1841

the Raleigh and Gaston, and the Wilmington and Roanoke, in North Carolina, in April; and the New Bedford and Taunton, in Massachusetts, on the 1st of July.

Mdlle. Fanny Elssler, the celebrated danseuse, made her first appearance in America at the Park Theatre, New York. Her engagement was a great success, and a tour through the country was one of unabated triumph.

William Henry Harrison was inaugurated President on the 4th of March, and died exactly one month afterwards, when he was succeeded by John Tyler, the Vice-President.

On the 7th of November, a brig from Richmond, Va., sailed for New Orleans with one hundred and thirty-five slaves on board. When near the Bahama