi 1,289,600

Missouri 2,679,184

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire.

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina. .
North Dakota. . .

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania. . . .

Rhode Island

South Carolina. .
South Dakota....

. 132,159
.1,058,910
. 45,761
. 376,530
.1,444,933
. 153,593
.5,997,853
.1,617,947
. 182,719
.3,672,316
. 61,834
. 313,767
.5,258,014
. 345,506
.1,151,149

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington...
West Virginia.
Wisconsin.....
Wyoming

.1,767,518
.2,235,523
. 207,905
. 332,422
.1,655,980
349,390
. 762,704
.1,686,880
. 60,705

Total 62,622,250

426 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Population and Congressional Representa-
tion.— Under the act to apportion representatives in
Congress among the States under the Federal census of
population in 1890, which passed Congress and was ap-
proved February 7, 1891, the whole number of repre-
sentives after March 4, 1893, will be 356. In accord-
ance with the act, the several States will be represented
in the lower House of the Ffty-third Congress and will
be entitled to electoral votes as follows : Alabama, 9
representatives and 11 electoral votes; Arkansas, 6 re-
presentatives and 8 electoral votes ; California, 7 repre-
sentatives and 9 electoral votes ; Colorado, 2 representa-
tives and 4 electoral votes ; Connecticut, 4 representa-
tives and 6 electoral votes ; Delaware, 1 representative
and 3 electoral votes ; Florida, 2 jppresentives and 4
electoral votes ; Georgia, 11 representatives and 13
electoral votes ; Idaho, 1 representative and 3 electoral
votes ; Illinois, 22 representatives and 24 electoral
votes; Indiana, 13 representatives and 15 electoral votes;
Iowa, 11 representatives and 13 electoral votes ; Kansas,
8 representatives and 10 electoral votes ; Kentucky, 11
representatives and 13 electoral votes ; Louisiana, 6 re-
presentatives and 8 electoral votes; Maine, 4 representa-
tives and 6 electoral votes ; Maryland, 6 representatives
and 8 electoral votes ; Massachusetts, 13 representatives
and 15 electoral votes; Michigan, 12 representatives and
14 electoral votes; Minnesota, 7 representatives ^nd 9
electoral votes ; Mississippi, 7 representatives and 9
electoral votes ; Missouri, 15 representatives and 17
electoral votes; Montana, 1 representative and 3 electoral
votes; Nebraska, 6 representatives and 8 electoral votes;
Nevada, 1 representative and 3 electoral votes ; New
Hampshire, 2 representatives and 4 electoral votes; New
Jersey, 8 representatives and 10 electoral votes; New
York, 34 representatives and 36 electoral votes; North
Carolina, 9 representatives and 11 electoral votes ;
North Dakota, 1 representative and 3 electoral votes,
Ohio, 21 representatives and 22 electoral votes; Oregon,
2 representatives and 4 electoral votes; Pennsylvania;
30 representatives and 32 electoral votes; Rhode Island,

DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 427

2 representatives and 4 electoral votes; South Carolina,
7 representatives and 9 electoral votes; South Dakota, 2
representatives and 4 electoral votes; Tennessee, 10 re-
presentatives and 12 electoral votes; Texas, 13 repre-
sentatives and 15 electoral votes; Vermont, 2 repre-
sentatives and 4 electoral votes ; Virginia, 10 represen-
tatives and 12 electoral votes; Washington, 2 repre-
sentatives and 4 electoral votes ; West Virginia, 4 re-
presentatives and 6 electoral votes ; AVisconsin, 10
representatives and 12 electoral votes; Wyoming, 1 re-
presentative and 3 electoral votes. By this apportion-
ment the membership of the House of Eepresentatives
will be increased from 332 to 356, and 223 electoral
votes will be necessary for a choice. When a State fails
to re-district before the election following the re-appor-
tionment, the additional members of the House from
that State are elected by the entire State instead of by
districts, and such members are known as Congressmen
at Large.

Popular Names of Cities. — The nicknames given
to the various prominent cities in the United States are
as follows : Brooklyn, N. Y., City of Churches; Bos-
ton, Hub of the IJniverse; Baltimore, Monumental
City ; Buffalo, Queen City of the Lakes ; Chicago,
Garden City; Cincinnati, Queen City; Cleveland, Forest
City; Detroit, City of the Straits; Hannibal, Bluff City;
Indianapolis, Eailroad City; Keokuk, Gate City; Louis-
ville, Falls City; Lowell, City of Spindles; New York,
Gotham, Empire City; New Orleans, Crescent City;
Nashville, City of Rocks; New Haven, City of Elms;
Philadelphia, Quaker City, City of Brotherly Love;
Pittsburg, Iron City ; Portland, Me., Forest City;
Rochester, Flour City ; St. Louis, Mound City ;
Springfield, 111., Flower City ; Washington, D. C, City
of Magnificent Distances.

Porcelaine Currency — or more properly Wampum
— was a kind of money used originally by the Indians
and later adopted by the English, Dutch and French
colonists. It consisted of coins or beads made from the
black or purple eye of the common hard shell clam and

428 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

from the stem of the shell of the periwinkle. Through
the center of the coin or bead, a small liole was drilled and
they were then strung on threads or strings made from
the sinews of deer, or else woven into various kinds of
belts. The English, French and Dutch colonists
adt)pted wampum as a medium of exchange, the New
Netherlands colony records 1662 note '* kept in wamputn
and beaver skins.'^ Massachusetts colony in 1687
ordered it should pass "six a penny" for any sum
under twelve pence; Connecticut and New Haven in
1640 adopted it also, a fair fathom of purple wampum
being worth ten shillings, and one fathom of white
wampum five shillings. The records of New Amster-
dam (New York city) of 1641 authorizes ** four beads
of good black well-strung wampum or eight of the
white" to be reckoned the value of one stuyveVy a
Dutch coin worth about one cent. .Wampum was called
by the Dutch, Zewant,

Pork. — A term used in politics to designate the
spoils of legislation. (See Log Rolling).

Postal Currency. — This currency was the invention
of General Spinner, who represented the Syracuse dis-
trict of NewYork in Congress and was appointed Treas-
urer of the United States by President Lincoln. Dur-
ing the war and until the resumption of specie pay-
ment there was a great scarcity of change. Spinner
being appealed to from all quarters to take some meas-
ure to supply the demand for small change, silver hav-
ing vanished, was powerless, as he had no law under
which be could act. In his dilemma he thought of the
postage stamp, and sent down to the post-office depart-
ment and purchased a quantity of stamps. He then
ordered a package of the paper upon which Government
securities are printed, which he cut into various sizes.
On these pieces he pasted stamps to represent different
amounts, thus initiating a substitute for fractional
silver. This was not, however, a Government trans-
action in any sense; it could not be. The General
distributed his improvised currency among the clerks of
\he department, and finally through imitation it be-

DlCTIOhtAR y OP AMERICAN' POLITICS. 429

came the medium of small exchange. From this Gen-
eral Spinner got his idea of fractional currency, and
went before Congress with it which body readily
adopted it by an act July 17, 1862, authorizing it to be
used as currency in sums of less than five dollars.

Postal Service. — The first mention of a postal serv-
ice in the United States is that of the General Court
of Massachusetts in 1639: "It is ordered that notice
be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston is
the place appointed for all letters which are brought
from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither to be left
with him, and he is to take care that they are to be de-
livered or sent according to the direction. And he is
allowed for every letter a penny, and must answer all
miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind.^'

Postmaster - General. {See Post-Office Depart-
ment. )

Post-Office Department is one of the executive
departments of the government. It was established by
Act of May 8, 1794. The Postmaster-General, who is
at its head, is a member of the President's Cabinet, by
virtue of a custom that originated in the time of An-
drew Jackson. His salary is $8,000 per annum. He
is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Sen-
ate. The department has charge of the transmission of
mail matter, the preparation of stamps and postal cards,
the issue of money orders and postal notes, the estab-
lishment and discontinuance of post-offices, and the ap-
pointment of postmasters whose salaries are $1,000 or
under; of these there were 61,387, June 30, 1891. Dur-
ing the fiscal year of 1891 the revenue of the depart-
ment was $65,931,786, and its expenditures $71,662,-
463. In the transaction of this business the Postmaster-
General is assisted by

SALARY.

First Assistant $4,000

Second Assistant 4,000

Third Assistant 4,000

Fourth Assistant 4,000

Superintendent of Foreign Mails 8,000

Superintendent of Money Orders 8,60&

430 DICTION-AR y OF AMEktCAN- POLITICS.

The following is a completo list of all the Postmasters*
General:

NOT MEMBERS OF THE CABINET.

NAME.

STATE.

YEARS.

Samuel Osgood

Massachusetts

Pennsylvania

Georgia

Connecticut ..

1789—1791

Timothy Pickering

1791-1795.
1795—1801.

Gideon Granger

1801—1814.

Return J. Meigs, Jr

John McLean ....

Ohio

1814—1823.
182a— 1829.

MEMBERS OF THE CABINET.

William T. Barry

Amos Kendall

John M. Niles

Francis Granger

Charles A. Wickliffe. . .

Cave Johnson

Jacob Collamer

Nathan K. Hall

Samuel D. Hubbard.. .

James Campbell

Aaron V. Brown

Joseph Holt

Horatio King .. .

Montgomery Blair

William Dennison. . . .
Alexander W. Randall
John A. J. Creswell. . .

Marshall Jewell

James M. Tyner

David McK. Key

Horace Maynard

Thomas L. James

Timothy O. Howe

Walter Q. Gresham . . .

Frank Hatton

William F.Vilas

D. M. Dickinson

John Wanamaker

Kentucky

Connecticut .
New Yoi'k —

Kentucky

Tennessee

Vermont

New York

Connecticut . .
Pennsylvania,

Tennessee

Kentucky

Maine

Maryland

Ohio

Wisconsin

Maryland

Connecticut . .

Indiana

Tennessee —
Tennessee —

New York

Wisconsin

Indiana

Iowa

Wisconsin

Michigan ,

Pennsylvania

1829—1835,

1835—1840

1840-1841

1841—1841

1841-1845

1845—1849

1849—1850,

1850—1852.

1852-ia53

1853-1857

1857—1859

1859-1861,

1861—1861

1861—1864

1864-1866,

1866—1869

1869-1874,

1874-1876,

1876-1877,

1877—1880

1880-1881,

1881—1881,

1881—18^3,

1883—1884.

1884—11

1885—1887.

1887-1:

President by Three Votes.— John Adams was
so called, he having seventy-one electoral votes to sixty-
eight for Jefferson.

D2CTI0NAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 431

Presidential Bee. — When a man lias presidential
aspirations and allows his public acts to be influenced by
his desire to draw votes, his action is frequently ascribed
to his having the presidential bee in his bonnet. The
reference is probably to a certain uneasiness in the de-
portment of an individual under both circumstances.

Presidential Fever. — When a man is thought to be
very anxious to become President, his acts are frequently
explained on the theory that he has the presidential
fever, as it is called, meaning thereby that his aspirations
and his consequent desire to become popular have ren-
dered his public acts abnormal, just as fever does the
physical system.

Presidential Flag. {8ee Flag, Presidential.)

Presidential Succession. — The Constitution, Ar-
ticle 2, section 1, provides that ''^in case of the removal
of the President from office, or of his death, resignation
or inability to discharge . . . the duties of the said
otfice, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President,^'
the power to provide for further contingencies being left
with Congress. This Congress did by means of the Act
of March 1, 1792. In cases of death, of removal by
impeachment, or of resignation no difficulties are met
with, but the power to declare the ''^inability'' of the
President in cases w^here the same is not on the surface,
as in insanity, is lodged nowhere. In such a case the
Vice-President would probably take it upon himself to
act as President, and the Supreme Court would be the
final judge of the validity of his acts. The law of 1792
declares that in case of inability of the Vice-President
the office devolves on the president pro tempore of the
Senate, and after him on the Speaker of the House,
until a new election can be ordered. It also provided
that the Secretary of State should notify the Exe 3utives
of the States of any vacancy in the Executive office by
reason of failure on the part of the Vice-President, and
if at that date there be still two months intervening be-
fore the first AVednesday in December (the day on which
the electors vote), then an election for President shall be
ordered to be held within thirty-four days preceding the

432 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

latter day. If the intervening time be less than two
months, and the current presidential term expire on the
4th of March following, then no election for the> unex-
pired term takes place; but if the time be less than two
months, and the term does not so expire, then a new
election shall be ordered for the following year. The
Twelfth Amendment provides that in cases in which the
House has not exercised its right of choosing a Presi-
dent (when the choice falls to it) by March 4th follow-
'ing, the Vice-President shall act as Presidei^t; but fails
to provide for a contingency where neither President nor
Vice-President is selected, and where no President pro
tempore of the Senate has been chosen. The assassina-
tion of Garfield at a time when the House was not organ-
ized and while there was no President pro tempore of the
Senate, led to agitation of the subject, and in 1883 a bill
was introduced into the Senate to regulate this matter,
but it was not considered by the House. In December,
? S85, substantially the same bill was again introduced and
this time passed. It was approved January 19, 1886.
Its provisions are as follows: In case of inability on the
part of both President and Vice-President, the Execu-
tive office falls to the Cabinet officers in the following
order, provided the officer on whom it devolves has been
confirmed by the Senate, and is by birth and otherwise
qualified to hold the office: The Secretaries of State, of
the Treasury, of War, the Attorney- General, the Post-
master-General, the Secretaries of the Navy, of the In-
terior. The officer thus selected serves out the unex-
pired term.

President Pro Tempore of the Senate. {See
Vice-President of the United States. )

Presidents, Coincidence in the Ages of. — John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Mon-
roe and John Quincy Adams, each of them, except
John Adams, was in his fifty-eighth year when inaugu-
rated, as was also Washington. Each, except John
Quincy Adams, closed his term in his sixty-sixth year.
Each was, therefore, eight years older than his suc-
cessor.

DiCTtONAkY OP AMERICAN- POLITICS.

43S

President of the United States.— For the powers
of the PresicLent, see Executive. Below is a list of the
Presidents of the United States:

Name.

State.

Term.

George Washingrton

Virginia

Massachusetts.

Virginia

Massachusetts.

Tennessee

New York

Ohio

Virginia

Tennessee

Louisiana

New York

New Hamps're
Pennsylvania .

Illinois

Tennessee

Illinois

April 30, 1789-1797
March 4, 1797—1801
March 4, 1801—1809

* John Adams

t Thomas Jefferson

+ James Madison

March 4, 1809—1817

t James Monroe

March 4, 1817—1825

± John Quincy Adams

§ Andrew Jackson

I Martin Van Buren

II William Henry Harrison

(John Tyler

SJamesKnox Polk

fZachary Taylor

1 Millard Fillmore

§ Franklin Pierce

§ James Buchanan

March 4, 1825-1829
March 4, 1829-1837
March 4, 1837—1841
March 4, 1841-1841
April 6, 1841—1845
March 4, 1845-1849
March 4, 1849—1850
July 10, 1850-1853
March 4, 1853-1857
March 4, 1857—1861

1 Abraham Lincoln

^ Andrew Johnson

March 4, 1861-1865
April 15, 1865—1869

5 Ulysses Simpson Grant

1 Rutherford Birchard Hayes,
t James Abram Garfield

March 4, 1869—1877

Ohio ,

March 4, 1877—1881

Ohio

New York... .
New York....
Indiana

March 4, 1881—1881
Sept. 20, 1881—1885

6 Grorer Cleveland

^Benjamin Harrison

March 4. 1885-1889
March 4, 1889-

* Federalist.

t Republican (Democratic).

X Coalition.
§ Democrat.

II Whig.

t Republican.

Presidents de Facto and de Jure. — The presi-
dential election of 1876 was practically decided by the
Electoral Commission. Many of the adherents of Sam-
uel J. Tilden, the defeated nominee, asserted that his
defeat was the result of fraud, and to emphasize this be-
lief they jpersisted in speaking of him as President de
jure (by right) and of Eutherford B. Hayes, the success-
ful candidate, as President de facto (actual President as
distinguished from rightful President).

President's Message. — Article 2, section 3 of the
Constitution declares that the President ''shall from
time to time give to the Congress information of the
state of the Union and recommend to their considera-
tion such measures as he shall judge necessary and expe-
dient.^' This section has led to the annual messages

434 DICTtOJ^AR Y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS.

which it is the custom of the President to lay before
Congress immediately on its assembling. Washington
and Adams read these to Congress m person. Jefferson
inaugurated the custom since followed of sending it to
the House. This message deals, in more or less detail,
with the internal and foreign affairs of the nation,
stating what steps have been taken in any direction, and
recommending such as the President deems necessary.
The message of President Cleveland to the Fiftieth Con-
gress at its first session was an exception in this respect,
dealing only with the subject of the reduction of the
tariff, his object being to emphasize the importance
of that subject, in view of tlie rapidly increasing sur-
plus. This course had been adopted by but one Presi-
dent before him. President Madison's messages in 1813
and 1814, during the War of 1812, related exclusively to
that struggle.

Primary Convention. {See Nominating Convene
tions. )

Privateer. — A privateer is an armed vessel owned,
equipped and manned by private parties, which bears a
commission (called letters of marque or letters of marque
and reprisal) from a government to attack and seize the
property of enemies at sea. The inducement to indi-
viduals to engage in privateering is a share in the prizes
captured. The practice has been recognized by inter-
national law. The advantage to a belligerent State is an
increase of its effective naval forces, which is especially
desirable when the regular navy is small. The draw-
backs to the system are that privateers, actuated by the
hope of gain and not being under any naval discipline,
are liable to infringe tlie rights of neutrals and to disre-
gard the limits of legitimate war. During the last hun-
dred years various steps have been taken to abolish pri-
vateering. The most important step was taken in 1856,
just after the Crimean War, when by the Declarations of
Paris many of the nations of Europe agreed not to em-
ploy privateers against each other. All the chief states
of Europe and America have since given their adherence
to this declaration except Spain, the United States and

JbtCTtOi^AR V OP AMEktCAN POUTtCS. 435

Mexico. The United States was willing to become a
party to the agreement only on condition that all private
property at sea, not contraband, should be exempt from
capture. But this *'Marcy'' or ''American'^ amend-
ment, as it was called, was not accepted. During the
Civil War the Confederate States offered letters of
marque to persons of all countries, but no admittedly
foreign vessels were so commissioned. During the same
period the Congress of the United States empowered the
President to grant commissions to privateers, but none
such were granted. In 1861 the United States offered
to assent to the Declarations of Paris, but England and
France declined our adherence unless on condition
(which was, of course, not accepted) that our action
should have no bearing on the '' internal differences pre-
vailing in tho United States.'^ This government is far
from favoring the system of privateering, although Con-
gress is permitted by Article 1, section 8, of the Consti-
tution, to '^ grant letters of marque and reprisal/' and
among civilized nations the commissioning of pri-
vateers is practically at an end.

Private Legislation is the passage by Congress, or
a State Legislature, of an act which affects only individ-
uals or particular classes of men or things. " Private
act ^^ is a term used in opposition to a " general law '^
which affects the whole community.

Proclamation of Amnesty. — In the history of this
country there have been five such proclamations: all had
relation to the Civil War. The first was issued by Presi-
dent Lincoln December 8, 1863. The Act of Congress
of July 17, 1862, had authorized it, notwithstanding the
fact that a general pardoning power, in cases of offense
against the United States, is granted to the President by
the Constitution. This proclamation offered pardon
and restoration of all property, except slaves or in cases
where rights of third parties would be interfered with,
to all persons then in rebellion against the government,
on condition of their taking a prescribed oath. This
oath declares adherence to and support of the Consti-
tution and the Union and of all laws and proclamations

436 DlCTtOl^Ak V OF AMERICAN- POLITICS,

regarding slaves and slavery '^ so long and so far as not
modified or declared void by the decision of the Supreme
Court/' From this offer there were excepted all persons
that had left any Federal position or office to join the
Confederacy, all civil or diplomatic officers and army or
navy officers of the Confederate States above certain
rank, and those that had treated Federal colored soldiers
otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war. March 26,
1864, a supplemental proclamation stated that the
offer was not open to prisoners of war. May 29, 1865,
President Johnson issued a similar proclamation, the
oath being somewhat shorter, but of the same import as
of the former To the former exceptions were added
Confederate foreign agents. Confederate soldiers or
officers who were graduates from West Point and An-
napolis, Governors of rebel States, deserters, privateers-
men, Canada raiders, persons worth over $20,000, and
those that had broken an oath taken under the former
proclamation. In 1867 a bill was passed repealing the
Act of July 17, 1862. Johnson neither signed nor vetoed
it, and it became a law. September 7, 1867, Johnson
issued another proclamation, the third of the kind. It
offered amnesty to all that would take an oath almost iden-
tical with that of the proclamation of 1865, excepting only
the President, Vice-President and heads of departments of
the Confederacy, army and navy officers above certain
high ranks, foreign agents. Governors of States, those
that had treated prisoners of war unlawfully, those held
in legal confinement and parties to Lincoln's assassina-
tion. President Johnson's proclamation of July 4, 1868,
offered amnesty to all except those under indictment in
a Federal court, and his proclamation of December 25,
1868, offered it to all unconditionally without the formal-
ity of any oath. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment places disability to hold office on those that had
held certain officers under the United States and had
then engaged in rebellion, but Congress was empowered
to remove the disability by a two-thirds vote of each
House. Many have availed themselves of this power.
The Act of May 22, 1872, removed the disability of all

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN" POLITICS. 437

except only those that had been members of the Thirty-
sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, judicial, army or
navy officers, heads of departments or foreign ministers,
and holding such offices had engaged in rebellion. An
attempt to sweep away even these restrictions failed in
1873.

Progressive Labor Party. — This organization be-
gan its life as a separat.e political party after seceding
from the Syracuse, (N. Y.) Convention of the United
Labor Party. {See that title.) It held its own conven-
tion in New York, September 28, 1887, adopted a plat-
form and nominated a candidate for Secretary of State
of New York. He received 7,622 votes out of a total of
1,045,376, most of the votes coming from New York
City. The principal points of its platform were as fol-
lows: '* That all should have free access to land and to
the instruments of production without tribute to land-
lords and monopolists;^' woman suffrage; '^ repeal of all
conspiracy laws, tramp laws and all class legislation and
privileges;'* '^the public ownership and management of
. . . all industries involving the use of public fran-
chises or the performance of public functions,'' and the
submission to the people for rejection or approval of all
important laws.

Prohibition. — The object of the Prohibitionists is to
obtain laws prohibiting the manufacture and sale of in-
toxicating liquors, except for the purpose of manufac-
turing industries, science and art. They argue that this
is advisable because vast sums of money are annually
wasted by the people in the purchase of liquor, and its
consumption reduces the productiveness of labor; be-
cause pauperism and crime are largely increased thereby;
because the habit of drinking renders the citizen less
able to serve in defense of the government when neces-
sary; and because the government should protect the de-
fenceless women and children who are most injured by
drunkenness. The opponents of prohibition dispute
some of the facts of its advocates, assert that drunken-
ness is rather the accompaniment than the cause of
pauperism and crime, and argue that in any event pro-

438 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

hibitory laws cannot be enforced, and that a high license
system (see High License) will be more effectual in re-
straining the sale of liquor. They also contend that pro-
hibitory laws infringe the individual liberty of the citizen.
On December 5, 1887, the Supreme Court of the United
States rendered an important decision, holding that it
is within the discretionary police powers of a State to
protect the public health, safety and morals, even by the
destruction of property, and that the Kansas laws, pro-
viding for the destruction, without compensation, of
property used in connection with liquor-selling, do not
violate the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to
the Constitution that ''no State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United States, nor shall any State de-
prive any person of . . . property, without due
process of law." The Prohibitionists have been a factor
of importance in the politics of some of the States since
about the middle of the century. A prohibitory law was
passed in Maine in 1846, and in 1851 a more stringent
one, including a provision for the seizure and destruction
of intoxicating liquors, Tknown as the ''Maine Law" and
drafted by General ]M"eal Dow), was enacted and has
since been in force, except for the years 1856 and 1857.
Vermont in 1852, New Hampshire- in 1855, and Con-
necticut in 1854, passed the Maine Law; the first has re-
tained and enforced it, the second has retained and not
enforced it, and the last never enforced it and repealed
it in 1872. New York had the Maine Law on the statute
books between 1855 and 1857. Ohio and Michigan by
their Constitutions forbade the passage of a license law,
thus leaving the mere alternative between free liquor and
prohibition. This clause of Michigan's Constitution has
been repealed: the question of replacing it was defeated
in 1887, by a small popular majority. In Ohio attempts
have been made to tax the sale of liquor by the " Pond
Tax Law," and the "Scott Tax Law," but both of these
were pronounced unconstitutional by the courts. A
Prohibitory Amendment to the Constitution of Kansas
was ratified by the people in 1880, and this has been

DICTION Ak y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 439

enforced by legislation. A si milar amendmen fc was passed
in Iowa in 1882, and had a large popular majority, but
the next year it was pronounced unconstitutional for
informalities in its passage. In 1884 a prohibitory law
was passed. In North Carolina in 1881, a prohibitory
law, submitted to popular vote, was defeated (166,000 to
48,000 in round numbers). After several previous trials
of prohibition, Ehode Island in 1887, passed a stringent
prohibitory law. In 1887, on the question of prohibitory
amendments to the State Constitutions, the Prohibition-
ists were defeated by large majorities in Oregon, Tennessee
and Texas. Most of the States have passed laws pro-
hibiting the sale of liquor to minors and on Sundays.
Many States have adopted local option, and a few are
trying high license. {^See those titles.) Such is a brief
outline of the more important successes and defeats of
prohibition in the States. National conventions of the
Prohibition party (previous to 1884, called the Prohibi-
tion Home Protection party) have been held from time
to time and candidates have been nominated for the
presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, and
have received votes as follows:

iPOPUIiAJl VOTE.

iflw 5 James Black, of Pennsylvania, \ Kf^no

^^'^ 1 Rev. John Mitchell, of Michigan, f ^"^^

^afR J Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, \ « ,-kq

^^^ 1 Gideon T. Stewart, of Ohio, f ^''^^

lacn J Neal Bow, of Maine, ) ii /^n

^'**" 1 Rev. H. A. Thompson, of Ohio, f "'*^

^QaA J John P. St. John, of Kansas, I ^^^ rvrn

^'^^ I William Daniel, of Maryland, \ lai.wo

1RS« J Clinton B. Fisk J „> . „.

^°°° (Rev. John A. Brooks, ot Missouri. |--- 244,034

The aggregate Prohibition vote in the various State
elections of 1886 was 294,863. In the national election
of 1884, a considerable number of votes was drawn from
each of the principal political parties, but chiefly from
the Republicans, and the defeat of the Republicans in
that campaign has been charged by some to the Pro-
hibitionists. At the last national convention of the Pro-
hibition party, held at Pittsburg, in July, 1884, a con-
siderable number of the delegates were women. For the

440 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

platform adopted by that convention (See Party PlaU
forms).

Pro-Slavery. — Those that sympathized with the in-
stitution of slavery in this country were said to hold pro-
slavery views.

Protection, in relation to the industries of a country
(in which sense the word is generally used), means the
prevention of ruinous foreign competition. This may
be accomplished (1) by absolutely prohibiting the im-
portation of certain articles; (2) by levying a duty on
them that is practically prohibitive; (3) by granting
premiums on certain exports; (4) by granting drawbacks,
which are rebates of the whole, or nearly the whole, duty
that has been paid on imported materials when these have
been manufactured at home and exported; or (5) by so
arranging the rates of duty on importations as to make
their cost to the consumer equal to or greater than the
cost of similar domestic products. Th^ first three methods
are not relied on in this country for purposes of protec-
tion, while the last two have been and are still extensively
used. The last method is the more prominent, and
around it the arguments for and against protection group
themselves. The reasoning of the protectionists is long
and complicated. A few of their more important pro-
positions may be briefly stated as follows: The United
States as a nation is bound to secure advantages for its
own citizens before regarding other countries; protective
duties compel foreigners to pay part of our taxes; without
protection we should become chiefly an agricultural coun-
try, and such countries are comparatively poor and weak;
diversified industries are called into being or strengthened
by a protective tariff, and these are valuable to a nation
in time of peace and necessary in time of war; the de-
struction of protection would mean that the labor of this
country would have to compete with the cheaper labor
(usually called ^^ pauper labor '^) abroad; wages would fall
and the American laborer would be reduced to the low
level of life common to laborers abroad; the investment
of capital at home is encouraged by protection, and on
this the working classes depend; even if protection were

DICTlOT^Ak V OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 441

a questionable policy to inaugurate, now that it is estab-
lished in this country it should be continued for the sake
of justice to invested capital and to prevent the financial
disasters that would result from a revolution in our in-
dustries. To the arguments of the free-traders they
reply that governments .have very generally found it
necessary or advisable to regulate to some extent the trado
of their citizens or subjects; that protection benefits the
whole nation, not merely a part, by keeping up the price
of labor; that no free trade argument can be drawn from
inter-State commerce, since the localizing of industries
can do no harm when all the localities are parts of a single
whole; that competition between home industries will
keep prices down to a fair point. Since the Civil War
the Republican party has been practically a unit in sup-
porting a protective tariff. Before that period members
of both parties were found on each side of the line. The
tariff has never been the main issue in a presidential elec-
tion, though in 1880 and 1884 the Republicans strove to
increase its importance. {See Free Trade.)

Put None But Americans on Guard To-Night.
— One of the mottoes of the "Know Nothings. '' This
sentence is supposed to have been the countersign on the
eve of an important Revolutionary battle, and is attrib-
uted by some to Putnam and by others to Washington.

Qualifications of Voters. — The President of the
United States is chosen by electors appointed in each
State " in such manner as the Legislature thereof may
direct." (Constitution Article 2, section 1.) Senators
are chosen by the Legislatures of the State. (Constitu-
tion Article 1, section 3.) Representatives are chosen
by the people " and the electors in each State shall have
the qualifications requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State Legislature." (Constitu-
tion Article 1, section 2.) It thus appears that the
qualifications of voters for all the federal as well as for
State offices are subject to the control of the respective
States and, as might be expected, vary. The suffrage in
general elections is in every State limited to males of a
minimum age of twenty-one years. Periods of residence

442 DICTION AR y OF AMERICA JV POLITICS,

in the State varying from three months to two years, are
requisites to voting, and in nearly all the States shorter
periods of residence in the county,, town and precinct
respectively. Moreover, in eighteen States only citizens
by nativity or otherwise are allowed to vote; in fifteen,
citizens and aliens that have declared their intention of
becoming citizens: the restrictions on the latter vary; in
some States mere declaration is sufficient, in others a
declaration, made a certain length of time (in no case
more than a year) previous, is necessary. In addition to
citizenship, one State (Connecticut), requires good
moral character and ability to read any article of the Con-
stitution or Statutes; another (Delaware), the paying of
the county tax after the age of twenty- two; another
(New York), citizenship for ten days previous; another
(Pennsylvania), citizenship of the United States for one
month and, if twenty-two years of age or over, payment
of a tax within two years; another (Rhode Island), on
the part of foreign-born citizens, ownership of real
estate to the value of 1137, or seven dollars annual rental.
In none of the States are women allowed to vote at
general elections; in the Territories of Wyoming and
Utah they are so allowed. In every State certain classes
are prohibited from voting; among these are included
in the various States, idiots, lunatics, persons convicted
of crime punishable by imprisonment, Chinese, paupers,
persons sending, bringing or accepting a duelling chal-
lenge, non-payers of taxes for certain periods. United
States soldiers and marines, persons under guardian-
ship, Indians, persons convicted of blasphemy, persons
betting on the election at which they attempt to vote,
deserters from the army or navy during the Civil War: in
many cases those convicted of crime may have the right
of suffrage restored by pardon.

Quids. — A name given to the few supporters of Ran-
dolph when he seceded from the Republican party in 1805.
The Latin phrase tertium quid, a "third something^'
(as distinguished from the two powerful parties), gave
rise to the name.

Race^ Color or Previous Condition of Servi-

DICTION AR y OP- AMERICAN POLITICS. 443

tude.— These words occur in the Fifteenth Amendment
to the Constitution. (8ee Constitution of the United
States.)

Radical Democracy. — In 1864, the Union men
opposed to Lincoln^s renomination issued a call for a
convention which met accordingly May 31st. The
circular had attacked the administration vigorously.
Their platform called for the suppression of the Re-
bellion, the preservation of the habeas corpus, of the
right of asylum and the Monroe Doctrine. It recom-
mended a popular vote and only a single term for presi-
dents, an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting
slavery, and called for the confiscation of the land of
rebels and its distribution among actual settlers. The
name Radical Democracy was adopted; they were
also known as Radical men. General John C. Fremont
was nominated: he accepted the nomination, but with-
drew in Lincoln's favor September 21st.

Radical Men. {See Radical Democracy.)

Rag Baby. — A derisive name for the Greenback
idea. {See Greenhach Labor Party ; Rag Currency.)

Rag" Currency. — A term of derision applied to the
currency advocated by the Greenbackers, namely, paper
money. {See Greenhach Labor Party.)

Raiders. — Members of a legislative body are said to
be raiders on the Treasury when they expend their best
efforts in attempts to secure appropriations for purposes
which are not necessary for the country, but which they
desire because of the patronage connected therewith or
of other special advantages to their particular locality.

Railroading. — When a bill is passed without delay in
a legislative assembly by the energetic efforts of corrupt
members it is said to have been *^ railroaded ''' through
the House.

Rail Splitter. — A sobriquet of Abraham Lincoln,
who split the rails for fences when, in his early life, his
family made a clearing in Illinois and built a log-house.

Randall, Samuel J., was born in Philadelphia,
October 10, 1828. He served in the local government of
Philadelphia and also in the State Senate. In 1862 he

444 i>IC TWNA RY OF AMERICA N POLITICS.

was elected to Congress, and was continuously reelected.
In the Forty-fourth Congress he was elected speaker to
fill the vacancy caused by the death of M. C. Kerr. He
was elected to the same office in the Forty-fifth and
Forty-sixth Congresses. He was the leader of the high
tariff wing of the Democratic party. Died April 13, 1890.

Randolph, John, of Roanoke, was horn in Ches-
terfield County, Virginia, June 2, 1773, and died at
Philadelphia May 24, 1833. He served in Congress from
1799 to 1813, from 1815 to 1817 and from 1819 to 1823;
from 1825 to 1827 he was in the Senate and from 1827
to 1829 again in the House. In 1830 he was for a short
time Minister to Eussia. He was a Democrat, although
at various times antagonizing his party. He was a man
of extraordinary ability, though extremely eccentric.
His person was spare and his voice very shrill. One of
his foibles was his pride in his descent from Pocahontas.

Re-admission of Southern States. {See Recon-
struction; Admission of States to the Unioni)

Rebel Brigadiers is a phrase applied to men in
public life that served in the Confederate Army during
the Civil War. The phrase is applied irrespective of
the rank they held. It is a venomous phrase and used
only by their opponents.

Rebellion. — The name given in the North to the
Civil War {which see).

Rebs. — An abbreviation for rebels, the word used at
the North to characterize the Confederates.

Receipts and Expenditures of the United
States. {See Expenditures and Receipts of the United
States. )

Recent Unpleasantness, The. — Same as Late
Unpleasantness {lohich see).

Reciprocity is the granting by one nation of certain
commercial privileges to another, whereby the citizens
of the latter are put on an equal basis with citizens of
the former in certain branches of commerce. The term
was formerly used chiefly with reference to shipping, but
is now applied also to privileges concerning imports.
One nation agrees to reduce or abrogate entirely the

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POlITICS. 445

duties on certain merchandise imported from another,
in return for like concessions as regards itself. It is cus-
tomary to provide that, should either of the parties to
the treaty grant more favorable conditions to a third
nation^ such privileges should inure also to the benefit
of the other party to the treaty; such an agreement is
called the *' most favored nation^' clause of the treaty,
fieciprocity existed between the United States and
Canada from 1854 to 1856 as to many articles, and now
exists between this country and the Hawaiian Islands, as
to certain products of each country, by a treaty made in
1876. The latter treaty was intended to benefit the
sugar refiners of the Pacific coast. But it is not a part
of the regular policy of the United States to engage in
reciprocity with foreign nations.

Reconstruction. — The end of the Civil War saw the
governments of the Southern States overthrown; they had
been declared insurgent and they were now practically
in the position of conquered territory. The problem
before the country was now these States were now to be
treated. The plans to this end have by some writers
been classified as follows: 1. The theory that there had
always been a large number of Union men in these
States and that as soon as a loyal government was estab-
lished by these, the State by that fact again became
regularly constituted. 2. That contained in President
Lincoln^s proclamation of December 8, 1863, agreeing
to recognize any loyal government set up by one-tenth
of the number of voters of 1860, after they had taken
a prescribed oath of allegiance, and offering annesty on
certain conditions to all but a specified portion of those
in rebellion. 3. Sumner^s theory that by secession a
State renounces its right as a State, that thus slavery
(an institution resting merely on State authority) was
abolished, and that Congress should take measures to
establish this fact, to protect all the inhabitants of the
State and set up a Republican form of government
therein. 4. Thaddeus Stevens' theory that insuperable
resistance to the Constitution, suspended its operations
and that the national government must decide when it

446 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

is to be resumed. 5. The Davis- Wade plan, introduced
by Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin F. Wade, from
the committee on rebellious States, providing for the ap-
pointment of provisional governors, the enrolment of
citizens willing to take the oath of allegiance, the adop-
tion and approval of a Constitution, and the admission
of the State. 6. The congressional plan, the one
actually carried out. The Legislatures reconstructed
under the proclamation of December 8, 1863, had
adopted measures strongly discriminating against the
negroes, and this had consolidated Eepublican opinion at
the North against the President's policy, which feeling
was reflected in the Congress that assembled in Decem-
ber, 1865. Lincoln had meauAvhile been assassinated
and Johnson had succeeded him. It was first enacted
that no State should be represented in either House
until Congress had declared that State entitled to repre-
sentation. And here the President and Congress began
to diverge. Congress then passed a bill proposing the
Fourteenth Amendment and declariii.g any State ratifying
it to be entitled to representation. The Civil Eights Bill
and a bill enlarging the power of the f reedmen's bureau
followed, passed over the President's veto. The first of
the Confederate States to be readmitted to representa-
tion was Tennessee, on July 24, 1866. According to
Congress the rebellious States had, by their secession,
suspended their State governments; the Constitution of
the United States, however, remaining operative as re-
gards these States which, be it remembered, were not
regarded as destroyed, but as capable of restoration to
their '^former political relations in the Union by con-
sent of the law-making power of the United States.''
It was about tliis time that those Eepublicans in sym-
pathy with the President held the " arm-in-arm " con-
vention, but the bulk of the party considered adherence
to Johnson's policy as treason to the party. Moreover
the President, on a western trip taken about this time,
delivered many indiscreet speeches, and thus widened
the gap between himself and Congress. The latter now
passed a series of laws, many of them over the Presi^

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 447

dent's veto, and all intended to limit his opportunities of
opposition to its plans. Among these were the Tenure
of Office Act, and acts establishing universal suffrage in
the territories, admitting Nebraska as a State and mak-
ing General Grant irremovable as head of the army.
The Fourteenth Amendment had been adopted by but
one Southern State, Tennessee, and so Congress waa
obliged to take further steps looking to reconstruction.
For this purpose the South was divided into five military
districts; military governors were appointed with power
to protect life and property, either by military commis-
sions or by the local courts; these governors were also to
supervise the election of delegates to a constitutional
convention, to which all but certain disqualified classes
were eligible, and for delegates to which only those
eligible were allowed to vote. These constitutions were
to be ratified by a popular vote and then to be passed on
by Congress, after which the new Legislature was to ratify
the Fourteenth Amendment, and when that had become
part of the Constitution the State's representatives were
to be admitted to Congress. This bill was passed over
the President's veto March 2, 1867. The military gov-
ernors were appointed and reconstruction proceeded.
The Constitutions thus adopted abolished slavery, re-
pudiated the debts incurred during the civil war, re-
nounced the right of secession and agreed to pass no
laws abridging the liberty of any class of citizens.
Legislatures and governors were elected under them, and
on June 22, 1865, Arkansas was readmitted to the
Union; by act of June 25, 1868, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana were
added to the list. Virginia, Mississippi and Texas were
not readmitted till the acts of January 26, February 23
and March 30, 1870, respectively; Georgia was consid-
ered by Congress to have 'failed in complying with its
reconstruction policy, and her readmission was not com-
plete till made so by act of July 15, 1870; as punish-
ment for their delay, these last four States were obliged
to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment as a condition pre-
cedent to admission» The Fourteenth Amendment nad

448 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

been declared adopted July 11, 1868. Thus the Union
was once more complete. The action of Congress was
declared constitutional by the Supreme Court of the
United States in the case of Texas vs. White.

Reed, Thomas B., was born in Portland, Maine,
October 18, 1839. He is a lawyer and a graduate of
Bowdoin College. He has served in both Houses of the
Legislature and as the Attorney-General of his State.
He has been a member of every Congress since the
Forty-fifth. He is the recognized leader of the Eepub-
licans in the House of Eepresentatives.

Refunding of United States Debt. — At its high-
est point (1865) the debt of the United States exceeded
$2,800,000,000. This was composed of a great variety
of different obligations, some bearing as high as seven
and three-tenths per cent, interest. Of this debt, $830,-
000,000, bearing interest at seven and three-tenths per
cent., matured in 1867 and 1868, and about $300,000,000
other debt matured in the same period. To meet this
there were issued in 1865 $332,998,950, fifteen years, six
per cent, bonds; in 1867 $379,616,050, fifteen years, six
per cent, bonds; in 1868 $42,539,350, fifteen years,
six per cent, bonds; in 1867 and 1868 $85,150,000 de-
mands, three per cent, certificates. The refunding act
of 1870 authorized the issue of not more than $200,-
000,000, ten years, five per cent, bonds; of not more
than $300,000,000, fifteen years, four and a half per
cent, bonds; of not more than $1,000,000,000, thirty
years, four per cent, bonds. In 1871 this was amended,
increasing the amount of five per cent, bonds to $500,-
000,000, the total issue, however, not to be increased
therebv. Under this act there were issued a total of
$412,806,450 of five per cent, bonds, and after 1876
$250,000,000 four and a half per cent, bonds. In
1879 a bill was passed authorizing the issue of $10 cer-
tificates, bearing four per cent, interest and exchangeable
into the four per cent, bonds of the acts of 1870
and 1871. These certificates were issued as a part
of the refunding scheme, and were intended to supply a
safe means cf investment for people of small means, an

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 449

object that was defeated by the premium at which the
four per cent, bonds were selling, which acted as an in-
ducement to buy up these certificates and to exchange
them for the bonds. On December 1, 1891, there were
but $88,720,00 outstanding {see Deht Siateynent, December
1, 1891, wider Debt of United States.) In 1879 over
1741,000,000 four per cent, bonds were issued under the
acts of 1870 and 1871. ^ The net result of all these
changes was that the national debt, considerably more
than one-half of which was in 1865 outstanding at six
per cent, and over, was in 1879 costing but four and
four and a half per cent, for more than one-half of its
then principal. In 1881 over 1670,000,000 of the public
debt running at five and six per cent, matured. Con-
gress failed to provide the means for meeting it, and there
was at the disposal of the Secretary for this purpose only
the surplus revenue and somewhat over $100,000,000 of
four per cent, bonds under the acts of 1870 and 1871.
Under these circumstances the Secretary (Windom),
forced to act on his own responsibility, made a general
offer to the holders of these bonds to extend the bonds of
such as might desire it at three and a half per cent, re-
deemable at the pleasure of the government. This
measure was a complete success, over $460,000,000 bonds
being extended at three and a half per cent. The next
Congress (in 1882) authorized three per cent, bonds,
redeemable at the pleasure of the government, to be
issued instead of the bonds extended at three and
a half per cent., and more than $300,000,000 were so
issued. Meanwhile the reduction of the debt proceeded
so rapidly that the last of the three and a half per cents
were called for payment November 1, 1883, and the last
of the three per cents July 1, 1887, leaving outstanding
only the four and a half and four per cent, bonds. The
rapid extinction of our national debt, and the equally
rapid decline in the interest rates on the same, is un-
paralleled. For further and more detailed information
regarding the debt and its extinction see Debt of United
States and Surplus.
Registration is a precaution taken in certain States

450 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

to prevent frauds at elections. It consists of the prepara-
tion of lists of the voters of every precinct, each voter
heing required to present himself before the day of elec-
tion to have his name recorded and to answer any ques-
tions as to his qualifications. By affording opportunity
for scrutiny and comparisc i of lists much imposition is
avoided. Seventeen States have registration laws; eight
States require registration in cities or towns containing
more than a certain specified population; in one (Greor-
gia) local law exacts it in some counties. In Illinois
registration is required, but (except in a few cities) a
vote will be granted, even in its absence on the filing of
proper affidavits. Rhode Island requires it of all not
owning real estate, and Minnesota of all not known to
all the election judges. Eight States do not require it;
in three of these (Arkansas, Texas and West Virginia)
it is constitutionally prohibited.

Remonetization. {See Coinage.)

Removal of Government Deposits from the
United States Bank. — President Jackson in his mes-
sage to Congress in 1832 recommended an investigation
into the affairs of the Bank of the United States, with
a view to determining whether the government deposits
could safely be left there. In March, 1833, the House
passed a resolution that the deposits could with safety
remain in the bank. The President, who was opposed
to the bank, resolved, nevertheless, to remove them.
The law creating the bank had provided that govern-
ment funds were to be left in it, unless the Secretary of
the Treasury should otherwise direct, in which case the
latter was to lay before Congress the reasons for the re-
moval. In January, 1833, William J. Duane was ap-
pointed Secretary of the Treasury. He was found op-
posed to the removal, especially to the removal before
the meeting of Congress, and Jackson tried in vain to
change his determination. In September Duane asked
the President to make a written request for his
HDuane^s) resignation, which the former did on the 23d.
On the same day Roger B. Taney, the Attorney-General,
was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. He at onoe

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 451

issued orders directing collectors to deposit funds col-
lected in certain specined State banks, while the funds
in the Bank of the United States were withdrawn as
needed. There was no actual transfer from the latter
to the State banks. The only result of a long debate in
Congress was a resolution of censure by the Senate.
Taney's nomination was not sent to the Senate until
June 23, 1834, and it was rejected by that body.

Removals from Office. {8ee Term and Tenure of
Office.)

Repeating is a form of election fraud accomplished
by causing the same men to vote at different polls. Men
that make a practice of this are called repeaters.

Republican League of the United States is an
association of the various Eepublican clubs of the
country. In response to a call issued by the Eepublican
Club of New York, delegates met in that city in Decem-
ber, 1887, and organized with Senator William M.
Everts as chairman. James P. Foster, president of
the New York Republican Club, was elected president
of the League. Its objects are to consolidate the Ee-
publican party and to secure united and harmonious
action, especially in the campaign of 1888.

Republican Party. — This was the original name of
the Democratic party, for an account of which see
Democratic- Reptchlica7i Party. It is also the name of the
principal opponent of that party from 1854 to the pres-
ent time. The dissolution of the Whig party in 1852
left a number of factions agreeing in nothing but in
their opposition to the Democratic party, and having
none of the elements necessary to the formation of a
united party. But from these there sprang the most
powerful party the Democratic party has yet had to en-
counter— a consistent advocate of broad construction,
and internal improvements, more popular than the
Federal party and more homogeneous and courageous
than the Whigs. The name was adopted partly because
its associations were thought well suited to draw together
many of the discordant elements. It was suggested at a
meeting of a number of members of Congress, and was

452 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

first formally adopted at a Michigan convention in July,
1854. The old "Whigs, the Free-Soilers, many Know-
Nothings and some few Democrats were the elements
that went to make up the party; the Abolitionists were
a species of allies. Its success in the States was at first
marked, eleven Senators and a plurality of the House
belonging to the party. In 1856 a national convention
was called and Fremont was nominated. The platform
declared against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
and the extension of slavery, and in favor of the Pacific
Railroads, of the admission of Kansas as a free State, and
of the improvement of ^' livers and harbors of national
character."'^ Fremont was defeated by a small' majority.
Between 1856 and 1860 the party gained largely in com-
pactness, the uncompromising attitude of the slave
power uniting Northerners more closely, and drawing
away from the party those not in sympathy with it. The
platform of 1860 was, with slight exceptions, the same
as in 1856, except that a protective tariff was demanded,
and that threats of secession were condemned. In the
convention but few of the Southern States were repre-
sented. Abraham Lincoln was nominated and elected.
His election was by the Southern States declared to be
sufficient cause for their secession and thus was the
country plunged into Civil War. During the war the
history of the government is the history of the party.
The war policy of the President was supported by the
party, as were also the measures intended to cripple
slavery. In 1864 Lincoln was re-nominated and re-
elected by a large majority. His assassination followed
hard upon his inauguration, and the Vice-President,
Johnson, became President. Between him and Congress
there sprung up, almost at once, a conflict on the sub-
ject of the reconstruction of the seceded States, Con-
gress demanding *'' substantial guarantees'^ of the pre-
servation of the rights of the negroes as a condition
precedent to admission: his impeachment and acquittal
followed. The measures of Congress on the subject of
reconstruction were approved by the party. That the
party was carried somewhat too far on this subject.

DICTTONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 453

was shown by the declaration of the unconstitutionality
of parts of the Civil Eights Bill by a Supreme Court,
the members of which were appointed by Repub-
lican Presidents. In 1868 Grant was nominated and
elected. The party placed itself on record as opposed
to the intimidation of negro voters by Southern whites,
and the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is
due to its efforts, as were also the Thirteenth and Four-
teenth. In 1872 Grant was renominated, but a portion
of the party, disapproving of its coercive measures
toward the South, held a separate convention under the
name of Liberal Republican party. Grant was never-
theless elected, but his second term was marred by
scandals arising from the corruption of subordinates
selected by him. The State elections just previous to
1876 had been unfavorable to the party, and the Demo-
crats, with Tilden as their candidate, waged a vigorous
campaign against Hayes, the Republican nominee. The
result was long in doubt and was settled only by the Elec-
toral Commission. Hayes was declared elected. During
his administration specie payments were resumed. In the
convention of 1880 a determined stand was made by
Grant's friends to secure his nomination on the ground
that having been out of office for one term, his renomi-
nation could not be considered as for a ** third term:"
but although his supporters clung to him throughout,
Garfield was nominated and elected. The assassination of
Garfield soon after his election brought Vice-President
Arthur to the presidency. In 1884 Blaine was chosen
to represent the party. He was personally obnoxious to
a considerable number of Republicans, thereafter called
Mugwumps, and in New York, always a doubtful, and in
this case the deciding, State, the defection was sufficient
to give the electoral vote of the State to the Democratic
candidate, Cleveland, by the small plurality of 1,047, in
a total vote of over 1,100,000. Thus, after an uninter-
rupted sway of twenty-four years the party's candidate
for the presidency was defeated. The principles of tho
party, as stated in the Party Platforms of 1884 and
1888 are elsewhere given.

454 DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Resignation is the relinquishment of an office or
position of honor or trust by a formal act directed to the
power that bestowed it, or the legal agent of such power.
The office of President or Vice-President can, by law,
only be resigned by a written and subscribed instrument
lodged in the office of the Secretary of State. The res-
ignation of a Senator or Eepresentative is addressed to
the Governor of his State. A Cabinet officer directs his
resignation to the President, and it is customary for the
members of a Cabinet to hand their resignations to a new
President, if these have not already been addressed to the
outgoing President to take effect at the expiration of his
term. It is not unusual for the President to call for the
resignation of one or more of the Cabinet. As to the
person succeeding to the office of President or Vice-Presi-
dent when such officer resigns, see Presidential Succes-
sion. When a Senator resigns the Governor of his State
makes a temporary appointment till the next meeting of
the Legislature, which elects a successor. In case a Rep-
resentative resigns, the Governor issues a writ for the
election of his successor. The place of a Cabinet officer
iasupplied by the process of nomination by the President
and confirmation by the Senate, the next highest officer
in the department performing his duties temporarily. If
a Governor resigns, his place is commonly supplied by
the Lieutenant-Governor, President of the Senate and
Speaker of the House, in the order named. Other State
offices are usually filled by temporary appointments made
by the Governor till a successor is duly elected as pre-
scribed by law. A vacancy in an appointive office is filled,
of course, merely by a new appointment.

Resolutions of '98. — {8ee Kentuchy Resolutions of
1798; Virginia Resolutions o/1798.)

Resumption of Specie Payments. — {See Commer-
cial Crises; Resumption Act.)

Resumption Act. — By this name is known the Act
of January 14, 1875, which directed the resumption of
specie payments on January 1, 1879. The bill was intro-
duced in the Senate and favorably reported by the chair-
man of the Finance Committpe, Senator Sherman, to

DICTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLTTICS. 455

whom subsequently, as Secretary of the Treasury under
Hayes, fell the duty of carrying its provisions into effect.
(^See Commercial Crises.)
Retaliation Act. — {See Fishery Treaties.)
Retired List. — {See Army of the United States;
Navy of the United btates.)

Returning Boards are certain boards established
for the purpose of canvassing the votes given in an elec-
tion. They were established in some of the recon-
structed States at the South, after the Civil War, for
the purpose of equalizing any fraud or violence that
might be practiced on the negroes at the polls, the first
one being established in Arkansas by its Constitution of
1868. Under this Constitution the board had power to
correct or to reject any returns, and even to set aside the
election and order a new one — in short, judicial powers.
The Constitution of 1874 gave to it the power merely to
canvass the votes. Florida, South Carolina and Louis-
iana had returning boards possessing judicial powers.
While in the case of State elections the powers given to
returning boards would necessarily require the sanction
of the State Constitution, the case is different in elec-
tions for presidential electors, because the Constitution
of the United States prescribes that these shall be ap-
pointed in such manner as the Legislature of the State
may direct, thus placing the power to regulate this
matter entirely into the hands of the Legislature regard-
less of any provisions of the State Constitution. This
subject is of interest chiefly in relation to the presiden-
tial election of 1876, in which the result hinged upon
the action of those boards. The laws of Florida con-
stituted the Secretary of State, the Attorney-General
and the Comptroller, or any two of them with any other
member of the State cabinet selected by them, as the
returning board. In 1876 the State Circuit Court for
Leon County ordered an immediate canvass by the
board. From Baker County there were two returns.
Disregarding the vote from this county, the popular
vote was about a tie. The return from this county
giving a Republican majority of 41 votes was thrown

456 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

out, as was also the return from Clay County (giving a
Democratic majority of 164), and a Democratic Gover-
nor and Republican presidential electors were declared
elected. On this return, the Governor gave his certifi-
cate to the Republican electors, and these met and voted.
The Democratic electors had met and voted on a certifi-
cate of one member of the board. The court refused
to receive the report of the returning boards and on
January 1, 1877, a new return was made declaring the
Democratic electors and State officers elected. A re-
canvass by the new State officers, as ordered by the new
Legislature, also resulted in favor of the Democratic
electors, but the electoral commission accepted the Re-
publican returns as the only one regular in form. The
rulings of the courts have since practically deprived the
board of its judicial functions. In Louisiana the board
consisted of ''five persons, to be elected by the Senate
from all political parties.^' In 1876 the Democratic
member at once resigned, and his place was not filled.
The board decided contests in secret, and refused to
allow United States supervisors to be present. About
1,200 ballots, bearing the names of only three Republi-
can electors were counted as cast for all of the eight
electors. In all, about 13,000 Democratic and 2,000
Republican votes were rejected. The board declared
the election of the Republican presidential electors, of
the Republican State ticket, of four Republican and two
Democratic Congressmen, and gave the Republicans a
majority of two in the State Senate and of twenty-five
in the Lower House. Subsequent legislation has de-
prived the board of its judicial functions. In South
Carolina the board consisted of the Secretary of State,
the Treasurer, the Comptroller, the Attorney- General
and the Adjutant-General. On November 22, 1876, the
Supreme Court of the State ordered the board not to
exercise judicial functions in counting the votes of the
presidential electors. The board, notwithstanding, de-
clared the Republican electors chosen. The members
were arrested for contempt, but they were released by
the federal Circuit Court on a writ of habeas corpus^

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 457

The judicial functions of the board have been withdrawn
by subsequent legislation. (See Electoral Commission.)

Returns, Can't Go Behind the. — This is the
popular phrase to express the principle adopted by the
electoral commission of not examining into the votes as
actually cast, but of taking the result declared by the
returning boards through the proper channels.

Revenue of the United States. [See Expendi-
tures and Receipts of the United States.)

Rhode Island was one of the original States of the
Union. It has two capitals, Providence and Newport.
The population in 1880 was 276,531, and in the last
census (1890) 345,506. Rhode Island sends two repre-
sentatives to Congress, and has four electoral votes,
which are safely relied on by the Republicans. Its
popular name is Little Rhody, or Rhoda. {See Dorr
Rebellion; Governors; Legislatures.)

Rich Man's Dollar. — The gold dollar is so called
by those favoring the compulsory coinage of standard
silver dollars. {See Silver Question.)

Riders are provisions added to a bill under consider-
ation in a legislative assembly, having no connection
whatever with the subject matter of the bill itself.
They are usually provisions that would have no chance
of passing on their merits and they are merged with im-
portant bills by a minority, which makes the passage of
the bill as thus amended the condition of its passage in
any shape, or else they are thus added for the purpose of
dodging the veto of the executive which they know
would meet the measure if separately passed, and which
they believe will not be exerted upon an otherwise good
and important bill. The bills saddled with riders are
usually appropriation bills. As their effect is practically
to limit the veto power of the executive they are now
by law forbidden in many States, and the rules both of
the House and Senate in some measure limit their appli-
cation. In order entirely to prevent this mischief it has
been suggested that the Constitution be amended so as
to enable the President to veto single items in an appro-
priation bill.

458 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Right of Search. — The right is undisputed in in-
ternational law for the war vessel of a belligerent to visit
private vessels on the high seas and to examine their
papers and cargoes, to determine their destination and
character. The right which England claims of search-
ing neutral vessels for subjects and deserters, however,
is a different matter, and was one of the chief causes of
the War of 1812 {which see).

Rights of Neutrals. {See Neutrality.)

Ring. — A corrupt arrangement that ''encircles
enough influential men in the organization of each party
to control the action of both party machines; men who
in public push to extremes the abstract ideas of their re-
spective parties, while they secretly join their hands in
schemes for personal power and profit.^' This definition
is from a pamphlet by Samuel J. Tilden.

River and Harbor Bills. — The first bill for harbor
improvements at national expense was passed March 3,
1823. Various such bills were subsequently passed.
President Polk, in 1846, and President Pierce, in 1854,
defeated bills for that purpose by the exercise of the
veto, and thereafter no attempt to pass such measures
was made until 1870. Meanwhile most appropriations
for necessary work had been made under different heads,
such as fortifications. In 1870 $2,000,000 was directly
appropriated for the purpose. Between 1870 and 1875
the amounts did not exceed 17,500,000; the appropri-
ations since then are given under Appropriations. It
has grown to be a practice to pass these bills by log-
rolling {which see), and the amounts have thus been
largely increased. In 1882 the appropriations for this
purpose amounted to nearly $19,000,000. The bill was
promptly vetoed by President Arthur and just as
promptly passed over the veto by Congress.

Rock of Chicamaugua. — A name applied to Gen-
eral George H. Thomas by reason of the firm stand
made by him at Chicamaugua during the Civil "War,
September, 1863. Thomas was born in Virginia in
1816; he died March 28, 1870.

Rogue's Island. — A nickname applied to Ehod^

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 450

Island wlien that State stood out and refused to ratify
the Constitution.

Roorbach is defined by Webster as follows: *' h.
forgery or fictitious story published for purposes of
political intrigue. The word originated in 1844, when
such a forgery was published, purporting to be an ex-
tract from the ' Travels of Baron Eoorbach.^^'

Rooster, Democratic. {8ee Democratic Rooster.)
Rotation in Office. (See Civil Service Reform.)
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion. — During the
presidential campaign of 1884, James G. Blaine, the
Republican candidate, received a delegation of ministers
favoring his election, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in
New York City. The spokesman, the Rev. Dr. Burch-
ard, in the course of his address to Blaine, referred to the
Democratic party as the party of ^'Rum, Romanism and
Rebellion. '^ This phrase was at once seized upon by the
newspapers opposed to Blaine, and telegraphed all over
the country; and the fact was dwelt on that the slight-
ing allusion to Catholics had not been rebuked by Blaine.
It is impossible to estimate how many Catholic votes
were turned from Blaine for that reason; Cleveland's
popular majority over Blaine in New York was but
1,047, so that 524 votes lost to Cleveland would have
turned the State in Blaine's favor, and with New York
he would have gained the presidency. Whether the in-

i'udicious utterance above quoted lost the election for
Elaine cannot be said.

Sage of Greystone. — A popular name of Samuel J.
Tilden. Tilden's residence on the Hudson River was
called Greystone.

Sage of Monticello. — A popular name of Thomas
Jefferson. On the termination of his second term as
President he retired to Monticello, Virginia, where the
remainder of his life was passed.

Salary Grab. — On March 3, 1873, in the rush that
always attends the closing hours of the national Legis-
lature, the Forty-Second Congress signalized the last
day of its existence by passing the act commonly called
thQ *' Salary Grab.^^ It passed the House and the

460 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Senate and received President Grant's signature on this
same day. It provided for an increase of the President's
salary from $25,000 to 150,000 a year, of the salaries of
the Vice-President, justices of the Supreme Court,
cabinet officers, the Speaker of the House, Senators,
Eepresentatives, territorial delegates and various other
fed'eral officials. . The act was to take effect immediately,
except as to members of Congress whose salary was
raised from $5,000 to $7,500 a year. As to these it was
made retroactive to the beginning of the term of the
Forty-Second Congress. It was this provision of the
bill which gave it the name of a ^^grab." Most of
those that voted against it and some that voted for it,
covered their past increase of salary into the Treasury.
It was not a party measure, and one of the first acts of
Congress was to repeal the law as to all officials except
the President and the justices of the Supreme Court.
The repealing act became a law on January 20, 1874.

Salt River, Gone Up. — This phrase is applied to
politicians who are forced out of public life, or who
retire because of disappointed ambition. It is said that
the phrase arose from a small stream of that name in
Kentucky, the navigation of which was very difficult,
and the unpleasantness of a journey up that stream was
thought fairly to represent the feelings of the politicians
to whom the phrase was applied.
San Juan Dispute. {See Northwest Boundary,)
Santo Domingo, Annexation of. — Santo Domingo
is a republic occupying the eastern and larger portion of
the island of Hayti. It is also called San Domingo, or
the Dominican Republic. In July, 1869, President
Grant sent General Babcock to San Domingo to report
on the project of annexing it to the United States. In
consequence of Babcock's report, a treaty of annexation
was made on November 20, 1869, which was approved
by popular vote in San Domingo. Its ratification was
urged on the Senate to secure the fine harbor of Samana
for a coaling station and commanding rendezvous for
our navy, to prevent the acquisition of that bay by any
foreign power, to free the slaves there, and by example

£>TdTlO^Ak y OP AMERICAN POLITICO, 461

and influence the slaves in Cuba and Brazil, and to
secure a profitable possession for the United States. But
charges were made that private speculators were the
promoters of the plan, which was thus discredited. In
May, 1870, the treaty was modified to meet some objec-
tions, and Grant sent a special message to Congress, on
May 31st, urging ratification. The Senate, however, on
June 30th refused to ratify the treaty. In January,
1871, Congress, in accordance with the President's
message of December 5, 1870, agreed to the appointment
of a commission to visit San Domingo and report on the
project. B. F. Wade, Andrew D. White and S. G.
Howe were appointed, visited San Domingo, and made
a favorable report. The project, however, had now
become thoroughly unpopular, and Grant in a special
message of April 5, 1871, virtually abandoned it.
Nothing has since been done to carry out his ideas of
annexation. Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, was a
bitter opponent of the whole plan, and chiefly to his
efforts was due its defeat. ^^

Scalawag. — A word signifiying a low, worthless 4
fellow. During the reconstruction period following the /
Civil War, it was at the South applied to Southerners /•
who joined the Republican party and aided them in re- /
construction. (

Schurz, Carl, was born near Cologne, Germany,
March 2, 1829. He left Germany by reason of his con-
nection with the revolutionary disturbances of 1848.
He served in the Civil War, attaining the grade of
brigadier-general. In politics he was a Republican. "
He pursued journalism as a profession in St. Louis,
Missouri. In 18G9 he was chosen United States Senator.
He was identified with the Liberal Republican move-
ment in 1872. In 1877 he became Secretary of the
Interior under Hayes. In 1884 he was one of the
leaders of the revolt against Blaine in the Republican
party.

Scott, Dred, Case. {See Dred Scott Case.)

Scott Tax Law. — {See Prohibition.)

Scratching. — When a citizen votes a ticket contain-

46^ DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

ing the names of some of the candidates of the party
with which he is not affiliated, he is said to scratch the
names of those of his own party that he omits.

Scripomania. — A name applied to the craze for
speculation in the stock of the Bank of the United States
in 1791; also called Scripophobia.

Scripophobia. — {8ee Scripomania. )

Scrub Race for the Presidency. — The presidential
contest of 1824 was so called. The candidates, John
Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford
and Henry Clay, being all of the same party, the con-
test was merely a personal one; the truth of the compari-
son implied in the name, is obvious.

Search, Right of. — {See Right of Search.)

Secession. — The claim of the right of a State to
secede from the Union is founded on the doctrine of
"State sovereignty." But the right of secession or
peaceable withdrawal must not be confounded with the
right of revolution or violent revolt against unbearable
oppression; in the latter case there is no claim of legal
right; the appeal is to force and the revolutionists know
that failure means the punishment inflicted for treason.
This claim has been put forward by nearly every State
of the Union in its turn and has on such occasions usually
been condemned by the others as treasonable. It was
either involved in or explicitly put forward by the
"Kentucky Kesolutions," the " Hartford Convention,"
and the "Nullification Ordinance." The discussion
preceding the annexation of Texas, led to threats of
' secession, in the North to follow the annexation, in the
South to follow a refusal to annex. It is thus seen that
the doctrine had been ventilated North and South, but
no real attempt to secede had been made. There had been
talk of co-operation among some of the Southern States
for the purpose of carrying out a secession programme,
(for no State would have attempted it alone), but all this
came to naught. Since about 1835, however, slavery
and " State sovereignty" had been bound up together
and secession was the logical consequence of the latter.
The feeling between slave-holding sections and non-slave-

DICTIONAkY OF AMERICAN POUTICS, 463

holding sections, between North and South, had become
more and more strained, and the election in 1860 of
Lincoln, was all that was needed to change the theory
into an attempt to secure the reality. South Carolina
issued a circular to the other Southern States declaring
that she would secede with ai^y other State or alone, if
any other would agree to follow. No State was prepared
to secede alone, but Florida, Mississippi and Alabama
agreed to secede with any other State. South Carolina
led the way; a State convention was called and on De-
cember 20, 1860, the Act of 1788, ratifying the United
States Constitution, was repealed, and it was declared
*'that the union now subsisting between South Carolina
and other States, under the name of the United States
of America, is hereby dissolved;" on the 24th a declara-
tion of the causes of secession was adopted and on the
same day the Grovernor proclaimed the secession of the
State. Mississippi followed January 9, 1861; Florida,
January 10th; Alabama, January 11th; Georgia, Janu-
ary 19th; Louisiana, January 26th; Texas, February
1st, but the proceedings in this later State were very
irregular. Virginia did likewise in April, Arkansas and
North Carolina in May, and Tennessee, making the
eleventh and last seceding State, in June. The Civil
War settled the question forever.
Secretary of Legation. {See Foreign Service.)
Sectional President. — Lincoln was so called by the
Southerners, who held that he represented not the whole
people, but only the northern section of the nation.
Sedition Laws. {See Alien and Sedition Laws.)
Sedition Poles. — A derisive name for Liberty Poles.
Self-Created Societies. — This phrase was used by
"Washington in a message to Congress on the Whisky In-
surrection, to designate those whom he believed to be
the instigators of the revolt. It was intended to apply
to the Democratic Societv.
Selling Out. {See Trading.)
Seminole War. {See Indian Wars.)
Senate. — This is the name of the smaller of the two
branches of the legislative division of the national gov-

464 DICTIONAR Y OP AMERICAN POLITICS;.

ernment. It is also applied to the corresponding divi-
sions of the State governments. When the term is
used without qualification, the national Senate is meant.
The Senate is composed of two members from every
State, chosen by the Legislature. The term is six years.
The terms of the Senators are so arransjed that one-third
of them expire every two years. The Senate is thus a
body having continuous existence and organization. Ar-
ticle 1, section 3, of the Constitution treats of the
Senate. A person, in order to be a Senator, must be at
least thirty years of age. He must have been nine years
a citizen, and must, when elected, be an inhabitant of
the State he is chosen to represent. The Senate has the
power to try all impeachments. It must confirm the
appointments made by the President, and must ratify
all treaties, for which purpose a two-thirds vote is
necessary. When confirming nominations and ratifying
treaties (executive business, as it is called) the Senate
sits in secret session. All attempts to repeal this rule
have failed; they are renewed at almost every session.
The Vice-President of the United States presides over
the Senate. In the absence of the Vice-President, or
when he acts as President, the Senate chooses a Presi-
dent pro tempore of the Senate, and it is customary of
the Vice-President to retire a few days before adjourn-
ment for the session^ in order to enable this officer to be
chosen, because under a law now superseded this officer
was in the line of presidential succession {which see.)
In case of failure on the part of the electors to choose a
Vice-President, the selection devolves on the Senate.
''A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds
of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the
whole number shall be necessary to a choice.^'' (Consti-
tution, Twelfth Amendment. ) The standing committees
of the Senate are by a rule of that body to be elected
by ballot unless otherwise ordered. They are, as a
matter of fact, agreed upon in caucus, and the caucus
list is voted on as a whole by the Senate. Each House
provides rules for its own guidance, and those of the
Senate differ in many respects from those of the House,

DiCTtOMAR V OP AMEktCAM POLITICO. 465

being in general more lax. There is practically no limit
to the length of time which a Senator may consume in
debate, and in general the "courtesy of the Senate/'
as it is called, is relied on as a substitute for stringent
rules. The salary of a Senator is 15,000, together with
an allowance of 1125 per annum for stationery and
newspapers, and mileage at the rate of twenty cents a
mile for travel to and from Washington for every annual
session. Deduction from the salary is made for absence
without leave. The United States Statutes provide as fol-
lows for the filling of vacancies in the Senate occurring
before the meeting of legislatures, and during the session
of legislatures : " Whenever on the meeting of the
Legislature of any State a vacancy exists in the repre-
sentation of such State in the Senate, the Legislature
shall proceed, on the second Tuesday after meeting and
organization, to elect a person to fill such vacancy in
the manner prescribed for the election of a Senator for
a full term," and " whenever during the session of the
Legislature of a State a vacancy occurs in the repre-
sentation of such State in the Senate, similar proceed-
ings to fill such vacancy shall be had on the second
Tuesday after the Legislature has organized, and has
notice of such vacancy." The Constitution of the
United States adds the subjoined: "If vacancies
happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess
of the Legislature of any State, the Executive (that is,
the Governor) thereof may make temporary appoint-
ments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which
shall then fill such vacancies."

Seat of Government.— Previous to the final re-
moval to Washington in 1800 the seats of Government
were: Philadelphia, May 10, 1775 ; Baltimore, Decem-
ber 20, 1776 ; Philadelphia. March 4, 1777 ; Lancaster,
Pa., September 27, 1777; York,Pa., September 30,
1777 ; Philadelphia July 2, 1778; Princton, New Jer-
sev, June 30, 1783; Annapolis, Maryland, November
26, 1783; Trenton, New Jersey, November!, 1784; New
York, January 11, 1785, where the Constitutional
Government was organized in 1789.

466 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Sergeant-at- Arms.— The sergeant-at-arms of a
legislative body is the official that maintains order under
the direction of the presiding officer. He serves pro-
cesses and makes arrests when these are ordered by the
House. In both the Senate and the House he is elected.

Seventh of March Speech. — In January, 1850,
Henry Clay introduced into Congress the series of reso-
lutions that subsequently led to the Compromise of
1850 {which see). During the debate on these resolu-
tions, Daniel Webster delivered an extraordinary speech
in which he opposed the views of the abolitionists and
of all who in any way desired to restrict slavery. The
one great aim of his speech was to smooth over differ-
ences between North and South. It has been charged
that this speech was a virtual recantation of his political
opinions for the purpose of aiding his presidential aspi-
rations. The speech was delivered March 7, 1850.

Seward Whigs. {See Conscience Whigs.)

Seward, William H., was born at Florida, New
York, May 16, 1801, and died at Auburn, New York,
October 10, 1872. He was a graduate of Union College
and a lawyer by profession. He served in the State
Senate, and was elected Governor in 1838 and 1840 after
having been defeated in 1834. In 1849 he became
United States Senator. He was in early life an anti-
Mason, and joined the Whig party on its organization.
He was a member of the anti-slavery faction of that
party and its leader in the Senate. He became Secre-
tary of State, under Lincoln, in 1861, and served in that
office until 1869.

Seymour, Horatio, was bom in Pompey, New
York, in 1811. He studied law; served as mayor of
Utica and in the Legislature. He was a Democrat, a
member of the " hunker,^' or conservative faction. In
1850 he was nominated for Governor and defeated by
about 300 votes out of 430,000 cast. In 1852 he was
elected, and in 1854 again defeated by a very small
majority. In 1862 he was once more elected Governor.
He was the acknowledged leader of his party in New
York, and in 1868 he received its presidential nomina-

DICTION A R V OP AMERICAN- POLITICS. 467

fcion, but he was defeated. He then retired from public
life. He died on February 12, 1886.

Sharp-Shins. — A name given to small currency ob-
tained by cutting silver dollars into parts. It was used
in the early days of Virginia.

Sherman, John, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, May
10, 1823. He is a lawyer. He was in early life a Whig,
but ultimately joined the Eepublican party, one of
whose chiefs he now is. He served in Congress from
1855 to 1861, and in the Senate from 1861 to 1877. He
then became Secretary of the Treasury, and under his
management the refunding of the debt took place. He
then returned to the Senate, in which he is now serving.

Sherman, William Tecumseh, was born at Mans-
field, Ohio, Febniary 8, 1820. He was graduated at
West Point in 1840. He served in the army until 1853,
when he resigned and turned to civil pursuits. On the
outbreak of the Civil War he entered the service as a
colonel in the regular army. He served with brilliant
distinction, rising to the grade of major-general in the
regular service. His best known achievements are the
capture of Atlanta and his march to the sea. In 1866
he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general, and in
1869 to that of general. He retired on November 1,
1883. He died February 14, 1891.

Shimonoseki Indemnity. — Shimonoseki is a sea-
port of Japan whose forts command a strait of the same
name. In 1864 these forts were attacked and destroyed
by a squadron of war vessels, representing the United
States, England, France and Holland, in retaliation for
the firing on merchant vessels of those nations by the
forts. The Japanese government was compelled to pay
damages for the injuries inflicted by the forts, besides
an indemnity, amounting together to $3,000,000. Our
share in this sum was $785,000. Only a small portion
of it was needed for damages inflicted, and the re-
mainder lay in our public treasury for some years. It
was not applied to any public use, and finally, after
repeated attempts to refund the extortionate excess, it
was repaid to Japan in 1884.

468 £>lCTlO^Ak Y OF AMERICAN- POLITICS,

Shinplasters. — During the war, small change dis-
appeared from circulation and the people resorted to
postage stamps and private notes. The latter, repre-
senting ten, twenty-five and fifty cents, issued by retail
dealers to facilitate trade, were of little value beyond the
particular locality where they were issued , except as plasters
for broken shins, and hence were called '^shinplasters."
The fractional notes printed by the government under
the law of 1863 were also called "shinplasters," but
merely because their forerunners had borne that name.

Shoe-String District. — The Sixth Congressional
District of Mississippi, as laid out in 1874, is so called
because it consists of a narrow strip extending along the
Mississippi Eiver almost the entire length of the State.
(See Gerrymander.)

Sic Semper TyranniS. — This Latin phrase, signify-
ing, "thus always to tyrants," constitutes the motto of
the State of Virginia. They were the words which John
Wilkes Booth shouted out when he jumped on the stage
of Ford^s Theater after assassinating Lincoln.

Signal Service Bureau.— The signal service was
first organized for military purposes. In war it is very
necessary that different parts of an army should be able
to communicate readily and quickly with each other,
and therefore a special service was organized, equipped
with flags, torches, heliostats, telegraph and telephone
lines, and other instruments of communication, and in-
structed in a code of signals which, while intelligent to
themselves, were meant to be a complete mystery to all
others. Such a service has been attached to the United
States army for many years, but the meteorological
division of this service is of recent creation. Feb. 9,
1870, a joint resolution of Congress first imposed upon
the Signal Service Bureau the duty of "giving notice
by telegraph and signal of the approach and force of
storms." The duty was cheerfully accepted, and under
the chief signal officer. Gen. Albert J. Myer, was ad-
mirably performed. So quickly and well were its
meteorological observations made that the new bureau
won the confidence of scientific men immediately, and

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 469

in 1874 the Smithsonian Institution turned over its en-
tire body of volunteer civilian weather observers to the
direction of the signal service. The telegraphic facili-
ties of the service soon led to a new system, that of
simultaneous weather observation and instantaneous re-
ports. This gave the central office valuable data on
which to base a scientific study of the weather, and
largely increased general confidence in its predictions.
The network of signal lines now extends over the con-
tinent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the
Gulf of Mexico, including the West Indies, to the
Canadian frontier, and daily reports are also re-
ceived from the Canadian Dominion and its out-
lying posts. Perhaps the most important work
of the bureau is that on the Western frontier, Tri-
daily observations are taken at all the stations east and
west at 7 a.m., 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., Washington time,
and immediately put upon the wires. So nearly are these
observations simultaneous, and so carefully are the dif-
ferences of time calculated, that they are usually all
concentrated at the central office within about forty-five
minutes. They include readings of the barometer and
of exposed and wet-bulb thermometers; the direction
and velocity of the wind; the amount of rain or snow
fallen since last reports; the kind, amount, and direc-
tion of movement of clouds, auroras, haze, fog, smoki-
ness, frost, etc., to which river stations add readings of
the river gauge, and the seacoast stations the direction
and character of the ocean swell. These data, received
at the central office, are made the basis of draughting
seven graphic charts, the first showing the barometric
pressures, temperatures, winds and states of weather
throughout the country; the second showing the dew
points at all stations; and the third the cloud condi-
tions visible from the different reporting stations. The
fourtii and sixth charts show the normal barometric
pressures and temperatures, and existing variations
therefrom in the same general mode; and the fifth and
seventh show the deviations or departures from the nor-
mal condition in these particulars, for the previous

470 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICA JV POLITICS.

twenty-four hours. Armed with all this charted ma-
terial, and taught by long experience how to reckon the
probable course of storms, the signal officer proceeds
to calculate the probabilities of the weather at the
different points on his chart for the next twenty-four or
forty-eight hours. These probabilities or " weather
bulletins " are immediately sent by telegraph to all the
stations, and made public through the daily press.
Special '^ farmers' bulletins " are also printed and sent
to small towns and villages along most of the railroads
radiating from the chief cities of the Union, to be
posted in some public place. If storms are to be ex-
pected, the display of a cautionary signal is ordered at
each station of the bureau. The general soundness of
the plan upon which the Weather Bureau works is
shown by the fact that, taking into account the entire
twenty-one years of its existance, the percentage of
verifications of its predictions has been over 85 per
cent. In 1891 the signal service was transferred from
the War Department to the Department of Agriculture.

Silk Stockings is a term of reproach applied by
professional politicians to the better circumstanced
classes when these latter attempt to play a part in
politics. Kid-glove politics (which see) is a similar
expression.

Sink or Swim, Live or Die, Survive or Perish,
I Give My Hand and My Heart to This Vote.—
August 2, 1826, Daniel Webster delivered a eulogy on
Joha Adams and Thomas Jefferson in Faneuil Hall,
Boston. They had both died on July 4, 1826. In the
eulogy, Webster puts into Adams' mouth the speech
that he supposed him to have made in Congress, in
1776, before voting for the Declaration of Independence.
The proceedings of the Congress were secret; the jour-
nal of its proceedings did not contain the debates; it is
only known that Adams made a remarkable speech on
that occasion. 'No record of it was preserved, and the
one that Webster imagines him to have made is entirely
the work of Webster. The speech contained the above
sentence, and concluded as follows: *^It is my living

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 471

sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my
dying sentiment — independence now, and independence
forever. '^ On the day of Adams' death the noise of
cannon attracted his attention. He asked the meaning,
and was told that it was Independence Day. He replied,
*' Independence forever. ''

Silver Bill, The, was a bill passed by Congress,
vetoed by President Hayes, and passed over his veto
February 28, 1878. It made the standard silver dollar,
the coinage of which had been suspended by the Act of
1873, a legal tender in any amounts, and directed its
continued coinage at a minimum rate of $2,000,000, and
a maximum rate of $4,000,000 per month.
Silver Grays. (^See Conscience Whigs.)
Silver Question. — Previous to the Act of 1834, the
ratio of gold to silver at the mints of the United States
had been one of the former to fifteen of the latter.
The ratio in the principal European countries, notably
France, was one to fifteen and one-half. Under these
circumstances one part of gold might be exchanged in
Europe for fifteen and one-half parts of silver, of which
one-half of one part might be retained, and on sending
the other fifteen parts to the United States one part of
gold would be received therefor, the return of which to
France would leave its owner richer by one-half of
one part of silver. This was done, and gold flowed out
of this country. As a remedy the ratio was changed, by
the Acts of 1834 and 1837, to one to 15.98. This
remedy was too drastic. Gold ceased to leave the
country — in fact, returned to it, but silver flowed out
rapidly, because now the exchange of silver for gold in
France, and the reexchange of gold for silver here, pro-
duced a profit. For the purpose of keeping in the
country sufficient small coin for the needs of business,
the Act of 1853 reduced the weight of fractional silver
coins. By the Act of 1873 the coinage of silver dollars
was stopped. The Act of 1878 revived the coinage of
the 412i-grain silver dollar, and required the purchase
of at least $2,000,000, and not more than $4,000,000,
worth of silver bullion per month and its coinage into

472 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

these dollars. Free coinage of silver was not established.
By free coinage is meant the coinage into money of
bullion for any one presenting the same for that purpose.
There is in this country at present free coinage of gold.
No country has at this time free coinage of both metals,
for fear that fluctuations in the market price of silver
might cause sudden and violent exports of the metal
that happened for the time being to be more valuable,
compared with its fellow in the markets of other coun-
tries, than by the standard of the country's mint. A
double standard of gold and silver is possible only by
the Joint action of all the principal nations in establish-
ing the same fixed ratio. The fall in the price of silver
during recent years has rendered the gold value of the
standard silver dollar considerably less than its face
value (about seventy-five cents). Were the bullion value
of these dollars equal to their face value, no harm could
flow from their continued coinage, for whether for ex-
port or other use they would everywhere be received.
The danger lies in the possibility that the continued
compulsory coinage of these dollars may lead to the
issue of more than the business of the country requires.
As the Secretary of the Treasury (in his report of
December 5, 1887) pointed out, this would lead either
to their export or to their depreciation at home. The
former is impossible on account of the reduced bullion
value of the coin; the latter is the result to be feared.
The Treasury holds a trust fund of $100,000,000 for the
redemption of legal tender notes, and the further sum
of more than $100,000,000 in trust for .the redemption
of national bank notes. When the receipt by the gov-
ernment of one form of money exceeds the demand of
the people for that same form (for the government's
creditors have their choice of the different forms of
money in receiving payment), the result is the accumu-
lation in the Treasury of the form of money not desired
by the people. The bulk of the money held by the
Treasury belongs to the above-mentioned trust funds.
To them is thus apportioned the money not desired by
the people. Had it not been for these funds, the govern-

DtCTlOl^Ak y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 4^3

ment would have been obliged, in 1884, 1885 and 1886, to
make payments in the coin received by it, namely silver,
in spite of the fact that the people did not desire it, as is
shown by its accumulation in the Treasury during those
years; one result of which would have been, and will
oe whenever an aggravated case of the kind again
happens, the forcing into circulation of a kind of money
not desired, and its consequent depreciation. From
this would flow all the financial and commercial hard-
ships incident to a depreciated currency. In the report
(above referred to) of the Secretary, he recommends
that above the amount of silver held to redeem silver
certificates, there should be kept on hand some fixed
reserve in silver to meet the possible demand for silver
on the part of United States creditors; the amount of
this reserve to be fixed by Congress, and provision to bo
made for the temporary cessation of silver coinage when-
ever the reserve exceeds the specified limit by $5,000,000,
to be resumed when the reserve is again reduced to its
legal limit. The South and the West clamor for the
continuation of the coinage of the silver dollar. They
call it ''the poor man^s dollar,^' and the gold dollar
"the rich man's dollar. '' They assert that the silver
dollar is the only kind of money that can be rendered
sufficiently abundant for the needs of their sections.
Those that assert the impossibility of this country main-
taining a double standard without the cooperation of
other countries, and those that assert the absolute im-
possibility of maintaining a double standard — the mono-
metallists — are dubbed ''gold bugs" by them. These
sections refuse to see a distinction between absolute
cessation of the coinage of the silver dollar and coinage
limited and proportioned to the wants of the country as
suggested by the Secretary. Congress has taken no
action on this question, and the silence thereon of
many public men is asserted to be an unwillingness to
antagonize any portion of the community that can
aid the political aspirations of an ambitious man. {Set
Coinage^)
Single Standard. — This phrase is used in discussion

474 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

on bi-metallism, to indicate a single standard of value;
that is, gold alone or silver alone. Double standard
means the concurrent use of both metals as standards.
{^See Bi-MetalUsm.)

Sinking Fund is a fund provided for the payment
of a debt or obligation, and is formed by successively
setting apart smaller amounts for this purpose. Even
under the confederation an attempt was made by Alex-
ander Hamilton to establish a sinking fund for the
national debt; it was unsuccessful. The first sinking
fund under the government of the United States was
created by Act of August 2, 1790. The present sinking
fund to retire the national debt was established by Act
of February 25, 1862: as subsequently modified it sets
apart all duties on imported goods as a special fund,
first, for the payment of interest on the public debt,
and second, for the purchase every year of one per cent,
of the national debt; bonds so redeemed are to be can-
celled and deducted from the outstanding indebtedness
of the government; but in addition to the one per cent,
thus redeemed there is to be purchased annually an
amount of government bonds equal to the annual inte-
rest on bonds previously bought for the sinking fund.
The sinking fund is thus, as far as interest is con-
cerned, in the position of any other holder of the gov-
ernment's obligations, receiving interest on all the bonds
that have been purchased for its account, only the bonds
belonging to it have been cancelled and the debt is con-
sidered reduced by that amount. The Act of April 17,
1876, provides that fractional currency redeemed by the
Treasury shall constitute a part of the sinking fund.
The estimated sinking fund requirement for the year
ending July 1, 1892, is 144,006,111. The operations of
this fund will provide for the payment of the entire
national debt by the date of maturity of the government
bonds having longest still to run, viz. : the four per
cent, bonds due in 1907.

Sinophobist, meaning literally, ft hater of the Chi-
nese, is a term sometimes applied to those who have
clamored for a restriction of "Chinese immigration to
this country.

DICTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 475

Sioux War. {Bee Indian Wars.)
Six Companies. {See CJiinese Question.)
Slavery. — In 1620 the first cargo of negro slaves was
landed in Virginia. Thereafter slavery was an institu-
tion in that colony, as it was, indeed, in all of the thir-
teen colonies, except Georgia. Georgia was formed
by Oglethorpe in 1 732, and as long as he was in control,
until 1752 (when its charter was surrendered to the
crown), slavery was prohibited. The physical character
of the Northern colonies, requiring as it does, the appli-
cation to the soil of intellect as well as of labor, in order
to render it productive, was not calculated to make slave
labor profitable, but none of the colonies had at first any
objections to slavery on moral grounds. After the Eevo-
lution statesmen, both North and South, deplored its in-
troduction by their forefathers and regarded it as a
necessary evil. The provisions in the Constitution,
leaving the slave-trade unhampered for twenty years, and
requiring the return of fugitive slaves, were won from
the convention only by the importunity of South Caro-
lina and Georgia. The invention of the cotton-gin ren-
dered the labor of slaves vastly more profitable. This is
seen when we state that the exports of cotton in 1792
were 138,328 pounds, and in 1795, 6,276,300 pounds,
the cotton-gin having been invented in 1793. This
event, opening prospects of unlimited profit by the em-
ployment of slaves, increased the Southern sentiment in
favor of slavery. In the North it was dying a natural
death. Yet, as late as 1826, John Randolph, of Vir-
ginia, said in the House: *' I envy neither the head nor
the heart of that man, .... who rises here to
defend slavery upon principle." And the Missouri
Compromise distinctly recognized the power of Con-
gress to exclude slavery from Territories. In the House
the anti-slave power was in control, but the Senate,
containing two Senators from every State, regardless of
population, was always in a position to defeat restrictive
measures. The South, perceiving this advantage,
steadily refused admission to free States, without the
admission at the same time of a corresponding number

476 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

of slave States. The slave power, thus forced to an ex
tension of slave territory, began to assert the '^essential
righteousness '^ of slavery, and then to deny the power
of Congress to restrict it in the Territories. The Kan-
sas-Nebraska Bill accomplished this latter purpose, thus
annulling the Missouri Compromise. As soon as it be-
came evident that Kansas would become a free State,
the doctrine was further elaborated, and it was asserted
to be the duty of Congress to protect slavery. The
election of a Eepublican President in 1860 gave occa-
sion for the one remaining step, secession. Thus was
the Civil War begun, and in that struggle slavery per-
ished.

Smelling Committee — This vigorous phrase is used
by the machine politicians to denote a legislative com-
mitee of inquiry, whose investigation it is feared will re-
sult in personal damage to them.

Snuff Takers. {See Conscience Whigs,)

Soap. — A political slang term for money; usually ap-
plied to money corruptly used.

Social Bands. — A name applied to societies organ-
ized in Missouri, after the passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, for the purpose of taking " possession of
Kansas on behalf of slavery. ^^

Softs, or Soft-shells. {See Barnhurners.)

Soldiers' Home. — This home is intended for aged
or disabled soldiers of the regular army of the United
States. It is situated at Washington, D. C, occupying
a beautiful site outside the city limits, was established
in 1851 with the money raised by a levy on the City of
Mexico during the Mexican War, and is supported by a
regular tax on each soldier of the army. A home for
volunteer soldiers of the Civil War is situated at Day-
ton, Ohio, with branches at Augusta, Maine, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and Hampton, Virginia.

Solid South. — Since the Civil War the sympathy of
Southern whites has, until now, uniformly been with
the Democratic party, and since the withdrawal of Union
troops at the South, during Hayes' administration, the
Southern States have all voted Democratic, or in the

DICTIOKAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 477

cnrrent phrase, have gone solidly Democratic. Hence
the term Solid South; that is, the South solidly Demo-
cratic. There are signs that the supremacy of the solid
South will soon be broken. That event, when % occurs,
will be the final step in the series of reconciliations be-
tween North and South.

Sons of '76. i^See American Party,)

Sons of Liberty. {8ee American Knights,)

Sons of the South. — A name applied to societies
organized in Missouri after the passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, for the purpose of taking ''possession of
Kansas on behalf of slavery. •''

Sore-head is a person whose ambition is disappointed,
not by defeat suffered at the hands of antagonists, but
by failure of his party to honor him, and who does not
accept the result with good grace. A sore-head may go
to the extent of bolting his party^s convention [see Bolt'
ers), or he may simply sulk for a time and finally re-
cover his good humor. A kicker (which see) is a general
term for a dissatisfied adherent. A sore-head is a kicker
with a personal grievance.

South Americans. — This term was used before the
Civil War to designate the Southern members of the
American or Know-Nothing party. Their only desire
was to prevent all agitation on the subject of slavery
whether for or against the institution.

South Carolina was one of the original States of
the Union. On December 20, 1860, a State convention
passed an ordinance of secession and led all the Southern
States into the Confederacy. By Act of June 25, 1868,
South Carolina was re-admitted to the Union. The
capital is Columbia. The population in 1880 was 995,-
577, and in the last census (1890) 1,151,149. South Caro-
lina has seven seats in the House of Representatives and
nine electoral votes. It is a reliably Democratic State
at present in national elections. The two Carolinas
were named after Charles I., of England (in Latin
Carolus), Popularly it is called the Palmetto State.
[See Electoral Commission; Governors; Legislatures,)

Southern Confederacy. (See Confederate States.)

478

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Southwest Territory. {See Territories.)
Speaker of the House of Representatives. — The

title of the presiding officer of the House of Eepresen-
tatives (which see). He is elected by the members of
that body. Below is given a list of the Speakers of the
House of Kepresentatives:

Congress.

Years

Name.

State.

1789-1791

1791—1793

1793-1795

4—5

1795-1799

1799—1801

7-9

1801-1807

10—11

1807—1811

12-13

1811—1814

1814—1815

14—16

1815-1830

1820-1821

1821—1823

1823-1825

1825—1827

20-23

1827-1834

1834-1835

24—25

1835—1839

1839-1841

1841—1843

1843—1845

1845-1847

1847—1849

1849—1851

32-33

1851—1855

1856-1857

1857-1859

1860-1861

1861-1863

38-40

1863-1869

41^

1869—1875

1875-1876

44-46

1876—1881

1881—1883

48-50

1883-1889

51-

1889-1891

F. A. Muhlenburg. . .
Jonathan Trumbull.
F. A. Muhlenburg. . .
Jonathan Dayton —
Theodore Sedgwick..

Nathaniel Macon

Joseph B. Varnum...

Henry Clay

Langdon Cheves. ...

Henry Clay...

John W. Taylor

Philip P. Barbour....

Henry Clay

John W. Taylor . . . . .
Andrew Stevenson...

John Bell

James K. Polk

R. M. T. Hunter

John White

John W. Jones

John W. Davis

Robert C.Winthrop..

Howell Cobb

Linn Boyd

Nathaniel P. Banks.

James L. Orr

William Pennington.

Galusha A. Grow

Schuyler Colfax

James G. Blnine

Michael C. Kerr

Samuel J. Randall —

JohnW. Keifer

John G. Carlisle

Thomas B. Reed

George F. Crisp

Pennsylvania.

Connecticut.

Pennsylvania.

New Jersey.

Massachusetts

North Carolina.

Massachusetts.

Kentucky.

South Carolina.

Kentucky.

New York.

Virginia.

Kentucky.

New York.

Virginia.

Tennessee. '

Tennessee.

Virginia.

Kentucky.

Virginia.

Indiana.

Massachusetts.

Georgia.

Kentucky.

Massachusetts.

South Carolina.

New Jersey.

Pennsylvania.

Indiana.

Maine.

Indiana.

Pennsylvania.

Ohio.

Kentucky.

Maine

Georgia.

Specie Circular.— Between 1830 and 1836 prosperity
largely increased in the United States. Considerable
artificial stimulus was afforded by the deposit of govern-
ment funds in the State banks. The sales of govern-
ment lands in 1830 yielded $2,329,356.14; in 1836, $24,-
877,179.86. New banks, with but little capital, sprung
up everywhere and their circulating notes were rapidly

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 479

absorbed. On July 11, 1836, the Secretary of the
Treasury, under Jackson, issued a circular ordering gov-
ernment agents to receive only gold or silver in payment
of land sales. This is known as the '* Specie Circular/^
As a result the use of bank notes diminished. The
issues were presented for payment with the result of a
general suspension of specie payments in May, 1837.

Specie Payments. {See Commercial Crisis; Re-
sumption Act.)
Specific Duties. {See Customs Duties.)
Spoils System. (8ee Civil Service Reform.)
Squatter Sovereignty. {See Popular Sovereignty.)
Stalwarts. — This is a name by which a faction of
the Kepublican party is known. The name arose about
the time of the national convention of 1880, and was
applied to the wing of the party that supported the
claims of General Grant to a nomination for a third
term; the name was due to the tenacity with which
these supporters clung to him. They were led by Sena-
tor Eoscoe Conkling, of New York. Opposed to them
were the Half-breeds, as they were called, under the
ieadership of James G. Blaine. The contest between
these factions was very warm during Garfield's short ad-
ministration, the quarrel being on the division of the
oftices. Blaine was Secretary of State, and the admin-
istration was regarded as identified with the Half-breeds.
The outcome of the quarrel was the resignation of Sena-
tor Conkling and his colleague, in the expectation of an
immediate reelection, which would have served as a re-
buke to the President. In this Conkling was disap-
pointed. He failed of reelection. Meanwhile Gar-
field's death and the accession of Arthur, a Stalwart, to-
gether with the latter's judicious conduct, healed the
party split, at least on the surface. Nevertheless, the
enormous Democratic majority in the New York State
election for Governor in 1882, caused as it was by the
abstention of Kepublican voters, showed that the gulf
had not yet been bridged. The withdrawal of Conk-
ling from political life, however, aided in uniting the
party, and these lines of division have practically disap-
peared.

480 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Standard Silver Dollar. {Bee Coinage.)
Stanton, Edwin M., was born in Steubenville,
Ohio, December 19, 1814, and died at Washington,
December 24, 1869. He was graduated at Kenyon Col-
lege, and became a lawyer. He was Attorney-General
under Buchanan, and had, up to the Civil War, been a
Democrat. In 1862 he became Secretary of War under
Lincoln, retaining the post in Johnson's Cabinet until
his removal. The impeachment of Johnson was in con-
sequence of alleged illegal acts in connection with this
removal. In 1869 Stanton was nominated and confirmed
as Justice of the Supreme Court, but died before he
could assume the duties.

Star Chamber Sessions.— The Star Chamber was
an English Court, abolished in the last year of the
reign of Charles I. The court was composed of high
officers of the realm; it sat in secret; its power which
was very great was used to extort money by means of
fines, and for the overthrow of powerful enemies of the
Crown not otherwise to be reached. The name is said
to have arisen from the fact that the roof of the room in
which the court met was decorated with stars. In Amer-
ican politics the term star chamber sessions is sometimes
used to characterize secret sessions of any kind, and is
more particularly applied to the executive sessions of the
Senate. {^Bee Executive Sessions.)
Star Organization. {See American Knights.)
Star Route Trials. — Star Koutes are those mail
routes of the United States government on which,
owing to lack of railroad or steamboat facilities, the
mail is carried on horseback or wagons. They are called
star routes because in the route books of the Post-office
Department they are marked with a star (*). Early in
1881 vague rumors were in circulation of extensive
fraud in this service. It was said that there was a
" ring'' k) defraud the government. Included in it were
some of the large contractors, the Second Assistant
Postmaster-General, Thomas J. Brady, some subordi-
nates in the department. Senator Stephen W. Dorsey,
of Arkansas, and others, Brady resigned April 20,

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 481

1881. Proceedings in one of the principal cases were
begun against the conspirators, but they were dismissed
on account of irregularity in the form of the action.
Early in 1882 several persons were arrested for furnish-
ing fraudulent bonds on the bids for service, and in-
dictments were found against Brady, Stephen W.
Dorsey, John W. Dorsey, John M. Peck and John R.
Miner, who had made the bids; H. M. Vaile, a sub-con-
tractor ; M. 0. Rerdell, S. W. Dorsey^s secretary ;
Turner, a clerk in Brady's office; and against one of the
principal contractors. The method by which, as
charged, the government was defrauded consisted in first
obtaining the contracts for the routes, and in subse-
quently having the payments vastly increased, in com-
pensation for additional mail trips per week, and faster
time on each trip. This latter was called *' expediting '*
the route. The Dorsey combination, as the conspirators
were popularly called, controlled one hundred and thirty-
four Star Routes, on which the original compensation
was $143,169. By increasing the number of trips be-
yond what the locality required, and by '^expediting''
them, this amount had been increased to $632,808.
On one route the compensation had been increased
from $398 to $6,133.50; the revenue derived there-
from by the government was $240. The cases came
up fo/ trial in the District of Columbia, June 1,

1882. The government employed special counsel to aid
the District Attorney, and the defendants, too, were
represented by eminent lawyers. After a protracted
triid, the case was submitted to the jury on September
8th ; as they were not able to agree as to all of the de-
fendants, they were kept out until September 11th, on
which day, the presiding judge, Wylie, deeming an
agreement on all the defendants unlikely, accepted the
verdict. Peck and Turner were found not guilty;
Miner and Rerdell, guilty; as to the Dorseys, Vaile and
Brady there was a disagreement. Preparations were at
once made for a new trial in the cases in which there had
been a disagreement and the motions of the counsel of
Miner and Rerdell for a new trial were granted. The

483 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

second trial began in December, 1882. Rerdell, on tliia
trial, pleaded guilty and turned States^ evidence. On
June 12, 1883, the case was given to the jury, and on
the 14th, a verdict of not guilty was rendered. In
April, 1883, W. P. Kellogg, ex-Senator from Louisiana,
and Brady were indicted for receiving money for services
in relation to a Star Eoute contract. The cases never re-
sulted in a conviction. At the conclusion of the
first of these trials charges of attempted bribery of the jury
both on behalf of the government and of the defense,
were made. The foreman of the first jury, Dickson,
and another juror, claimed to have been approached on
behalf of the government, and still another juror on
behalf of the defense. Before the first trial had ended
Dickson had made a sworn statement of the facts in his
case, and it was charged that he had used it in the jury-
room for the purpose of influencing the verdict. The
Department of Justice investigated the cases, and declared
its belief that no government officials were involved; it
implied that all the attempts had been for the purposes
of the defense. Dickson was subsequently indicted for
attempting corruptly to influence the jury.

Stars and Bars. — A popular name for the flag of the
Confederacy, which consisted of a blue union with white
stars, one for every State of the Confederacy, and a field
of three bars, the center bar of white, the other two of
red. There were also battle-flags of different designs.
State Rights. {8ee State Sovereignty.)
States, Admission of, to the Union. {See Admis-
sion of States to the U^iion.)
State, Secretary of. (See State, Department of.)
State, Department of. — This is the oldest of the
executive departments of the government, having been
established by the Act of July 27, 1789. The Secretary
of State (whose salary is $8,000) is at its head. He is
appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate,
and is a member of the President's Cabinet. He is the
medium of communication between the United States
and any of the States or any foreign country. He has
charge of the great seal of the United States, which he
affixes to all public documents requiring it, he also coun-

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

483

tersigtis them. His department has charge of all am-
bassadors and consuls; in its custody are all the engrossed
copies of the laws of the United States and all treaties.
The principal subordinates are as follows:

SALARY.

Assistant Secretary $4,500

Second Assistant Secretary 3,500

Tiiird Assistant Secretary 3,500

Chief Clerk .. -2,750

The following are the Secretaries of State from the
beginning of the government:

Name.

State.

Term.

Virginia ...

1789—1794

Edmund Randolph

Virginia

1794 — 1795

Timothy Pickering-

Massachusetts

1795—1800

Virginia

1800 1801

James JVadison

Virginia

1801 1809

Robert Smith

James Monroe .

Maryland

Virginia

1809-1811
1811 1817

1817—1825

Henry Clay

Kentucky

New York

Louisiana

Delaware

1825 — 1829

Martin Van Buren

1829 1831

1831 1833

18.33—1834

1834—1841

Daniel Webster

Hugh S. liCgare

Abel P Upshur

Massachusetts

South Carolina

Virginia

1841—1843
1843-1843
1843—1844

John C. Calhoun

South Carolina

Pennsylvania

Delaware . ....

1844—1845

James Buchanan

John M. Clayton

Daniel Webster

1845-1849
1849—1850

ia50— 1852

Massachusetts.

New York

1852—1853

William L. Marcy

1853—1857

Licwis Cass

Michigan

1857—1860

Jeremiah S. Black

1860—1861

William H. Seward

New York

1861-1869

E B Washburne

Illinois

1869—1869

Hamilton Fish

New York

1869—1877

William M Evarts

New York

1877— 18S1

1881—1881

Frederick T. Freliiighuysen ...

1881-1885

Delaware

Maine,

1885—1889

1889—....

Star Spangled Banner,-— This national song was
written during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near

UNIVERSITY

484 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Baltimcre, by the British during the War of 181S.
Francis Scott Key, a lawyer, of Frederick, Maryland, had
gone on board the British flag-ship to solicit the release
of a friend who had been carried on board a prisoner.
The British, as they were on the point of attacking Fort
McHenry, detained Key, and he as well as his friend and
another American were transferred to another vessel lying
near. There they watched the fight and here during the
bombardment didf Key write the song.

States, Familiar Names of. — Alabama .

Arkansas — Bear State. California — Golden State. Col-
orado— Centennial State. Connecticut^Nutmeg State,
Wooden Nutmeg State, Free Stone State, Land of Steady
Habits. Delaware — Diamond State, Blue Hen State.
Florida — Peninsula State. Georgia — Empire State of
the South. Illinois — Prairie State, Sucker State. In-
diana— Hoosier State. Iowa — Hawkeye State. Kan-
sas— Garden State, Garden of the West. Kentucky —
Corn Cracker State. Louisiana — Creole State, Pelican
State. Maine — Pine Tree State, Lumber State. Mary-
land . Massachusetts — Old Colony, Bay State,

Old Bay State. Michigan — Wolverine State, Lake
State. Minnesota — Gopher State. Mississippi — Bayou
State. Missouri — Pennsylvania of the West. Ne-
braska . Nevada — Sage Hen State. New

Hampshire — Granite State. New Jersey .

New York — Empire State, Excelsior State. North
Carolina — Tar State, Turpentine State, Old North State.

Ohio — Buckeye State. Oregon . Pennsylvania

— Keystone State. Khode Island — Little Ehody or
Ehoda. South Carolina — Palmetto State. Tennessee —
Big Bend State. Texas — Lone Star State. Vermont —
Green Mountain State. Virginia — Old Dominion,
Mother of Presidents, Mother of States. West Vir-
ginia— Pan Handle State. Wisconsin — Badger State.

State Sovereignty. — Nullification is the setting
aside and ignoring of a national law by a State. Strictly
speaking, '' State Sovereignty" is the doctrine that the
States, at the formation of the Union, delegated a por-
tion of their sovereignty to the national government,

'DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 485

reserving the right to revoke the agency and to resume
the exercise of all the elements of sovereignty at any
time by seceding. "State rights ^Ms the doctrine that
every State is sovereign within the limits of its own
sphere of action, made so by the declared will of the
nation as expressed in the Constitution; and that the
will of the nation, appropriately manifested, as provided
in the Constitution, may change that sphere. In the
Constitution, the rights of the national government are
distinctly stated; the rights of the State are limited only
by the expressly declared national right. Previous to the
Civil War the term " State rights " was used to designate
the idea of "State sovereignty,'^ and misuse has raised
a prejudice in many minds even against the legitimate
theory of "State rights" brought forward since that
event'. The arguments against "State sovereignty'^
maybe summarized as follows: The colonies did not
fight each' for its own independence, but each for the
independence of all, as is shown by their joint action
throughout, in military as well as civil matters. The
sovereignty acquired in that struggle was never individ-
ually exercised, but all remained under the national
sovereignty raised by the common fight for liberty. All
the elements and insignia of sovereignty were vested in
the national government, as the power to declare war
and peace and to coin money, and moreover the power
to amend the Constitution, except in a very few particu-
lars, was given to three-fourths of the States, and on the
theory of State sovereignty this would imply the self-
contradictory condition of a sovereign State voluntarily
exposing itself to changes in its government without its
consent to the change. It may be maintained that
secession would afford the needed relief; but if this had
been the intention, the consent of all the States to an
amendment would have been required, since it must be
presumed that the union was intended to endure. The
doctrine of "State sovereignty" was put forward at
various times. {Bee Hartford Convention; Nullification.)
Soon after the nullification troubles it became the ally
of slavery, and the result of the Civil War put it to rest

486 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

forever. State sovereignty and secession finally disposed
of, the theory of States rights as above outlined could be
developed. The danger of extreme particularism had
been avoided; extreme centralization during the exercise
of war powers by the President and Congress was inevit-
able. The Supreme Court holds the balance, and its
adjudication has, since the war, laid down the relations
of the States and the national government as above.

Step-Father of His Country. — A nickname ap-
plied to Washington by venomous opponents during his
presidency.

Stephens, Alexander H., was born in Wilkes
(now Taliaferro) County, Georgia, February 11, 1812,
and died at Atlanta, Georgia, March 4, 1883. He was
a lawyer and a graduate of the University of Georgia.
He served in the State Legislature and in Congress
(from 1843 to 1859) as a Whig. When that party
ceased to exist he became a Democrat, but opposed seces-
sion; when his State had actually seceded he joined it,
however. He became Vice-President of the Confederacy.
In 1877 he again went to Congress, leaving the House to
become Governor of his State in 1882.

Stevens, Thaddeus, was born at Peacham, Ver-
mont, April 4, 1792, and died at Washington, August
11, 1868. He was graduated at Dartmouth, and then
practiced law in Pennsylvania. He served in the State
Legislature, and was sent to Congress in 1849, where he
served until 1853, and again from 1859 to 1868. He
was originally a Whig, subsequently joining the Repub-
licans. After the war he took a prominent part in Re-
construction, {See that title and Broad Seal War.)

Still Hunt. — When a politician quietly works to
secure support for himself without openly avowing his
candidacy he is said to be engaged in a Still Hunt.

Straw Bail. — Bail is security given for the appear-
ance of an offender when called for trial. This is usu-
ally in the form of a bond by a real-estate owner, the
bond to be forfeited on the non-appearance of the
accused. When bail bonds are given by men who pre-
tend to possess the necessary qualifications while in
reality they do not, the bail is called Straw Bail.

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 487

Strict Construction. {^See Construction of fhe Con-
stitution. )

Strikers. — In politics this term is applied to men
that seek corruptly to influence legislation. i^See Lohhy. )
Whether the striker has any real power to do this or
not is immaterial; what is important to him is, that
those desiring legislation influenced may think so, and
intrust to him money intended for that purpose. The
term is also applied to legislators that introduce or sup-
port bills obnoxious to particular interests (usually to
some corporation), for the purpose of being bought off
by the interests thus threatened. This is a species of
political blackmail.

Strong Government Whigs were the members of
that faction of the American Whigs that favored the
establishment of a strong central government. Opposed
to them were the Particularists.

Stuffing The Ballot-Box. {See Ballot-Box Stuff-
ing.)

Stump. — In the early days of this country political
orators traveled from town to town, usually addressing
crowds in the open air from the most convenient place,
frequently the stump of a tree. From this arose the
practice of calling a political harangue a stump-speech;
the derivation of ''stumping the State ^' and "stump-
speakers'^ is obvious.

Submission Men. — Those that opposed the War of
1812, and desired peace at any price, were called ''sub-
mission men."

Subsidies, are direct pecuniary encouragement given
by the government to private enterprises, especially for
purposes of transportation. Our protective system of
import duties is in the nature of an indirect bounty or
subsidy to domestic manufacturers. [See Protection;
Tariff Laws of the United States. ) Railroads and steam-
ship companies have usually been the recipients of direct
aid from the government, but subsidies to railroads
have generally taken the forms of land grants. For grants
to railroads see Land Grants; Pacific Railroadi,
No grants have been made for the last fifteen years.

488 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

The reasons urged in support of these subsidies were
that railroads were thus established much sooner than
they otherwise could have been, and the country was de-
veloped, while the government lost nothing because the
lands it retained were greatly enhanced in value. There
is no doubt that much of our national development is
due to our extensive railroads, and that this has been
greatly encouraged by national aid; but, on the other
hand, the dangers of railroad speculation followed, and
the government interests were not sufficiently protected.
In 1845, subsidies to steamship lines, in the form of pay-
ments for carrying the mails, were commenced, and a
line was established from Kew York to Bremen, and
subsequently to Havre and Bremen; the subsidy was
$350,000 annually. In 1847 another act was passed,
under which subsidies were paid to the Collins line to
Liverpool, the George Law line to Aspinwall, and the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company running from Panama
to Oregon. In 1851 and 1852 the subsidies to the Pacific
Mail and the Collins lines, respectively, were largely
increased. In 1852 the total amount of subsidies
for the foreign mail services was $1,946,686. About
1858 most of these subsidies were withdrawn. In 1864
a subsidy was authorized for mail service to Brazil, and
in 1865 a contract for ten years was made with the United
States and Brazil Steamship Company at $150,000 per
annum. The same year saw a contract for monthly
mail service to China with the Pacific Mail Company at
an annual subsidy of $500,000. In 1872 an additional
amount of $500,000 was offered to the same company for
a semi-monthly service, but it was found impossible to
construct the vessels as provided in the required time.
Disclosures were made of corruption in obtaining the
passage of the last act, public attention was forcibly
directed to the matter, the Senate judiciary committee
declared that the subsidy of 1872, had been forfeited by
non-fulfillment of the contract on the part of the com-
pany, and the government consequently would not grant
an extension of time. Both the Pacific and the Brazil
subsidies ceased in 1875, and no others have been graijted.

DICTION A R V OF AMERICAN POLITICS 489

Subsidies to steamship companies have bepn advocated for
the purposes of encouraging our carrying trade and com-
merce and to provide vessels that can be utilized in time
of war for naval purposes. It is probable, however, that
these results could be achieved more naturally in other
ways and it is the general belief that corruption is apt to
attend the granting of subsidies.

Sub-Treasury System. — Under the Act of July 4,
1840, the United States for the first time assumed exclu-
sive charge of its own funds. The Bank of the United
States had failed to obtain a new charter, and the system
of deposits in State banks (see Pet Banks; Specie
Circular) had been a failure. At the special session of
Congress, called to meet the emergency presented by the
panic of 1837, a bill providing for a treasury system in-
dependent of the banks had been introduced by the
Democrats, but had failed, owing to the fact that the
'^ conservative " Democrats joined the Whigs in opposing
it. The * ^conservatives " had disappeared from the Con-
gress that met in December, 1839, and during that session
the bill became law through the aid of some of the Whigs
who favored a sub-treasury system. The act provided
for four receivers-general at New York, Boston, Charles-
ton, and St. Louis, respectively; it made the mint at Phil-
adelphia and its branch at New Orleans places of deposit;
it provided for proper bonds for the honesty of the officials
to secure the government, and ordered that after June 30,
1843, all payments to and from the government were to
be in gold or silver. The success of the Whigs at the
election of 1840 led to the repeal of the law, to take effect
August 13, 1841. Between this date and August 6, 1846,
the government funds were managed at the discretion of
the Secretary of the Treasury, principally by deposit in
State banks, security being taken by the government.
The election of 1844 brought the Democrats back to
power, and a new sub-treasury act, substantially the same
as the first, became law in August, 1846. The system then
established is still in force. The government acts as its
own bank, keeping its funds in the vaults of the treasury
and of the various sub-treasuries; in addition the govern-

490 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICO.

ment may deposit its funds with certain of the national
banks designated as depositories, they giving security
therefor in the shape of government bonds.

Sub-Treasury Whigs were those Whigs that, in
the Twenty-sixth Congress, supported the establishment
of an independent treasury. The Whig party was opposed
to this measure. The sub-treasury Whigs held the bal-
ance of power in that Congress, and one of them, R. M.
T. Hunter, of Virginia, was elected Speaker. The
measure was, with their aid, carried by the Democrats.

Succession, Presidential. {^See Presidential Suc-
cession. )

Suffrage is the privilege of participating in the gov-
ernment of a State by voting at an election of officers or
on a change in the fundamental law. Two theories re-
garding the suffrage have been advanced; one that it is
a natural right, like liberty, the other that it is a privilege
extended by the government, to be exercised under such
restrictions or limitations as the latter may impose. This
latter principle is the one on which the majority proceed
in practice, even when professing the former. The thir-
teen original colonies all limited the suffrage to free-
holders or to those that possessed property of a certain
value, or to those that had paid taxes of a certain amount.
After the Eevolution, however, the States began gradually
to remove these restrictions, New Hampshire leading the
way in 1^92; the present qualifications of voters in the
States are given under Qualifications of Voters. The
Constitution of the United States does not guarantee the
suffrage to any citizens of the United States. This sub-
ject is under the jurisdiction of the States; the Constitu-
tion (Article 1, sections 2 and 3, and Article 2, section 1)
provides for the election of Congressmen, Senators and
President, and in every case is the qualifications of the
voters left to the States. {See Qualifications of Voters.)
The Fourteenth Amendment provides for the reduction
of the representation of a State in Congress, in propor-
tion to the number of citizens deprived of the suffrage,
except for crime. This was intended to guard against
the disfranchisement of the recently emancipated negroes,

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 491

which object was still more effectively accomplished by
the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade the denial to
a citizen of the right to vote on account of race, color, or
previorrs condition of servitude. It did not, even by im-
plication, guarantee a vote to every citizen; it simply
provided that if any citizens vote, others shall not be
forbidden to vote for any of the above reasons. Among
the anomalies that have arisen under this head we may
mention that in Tennessee, before the Civil War, free
negroes were allowed to vote, while in Connecticut this
privilege was denied to them. The Territories have no
voice in the federal elections. i^See sections of Constitution
last referred to.) The governors are appointed; but the
Territorial Delegate in Congress is chosen by a popular
election. So also is the Territorial Legislature, which
may prescribe the other qualifications of voters, provided
no person shall vote unless twenty-one years of age, a
citizen of 'the United States, or an alien that has declared
his intention of becoming a citizen and has taken the
required oath. Under the power thus granted women
now vote in Wyoming Territory. The inhabitants of
the District of Columbia cannot, of course, vote at federal
elections. In its local government the District is imme-
diately Tinder the control of Congress. (See Constitution,
Article 1, section 8, clause 17; District of Columbia;
Qualifications of Voters; Registration; Woman Suf-
frage. )

Suffrage Party. {See Dorr Rehellion.)
Sumner, Charles, was born at Boston, Massachusetts,
January 6, 1811, and died in Washington, March 11, 1874.
He was a graduate of Harvard and a lawyer. Origin-
ally an anti-slavery Whig, he became a free-soiler in
1848, and a coalition with the Democrats elected him to
the Senate in 1851, in which he sat until his death. He
was an able orator, and throughout his life an uncom-
promising enemy of slavery. In 1856 he was the sub-
ject of a brutal and ruffianly assault in the Senate
Chamber. {See Brooks, Preston S.) In 1871 he was
removed from the Chairmanship of the Committee on
Foreign Relations at the instance of the administration.-

492 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

He was^ thereafter, its opponent. He was in his life
prominent in the impeachment of Johnson, in the Re-
construction period, in the Alabama claims, and in the
controversy over the San Domingo annexation, the defeat
of the last being mainly due to his efforts.

Sumptuary Laws. {See Laws, Sumptuary.)
Sunset Cox, a nickname for Samuel S. Cox,
said to have been given to him in consequence of a
very ambitious description of a sunset written while he
was a journalist. He was born in Ohio, September 30,
1824, and graduated at Brown University; he was a law-
yer ; he served as Representative of New York until he
was appointed Minister to Turkey in 1885. He returned
in 1887, and again entered the House of Representatives.
He was a Democrat. He died September 10, 1889.
Supreme Court. (See Chief Justice; Judiciary.)
Surplus, The. — ^'By surplus revenue is meant the
money which annually remains in the Treasury of the
United States after the officers of this department [the
Treasury] have collected the taxes laid on the people by
the laws of Congress and have paid all the expenses and
obligations of the government, except principal of the
interest-bearing debt." (Report of the Secretary of the
Treasury, December 5, 1887.) The question as to the
disposition of a surplus, as above defined, becomes of
importance on occasions when there is either no public
debt outstanding at the time, or when such outstanding
debt has not matured, and is, therefore, not redeem-
able. When the outstanding public debt is redeemable,
the surplus is of course applied to its extinguishment.
Twice before in the experience of the United States has
this problem confronted it. In 1835 the government
debt was reduced to $37,733, this sum representing
obligations which, though due, had not yet been pre-
sented for payment; a surplus then accumulated, and
it grew so rapidly that in 1836 the government was
in possession of a surplus of over $40,000,000. The
disposition of this sum was long debated, the debates
culminating in an Act of Congress passed in 1836,
providing for the distribution among the States, in

blCTtOMAk Y OP AMEklCAN POLITICS. 493

proportion to their respective representation in Con-
gress, of all but $5,000,000 of this sum, on condition
that the States authorized their treasurers to receive
these sums and agreed to refund the amounts when de-
manded. The sum to be divided was $37,468,859, and
it was to be paid in four installments, on January 1,
April 1, July 1, and October 1, 1837. The first three
installments were paid to all but the few States that had
refused to accept it on the conditions imposed; the
fourth installment was postponed until January 1, 1839,
owing to the financial situation caused bv the panic of
1837, and to a deficit of about $10,000,000 in the re-
ceipts and expenditures of that year. Its payment was
finally indefinitely postponed. The return of these
loans to the States has never been demanded, nor is it
likely that such demand will ever be made. The panic
of 1837 is attributed in large part to the distribution of
the surplus among the States, leading as it did to reck-
less inflation in banking and commercial enterprises.
Just previous to 1852 a surplus again began to ac-
cumulate in the Treasury; it had been used previous
to July, 1853, in the purchase in the market of govern-
ment bonds to the amount of over $11,000,000; on July
30, 1853, an offer was made by the Treasury to redeem
at a premium of twenty-one per cent. $5,000,000 of the
loans due in 1867 and 1868, and similar offers at varying
rates of premium were from time to time renewed, with
the result of retiring over $42,000,000 more of the
government obligations by October 1, 1857. On this
total of over $53,000,000 of debt redeemed, a total
premium of about $8,000,000 was paid. The debt then
increased, and the outbreak soon afterward of the Civil
War removed any further immediate danger of annoy-
ance from a surplus. In 1866 the national debt reached
its highest point; since then there has been a surplus in
the Treasury every year, and it has heretofore been ap-
plied to the retirement of government obligations redeem-
able at the pleasure of the government. During this
period of twenty-six vears the snrphis was smallest in
1874, being $2,344,882.30, and greatest in 1882, being

494 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

$145,543,810.71. During the fiscal year ending Jane 30,
1887, it amounted to $103,471,097.69, which is but
$1,000,000 less than tlie surplus of 1884, the largest
since the reduction of taxation in 1883 (by a revision of
the tariff), although in that year the government expenses
(exclusive of interest on the debt), were over $30,000,000
less than in 1887. For the fiscal year ending July 1,
1892, the surplus is estimated at $26,838,541. On July
1, 1887, the call of the government for the redemption of
the last of the three per cent, bonds outstanding,
matured ; these bonds were the only remaining ones re-
deemable at the pleasure of the government. The only
considerable amounts now remaining outstanding (^See
Debt of United States), are the four per cent, bonds,
due in 1907, and four and one-half per cent, bonds due
in 1891. These are not redeemable before maturity.
The danger confronting the country lies in the accumu-
lation in the Treasury of over $100,000,000 per year of
money needed by the business interests of the country.
There was no outlet by means of the payment of bonds be-
fore 1891, and long before that time such accumulation
might work inconceivable hardship and distress. The
government avoided this temporarily, by availing itself
of a provision of the national bank laws permitting the
deposit with certain of these banks of government funds
secured by deposits of United States bonds with the
Treasury. These deposits increased from $15,439,904
on September, 1886, to $52,199,917 on January 1, 1888.
The relief thus afforded was considerable. Other tem-
porary measures taken for the relief of the country
were the purchase by the government of bonds, sealed
offers for the sale of which were invited by the govern-
ment in its circular of August 3, 1887 ; this was fol-
lowed by a general offer made by the government in its
circular of September 22, 1887, for the purchase prior
to October 8th, of not more than $14,000,000 m all, of
four per cent, and four and one-half per cent, bonds at
a premium of twenty-five per cent, up to October, and
twenty-four per cent, from October 1st, to October 8th,
for ^the four% and of eight and four-tenths per cent.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 495

for the four and one-half's. By these two expedients
bonds to the amount of about $25,000,000 were pur-
chased at a premium of $2,852,015.88. Thus was the
situation in 1887 tided over until Congress met. Tlien
arose the necessity of measures for permanent relief.
The experience of 1837 in distributing or " depositing,"
as it was called, funds with the States was too disastrous
to be repeated. Three alternatives were given by
Secretary of the Treasury : 1. The purchase of inter-
est bearing debt. 2. Increased appropriations. 3.
Keduction of taxation, so that receipts shall not more
than equal expenditures. The first plan had many ad-
vocates, who maintained that the government (whose
money lies idle in the Treasury vaults) does not make
interest* on its funds ; that therefore it is not at a dis-
advantage in paying money now rather than in nine-
teen years (as would be the case with a merchant) ; that
it must finally pay the principal of its debt and four
per cent, interest per annum for nineteen years (in the
case of the four per cent, bonds), making a total of
$176 for every $100 of principal ; and that therefore
every bond purchased at any price cheaper than seventy-
six per cent, premium is a profit to the government.
The opponents objected that any large purchases would
drive the price far above the present market value,
which they considered a sufficiently high price for the
government to pay. The objections to the second plan
have been stated to be that increased expenditure for
internal or other improvements tends to debauch and
corrupt the public service and the country, and that,
moreover, the government has no right to tax the
people to an extent greater than that necessary for the
purposes of the government economically administered.
Both of the great political parties stand pledged to the
third plan, of a reduction of taxation. The national
banking system, based as its circulation is on govern-
ment bonds, must necessarily fail as to one of its most
important elements whenever the government bonds are
all redeemed. In order to avert the immediate neces-
sity of this, and yet to dispose of the surplus, a plan was

496 r>iCTlONAR Y OF AMBRICAN^ POLITICS.

proposed by John Jay Knox, formerly Comptroller of
the Currency, as follows: Government bonds at pres-
ent outstanding are to be replaced by bonds bearing two
and one-half per cent, interest, and for the amount of
annual interest thus surrendered (two per cent, in the
case of the four and one-half per cent., and one and one-
half per cent, in the case of the four per cent.), the
holders are to receive the present value of this sum cal-
culated by the tables of annuity or 23.55 per cent., in the
case of the four per cents. The amount of money
thus required for the four's alone, about 1175,000,000;
would dispose of the surplus for several years to come, and
thus give time to devise a system of permanant reduction,
leaving the present principal unaffected and open to use
by the national banks. A variation of this plan, instead
of paying the premium in cash, provides instead for the
issue to the holders of two and one-half per cent, bonds
redeemable at the government's option out of the annual
saving of interest. Since these plans were proposed, how-
ever, extreme liberality in the re-rating of old pensions
and the granting of new ones have reduced the surplus
materially, as will be seen by reference to the figures for
1891.

Suspension of Specie Payments. — {See Commer-
cial Crises.)

Swinging Round the Circle, was the phrase ap-
plied by Andrew Johnson to his trip to Chicago in 1866.
The occasion was the laying of the corner-stone of a
monument to Stephen A. Douglas. Johnson went West,
attended by a large party; in all the larger cities at which
he stopped he delivered political speeches, not always in
the best taste. He was frequently very violent in his
abuse of Congress, with which he was then engaged in a
quarrel, and on several occasions he lost his temper com-
pletely, so much so, that ''^ Don't get mad, Andy," was
the advice offered by some one in the crowd at Cleveland.

Tailor's Plot. — A scare similar to the Tul) Conspir-
acy, A tailor in Philadelphia was observed to be manu-
facturing clothing of a foreign cut in large quantities; it
was at once assumed that they were for some band of
Frenchmen in conspiracy against the government. . The

MCTiONAR Y OF AMERiCAN POLITICS. 49'J'

shop was seized and some men were imprisoned; then it
turned out that they were for the use of soldiers in Hayti.
This was in 1799.

Tall Sycamore of the ^A/'abash, is a name some-
times applied to Senator Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana.

Tammany. — In 1789 the Columbian Order was organ-
ized in New York City by William Mooney. In 1805 it
was incorporated and the name of Tammany Society was
assumed, the name being taken from that of an Indian
chief. Its organization was supposed in a general way
to imitate Indian customs, consisting of Sachems or
chiefs, a Sagamore or master of ceremonies, the mem-
bers being called braves, its meeting-place the wigwam,
etc. It was at first a social organization, but about 1800
the majority of its members were in sympathy with
Aaron Burr, and the society entered politics under his
standard. From the first the qualities that have always
been most prominent in it prevailed, thorough organiza-
tion and a thorough canvass. .Tammany was for a short
time allied with DeWitt Clinton, but they separated and
Tammany came to be recognized as the regular Demo'
cratic faction. It had thus gained a position in New
York politics. It has since been a factor, if a very un-
certain one, to be reckoned with. Its field of greatest
activity is in the local politics of New York City, but in
the politics of the State its influence is considerable be-
cause of the large vote cast in New York City. About
1830 there was added to its organization the general com-
mittee, containing representatives of every election dis-
trict. This unwieldy body is practically controlled by
sub-committees where the leaders of the organization
make their will felt. Sometimes the regular Democratic
organization and sometimes a freebooter, its influence in
its own party is, to a great extent, owing to fear of its
treachery. In 1879, the re-nomination of Lucius Robin-
son did not meet its approval; it thereupon withdrew,
and nominated John Kelly, its boss, as in popular phrase
its leader is known. Kelly polled 77,000 votes against
375,000 for Robinson, and 418,000 for Cornell, the Re-
publican. Tweed was its boss in the days of his success

498 DTCTIONAK Y OP AMERICAN- POLITICS,

(see Tweed Ring), and his overthrow dealt it a severe
blow; but it has always recovered its position. Its
organization and traditions both tend to make it subject
to the control of a small clique, and its large following in
a State always doubtful, gives it an influence in national
politics otherwise out of proportion to its numerical
strength.

Taney, Roger Brooke, was born in Maryland in
1777, and died in Washington in 1864. He was At-
torney-General of the United States, and in 1832, was
appointed Secretary of the Treasury, but failed of con-
firmation. In 1836 Jackson appointed him Chief-Justice
of the Supreme Court, and the Senate confirmed the
nomination; a few years previous his nomination to that
court had been rejected. His most famous decision is
the Dred Scott case [which see).

Tariff Commission. — A commission appointed in
1882 by President Arthur, in accordance with a con-
gressional resolution, to take testimony and report a
tariff bill to Congress. {See Tariffs of the United States.)

Tariff for Revenue Only. — This phrase, which has
long been in use, contains the substance of the posi-
tion occupied by those that believe in a fiscal tariff
merely — that is, a tariff that shall provide revenues for
the government without attempting to afford protection
to domestic industries. {See Tariffs of the United
States. )

Tariff is a Local Issue. — In October, 1880, an
interview with General W. S. Hancock, the Democratic
nominee for President, appeared in print, in which he
was reported to have said: '^The tariff question is a
local question. '^ This was at once seized on by his poli-
tical enemies, and has become current in the form given
above.

Tariff of Abominations. — A name given to the
tariff of 1828.

Tariffs of the United States.— The right to levy
duties on imports for the purpose of paying the national
debt and providing for the common defense is granted
to Congress by Article 1, section 8, clause 1, of the

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 499

Constitution. Under clause 3 of the same section Con-
gress also has power *'to regululate commerce with for-
eign nations," and this is , understood to include the
power which Congress has frequently exercised of so ar-
ranging the tariff as to protect domestic interests. The
first clause above referred to provides that *^ all duties
shall be uniform throughout the United
States," and section 10, clause 2, of the same article
prohibits any State from levying duties without Con-
gressional consent, '^ except what may be absolutely
necessary for executing its inspection laws." A tarilC
imposing duties with the sole object of securing money
to carry on the government is called a fiscal tariff, or
tariff for revenue only. If such is its main object, but
there is a purpose at the same time of so arranging the
duties as to protect home industries, it is called a tariff
for revenue^with incidental protection. When the chief
object is to protect domestic producers and manufactur-
ers the tariff is called protective (the so-called American
System, which see). Under the authority of the Con-
stitution, and to provide revenues for the new govern-
ment, the first days of the First Congress saw a tariff act
introduced. It was carried, and became a law July 4,
1789. The preamble to this act recited that one of its
objects was *'the encouragement and protection of man-
ufacturers;" but subsequent acts have not generally
made this one of their declared purposes, however much
it may have been an actual one. The act of 1789 levied
both specific and ad valorem duties, the average of which
was equal to an ad valorem duty of eight and a half per
cent. From the date of this act up to 1816 numerous
tariffs (not less than seventeen) were enacted. The
Embargo Act, by cutting off supplies from Europe,
stimulated our home manufactures, which gained still
further when, at the beginning of the War of 1812, the
existing duties (which had been slightly increased from
time to time since 1789) were doubled. The embargo
and the war seem to have transferred much capital from
the carrying- trade to manufacturing, and the latter in-
terests now made a strong appeal for protection, which

500 DICTION Ak V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

resulted in the first essentially protective tariff in out
history. The act became law on April 27, 1816, having
passed the Senate by a vote of 25 to 7 and the House by
88 to 54. It was considered a Southern measure, the
South at that time favoring protection while the North op-
posed it. This tariff favored specific rates and introduced
minimum duties. A period of speculation, competition
in manufacturing, and then of financial depression, led
to an attempt to pass another tariff that should be still
more highly protective. The attempt was successful,
and on May 22, 1824, the country had a new tariff,
though it barely passed Congress, having a majority of
but five in the House and four in the Senate. It was
advocated by the central and western sections of the
country, and opposed by the South and New England.
Iron, wool, hemp and sugar were protected; the average
rate of duties was thirty-seven per cent. It was in the
debates on this bill that it was first seriously asserted
that Congress had no constitutional power to pass a tariff
for protective purposes only. New England now began
to favor protection to aid her growing manufactures,
especially that of woolens, and the South began to think
that the North and East were profiting at her expense.
New England wanted high duties on woolens and cottons
and low rates on iron, hemp, salt and molasses; Penn-
sylvania, Ohio and Kentucky had exactly the opposite
interests. The result was the tariff of 1828, which was
called *^the tariff of abominations;" it passed the House
by a vote of 105 to 74. The high duties of this law
caused such a storm in the South and among certain
classes in other sections, that various new tariffs were
soon introduced into Congress. The result was the act
of July 14, 1832, which reduced the iron duty and in-
creased the rate on woolens. This act led to the nullifi-
cation movement {wliich see), wherein South Carolina
was the leader, and from that to Henry Clay's Compro-
mise Tariff. This became a law Ma"i"ch 2, 1833, having
passed the House by a vote of 119 to 81 and the Senate
by 29 to 16. Its main feature was a provision' that
all ad valorem duties of more than twenty per cent.

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 501

should have one-tenth of the excess cut off every two
years, till, in 1842, no such duties should exceed twenty
per cent. It adopted the principle of home valuation
{ivhich see). It was a complicated and deceptive bill,
and was little better than a makeshift. It caused so
little satisfaction and so diminished the revenue that in
1842 a new tariff was enacted that was based on pro-
tection principles, levied duties averaging thirty-three
per cent., and re-adopted foreign valuations (tvhich see).
In 1846 a new tariff measure passed the House by a vote
of 114 to 95, was approved by the Senate only by means
of the vote of its presiding officer, and became a law. It
was framed in accordance with an exhaustive and able
report of Eobert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury
under Polk. The highest duty that it imposed was
seventy-five per cent., the average twenty-five per cent.
It was carefully framed, and produced a very much
larger revenue than its immediate predecessor. In 1857
it was found necessary to reduce the customs revenue,
and an act was passed cutting down the average of duty
to twenty per cent. This, on the other hand, provided
an insufficient income, and in 1861 the ''Morrill tariff^'
bill was adopted, which was largely protective. The
Civil War now involved the government in unusual ex-
penses, and during its continuance many tariff measures
were adopted imposing higher and higher rates of duty,
primarily for the purposes of revenue, but involving in
many cases protection also, and the duties were often so
high that they became prohibitive. From the close of
the war the Eepublican party may be considered as far
more thoroughly devoted to the protection idea than the
Democrats. The former was now in complete control of
the government. On July 14, 1870, a tariff act was
passed on the protection plan, making reductions chiefly
on such articles as tea, coffee and sugar, and on luxuries
such as wines. In 1872 tariff acts were passed making
some reductions, but they retained the protective prin-
ciple. No general tariff measure was now passed until
1883. In the meantime duties continued to bo collected
under various laws which were vexatiously conflicting —

503 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

some passed before 1861, fourteen principal statutes en-
acted between then and 1873, and twenty minor acts
passed in the same period. In 1874 the sugar duty was
increased one-fourth, and a ten per cent, reduction made
by the act of 1872 on certain articles was repealed. This
whole mass of high duties was called a '^ war tariff," and
an outcry was made for a removal of the taxes that were
no longer necessary to the government. The customs
revenue reached its highest point in 1872, and a surplus
was finally created in the Treasury that threatened finan-
cial disaster to the country and encouraged extravagance
in Congressional appropriations. The protectionists,
however, desired to keep the protective tariff, with some
slight reductions, and reduce the income of the gov-
ernment by cutting down the internal revenue
taxes. The opposing party desired that the high war
and protective duties should be reduced. The question
came to a head in 1882. In May of that year Congress
appointed, through the President, a commission of nine
civilians to consider the matter. President Arthur se-
lected as members of this tariff commission persons who
were protectionists. They took voluminous testimony
all over the country and reported a bill to Congress in
December. Neither branch of Congress was satisfied
with this bill and each debated one of its own. They
were finally forced to refer their measures to c confer-
ence committee composed of members of each House, a
majority of whom favored high protective duties. The
committee reported a bill which there was little time to
consider, and which was passed one day before the close
of the session and became a law on March 3, 1883; it
went into effect as to most of its provisions on July 1st of
the same year. The law of 1883 made many reductions,
but retained in full force the protective principle.
President Cleveland, in his message of December, 1887,
by dealing only with the surplus and the revenue brought
the tariff question prominently before Congress and the
nation. The Eepublican party are almost unanimously
in favor of high protective duties; the Democratic party
are mostly in favor of extensive reduction, but a powerful

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 603

minority hold opposite views. On May 21, 1890, the
ways and means committee reported to the House a
tariff bill which was subsequently passed, called the
" McKinley bill," after the chairman of that committee.
It increases the duty on wool and all classes of woolen
manufactures. {^8ee American System; Custom Duties ;
Exports and imports ; Protection; Free Trade.)

Tatooed Man. — During the presidential campaign
of 1884, a New York illustrated paper published a car-
toon which represented the Republican candidate, James
G. Blaine, in the role of Phryne, before the Athenian
judges. His robe was removed and he appeared tatooed
with the names of the scandals with which his enemies
tried to connect him. This was regarded as an excellent
conceit, and from it arose the name of '^tatooed man,"
so often applied to Blaine.

Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny.
This phrase formulated the complaints of the colonists,
before the revolution, which were the chief cause of that
war for independence.

Taylor, Zachary, was born in Orange county, Vir-
ginia, November 24, 1784; he died while President, in
Washington, July 9, 1850. Early in his life he accom-
panied his father to Kentucky, where he remained until
1808, when he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the
army. His services, principally against the Indians,
caused his gradual promotion, and at the outbreak of the
Mexican War he was a major-general. While in com-
mand of the southwestern department, in 1840, he had
purchased an estate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which
was thereafter his residence. His distinguished services
in the Mexican War brought him prominently before the
public, and in- 1848 he was nominated as President by
the Whigs and elected. He died after having served
somewhat over a year.

Tecumseh's Conspiracy. — {See Indian Wars.)

Temperance. — {See Prohibition. )

Tennessee, was originally a part of North Carolina.
The settlers of this region attempted, without success, to
form a separate State government in 1784, under the

604 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

name of Franklin or Frankland. It was ceded to the
national government in 1789 — 1790. i^See Territories.)
In 1794 it was made a Territory. It was admitted to the
Union on June 1, 1796. On June 8, 1861, a popular
vote decided in favor of secession, and the State was re-
admitted to the Union hy Act of July 24, 1866. The
capital is Nashville. The population in 1880, was
1,542,359, and in the last census (1890) 1,767,518. Ten-
nessee sends ten representatives to Congress, and has
twelve electoral votes. In national politics it is Demo-
cratic. It is popularly known as the Big Bend State.
{8ee Governors; Legislatures.)

Tenure of Office Act, — {See Term and Tenure of
Office.)

Term and Tenure of Office. — The term of an
office is the period for which, the tenure the conditions
under which, the office is to be held. Article 2, section
2, clause 2, of the Constitution provides that the Presi-
dent " shall nominate, and by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other
public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme
Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose
appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and
which shall be established by law; but the Congress may
by law vest the appointment of such inferior offices, as
they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts
of law, or in the heads of departments;^' and clause 3,
of the same article, says ^^the President shall have
power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during
the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which
shall expire at the end of their next session. '' Congress
has accordingly vested in the courts, the heads of de-
partments and the President alone the appointment of
the great bulk of the officers of the government, who
are termed '' inferior '^ officers, though that term is not
susceptible of exact definition. It is considered that the
power of removal is given with the power of appoint-
ment, except as provided by law. Up to Jackson's time
it was the theory of our government that removals
should only be made for cause, but then the introduc-

DICTIONAR y OP AMERICAN POLITICS. 505

tion of the '^spoils system" led to frequent removals for
Tiurely partisan reasons, and that was the custom fol-
lowed to a recent date. {See Civil Service Reform.)
Prior to 1820 no term of office was provided for any in-
ferior officer, except United States Marshals, but in that
year a bill was passed providing that district-attorneys,
naval officers (these are officials in the customs service,)
navy agents, surveyors and collectors of customs, pay-
masters and some other officers, should be appointed for
terms of four years. In 1836 a bill was passed provid-
ing that postmasters receiving a thousand dollars a year
or more, should be appointed by the President for terms
of four years and confirmed by the Senate, and should
be removable at the pleasure of the President. Various
other offices have since been given the same term. The
^'tenure of office act," that is generally meant when the
phrase is used, was the one of March 2, 1867. This act,
and one passed in 1869, provided that no officer subject
to confirmation by the Senate should be removed with-
out the consent of that body, but during a recess of the
Senate the President might remove such officer and ap-
point a successor till the end of the next session of the
Senate. There were about 3,500 officers subject to the
provisions of these acts, which gave a power to the Sen-
ate that was not contemplated in the formation of our
government: which increased its power of rewarding
political services, and by the *' courtesy of the Senate"
(which see), have virtually given to the Senators of a
State the control of the appointments therein. This
was part of the plan by which the spoils system grew
and nourished, and many demands have been made that
the government should return to its early policy of unre-
stricted terms for inferior officers during efficiency and
good behavior, and should take from the Senate its
ustirped prerogative of passing judgment on the re-
movals of the President. These acts were repealed by
the Act of March 3, 1887.

Territories. — Many of the boundaries of the thirteen
original States of the Union were not precisely defined
and it was years before the conflicting claims were set-

506 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

tied between them. Moreover, aside from the bounda^
ries of the States proper, seven of them claimed terri-
tory as far as the Mississippi, under their original char-
ters and grants from the King of England. Four of
the present States have been formed out of well defined
territory of four of the original States. Vermont was
originally claimed as part of New York, Kentucky
and West Virginia were within the original limits of
Virginia, and Maine was at first under the jurisdiction
of Massachusetts. The remaining territory of the
United States east of the Mississippi (which comprises
the original extent) was claimed by Massachusetts, Con-
necticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia, and their claims often overlapped
each other. Gradually these claims were ceded to the
federal government, sometimes freely, sometimes for a
compensation. New York in 1781 ceded her vague
western claims. Virginia followed in 1784, receiving
some land in Ohio, and Massachusetts in 1785. Con-
necticut's cession of 1781, reserving a tract along Lake
Erie (a tract in Ohio still known as the *' western re-
serve''), was accepted by Congress in 1786. In 1800
Virginia and Connecticut, while retaining the property
in their lands in Ohio, gave up the jurisdiction to the
national government. South Carolina gave up her
claims in 1787; North Carolina in 1789 ceded Tennes-
see, which was accepted by Congress in 1790; Georgia
ceded her claims in 1802, which were accepted the next
year. The region which now comprises the States of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and that
part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi were organized
into the Northwest Territory, by the ordinance of 1787
(which see). In 1800 Ohio, preparatory to its admission
as a State, was separated from this region, and the re-
mainder became known as the Indiana Territory. Ten-
nessee and Kentucky, though never organized under one
territorial government, were generally known as the
Territory of the United States southwest of the Ohio,
or the Southwest Territory. The organization of Miss-
issippi Territory, including the present State of that

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 50*?

name, and Alabama, was commenced in 1798, and com-
pleted two years later; when Mississippi became a
State in 1817 the remainder of the district was called
Alabama Territory. The regions which the United
States has acquired since 1783 are described under the
article Annexations. California was so soon admit-
ted as a State that it was never organized as a Territory,
and Texas was annexed as a State. The other portions
!)f these acquisitions have borne various names from
time to time; prominent among these are the Territories
of Orleans, Louisiana and Missouri. All that portion
of the Louisiana purchase south of what is now the
northern boundary of the State of Louisiana, was by
Act of March 26, 1804, organized into the Territory of
Orleans. The Act of April 8, 1812, admitted this Ter-
ritory to the Union as the State of Louisiana. The re-
mainder of the Louisiana purchase was, by Act of Con-
fress, March 3, 1805, organized into the Territory of
iouisiana, with its capital at St. Louis. On June 4,
1812, shortly after the admission of the Territory of
Orleans into the Union as the State of Louisiana, the
name of the Territory of Louisiana was altered to
Missouri. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 {which
see) resulted in the admission of that State iu 1821, and
from the Territory of the same name various States and
Territories have since been formed. There are atpres-
ent five organized and two (Alaska and Indian Terri-
tory) unorganized Temtories of the United States. The
unorganized Territories are under the direct control of
Congress. Each organized Territory has a Governor,
appointed by the President, for four years and ratified by
the Senate. The Legislature, officially known as the
Legislative Assembly, is composed of a Council and a
House of Representatives, chosen every two years by the
people. A delegate to Congress is elected for the same
term. He has the right of debate, but not a vote in the
House. Territorial legislation is subject to Congress-
ional control. Territorial courts are provided for, the
judges of which are appointed by the President for four
years, and confirmed by the Senate, and over which the

508 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Supreme Court of the United State has appellate juris-
diction.

Territory Southwest of the Ohio. {See Terri-
tories. )

Texas was originally a part of Mexico, from which it
declared its indei)endence, and it was annexed to the
United States as a State by joint resolution of Con-
gress, December 29, 1845. {See Annexations III.) On
February 1, 1861, a State convention passed an ordm^
ance of secession, which was ratified by popular vote.
Texas was re-admitted to the Union by Act of Congress,
March 30, 1870. The capital is Austin. The popula-
tion in 1880 was 1,591,749, and in the last census (1890)
2,235,523. Texas has eleven seats in the House of Rep-
resentatives and thirteen electoral votes, which can
safely be relied on by the Democratic party. Popularly
it is call the Lone Star State. {See Governors; Legisla-
tures.)

Them Steers. — Solon Chase was a member of the
Greenback party, which created some political excitement
a few years ago, especially in Maine. He was accustomed
to travel through that State with a banner bearing the
picture of a yoke of steers and a bushel of corn, together
with various other figures. These were used to illustrate
Chasers argument that the resumption of specie payments
was a mistake. He always referred . to the prominent
figures on the banner as *'them steers.^'

Thermopylae of Texas. — When Texas was fight-
ing for independence, in February, 1836, about 140 of
her troops were besieged by 4,000 Mexicans in Fort
Alamo on the San Antonio Eiver. For a week or two
they made a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds,
and inflicted great damage on their opponents. At last,
however, the six survivors, among whom was *^^Davy"
Crocket, surrendered to Santa Anna under the promise of
his protection. At the command of that general, how-
ever, they were butchered, and their fallen comrades were
horribly mutilated. But three persons survived the mas-
sacre— a woman, a child and a servant. Thereafter the
Texans were roused to fury by the cry, ''Eemember the

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 509

Alamo !'^ In allusion to the heroic defense made by the
Greeks of antiquity at Thermopylaa, this struggle is known
as the Thermopylae of Texas.

Third House. {Bee Lobby ^ The.)

Third Term. — General U. S. Grant served as Presi-
dent two terms, from 1869 to 1877. The precedent set
by Washington in declining a third term, has generated
a prejudice in the American mind against more than two
terms. A large faction of the Republican party, headed
by Roscoe Oonkling, of New York, desired the nomina-
tion of Grant by the Republican National Convention in
1880. It was asserted that his candidacy for a third
term was in reality the same as the candidacy of a new
man, for one term had intervened since Grant had left
office. The faction supporting Grant was known as the
Stalwarts {which see). It constituted a firm body of a
little over 300 votes in a total of about 750. Despite
changes and vacillations on the part of the adherents of
other candidates, this following, with insignificant varia-
tions, clung to Grant to the last, casting 306 votes for
him on the last ballot, which nominated Garfield. Medals
commemorative of the event were subsequently struck and
sent to these delegates. This band is frequently referred
to by sympathizers as the " Gallant 306.^' the '' Stalwart
306,^' etc.

This is the Last of Earth; I am Content. — The
dying words of John Quincy Adams. He was stricken
with apoplexy while in his seat in the House of Repre-
sentatives and died two days later, February 23, 1848.

Thomas Jefferson Still Survives. — The dying
"words of John Adams. Thomas Jefferson had passed
away a few hours before on the same day, unknown to
Adams.

Three Hundred and Six. {See Third Term.)

Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine. — A campaign
cry of the Democrats in 1880, originating in charges
against the Republican candidate, James A Garfield, in
connection with the Credit Mobilier scandal {which see).

Thurman, Allen G., was born in Lynchburg, Vir-
ginia, November 13, 1813. In his childhood his family

510 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

moved to Ohio, where he was subsequently admitted to
vhe bar. He represented his State in the Twenty-ninth
Congress. From 1851 to 1856 he was on the State
Supreme Court bench, the last two years as Chief Justice.
He served in the United States Senate from 1869 to 1881.
In 1888 he was nominated by the Democratic party for
Vice President, but was defeated.

Tidal Wave. — In political parlance an election is
said to be a ^^ tidal wave^^ election when the majority of
the winning party is, from any cause, unprecedentedly
large. The comparison is obvious.

Tilden, Samuel Jones, Avas born in New Lebanon,
Columbia County, New York, February 9, 1814, and
died August 4, 1886. He was graduated at the New
York University, having previously studied at Yale, and
became a lawyer. In 1845 he was elected to the Assem-
bly as a Democrat, and joined the Barnburner faction.
He soon after retired to the practice of law, and did not
again appear until about 1869. He was active in over-
throwing the Tweed ring in New York City, and the
prominence thus gained led to his nomination and elec-
tion as Grovernor in 1874. In that position he broke up
the canal ring in the State, and in 1876 received the Dem-
ocratic nomination for President. He was defeated.
(See Contested Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elec-
tions; Electoral Commission.) The Democrats have
always maintained that he was defrauded of the presi'
dency.

Times That Try Men's Souls.— In 1776, when
the patriot cause against Great Britain was looking very
dark, Thomas Paine published the first number of his
American Crisis , which commenced with the sentence:
'' These are the times that try men's souls."

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. — [See Hard Cider
Compaign. )

Tissue Ballots are votes printed on thin tissue
paper, for the purpose of enabling more than one vote to
be cast by an individual. It was charged that this form
of election fraud was especially common at the South,
used for the purpose of depriving the negro of his politi-
cal power.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 511

To be Prepared for War is one of the Most
Effectual Means of Preserving Peace. — This sen-
tence occurs in the address which Washington delivered
in person before Congress at the opening of its second
session, January 8, 1790.

Toledo War. — In 1835, a dispute which had smoul-
dered for some years between the State of Ohio and Mich-
igan Territory came to a head. The controversy arose
as to a tract of land, which included the city of Toledo,
and was claimed by both the State and the Territory:
hence the name of the Toledo war. The militia were
called out on both sides. Finally the national govern-
ment interf erred. Prosident Jackson removed Governor
Mason, of Michigan TerH+ory, for his officiousness, and
Congress, in 1 83 fi, settled the controversy by admitting
Michigan as a State on condition of her yielding the
claim to tbe tract in dispute, the Upper Peninsula being
given her -in compensation. Under this act Michigan
became a State in January of the next year.

Tompkins, Daniel D., was born at Searsdale, New
York, June 21, 1774, and died on Staten Island, New
York, June 11, 1825. He was a lawyer, and a graduate
of Columbia. He served as justice of the Supreme
Court of the State, and as Governor from 1807 to 1817.
From 1817 to 1825 he was Vice-President of the United
States. He was a Democrat. During the War of 1812,
while Governor of New York, he personally rendered
considerable financial aid to the federal government,
with the result of passing his last days deeply in debt.

Tonnage Tax. — A tax imposed on each ton of bur-
den of vessels entering in a port. {See Navigation
Laws. )

Tory. — The terms Whig and Tory had been in use in
English politics for about one hundred years before the
American Kevolution; the first as designating the faction
opposing the r^yal prerogative and generally in favor of
reforms, the latter as upholding the prerogative and
clinging to old institutions. In the colonial days of this
country, the term Tory thus came to mean an adherent
of the crown, and the term Whig an opponent thereof.

512 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

and so at the outbreak of the Eevolution the American
sympathizers were known as Whigs, the supporters of
England as Tories. The termination of the war and the
resulting independence of this country, did away with
differences characterized by the terms and so with the
terms themselves. {See American Whigs.)

To the Victor Belong the Spoils of the Enemy.
In 1832 Martin Van Buren was nominated by President
Jackson for the post of Minister to England. He was
rejected. In the course of the debate on his nomination, it
was charged that Van Buren had introduced in Washing-
ton the spoils system as practiced in New York politics.
Senator William L. Marcy, of New York, in replying,
used the following language in reference to these New
York politicians: " They see nothing wrong in the rule
that to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy. ^'

Trade Dollars. — {See Coinage.)

Trading is a form of political treachery. When an
organization withholds its support from a particular
candidate or candidates of its own party and works for
his opponent at the polls, it is said to be "trading" its
candidate oil. The friends of the opponent thus aided,
agree in return to support some other candidate of the
organization. The success of some member of a ticket is
thus assured by the abandonment of the remainder. An
organization will sometimes thus abandon one of its
candidates even when it has no desire to insure by his
defeat the election of some other of its own nominees;
in those cases the consideration is money and the trans-
action is termed selling out. Both of these operations
are common, especially in cities where voters are many
and organizations compact. They are usually carried
out by printing on ballots the names of all the regular
party nominees, except that of the candidate traded off;
lor this name that of the opponent is substituted, and as
voters usually do not scan their ballots carefully, the re-
sult is easily accomplished. In New York City where
the Democratic majority is overwhelming, it is very com-
mon for a local Republican ticket to be nominated, with
no intention of honest support, but merely for the pur-

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 513

pose of trading it off, and of thus gaining votes for the
Kepublican State or national ticket. To remedy these
evils some States have provided for the printing of bal-
lots at the public expense.

Treason is an act of disloyalty to a government of
which the offender is a citizen or subject. It is some-
times called high treason in distinction from petit trea-
son, which is the killing cl a person to whom the crimi-
nal owes duty or obedience, as a husband or a master.
Petit treason in England and the United States is now
considered merely as murder. Misprision of treason is
concealment by one who has knowledge of a treasonable
act. By the Constitution, Article 3, section 3, treason
against the United States consists " only in levying war
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving
them aid and comfort. " The history of European nations
shows that kings have made free use of accusations of
treason to secure the death of political offenders and to
obtain possession of their property. To avoid this form
of oppression in the United States, the Constituiiion
further provides that conviction of treason can only
follow ^' on the testimony of two witnesses to the same
overt act, or on confession in open court,'' and that for-
feiture of property shall last no longer than the criminal's
life. The Act of 1790 prescribed death as the punish-
ment of treason. The trial of Aaron Burr was the most
important one that occurred under this act. By the Act
of 1862 the punishment of treason, in the discretion of
the court, is death or imprisonment for not less than
five years and a fine of not less than 110,000; the slaves
of the offender were also declared free, and he was
rendered incapable of holding federal office. At the
close of the Civil War there were a few indictments for
treason at the South, including that of Jefferson Davis,
but these were never pushed to trial. Treason may also
be committed against the individual States of the Union,
and the Constitutions of most of them define treason in a
similar way to the wording of the federal Constitution.
Prosecutions for treason against a State are very rare.
The prosecution of the leader of the Dorr Eebellion, in

514 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Ehode Island, resulted in his being sentenced to impri-
sonment for life, but in a few years he was restored to
liberty and all his rights. {8ee Attainder.)

Treasury Department is one of the three original
executive departments of the government. It was es-
tablished by Act of Congress of September 2, 1789. At
its head is the Secretary of the Treasury, who is a
member of the President's Cabinet. He is appointed by
the President and confirmed by the Senate. His salary
is $8,000. This department has charge and control not
only of all the fiscal affairs of the government, but also
of the national banks (so far as they are subject to gov-
ernment control), of the currency and coinage, of the
customs and internal revenue systems, the commercial
marine, the light-house and life-saving systems, the
coast and interior surveys, the inspection of steam ves-
sels and of the marine hospitals. The principal assist-
ants of the Secretary are given below:

SALARy,

Assistant-Secretary $4,500

Assistant-Secretary 4,500

Chie f Clerk 3,000

Director of Mint 4,500

Chief Bureau of Statistics ,3,000

Supt. Life Saving Service 4,000

Chairman Light House Board , 5,000

Chief Bureau Engraving 4,500

Supervis. Surg.-General 4,000

Supt. Coast Survey ,. 6,000

Comm. of Navigation 3,600

First Comptroller 5,000

Second Comptroller 5,000

Comp. of Customs 4,000

FirstAuditor 3,600

Second Auditor 3,600

Third Auditor 3,600

Fourth Auditor 3,600

Fifth Auditor 3,600

SixthAuditor 3,600

Treasurer 6,000

Coram, of Internal Revenue 6,000

Comp. of Currency , 5,009

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POITTICS.

515

Below is given a list of the Secretaries of the Treasury
from the be^nning of the government;

Name.

State.

Term.

New York

Connecticut

Massachusetts ....

Pennsylvania

Tennessee ....

Pennsylvania

1789—1795

Oliver Wolcott

Samuel Dexter

1795—1801
1801—1801

Albert Gallatin

1801—1814

George W. Campbell

1814—1814

Alexander James Dallas

1814 — 1816

William H. Crawford

Georgia

1816 1825

BichardRush

1825—1829

Samuel D. Ingham

Pennsylvania ....

1829—1831

1831—1833

William J. Duane

Pennsylvania -. ..

1833—1833

Roger B.Taney

Levi Woodbury

Thomas Ewing

Walter Forward

Maryland

1833-1834
1834—1841

Ohio

Pennsylvania

New York

Kentucky

Mississippi

1841—1841
1841—1843

John C. Spencer

1843—1844

George M. Bibb

1844 -1&15

Robert J. Walker

1845—1849

William M. Meredith

1849—1850

Thomas Corwin

Ohio

1850—1853

.TamRS Giithrift . . ....

Kentucky

1853—1857

Howell Cobb

Georgia ...

1857—1860

Philip F. Thomas

John A. Dix

Maryland

1860—1861

New York

Ohio

1861—1861

Salmon P. Chase

1861—1864

William Pitt Fessenden

Maine

1864—1865

Hugh McCulloch

George S. Boutwell

William A. Richardson

1865—1869

Massachusetts

1869-1873
1873—1874

Kentucky

1874—1876

Lot M.Morrill .v.

Maine

1876—1877

John Sherman . ........

Ohio

1877—1881

William Windora

1881—1881

ChRrlps .T Foltrftr . ..

New York

1881—1884

Walter Q. Gresh am

Hugh McCulloch

Indiana

1884—1884

Maryland

1884—1885

Daniel Manning

PhnrlpRSt Fnirohlld

New York

1885—1887

New York

1887—1889

William Windom

Charles Foster

M^aine

1889—1891

Ohio

1891- ...

Treasury, Secretary of the. [8ee Treasury De-
partment. )

Treaties of the United States. —For treaties re-
lating to the Canadian fisheries see Fishery Treaties,
For the other important treaties, which have distinctive
mi,m.Q^seeAshburto)i Treaty ; Burlingame Treaty; Clay ton-
Bulwer Treaty; Jay's Treaty; Tripartite Treaty; Treaty
of Ghent; Treaty ofGuadaluj}e Hidalgo; Treaty of Paris j

51 6 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Treaty of Washington. See also Annexations; Barharp
Pirates; Extradition; Northeast Boundary; Northwest
Boundary.

Treaty of Ghent. — In the summer of 1814 com-
missioners from England and the United States met
abroad for the purpose of negotiating a treaty to end the
War of 1812. Our representatives were John Quincy
Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Eus-
sell and Albert Gallatin. The representatives of England
were Lord Gambler, Henry Goulburn, and William
Adams. These agents of both nations met at Ghent,
Belgium, where, on the 24tli of December, 1814, they
signed a treaty of peace. It was unanimously ratified by
the United States Senate on February 17, 1815, and pro-
claimed by the President the next day. The treaty took
away from Great Britain the right to freely navigate the
Mississippi River, it provided for commissions to settle
the title to islands in Passamaquoddy Bay and to mark
the northern boundary of the United States as far west
as the Lake of the Woods; it declared against the slave
trade. It was also a treaty of peace and ended the war,
but it is noteworthy that the most important dispute be-
tween the two nations was left unmentioned. The rights
in the fisheries, rights of neutral nations, the rights of
expatriation {which see) and the impressment of Ameri-
can seaman, which last was the immediate cause of the
war, were thus left unsettled by the treaty. It is sup-
posed, however, that some assurances were given aside
from the treaty that impressment should no longer be
continued, and, as a matter of fact, our seamen have
never since that time been impressed.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. — On February 2,
1848, Nicholas P. Trist, representing the United States,
and three commissioners representing Mexico, signed a
treaty of peace at Guadalupe Hidalgo, in Mexico. The
treaty provided for the final cessation of the hostilities of
the Mexican War, and the United States agreed to with-
draw its troops from Mexico. The southwestern bound-
ary of Texas was fixed at the Rio Grande, as our govern-
ment had claimed. New Mexico and California were

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN ROL/TICS. 51 1

ceded to the United States, in return for which territory
we were to pay $15,000,000 and assume the payment of
claims of United States citizens against Mexico, amount-
ing to $3,250,000. Both governments ratified the treaty,
and on July 4, 1848, President Polk proclaimed peace.
{See Annexatmis IV.)

Treaty of Paris (1783).— On November 30, 1782, a
preliminary treaty of peace was signed with Great Britain
at Paris; Congress ratified it in the following April. The
commissioners on the part of Great Britain were Oswald,
Fitzherbert and Strachey, and on the part of the United
States, Franklin, Jay, John Adams and Henry Laurens.
On September 3, 1783, at Paris, a definitive treaty of peace
was signed by commissioners from the nations that had
been engaged in war, namely, Holland, Spain, France,
Great Britain and the United States. So far as we are
concerned, the chief importance of this treaty is that it
acknowledged the complete independence of the United
States. Great Britain ceded Florida to Spain and re-
tained Canada and Nova Scotia, with exclusive control
of the St. Lawrence; the rest of the territory east of the
Mississippi was given up to the United States, with the
right of free navigation of the great lakes and the Mis-
sissippi, and with practically equal rights on the New-
foundland fishing grounds.

Treaty of Washington. — Many treaties have been
negotiated at Washington, but the history of the one
commonly known as the Treaty of Washington is as
follows: In January, 1871, Great Britain proposed to
the United States that a joint commission should be
appointed to draw up a treaty in settlement of various
open questions existing between the two governments.
At the instance of the United States the Alabama claims
were included among the subjects for consideration, and
on February 27, 1871, five high commissioners of each
of these nations met at Washington. On May 8th, they
concluded their deliberations, and signed the treaty
which they had drawn up, and which is the one gener-
ally known as the Treaty of Washington, though others
have been negotiated in that city. It was at once rati-

518 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

fied by the Senate and by Great Britain, and on July 4,
1871, was proclaimed to be in force by President Grant.
It provided that the disputed questions should be referred
to arbitration as follows: 1. The Alabama Claims were to
be settled by a tribunal of five persons appointed by the
President of the United States, the Queen of Great
Britain, the King of Italy, the President of Switzerland
and the Emperor of Brazil. (^Bee Geneva Award.) 2.
A commission was to be appointed and to sit at Washing-
ton to decide on certain claims of Great Britaim against
the United States, for injuries to the persons and'prop-
erty of British subjects by the forces of the United
States during the Civil War. 3. It readmitted Ameri-
can fishermen to certain rights in British waters, and
the compensation to be paid for this privilege was
referred to a joint commission which was to sit at
Halifax, Kova Scotia. {See Fishery Treaties; Halifax
Fishery Commission.) 4. The dispute as to the North-
western Boundary line between Vancouver's Island and
the mainland was submitted to the Emperor of Ger-
many. {See Northwestern Boundary.) The final
settlement of these questions was in ftie main favorable
to the United States, wholly so as to the Northwestern
Boundary, and largely so in the matter of the Alabama
Claims, but the Halifax Award to be paid to Great
Britain was generally considered in this country as ex-
cessive. The Treaty itself was favorably received, the
Senate ratifying it by a vote of fifty to twelve; its
reference of disputed points to arbitration was applauded
by the peace-loving people of the United States, and was
an important event in the history of international
treaty-making.

Trent Affair. — In the Autumn of 1861, on one of
the blockade runners which succeeded in escaping from
Charleston, sailed James M. Mason and John Slidell,
who had been appointed by the Confederate Government
as Commissioners to England and France, respectively.
They reached Havana, and then sailed on the British
mail-steamer Trent. On November 8, 1861, this vessel
was stopped by the United States steamer San Jacinto^

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 519

Captain Wilkeg. Mason and Slidell were taken off and
conveyed to Boston, where they were imprisoned in Fort
Warren. This action of Wilkes met with hearty sup-
port among the people of the North. England, how-
ever, felt outraged, demanded reparation for the insult
to her flag, and commenced preparations for hostilities.
Secretary of State Seward saw the inconsistency of our
maintaining the right of search which, when exercised
hy Great Britain, had been a leading cause for the War
of 1812. He therefore apologized for Wilkes' un-
authorized action^ and Mason and Slidell were set at
liberty and sailed for England early in January, 1862.
Though Wilkes' action was disavowed by the executive
government for diplomatic and State reasons, Wilkes re-
ceived a vote of thanks from the House of Eepresenta-
tives, and in 1862 was made a Commodore and placed
first on the list. Seward's statesmanship had delivered
the United -States from what promised to be a serious
difficulty. The immemorial doctrine of the United
States as to neutral vessels was adhered to. Great Britain
herself was now committed to the same position, a
foreign war was prevented, and the hopes of the Con-
federates for such an outcome of the dispute were dis-
appointed.

Tripartite Treaty. — In consequence of the filibus-
tering expeditions of Lopez to Cuba in 1850 and 1851
(see Filibusters), France and England believed, or pre-
tended to believe, that the United States were meditat-
ing the conquest of Cuba, though our government had
disavowed any such intention and had acted in accord-
ance with such disavowal. In 1852 France and Great
Britain proposed that the United States should join them
in a tripartite treaty, by which each government should
pledge itself forever not to attempt the acquisition of
Cuba and to discountenance any nation's making such an
attempt. Edward Everett, then Secretary of State, re-
plied with an able paper in December, 1852. He dis-
claimed any such intention on the part of the United
States as was suspected, but asserted, in accordance
with the Monroe doctrine, that the question was purely

520 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

an American one in which our government would not
see with indiHerence any foreign interference.

Triple- Headed Monster. — A nickname applied to
the Constitution while it was before the people for ratifi-
cation, in allusion to its division of the government into
executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Tripoli, War With. — {Bee Barhary Pirates.)

Trusts. — A corporation derives certain benefits from
the State and is in turn subject to certain State control.
To avoid this State control, and in order thus to enable
the largest firms and corporations in any particular trade
to combine, and by combined action to limit production
and raise prices while killing off the competition any
outsider may dare to offer, what are known as trusts,
have been devised. A trust is merely the combination
for the above purposes of the large interests in any
branch of trade. There is no incorporation. There is
an agreement between the parties; the profits of all are
divided in certain ascertained proportions, and the
public can not from any sensible sign know whether or
not such a combination exists. Secrecy and irresponsi-
bility are its objects.

Tub Conspiracy. — During John Adams' administra-
tion the Federalists were, or pretended to be, afraid of
plots against the government, on the part of the French
agents in America. In 1799 the department of State
pretended to have information of the departure for the
United States of secret agents of France, having in their
possession documents dangerous to our peace. The
vessel was boarded immediately on its arrival at Charles-
ton, South Carolina, four men and a woman, passengers
on board, were arrested as the spies, and two tubs, in a
false bottom of which the papers were said to be hidden,
were seized. The passengers turned out to be no spies
and the papers were not compromising. {See Tailor's
Plot.)

Turner's, Nat, Rebellion. — {See Nat Turner* s Re-
hellion.)

Tweed Ring. — In 1857 an act w^s passed by the
Legislature of New York, allowing every voter in New

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 521

York City to put the names of but six supervisors on his
ballot, although twelve were to be elected. The prac-
tical result of this was the election of the six supervisors
nominated by the Republicans and of the six nomi-
nated by the Democrats. Nomination by the machine
was made equivalent to an election. In the next year
their terms were extended to six years. Of this board of
supervisors William M. Tweed was the leading spirit;
he was foui times its president. The board was the
nucleus of a political ring that controlled legislation
at Albany, concerning the city of New York, and the
votes in the city itself. The Republican part of the ring
busied themselves with the former object, the Demo-
cratic with the latter. This combination, controlling all
local offices, plundered the city at its will; in April, 1870,
an act was passed, conferring on the mayor, the comp-
troller, the commissioner of parks and the commissioner
of public works, the practical control of city affairs. • In
the last named official were combined the duties of
the former street commissioners and Croton water
department officials; he was to be appointed by the
mayor; the term of office was four years, and it was
provided that the only method of removal was by im-
peachment by the mayor and trial before all of the
six judges of Common Pleas. As was anticipated, Tweed
was at once appointed to the office. Of about $12,000,000
of plunder, it is estimated that $3,800,000 was taken
in 1869; $880,000 in 1870, before the passage of the
above act; $6,250,000 in 1870, after the passage of the
act, and $323,000 in 1871. The enormous sums of
money controlled by the ring gave it for a time almost
unlimited power. Tweed, as the head of Tammany and
leader of the ring, was *'boss" of the city — absolute in
power. The tax-payers seemed powerless, but the dis-
closures of a clerk in the comptroller's office enabled the
Times to make an expos6 showing the enormity of the
frauds, and in September, 1871, a mass meeting was
held, a committee of twenty, headed by H. G. Stebbins
as chairman, was appointed, and, with Charles O'Conor
to represent the people, the ring was proceeded against.

-522 DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Connolly, the comptroller, resigned and was arrested;
when released on $500,000 bail he went to Europe.
Sweeney, the Park Commissioner, resigned and fled.
The prosecution of A. Oakey Hall, the Mayor, was
abandoned after two mistrials. Tweed himself was
tried and a disagreement resulted; on a second trial he
was convicted and sentenced to a fine and twelve years
imprisonment. His sentence being cumulative, was, on
appeal, held to be illegal. He was discharged (1875),
but immediately re-arrested on a criminal charge, and
also in a civil suit for over $6,500,000. Soon after, he
managed to escape from custody and reached Spain.
He was delivered up in 1876 and placed on Black welFs
Island. A verdict for the full amount was given in the
civil suit, but only a small part was collected. He died
April 12, 1878.

Twenty-first Rule of the House of Representa-
tives, between 1840 and 1844, was intended to prevent
the introduction of petitions on the subject of slavery.
{^See Gag Laws.)

Twenty-four Hour Rule. {See Neutrality.)

Twisting the British Lion*s Tail. — There are in
this country a great many Irishmen. Their sympathies
are naturally with Ireland in the attempt of the latter
to extort Home Rule from England, and any demonstra-
tion on the part of this country that can in any way be
deemed hostile to England, is welcomed by them. In
order to curry favor with this vote, it is the practice of
some Congressmen to abuse England at every opportu-
nity in Congressional debates. England is usually typi-
fied as a lion, and so the operation is popularly called aa
above.

Tyler, John, was born in Charles County, Virginia.
March 29, 1790, and died in Richmond, Virginia, Janu-
ary 17, 1862. He was a lawyer and a graduate of Will-
iam and Mary College. From 1811 to 1816 he served in
the State Legislature; from 1816 to 1821 in the House
of Representatives; from 1823 to 1825 again in
the State Legislature, and as Governor from 1825 to
1827. From 1827 to 1836 he was United States Senator,

DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, ^23

He was originally a Republican (Democratic-Republican),
but was elected Senator as a National Republican. Al-
though a believer in the extreme State rights doctrine, ho
yet remained with the Whigs when Calhoun and his fol-
lowers went back to the Democratic party, and resigned
his seat in the Senate rather than obey the instructiona
of the Legislature of his State to vote for the motion
expunging from the Journal the resolution censuring
President Jackson. ( See Censures of the President hy Con-
gress. ) In 1838 he was elected as a Whig to the Virginia
Legislature, and the Whig national convention of 1840
nominated him for Vice-President, to conciliate the
Clay faction, which had been sorely disappointed at
Harrison^s nomination. On Harrison's death, a month
after assuming office, Tyler became President. A quarrel
between the President and the bulk of his party broke
out almost immediately on the subject of Bank of the
United States. His views differed widely from those of
the Whigs, and his supporters in Congress were known
as the Corporal's Guard. The principal event of his
administration was the annexation of Texas. {See An-
nexations III.) At the expiration of his term Tyler
retired to private life, but reappeared as the president of
the Peace Conference in 1861. On the failure of its
efforts he joined the Confederacy and became a member
of the Confederate Congress.

Uncle Abe was a familiar appellation of Abraham
Lincoln.

Uncle Sam is a familiar phrase used to designate the
United States, just as John Bull is used to represent Eng-
land. In cartoons Uncle Sam is drawn as a tall, spare
man, with a thin, straggling beard, dressed in a swallow-
tail coat of blue with white stars, and a pair of red and
white stripped trousers with straps; he has long out-
grown his clothing and the straps have stretched half-
way up his leg; on his head is a white, cylindrical shaped
hat, of the kind vulgarly known as stove-pipe. He is usu-
ally represented as whittling a stick of wood. This latter
is said to be a characteristic of New Englanders and the
whole figure, in fact, is that of the typical New England

524 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN- POLITICS,

countryman, as he is popularly supposed to look, except-
ing his costume. The name originated as follows:
During the War of 1812 a man named Samuel Wilson
was government inspector at Troy, of pork and beef
purchased by the government. The cases containing the
provisions shipped to the government by a contractor
named Elbert Anderson were marked with his initials,
E. A., and below U. S... standing for United States.
One of the government workmen, new at the task,
asked the meaning of U. S. and was jocularly informed
that it meant Uncle Sam Wilson. This pleasantry was
repeated in various forms, and Wilson was congratulated
on the extent of his property as many cases passing there
were so marked. The story spread and took firm root,
and to-day the allusion is everywhere understood.

Unconditional Surrender. — In February, 1862,
Drant, assisted by a fleet of gunboats under Admiral
Foot, was endeavoring to effect the capture of Port
Donelson, situated on the Cumberland River, in Ten-
nessee. He was so successful that the Confederate Gen-
erals, Floyd and Pillow, had fled, leaving General Buck-
ner in command. That officer saw the hopelessness of
his situation and Avrote to Grant asking what terms of
surrender would be allowed. General Grant replied:
*^No terms other than an unconditional and immediate
surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immedi-
ately upon your works." Buckner yielded on February
16th. This was a valuable victory from the number of
prisoners and arms and the quantity of stores which it
secured, and it was the first striking success of the Civil
War for the federal army. The phrase '^ unconditional
^ rrender " passed at once into popular use. The Ee-
publican platform of 1864, on which Lincoln stood for
reelection, approved *'the determination of the govern-
ment of the United States not ... to offer any
terms of peace except such as may be based upon an
unconditional surrender."

Underground Railroad. — During the slavery days
in this country there was in the Northern States a more
or less organized system of aiding fugitive slaves to free-

blCTlOMAk V OP AMEklCAN- POLITICS;. 5^6

dom. Once in Canada, the slaves were safe, and the
efforts of those engaged in aiding them consisted princi-
pally in secreting and caring for the fugitives. This
system was popularly known as the Underground Rail^
road, the houses of those engaged in the work being
called " stations." Negroes would be secreted in these
stations during the day, and at night hurried on to the
next station, until at length Canada was reached. The
risk run by those engaged in the work was considerable,
as the slave power had agents in the Northern States
watching over its interests, and prosecutions and im-
prisoments were by no means rare. Most prominent in
the work was Levi Coffin, often called the president of
the road, who, it is estimated, aided in the escape of
over 2,500 slaves.

Under-measurement is a means of defrauding the
government' of part of its duties on imports paying
specific duties. The invoices are made to state meas-
urements under the actual ones, and the importer is
thus enabled to escape the payment of the full duties,
unless, indeed, the officials become aware of the fraud.

Under- valuation is a means, frequently employed, of
defrauding the government of part of its duties on im-
ports paying ad valorem duties. The goods are invoiced
at an amount less than the actual value, and unless the
fraud is detected by the customs officers the importer
thus avoids paying the full amount of duty.

Unionist Party. {See Constitutmial Union Party.)

Union Labor Party. — This party was organized at
a convention held in Cincinnati, February 23, 1887.
It has a national organization^ whose principal strength
is in the West. It must not be confused with the United
Labor party, a New York State organization. In New
York the Union Labor party has no branch. Its plat-
form declares in favor of a graduated land and income
tax; the opening of Indian lands to settlement; govern-
ment telegraphs and railroads; abolition of national
banks; the free coinage of silver; payment of national
debt at maturity; a direct vote for Senators; exclusion
of the Chinese; woman suffrage; arbitration of labor

526 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

disputes: and against contract labor in prisons; the
further issue of interest-bearing government bonds, and
the employment of armed men by private corporations.
{See United Labor Party.)

Union Must be Preserved. — During the nullifica-
tion troubles a dinner was given in Washington, April
13, 1830, to celebrate Jefferson's birthday. To this all
the prominent Democrats were asked. The toasts had
been so arranged as to give to the dinner the appearance
of indorsing the nullifiers. At the conclusion of the
regular toasts President Andrew Jackson responded to
the call for a sentiment with, " Our federal union: it
must be preserved.^'

Union Party, — This name was adopted during the
Civil War to denote the elements sanctioning the war as
a means of preserving the Union. Under it were in-
cluded Eepublicans and war Democrats.

United Labor Party. — This party originated in
the city of New York in 1886, being founded on the
land principles of Henry George {see Ms name). George
was prominently identified with it, and was its candi-
date for mayor in that year, receiving 68,110 votes,
against 90,552 received by the Democratic and 60,435
by the Republican nominee. In the following year the
organization was spread throughout the State, and was
perfected at a convention held in Syracuse, August 19th.
A platform was adopted and George was nominated for
Secretary of State of New York. The refusal of the
convention to adopt a platform satisfactory to a certain
faction led to the withdrawal of that faction, and its
separate organization as a political party under the name
of Progressive Labor Party {which see). In the elec-
tion George received 70,055 votes, against 469,888 for
the Democratic, 452,811 for the Republican, and 7,622
for the Progressive Labor candidate. The platform of
the United Labor Party declared that it does "not aim
at securing any forced equality in the distribution cf
wealth, . , . nor . . . propose that the State
shall take possession of land and either work it or rent
it out/' but that it desires to abolish all taxes on

DICTIONAR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 527

industry and to increase the tax on land, exclusive of
improvements. It desires a postal telegraph and State
railroads; the prohibition of the employment of chil-
dren, and of competition with convict labor; reduction of
the hours of labor; prevention of tho abuse of con-
spiracy laws; simplification of legal procedure; and a
system of elections relieving " the candidates for public
office from the heavy expenses now imposed upon them,''
thus preventing bribery and intimidation. This
organization must not be confused with the Union Labor
Party (which see).

United States Bank. {8ee Bank of the United
States.)

United States Debt. (See DeU of United States.)

United States Flag. (See Flag of the United
States. )

United States Military Academy at West
Point, is an academy established for the purpose of
training officers for the army. Every Eepresentative
and every Territorial Delegate is entitled to appoint a
cadet, provided the appointment made by his predeces-
sors has expired. Beside this, there are ten appoint-
ments at large and one for the District of Columbia,
these latter being made by the President. Congressmen
frequently offer the appointments as the reward of a
competitive examination. The course continues for
four years, and on graduation the cadets are commis-
sioned second lieutenants in the army. The academy
was established by Act of Congress of March 16, 1802.
Subsequent laws have made it subject to the articles of
war. The discipline is very strict. The superintendent
and the instructors are all officers of the regular army.
The present superintendent is Colonel John G. Parke.

United States Naval Academy was established
in 1845 by act of Congress, for the purpose of educating
young men as naval officers. One cadet is appointed
by each member of the House of Representatives and
by each Territorial Delegate, provided previous appoint-
ments for the district have expired; in addition, there is
one cadet for the District of Columbia and ten at large, .

5^8 DtCT20NAR Y OF AMEmCAN POLITICS.

These eleven are named by the President. Many Con-
gressmen now adopt the plan of offering the cadetship
to the successful candidate in a competitive examination.
Candidates must be between fourteen and eighteen years
of age, in good physical condition and actual residents
of the district from which they are named. The course
lasts six years, the last two being spent at sea. The
ad visibility of reducing the course to four years is being
agitated at present, as, it is asserted, the cadets learn
nothing new of any importance on the cruises. Vacan-
cies in the marine corps, the line and the engineer ser-
vice of the navy are filled by selecting the best grad-
uates of the academy. The pay of a cadet is five
hundred dollars a year. Cadets not assigned to service
receive one year's sea pay and an honorable discharge.
The outbreak of the Civil War caused the removal of
the academy to Newport, Rhode Island, but in 1865 it
was moved back to Annapolis. The academy is under
the charge of an officer of the navy. Commander W.
T. Sampson is the present superintendent.

United States Notes. — Same as Legal Tender
Notes. {See Currency.')

United We Stand, Divided We Fall.— The
motto of the State of Kentucky.

Unit Rule, is the practice followed in Democratic
National Conventions, of allowing the majority of a
State delegation to determine the vote of the State as a
Unit. An attempt was made to introduce it into the
Kepublican National Convention of 1880, in the interest
of General Grant's nomination. He had previously
served two terms. The State Conventions of New York,
Pennsylvania, and Illinois had instructed their delega-
tions (being the first, second and fourth in point of size),
to vote for Grant. The attempt was unsuccessful. In
the Democratic National Convention of 1884, a large
minority of the New York delegation was opposed to
the nomination of Cleveland, the choice of the majority,
and an attempt was made to break the unit rule, for the
purpose of defeating him. But this attempt was un-
successful.

DtCTtO^AR y OF AMERICAN- PdlITIC3, 529

Unpleasantness, The Late, or Recent.— (/See
Late Unpleasantness, The.)

Unreconstructed, is an adjective applied to those
Southerners that have not yet reconciled themselves to
the results of the Civil War. The re-admission into the
Union of the seceded States was called Reconstruction.

Utah, originally a part of the region acquired by the
Mexican Session {see Annexations IV.) , yfdi^ organized
as a Territory of the United States by Act of September
9, 1850. It included land which has since been cut off
and added to Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. The
capital is Salt Lake City. The population in 1880 was
143,963, and in the last census (1890) 207,905. Itis often
called Deseret, ''the land of the honey-bee.'' It would
probably have been admitted as a State before this but
for the preponderance of Mormons in its population.
{See Mormons; Governors; Legislature.)

Ute War. {See Lndian Wars.)

Valuation. {See Foreign Valuation; LLome Valua-
tion. )

Van Buren, Martin, was born at Kinderhook, New
York, December 5, 1782, and died at the same place
July 24, 1862. By profession he was a lawyer; he was
State Senator from 1813 to 1820, and United States
Senator from 1821 to 1828; in 1829 he was Governor of
the State, and 1829 to 1831 Secretary of State of the
United States, and Minister to England 1831 to 1832;
the Senate rejected this last nomination and he returned
home; from 1833 to 1837 he was Vice-President, and
from 1837 to 1841, President. Although nominated for
a second term he was defeated. In 1844 he was a candi-
date for nomination, but his partjr (the Democratic),
named Polk. In 1848 he was nominated for President
by the Free Soil Party, and his candidacy drew sufficient
votes from Cass, the Democratic nominee, to defeat him.
As a politician Van Buren was one of the shrewdest of
his time, and an excellent party manager. He and his
followers were the first to bring to Washington the
crafty methods of New York politics, of which the
present party machines are the outgrowth. He was

$30 DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Jackson^s choice as the latter's successor, and belonged
to the Barnburner faction of his party. The most
important events of his administration were the panic of
1837 and the Canadian Rebellion.

Vermont was originally part of the colony of New
York, though also claimed by New Hampshire. A con-
vention declared it independent of both of these in 1777.
Its separate existence was not formally admitted by New
York till 1790. By act of Congress of February 18, 1791,
to take effect on the following 4:th of March, Vermont
was admitted to the Union — the first State after the
original thirteen. The capital is Montpelier. The pop-
ulation in 1880 was ,332,286, and in the last, 1890, census
332,422. Vermont has two representatives in Congress
and four electoral votes, and is heavily Eepublican in
politics. Its name is of French origin, and means
*^ green mountain;" popularly it is known as the Green
Mountain State. (See Oovernors; Legislatures.)

Veto. — A veto is the act by which the executive re-
fuses his concurrence in a measure of the legislative body
with which he is associated and thus prevents its becom-
ing a law. The power of veto is generally given to
mayors of cities and to Governors of States, the latter
sometimes acting in conjunction with other officials. The
veto may be overriden by a vote of the legislative body,
in most of the States a two-thirds vote being necessary for
that purpose, while in the others a three-fifths or even a
simple majority vote is sufficient. Only four of the States,
namely, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, and
Ohio, have refused to give the executive the power to
veto. The right to veto acts of Congress is vested by Article
1, section 7, of the Constitution, in the President alone. He
is required to eign every bill or return it to the house of
Congress in which it originated, with his objections. The
latter act constitutes a veto, and if two-thirds of each
house pass tho bill again it becomes a law notwithstand-
ing the veto. If the President fails to return the bill
within ten days (Sundays excepted) it becomes a law, as
if he had signed it, unless *^ Congress by their adjourn-
ment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a

DICTION AR y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 531

law/^ If, therefore. Congress adjourn within ten days
after the passage of a bill and the President has refrained
from acting on the bill, it does not become a law; the
disposal of a bill in this way, when the President does
not choose to veto it formally, is termed a ^^ pocket veto,'^
a term which seems first to have been applied by the
Whigs to the disposition in this way of two internal im-
provement bills by Jackson. The earlier Presidents of
the United States seldom exercised the veto power. Up
to Jackson^s administration it had been used but nine
times — twice by Washington, six times by Madison and
once by Monroe. Jackson vetoed nine bills, and after
him the exercise of the right became more frequent. Up
to Johnson^s administration no bill had been passed over
a veto, but now a large majority in each house was opposed
to the President's policy; Johnson constantly vetoed bills
which were usually re-passed by the necessary two-thirds
vote and became laws in spite of him. Hayes^ adminis-
tration shows a large number of vetoes, including those
of a bill to restrict Chinese immigration and several ap-
propriation bills with riders attached; but since 1869
Cleveland has vetoed the largest number of bills, more
than all the previous Presidents collectively, but the
greater .number of these were private pension bills.

Vigilance Committee. — Among those who hastened
to California after the discovery of gold in 1849 were
many lawless characters, who soon caused a reign of
terror. The Territory became a State in 1850, but the
laws seemed powerless to restrain the commission of
crime. To alter this condition of affairs large numbers
of the best citizens, irrespective of party, banded to-
gether in San Francisco and other places in 1851, under
the name of vigilance committees, took the law into
their own hands, and by their vigorous actions gradually
restored the country to a safe and peaceable state. In
1856 they were again forced to administer the law.
They held trials and administered justice as seemed
to them right. In other parts of the United States
vigilance committees have been organized at differ-
ent times as temporary measures of necessity, or to
punish particular crimes, but their actions have often

532 bICfiOMAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

been more entitled to the name of lynch law than those
of the California vigilance committee.

Vice-President of the United States, is the officer
that succeeds the President in case of the latter's removal,
*' death, resignation or inability." His salary is $8,000.
The Vice-President is president of the Senate, but has a
vote only in case of a tie. Originally each presidential
elector voted for two persons, and the person receiving
the highest vote was elected President, he receiving the
next highest, vice-president. (Constitution, Article 2,
section 1.) The Twelfth Amendment changed the
method of election, separate votes now being cast for
President and Vice-President. When the Vice-President
is absent or performing the duties of the President, a
president jpro tempore of the Senate is chosen. Under
the former law, in case of inability to serve of both
President and Vice-President, the duties of the office
devolved upon this officer; accordingly to prepare for all
emergencies it was customary toward the end of a session
of Congress for the Vice-President to withdraw and a
president pro tempore to be elected. For the present law
on that subject see Presidential Succession. Below is
a list of the Vice-Presidents of the United States:

\ *Died in office.

Namk

State.

Term.

JohnAdams

Massachusetts

Virginia

New York..

New York

1789—1797

Thomas Jefferson

Aaron Burr.

1797-1801
1801—1805

1805—1812

Elbridge Gerry*

Massachusetts

1813 — 1814

Daniel D. Tompkins

John C. Calhount

New York

1817—1825

South Carolina

New York

1825—1832

Martin Van Buren

1833—1837

1837—1841

John Tyler^^

Virginia

1841—1841

1845—1849

Millard Fillmore*

New York

Alabama ,

1849—1850

William R.King*

1853-1853
1857—1861

Hannibal Hamlin

Maine

1861—1865

Andrew Johnson*

Tennessee.. . . . .

1865—1865

1869— 18r3

Henry Wilson

Massachusetts

1873—1875

William A Wheeler ....

New York

Indiana

NewYork

1877—1881

1881—1881

Thomas A Hondrlcks*

18a5— 1885

Levij P Morton

1889—

X^Became President by death of the incumbent.

tResigned.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 533
PRESIDENTS PRO TEMPORE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE:

Congress

4-5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7

10
10—11

11
11—12
12-13

13
13-15
15—16
16-19
19-80
20—22

24—26
26-27
27—29
29-30
31-32

34
35—36

40
41—42

43
44-45

49—50
51

Years.

1789—1793
1792—1792
179^-1794
1794—1795
1795—1796
1796—1797
1797—1797
1797-1797
1797—1798
1798-1798
1798—1799
1799—1799
1799—1800
1800—1800
1800—1801
1801-1801
1801—1802
1802-1803
1803—1804
1804—1805
1805—1805
1805—1808
1808-1809
1809—1809
1809—1810
1810-1811
1811-1812
1812—1813
1813—1814
1814—1818
1818—1819
1820—1826
1826—1828
1828—1832
1832—1832
1832-1834
1834—1835
1835-1836
1836—1841
1841— 1S42
1842—1846
1846—1849
1850—1852
1852—1854
1854—1857
1857—1857
1857—1861
1861—1864
18&4— 1865
1865-1867
1867—1869
1869-1873
1873—1875
1875-1879
1879—1881
1881—1881
1881—1883
1883—1885
1885-1887
1887—1889
1889-1891
1891—

Name.

John Langdon..

Richard H. Lee

John Langdon ,

Ralph Izard

Henry Tazewell

Samuel Livermore

William Bingham

William Bradford

Jacob Read

Theodore Sedgwick. . .

John Laurence

James Ross

Samuel Livermore —

Uriah Tracy

John E. Howard

James Hillhouse

Abraham Baldwin

Stephen R. Bradley. . .

John Brown

Jesse Franklin

Joseph Anderson

Samuel Smith

Stephen R. Bradley...

John Milledge

Andrew Gregg

John Gaillard

John Pope

William H. Crawford.
Joseph B. Varnum —

John Gaillard

James Barbour.

John Gaillard —

Nathaniel Macon

Samuel Smith

L. W.Tazewell

Hugh L.White

George Poindexter. . .

John Tyler

William R. King

Samuel L. Southard. . .

W. P. Mangum

D.R.Atchison..

William R. King

D. R. Atchison

Jesse D. Bright

James M. Mason

Benjamin Fitzpatrick.

Solomon Foot

Daniel Clark

Lafayette S. Foster...
Benjamin F. Wade. . . .
Henry B. Anthony. . . .

M. H. Carpenter

Thomas W. Ferry

A. G. Thurman

Thomas F. Bayard —

David Davis

George F. Edmunds. . .

John Sherman

John J. Ingalls

John J. Iniralls

Charles F. Mauderson

State.

New Hampshire.

Virginia.

New Hampshire.

South Carolina.

Virginia.

New Hampshire.

Pennsylvania.

Rhode Island.

South Carolina.

Massachusetts.

New York.

Pennsylvania.

New Hampshire.

Connecticut.

Maryland.

Connecticut.

Georgia.

Vermont.

Kentucky.

North Carolina.

Tennessee.

Maryland.

Vermont.

Georgia.

Pennsylvania.

South Carolina.

Kentucky.

Georgia.

Massachusetts.

South Carolina.

Virginia.

South Carolina.

North Carolina.

Maryland.

Virginia.

Tennessee.

MississippL

Virginia.

Alabama.

New Jersey.

North Carolina.

Missouri.

Alabama.

Missouri.

Indiana.

Virginia.

Alabama.

Vermont.

New Hampshire

Connecticut.

Ohio.

Rhode Island.

Wisconsin.

Michigan.

Ohio.

Delaware.

Illinois.

Vermont.

Ohio.

Kansas.

Nebraska

534 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Vilas, William F., was born at Chelsea, "Vermont,
July 9, 1840. He graduated at the Wisconsin State
University, to which State his family had moved, and
also at the Albany Law School, Albany, New York. He
raised a company in 1862, going to the war in command
of it; reached the grade of lieutenant-colonel. In 1863
he resumed the practice of law in Wisconsin. He was
law lecturer in the State University. In March, 1885,
President Cleveland appointed him Postmaster-General.
In December, 1887, he was made Secretary of the In-
terior.

Virginia was one of the original States of the Union. .
On April 17, 1861, a State convention passed an ordi-
nance of secession which was ratified by a popular vote
in May. By Act of January 26, 1870, the State was re-
admitted to the Union. The capital is Eichmond. The
population in 1880 was 1,512,565, and in the last census
(1890) 1,655,980. Virginia is entitled to ten seats in
the House of Eepresentatives and twelve electoral votes.
It is considered a Democratic State in national politics.
It was named for Queen Elizabeth, the ^'^ Virgin Queen. ^'
Popularly it is called the Old Dominion, sometimes the
Mother of Presidents, and occasionally the Mother of
States. i^See Governors; Legislatures; West Virginia.)

Virginia Dynasty is a name given to the group of
Virginians that, at the beginning of this century, wielded
an almost controlling influence in the affairs of the na-
tion. (See Virginia Influence.)

Virginia Influence. — By this name is known the
influence wielded by the State of Virginia, headed by
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Taylor, Tazewell, the Ran-
dolphs and others, from the adoption of the Constitu-
tion until about 1824. It arose largely from the unam-
inity of its people on national subjects, owing to a cer-
tain clannish feeling among them The lead taken by
the State in opposition to Hamilton's view of the Con-
stitution caused it to be regarded as the head of that
opposition, and therefore of the Republican party.
This Virginia Influence was a distinct factor in national
politics. After John Adams, all the Presidents until
John Quincy Adams, in 1825, were from Virginia.

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 535

Virginia Resolutions of 1798 were resolutions
adopted in that year by Virginia. They were drawn up
by Madison and were similar in import to the Kentucky
Kesolutions of 1798 {which see).

Virginius Case. — On October 31, 1873, the steamer
Virginius was captured on the high seas, near Jamaica,
by a Spanish vessel. The Virginius was sailing under
the American flag, but was supposed to be carrying men
and arms to aid insurgents in Cuba. Executions fol-
lowed of the captain and several others. The United
States demanded the surrender of the vessel and the
survivors, and reparation for the insult to our flag.
The vessel was surrendered in December, but sank
on the voyage to New York. The prisoners were
also liberated. Spain disclaimed any intention to in-
sult us, and it was proven that the Virginius was not
entitled to sail under our flag.

Vote, Presidential. {See Presidential and Vice-
Presidential Electoral Vote; Presidential Popular
Vote.)

Voters, Qualifications of. {See Qualifications of
Voters. )

Voting in the Air. — This phrase was invented by
"William M. Evarts, of New York, during the presiden-
tial campaign of 1884, to characterize the action of those
who intended to vote for St. John, the Prohibitionist
candidate. St. John had no chance of election, and
votes for him were considered, from the Republican
standpoint, as thrown away.

Wade-Davis, Manifesto. {See Davis-Wade Mani-
festo. )

Wagon Boy. — Thomas Oorwin, of Ohio, was so
called because he had driven an army-wagon during the
War of 1812.

Walker, General William (sometimes called ''the
gray-eyed man of destiny'^), was born in Nashville,
Tennessee in 1824, followed journalism in New Orleans
and San Francisco, practiced law in California and then
engaged in the expeditions an account of which will be
found under the title Filibusters.

536 DICTION A R Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Walking" Delegate. — In the trades-nnions of to-
day there is employed an official known as Walking
Delegate. He is a species of inspector, carrying to the
different branches of an organization the decrees of the
central bureau and supervising their execution. One of
his principal duties consists in discovering and reporting
any instance of the employment of non-union men in
institutions where union men are at work, the latter be-
ing forbidden to work with the former.

War, the, a Failure. — The Democratic party at its
national convention in 1864 declared the Civil War a
failure. {^8ee Anti-War Democrat.^ Previous to that
time the Legislature of Illinois, that met January, 1863,
had carried in the house resolutions condemning the
war, and recommending the adoption by the federal
government of measures leading to a peaceful settle-
ment. These resolutions failed in the State Senate.
Those that favored this solution of the national difficul-
ties were known as '^ Peace with Dishonor^' men.

War Democrats. — Those individuals that. Demo-
crats before the Civil War, yet favored the prosecution of
that contest and supported the Eepublican party during
its continuance, were so called.

War Department. — One of the executive depart-
ments of the government; it was established by the Act
of August 7, 1789, and with the departments of State
and of the Treasury constituted the original depart-
ments. At its head is the Secretary of AYar ; he is a
member of the Cabinet; his salary is $8,000 per annum.
The department has charge of all matters relating to
war or to the army, including purchase and distribution
of supplies and army transportation; it also has charge
of the signal service and meteorological records and of
the disbursement of river and harbor appropriations.
The principal subordinates of the department are:

Adjutant-General. Paj^master-General.

Inspector-General. Chief of Eng-ineers.

8uartermaster-General. Chief of Ordnance.

ommissary-General. Judg-e- Advocate-General.

Surgeon-General. Chief Signal Officer.

The above are officers of the regular army, and receive

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

537

the pay and allowances of a brigadier-general. The Sec-
retaries of War, from 1789 to date, are as follows:

Name.

Henry Knox ,

Timothy Pickering:

James McHenry

Samuel Dexter

Koger Griswold

Henry Dearborn

William Eustis

John Armstrong

James Monroe

William H. Crawford. . .

Isaac Shelby

George Graham

John C. Calhoun

James Barbour

Peter B. Porter

John H. Eaton

Lewis Cass

Joel R. Poinsett /

John Bell . ...

John McLean

John C. Spencer

James M. Porter

William Wilkins

William L. Marcey

George W. Crawford —

Edward Bates

Winfield Scott

Charles M. Conrad

Jefferson Davis

John B.Floyd

Joseph Holt.

Simon Cameron

* Edwin M. Stanton

U. S.Grant

Lorenzo Thomas

John M. Schofleld

John A. Rawlins

William T.Sherman. ..
William W. Belknap. . . .

Alphonso Taft

James Donald Cameron,

George W. McCrary

Alexander Ramsey —

Robert T. Lincoln

William C. Endicott. ..

Red field Proctor

Stephen B. Elkins

State.

Massachusetts.
Massachusetts.

Maryland

Massachusetts.
Connecticut...,
Massachusetts.
Massachusetts..

New York

Virginia

Georgia ,

Kentucky

Virginia ,

South Corolina

Virginia

New York ,

Tennessee

Ohio

South Carolina

Tennessee

Ohio

New York

Pennsylvania .
Penn^lvania..

New York

Georgia

Missouri

Virginia

Louisiana

Missouri

Virginia

Kentucky

Pennsylvania..
Pennsylvania .

niinois

Delaware

niinois

Illinois

Ohio

Iowa

Ohio

Pennsylvania. .

Iowa

Minnesota. ...

Illinois

Massachusettu.

Vermont

West Virginia.

Term.

1789—1795
1795—1796
1796—1800
1800—1801
1801—1801
1801—1809
1809—1813
1813—1814
1814—1815
1815—1817
1817—1817
1817—1817
1817—1825
1825—1828
1828—1829
1829—1831
1831—1837
1837—1841
1841—1841
1841—1841
1841—1843
1843—1844
1844—1845
1845—1849
1849—1850
1850-1850
1850—1850
1850-1853
1853—1857
1857—1861
1861—1861
1861—1862
1862—1867
1867—1868
1868—1868

1869—1869
1869—1876
1876—1876
1876—1877
1877-1879
1879—1881
1881—1885
1885—1889
1889—1891

♦Suspended, August 12, 1867; reinstated, January 14, 1868.

War of l8l2, sometimes called the second war for
independence. In the early part of this century Euro-

538 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

pean nations did not admit the right of expatriation.
Great Britain held that '*once an Englishman always an
Englishman/^ and maintained the rights of search and
impressment. Many of our vessels were stopped on the
high seas and searched; seamen claimed to be British
subjects were taken from them and forced to serve in the
British navy or imprisoned for refusing to serve. Sev-
eral of our men-of-war were fired upon and compelled
to give up seamen in their crews. The arrogance of
Great Britain was further shown by her interference with
our commerce under her paper blockades. She inter-
fered with rights which our government claimed for out
vessels as neutral ships. {See Emibargo Act.) The
Henry affair (see He^iry Documents) also increased the
bitter feeling of our people. For several years previous
to the war England^s action had been intolerable. The
failure of the Non-Importation, Non-Intercourse and
Embargo acts {luhich see) necessitated more vigorous
measures. The Federalists were opposed to a war: the
Republicans favored it. Madison, the Republican Presi-
dent, was personally not disposed to warlike measures,
and it was asserted that he '* could not be kicked into a
war.^^ Finally, however, the pressure from public and
party became too strong for him. The Congress which
assembled in December, 1811, was heartily disposed to
resort to arms. It passed acts to increase the army, and
appropriated large sums for the army and navy.
Finally, on June 18, 1812, the President declared war
against Great Britain. The Republican scheme of in-
vading Canada was hardly a success, but brilliant victo-
ries were gained on the ocean, and by Jackson at New
Orleans. During the war the Federalists continued to
oppose the government's measures. {See Hartford Con-
vention, ) The war was ended by the Treaty of Ghent
{which see). Its result practically was the end of the
old Federalist party and renewed strength to the Re-
publicans. The objects of the war, so far as English
arrogance was concerned, were practically accomplished,
though the terms of the treaty did not expressly nega-
tive the British claims.

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 539

War Power of the President is a term applied to
the power of the President as Comniander-in-chief of
the army, and navy (Constitution, Article 2, section 2).
This power is great or small according to the emergency
it is called upon to face. In serious emergencies it is
almost despotic, being limited only by the power of
Congress to withhold supplies. In time of peace it is
entirely suspended. The Emancipation Proclamation
was issued **as a fit and necessary measure of war^' by
the President as Commander-in-chief of the army and
navy.

War, Secretary of. {See War Department.^

Wars of the United States.— The chief w^ars in
•which the United States have been engaged since the
formation of the government, in 1789, are four in num-
ber, and are treated under the headings, Barhary Pirates
(the Algerine War), Civil War, Mexica^i War and War
of 1812. The most important conflicts with Indian
tribes are discussed under Indian Wars, The Aroostook
boundary disturbance is mentioned in the article North-
west Boundary y and the title Canadian Relellion covers
another slight difficulty on our northern frontier. {See
also Fenians. ) The irregular hostilities with France at
the close of tne last century are treated under X. Y. Z.
Mission. For domestic difficulties, sometimes called
'* wars,'-' see under appropriate headings, sls Border War,
Buckshot War, Hot Water War, etc.

War to the Knife and the Knife to the Hilt.—
This sentiment was attributed to the Republicans by
the Anti-War Democrats during the Civil War.

War With Tripoli. {See Barhary Pirates.)

^Vashington, City of. {See Capital of the United
States; District of Columbia.)

Washington, George, the first President of the
United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Vir-
ginia, February 22, 1832. He died at Mount Vernon,
Virginia, December 14, 1799. He was of English
descent. His education was obtained in the local
schools. In his early days he was a land surveyor. He
inherited considerable property from his father and from

540 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN- POLITICS.

his older brother. He distinguished himself during
the French and Indian War, where he rose to the
rank of Colonel and commander of the Virginian forces.
After that war he lived quietly, managing his property
and serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses, until
sent to the Continental Congress in 1774. In 1759 he
had married Martha Danbridge Custis, widow of John
Parke Custis. On June 15, 1775, he was appointed by
the Congress, Commander-in-Chief of the American forces
engaged in the Eevolution; this position he retained to
the end of the war. Immediately after tlie war he re-
signed his commission and retired to Mount Vernon,
whence he emerged as delegate to the Convention of
1787 {which see):ot this he became the presiding officer.
On the adoption of the Constitution framed by that Con-
vention he was elected President of the United States,
receiving the compliment, unparalleled in our history, of
a unanimous vote. He. was similarly elected for a
second term. During his administration tne govern-
ment's finances were put in order and the Bank of the
United States was established; Indian troubles on the
frontiers were suppressed after two unsuccessful at-
tempts; Jay's Treaty was concluded with England in
the settlement of various matters in dispute, and the
Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania was crushed. In
1797 he was once agaiu called from Mount Vernon,
whither he had withdrawn at the expiration of his term
as President, to act as Commander-in-Chief of the
Army, in a war then threatening with France. When the
danger of a war had passed by he again retired to his
home, where he died in 1799. With his countrymen
his influence, drawn partly from his military fame and
partly from his lofty character, was enormous, and it
was always exerted for good. The adoption of the Con-
stitution was in many quarters owing to his approval of
it. As Commander-in-Chief of the Kevolutionary Army
he had refused to accept pay. As President, he pro-
fessed adherence to no party or faction, although his
leanings were toward the centralizing tendencies of
Hamilton. Personally he was cold, dignified and
aristocratic

DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 541

Washington Territory was admitted to the Union
as a State by Act of Congress, November 11, 1889. It
was part of the Louisiana purchase (see Annexations I.)
and was for a time a part of Oregon. It was organized
as a separate territory by Act of March 2, 1853. The
northern boundary of this region was for a long time in
dispute with Great Britain, but was settled in 1846.
[See Northwest Boimdary.) Washington has one seat
in the House of Eepresentatives and four electoral votes.
The population according to the last census (1890) was
349,390. It was named in honor of George Washington,
The Capital is Olympia.

Waterloo. — ''A Waterloo '^ has come to be the
synonym of a complete and irretrievable defeat. At
Waterloo, a village of Belgium, on June 18, 1815, the
English and Prussians, under the Duke of Wellington,
completely routed Napoleon Bonaparte, who, with the
French Army, had for years been maintaining a gigantic
and successful struggle against many of the nations of
Europe. By this defeat his power and prestige were
hopelessly shattered.

Ways and Means, Committee of, is the most
important of the standing committees of the House of
Eepresentatives. Its function is the ways and means of
raising and collecting revenue; or, in other words, the
general subject of government revenues; this includes
the tariff and internal revenue, as well as the public
debt and financial measures. Prior to 1865 the expend-
iture of the government was also within its scope. This
is now in the hands of the Appropriations Committee.
{See Appropriatio7is.)

Webster, Daniel, was born at Salisbury, New
Hampshire, January 18, 1782, and died at Marshfield,
Massachusetts, October 24, 1852. He was a lawyer, and
a graduate of Dartmouth. From 1813 to 1817 he repre-
sented New Hampshire in Congress as a Federalist, then
removed to Boston, serving in Congress from Massachu-
setts from 1823 to 1827, in the Senate from 1827 to
1841, as Secretary of State from 1841 to 1843, again in
the Senate from 1845 to 1850, and once more, from

542 DICTION AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS,^

1850 until his death, as Secretary of State. It is con-
ceded that he was the foremost orator this country has
ever possessed. His name is best known in connection
with the Dartmouth College case {which see), and his
debate with Senator Hayne on Foot's Resolution {which
see). Although frequently mentioned as a candidate for
the presidency he never attained even the formal nomi-
nation of his party, although in 1836 the Massachusetts
electors cast their votes for him. In 1850 he made his
famous Seventh of March speech, regarded by many as
a final bid for the presidency. However that may be, he
was not nominated, and died soon after.

We Have Been Unfortunate, but Not Dis-
graced.— On the 28th of March, 1814, during the Wai
of 1812, Captain David Porter lay in the harbor of Val-
paraiso, Chili, in the United States frigate Essex. Not-
withstanding the fact that he was in neutral waters he
was attacked by two British vessels, the frigate Phoebe
and the sloop-of-war Cherub. His vessel had been
crippled by a storm, but he fought bravely, till nearly
all his men were disabled, and then struck his colors.
He reported to the government, ^* We have been unfort-
unate, but not disgraced."'

We Have Lived Long, but This is the Noblest
Work of Our Whole Lives. — This remark was made
by Robert R. Livingston after the Louisiana purchase in
1803. {See Annexations I.)

We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours.—
During tne War of 1812 the control of Lake Erie be-
came necessary to the Americans for an aggressive move-
ment on Canada. To oppose the British squadron, under
Commodore Barclay, of six vessels carrying sixty-three
guns in all. Commodore Oliver H. Perry gathered nine
vessels mounting in all fifty-four guns. On the 10th of
September, 1813, he attacked the British, fought a des-
perate battle, in the course of which he performed the
daring feat of transferring his flag from the Lawrence,
which was badly injured, to the Niagara, and defeated
the enemy. To General Harrison, who was anxiously
awaiting on shore the event of the battle, he sent the

DICTION-AR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 543

following dispatch: " We have met the enemy and they
are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one
sloop/' This victory was celebrated in a rude song of
the day, as follows:

" The tenth of September

Let us all remember,
As long as the world on its axis goes round;

Our tars and marines

On Lake Erie were seen
To make the proud flag of Great Britain come down."

Well- Born, The. — A term of contempt applied to
the Federalists. The term was used by John Adams
during the discussion preceding the adoption of the
Constitution. "The rich, the well-born and the able
will,'' wrote he, " acquire an influence among the people
that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain
sense in a House of Representatives."

We Lov^ Him for the Enemies that He Has
Made. — This sentence was uttered by Edward S. Bragg,
of Wisconsin, in the Democratic National Convention of
1884, in a speech urging the nomination of Grover
Cleveland for President. The reference v/as to the
minority of the New York delegation, which was op-
posed to Cleveland's nomination, and which had at-
tempted to abolish the Unit Rule for the purpose of
compassing his defeat. Cleveland was nominated.
^A/'estern Reserve. {See Territories.^
West Florida. {See Annexations 11.)
West Point and Military Academy. {See United
States Military Academy at West Point.)

West Virginia was once a part of Virginia, but its
people did not sympathize with the pro-slavery and
secession sentiments of the eastern portion of the State,
and on the ratification of the ordinance of secession {see
Virginia), a convention at Wheeling declared it null
and void. A government was formed, claiming to be
the government of Virginia, which gave its consent to
the erection of a new State, and West Virginia was thus
admitted to the Union by Act of December 31, 1862,
which took effect June 19, 1863. The capital is
Charleston. The population in 1880 was 618,457 and in

544 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

the last census (1890) 762,704. West Virginia is entitled
to four seats in the House of Eepreientatives and six
electoral votes. It is considered a Democratic State.
The name first proposed for the State was Kanawha.
Popularly it is called the Pan-Handle State. (See Gov-
vernors; Legislatures. )

Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its
Way. — The following lines are from a poem entitled
"On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in
America/' written in the first half of the last century
by Bishop Berkeley, an English philosopher:

" Westward the course of empire takes Its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last."

The epigraph to Bancroft's *' History of the United
States'' made the first line of the above read as follows:

" Westward the star of empire takes its way."

Wets.- -A term used chiefly, if not exclusively, in
Georgia and applied to the Anti-Prohibitionists. Op-
posed to "Drys."

Wheeler, William A., was born at Malone, New
York, June 30, 1819, where he died June 4, 1887. He
was admitted to the bar and served in the State Legisla-
ture. He was in Congress from 1861 to 1877 as a E^
publican. He was elected Vice-President under Hayes.

Whig Party. — The opposition to Andrew Jackson
took the form of the National Kepublican party on the
part of those differing from him on economic principles;
to these were added those that had upheld Nullification,
and factious Democrats in some of the Southern States,
notably in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, in the
two latter States, headed by Hugh L. White. James
Watson Webb, of the New York Courier and Enquirer,
suggested the name of Whig for this combination, as in-
dicating opposition to " executive usurpation,'^ a mean-
ing it was asserted to have had in England, and during the
Revolution in America. Under this name were ulti-

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 545

mately included the National Kepublicans and the
Southern factions; the Nullifiers were never a portion of
them; they formed a separate pro-slavery faction in
the Democratic party. Harrison was the first nominee
of the party and he was indorsed by numerous anti-
Masonic and other conventions. Three other candidates
were placed in nomination beside the Democratic nomi-
nee, Van Buren, who was elected. In 1840 Harrison,
a military and anti-Masonic man, was nominated; as
Vice-President, Tyler, one of the Southern wing, was
named. This combination received an overwhelmingly
large electoral vote; the campaign had been a vigorous
one, based on Harrison^s military services, to the cry of
"Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.^' The Whigs had a small
majority, also, in both Houses. One month after his in-
ftuguration Harrison died. Soon after his accession Tyler
broke with his party, the occasion being the veto by him
of a National Bank Bill. The first platform of the party
adopted in 1844 meant anything or nothing. Clay was
nominated, and his defeat, to a great extent, was owing to
the action of the Liberty party. The question of the an-
nexation of Texas foreshadowed the importance that
slavery was soon to assume. This topic it was the con-
stant effort of the Northern Whigs to keep out of poli-
tics. Opposition to slavery meant rupture with the
Southern Whigs, who were first pro-slavery and only
then Whigs; advocacy of it meant the displeasure of
Northern constituents. The Wilmot Proviso was accord-
ingly supported by Northern Whigs, and opposed by the
Southerners. Taylor was the nominee in 1848; no plat-
form was adopted. He was elected largely on his mili-
tary reputation. The Compromise of 1850 and all other
measures affecting slavery found the Southern Whigs
acting with the Democrats and against their Northern
brothers in the party. These latter made every effort to
keep the subject down, and every new piece of legisla-
tion on the subject was declared by them to be a ''final-
ity.^' In 1852 the platform contained a plank to that
effect, and General Winfield Scott was named for Presi-
dent. Scott was completely defeated. The Southern

546 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

Whigs were now practically apart from the party, and
many of them soon became so in name also. The Whig
party was broken up. A part of it joined the ranks of
the American party, but ultimately its Northern elements
were swallowed up in the Republican party; the South-
ern elements joined the Democratic party, while the old
Whig desire of keeping slavery out of politics was visible
in the Constitutional Union party, composed of Whig
remnants in the border States,

Whisky Insurrection. — This was a revolt in West-
ern Pennsylvania, occasioned by the passage of the ex-
cise law of March 3, 1791. Laws of this kind had
always been odious, and they were especially so to this
community, the greater part of whose grain was con-
verted into whisky. The tax was suggested by Hamil-
ton for the purpose of exerting the federal power of
direct taxation, and also, as some authorities assert, for
the purpose of raising an insurrection of small propor-
tions and of having the federal power exerted in crush-
ing it. Hamilton saw that the Union could not be a
success unless the authority of the federal govei^nment
was recognized, and he thought that a small disturbance
speedily suppressed might check a tendency to disunion
and separation, which, once fairly intrenched, would
prove the end of the government. His f orecas fc was coiTect.
The suppression was practically bloodless; but two per-
sons were killed, and these in brawls with the soldiers.
Moreover, the prompt exercise of federal authority
showed the inherent strength and vitality of the federal
government. Hamilton's purpose was not, of course,
avowed — not even known. The best known leader in
this insurrection was a man named Bradford, but Will-
iam Findley, a member of Congress, and Albert Gal-
latin were also concerned in it. The first meeting to
oppose the measure was held July 27th. This meet-
ing was peaceful, but disorders followed. Any per-
son taking office under the law was declared a public
enemy, and in one case a revenue officer was tarred and
feathered. The opposition continued to increase, and
in May, 1792, Congress empowered the President to use

DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 547

militia in suppressing disorders within a State. About
this time the tax was also reduced. September 15th a
proclamation was issued warning the people to abandon
their unlawful combinations. The disturbances had not
as yet come to a head. The agitation continued through-
out 1793 and 1794. Secret societies were organized to
oppose the tax. Under the law only federal courts had
jurisdiction of offenses against it, and this necessitated
the transportation of the accused to Philadelphia, a long
journey in those days. In June, 1794, this just cause
of complaint was removed by giving the State courts
concurrent jurisdiction in excise offenses. The issue.
May 31st, in Philadelphia, of fifty writs against various
western people charged with connection with the disturb-
ances, brought the insurrection to a head. The marshal
serving the warrants was seized and made to swear that
he would serve no more of them. A meeting of 7,000
armed men was held. Those opposed to these proceed-
ings were intimidated, and preparations for armed de-
fence against the United States were made. The federal
government acted promptly. A proclamation ordered
the insurgents to disperse. A requisition for 15,000
militia was made on the Governors of New Jersey, Vir-
ginia and Maryland. Meanwhile commissioners were
sent ahead to offer amnesty to those that would submit.
Their mission was a failure, and on September 25th
another proclamation was issued by the President, in
which he gave notice of the advance of the troops.
President Washington accompanied them a part of the
way; Hamilton remained with them throughout. Several
meetings were now held declaring submission, but they
were not regarded as representative, and the troops
continued to advance. On their arrival at the scene of
the disorders, time was given for submission under the
President's proclamation, and all those not submitting
were arrested. The violent leaders, including Bradford,
had fled; Gallatin was among those that had all along
counseled submission. The insurrection was sup-
pressed; all but about 2,500 of the troops returned
home; these remained encamped in the region through-
out the winter.

648 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS,

Whisky Ring is a name given to a vast conspiracy,
originating in about the year 1873, for the purpose of
defrauding the government in the collection of its tax
on distilled spirits. The conspiracy included distillers,
dealers. United States collectors, gangers and many
other persons. It extended from St. Louis, its head-
quarters, to Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria, Cincinnati and
New Orleans. It had an agent in Washington. The
method of defrauding was by the secret shipment of
whisky which was reported as stored. Suspicion was
first aroused in 1874 by a discrepancy discovered between
the returns of shipments of the Merchants'* Exchange,
of St. Louis, and those of the revenue officers. To
Benjamin H. Bristow, Secretary of the Treasury, is due
the credit of unearthing this gigantic fraud. The in-
fluence of the ring made itself felt in the highest
places, and every effort against it was for a time thwarted.
Finally, after careful secret examinations, a general
seizure in three cities was made May 10, 1875. Property
aggregating $3,500,000 in value was seized, and 238 per-
sons were indicted. When the papers in these cases were
laid before President Grant, he indorsed one of them
with the injunction, ^^Let no guilty man escape. "'^ 0.
E. Babcock, President Grant's private secretary was
implicated, but though acquitted, his guilt was gener-
ally conceded. No charge was ever made implicating
Grant, but his tenacity in supporting his friends, even
when their guilt was evident to others, made it easy for
the ring to put many obstacles in Bristow's way. In
one case, even, documents were tampered with. Many
convictions were obtained, among others that of the
chief clerk of the Treasury, Avery. In 1876 Bristow
turned his attention to a whisky ring on the Pacific
coast. . As a consequence the Senator from that State
demanded the removal of several special Treasury agents
employed in San Francisco. The Secretary refused.
An appeal to the President caused him to take a stand
against Bristow, and the latter resigned. The ring,
however, was dead.

White House. — The residence of the President in

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 549

Washington is built of freestone and painted white, and
for this reason is called the ''White House."

White League. — A name sometimes applied to the
Ku'Klux Klan,

Whitewash. — When a corrupt public servant desires
to obtain an official statement exonerating him from acts
charged against him, it is a common method for his
friends to secure the appointment of a legislative com-
mittee of investigation, taking care to have the com-
mittee so constituted as to insure a report clearing him
from blame. This proceeding is known as white-
washing.

Whitney, William C, was born at Conway, Massa-
chusetts, July 15, 1841. He studied at Yale and Har-
vard, and was admitted to the bar in New York City,
where he began the practice of law. In 1872, he was
defeated for^the office of District Attorney; he was in
1875 appointed Corporation Counsel; in 1882 he re-
signed. In March, 1885, President Cleveland appointed
him Secretary of the Navy.

Wig^wam. {See Tammany.)

Wilmot Proviso. — In 1846 a bill was introduced
into Congress placing about $2,000,000 at the disposal
of the President for the purpose of enabling him to
make a treaty with Mexico (with which we were then at
war), paying her that sum, and in return acquiring a
considerable tract of territory. To this measure David
Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, moved a proviso prohibiting
slavery in any territory that we might acquire from
Mexico. Thus amended, the bill was passed by the
House and sent to the Senate during the last hours of
the session. In the Senate the debate on a motion to
strike out the proviso lasted to the hour of adjournment,
and so the bill died. In 1848 the proviso was moved in
the House as an independent resolution, but a motion
that it lie on the table prevailed (105 to 93). When
first introduced the proviso seemed to have a good
chance of passing, but during the election of 1846 the
Southern Democrats were forced by public opinion to
determined opposition to it; the Northern Democrats

550 DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

favored the proviso, and at the same time annexa-
tion. In this dilemma the doctrine of ''popular'^ or
*^ squatter" sovereignty was devised; it was, in effect, to
let the people of a territory determine the question of
slavery for themselves, and it came as a relief to
Northern Democrats by enabling them consistently to
oppose the Wilmot Proviso.

Wilson, Henry, was born at Framingham, New
Hampshire, February 16, 1812, and died in Washington,
November 22, 1875. In 1830 his name was changed
from Jeremiah Jones Colbath to Henry Wilson, by Act
of Legislature. In politics he was an Anti-slavery Whig,
serving in the Legislature in that capacity; he then
joined the Free-soil, the American, and ultimately the
Republican Party. He was Vice-president from 1873
until his death.

Wire Pulling is a political phrase. It is applied to
the activity of politicians in securing votes and making
other preparations necessary to the success of a candi-
date or measure.

Wisconsin was once a part of the Northwest Terri-
tory, and afterwards was successively a part of Indiana,
Illinois and Michigan territories. In 1836 the territory
of Wisconsin was formed, which, two years later, was re-
duced to the size of the present State of the same name,
and was thus admitted to the Union May 29, 1848. The
capital is Madison. The population in 1880 was 1,315,-
497, and in the last census (1890) 1,616,880. Wisconsin
sends nine members to the House of Representatives,
and has eleven electoral votes. It is a Republican State
in national politics. The State is named after its prin-
cipal river, which in the Indian tongue is said to mean,
''wild rushing river." Popularly it is known as the
Badger State. {See Governors; Legislatures.)
r"^ With Malice Toward None, with Charity for
I All. — These phrases occurred in Lincoln's address at his
'\Jsecond inauguration. (See Lincoln, Abraham.)
Z^ Wizard of Kinderhook. — Martin Van Buren. who
Y was born at Kinderhook, New York, was often called by
A his contemporaries the Wizard of Kinderhook because
jof his ability and astuteness in politics.

DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICAN POLITICS. 551

Woman's Rights. {See Woman Suffrage.)
Woman Suffrage. — The gradual removal of
restrictions on the suffrage iu the States has nat-
urally brought forward the question why women
should be deprived of this privilege. As early as 1790
the question had been asked in France. Under New
Jersey^s constitution of 1776 an act had indeed been
passed by that State in 1793 imposing certain restrictions
on voters, but imposing them equally on both sexes.
The act was, however, repealed in 1807. The subject
was brought into prominence in 1848 by the first woman's
rights convention held in this country. The convention
met at Seneca Falls, New York, July 19, 1848. The
agitation of the subject of slavery and the incidental
discussion of the natural rights of man had as their
logical consequence the demand^ on the part of some
women, of a privilege exercised in many cases by persons
far below them in intelligence and education. They
assert that many of their number pay taxes, that all are
interested in good government, and that it is unjust for
women of intelligence to be deprived of a vote while
ignorant men have a voice in the government. They
assert that their influence will have a purifying effect on
politics. They demand that any restrictions on the
suffrage may apply equally to both sexes. It is but just
to add that many women of education are opposed to the
extension of the suffrage to women. On the other hand,
it is objected that suffrage cannot be demanded as a
right, but it is a privilege granted by the State as expe-
diency may direct; that the community is best served
by a division of labor which relegates women to the
family exclusively; that her interests are sufficiently pro-
tected by representation as at present constituted, and
that her presence would have no influence for good. In
October, 1850, the first national woman's rights conven-
tion was held at Worcester, Massachusetts. Since then
the subject has been constantly agitated, and large strides
In advance have been made. In 1866 a petition on this
subject was laid before Congress by the American Equal
Rights Association. It was the first of its kind pre-

552 DICTION AR Y OF A MERICAN POLITICS.

sented to that body. In 1870 the Republican State Con-
vention of Massachusetts admitted Lucy Stone and
Mary A. Livermore as delegates. The Republican Na-
lional Conventions of 1872 and 1876 resolved that " the
honest demands '^ of this " class of citizens for additional
rights . . . should be treated with respectful con-
sideration." Since 1872 the Prohibition party has em-
bodied a demand for woman suffrage in every platform.
The Greenback national platform of 1884 favored the
submission to the people of a woman suffrage amend-
ment to the Constitution. The Equal Rights party in
1884 nominated Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood for the presi-
dency. The votes received by the ticket are among
those classed as "scattering," and amounted to about
2,500. Women have voted on the same terms with men
in Wyoming since 1870, and when the territory was ad-
mitted to the Union a provision was inserted in the con-
stitution securing them suffrage. In Kansas full munic-
ipal suffrage has been granted to women, and in the
following States they vote at school elections under cer-
tain conditions as to property, marriage, etc. Colorado,
Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New York, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, Delaware,
Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas,
Washington and Montana, and in the territories of Ari-
zona and Oklahoma. In Arkansas and Missouri women
vote (by petition) on the sale of liquor. Full suffrage
was granted to women in Utah and in Washington,
■while a territory. In the former they were excluded by
the Edmunds law and in the latter, through a technical
informality in the construction of the act. Thus Wy-
oming remains as the only instance in this country of a
complete equality of the sexes in the matter of suffrage.
(^8ee Suffrage.)

Wooden Gods of Sedition.— A name of derision
in 1798 for the Liberty Poles.
Woolly Heads. {See Conscience Whigs.)
Workers, Political. {See Boys, The.)
Wyoming. — The larger part of Wyoming was ac-

Diction AR v op American politics. 653

quired by the Louisiana purchase {see Annexations L),
but the southwestern portion was included in the Mexi-
can cession {see Annexations IV.) of 1848. It was or-
ganized as a separate territory of the United States by
Act of July 25, 1868, and was admitted to the Union
as a State by Act of July 11, 1890. Wyoming has one
seat in the House of Representatives, and three electoral
votes. The population according to the census of 1890 "
was 60,705. The capital is Cheyenne.

X. Y. Z. Mission. — During the Revolution the
United States secured the valuable aid of France by
treaties in 1778. In 1789 monarchy was overthrown in
France, and that nation soon found herself at war with
England and other Eurcpean nations. She desired the
United States as an ally, and Genet {see Genet , Citizen,)
was sent to accomplish her purpose. His mission failed,
Wasliington persisted firmly in preserving our neutrality,
and Jay^s Treaty {which see) was concluded with England.
The course of our government angered France. In 1797
the directory, which then governed that country, gave
permission to the French navy to assail our vessels.
Following a policy of conciliation, in spite of French
insults to our minister and the threat to our commerce.
President Adams called a special session of Congress in
May, 1797, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John
Marshall and Elbridge Gerry were sent jo France to
arrange matters. In the spring of the next year the
President submitted to Congress dispatches that had
been received from these commissioners. They had
been kept waiting by Talleyrand, the minister of foreign
affairs, and had been approached by three unofficial
persons with what was in effect a demand for a bribe
and a loan to the directory before any arrangement
could be concluded with the United States. In the
dispatches the names of these three persons were indi-
cated merely by the letters X., Y. and Z., and hence
the whole affair came to be termed the X. Y. Z. Mis-
sion. To these demands our representatives returned a
decided refusal. It is said that Pinckney made use of
the phrase, '' Millions for defense, but not one cent for

554 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

tribute/^ The answer as recorded, however, was, " No,
no, no; not a sixpence/' About the time when these
dispatches were submitted to Congress, Pinckney and
Marshall were ordered to leave France, and Gerry was
afterward recalled by our government. A warlike feel-
ing instantly sprung up in the United States. The
Federalists, with Adams as leader, desired to defend by
force, if necessary, their policy of keeping this country
from entangling foreign alliances, and desired to resent
French insults. The Democrats (then called Republi-
cans) had always favored an alliance with France and
had opposed the creation of a navy for the United
States. Now, however, the popular pressure could not
be withstood. Bills were passed for increasing the navy
and separating it from the War Department (April 30,
1798). Provision was made for a national loan and the
imposition of a direct tax. The President was author-
ized to increase the army in case of a foreign war within
three years, and soon Washington was called to be com-
mander-in-chief of the army and Alexander Hamilton
was selected as the active commander. On July 9,
1798, Congress declared the treaties with France no
longer binding, and authorized our war vessels and pri-
vateers to capture armed French vessels. A few naval
engagements occurred, but no event of great importance.
The effect of our warlike feeling and preparations on
France was excellent. American prisoners were released
and the embargo which had been declared was raised on
American ships. Talleyrand now hinted to our Minister
to Holland, William Vans Murray, that he was willing
to receive another American Minister. Adams accord-
ingly appointed Murray in February, 1799, and soon
joined with him Oliver Ellsworth and William R. Davis.
The President's action created much stir politically, as
he was considered to have become subservient to France
and to have changed the former attitude of himself and
the Federal party. It was some months after their
appointment that our envoys arrived in Paris. Napo-
leon was then at the head of the government as First
Consul, and was favorably inclined toward the United

DICTION AR V OF AMERICAN POLITICS 655

States. Frencli commissioners were appointed, and on
September 30, 1800, a friendly convention was signed.
Both countries ratified it, and it was declared in force
December 21, 1801. For a while the safety of our com-
merce was thus secured. ■ {See Embargo Act.)

Yankee. — There are several conflicting theories con-
cerning the derivation of the word Yankee. The most
probable is that it came from a corrupt pronunciation
by the Indians of the word English, or its French form.
Anglais, The term Yankee was originally applied only
to natives of the New England States, but foreigners
have extended it to all natives of the United States, and
during the Civil War the Southerners used it as a term
of reproach for all inhabitants of the North.

Yazoo Fraud. — About the time of the formation of
the United States, Georgia owned or claimed the greater
part of the territory between her present limits and the
Mississippi Eiver. In 1789 she sold for about $200,000
some ten or fifteen million acres of this land to the South
Carolina Yazoo Company, the Virginia Yazoo Company,
and the Tennessee Company. Difficulties arose, how-
ever, which prevented the sales from being consummated.
In 1795 what was distinctly known as the ''Yazoo fraud "
occurred. The purchasers, generally known as the
Yazoo Companies, from their operations in the Yazoo
district, having , been reorganized, Georgia in that year
sold to them for $500,000 the larger part of her western
territory, comprising about 35,000,000 acres, which
now forms the States of Alabama and Mississippi. Such
a transaction was of national interest, and Washington
sent a message to Congress concerning it. Charges
were made that the necessary legislation had been
secured by extensive bribery, and James Jackson, then
Georgia's representative in the Senate, resigned from
that body, stood for a seat in the State Legislature, was
elected, and, as the exponent of the demand of the
people, was enabled to repeal the objectionable act and
expunge it from the records. In 1802 Georgia ceded all
the territory west of her present boundary to the Federal
Government. The purchasers now demanded their

556 DlCTtOJ^Ak V OF AMERICAN POLITICS.

rights from the United States, and Jefferson^s Cabinet ex-
pressed the opinion that it would be ^' expedient " to make
a reasonable compromise with them, while not recogniz-
ing their claims as a matter of right. The opponents of
the administration raised a great clamor and did not
hesitate to charge that improper influences had moved
Jefferson and his advisers. The question came before
Congress, some of whose members were personally in-
terested in the matter, but, largely because of the vehe-
ment opposition made by John Randolph of Virginia,
the relief measure was defeated by a large majority.
The purchasers afterward obtained a favorable verdict
from the Supreme Court, and Congress in 1814 appro-
priated $8,000,000 in scrip, payable from the proceeds
of Mississippi lands, to satisfy the claimants. Much of
this money, however, went to speculators, to whom dis-
couraged claimants had transferred their interests.

Young Hickory.— Andrew Jackson was called Old
Hickory. {See that title.) James K. Polk was born in
the same State as Jackson, North Carolina, and settled
in the same State, Tennessee; moreover, a certain resem-
blance in their political feelings led to his being called
Young Hickory.

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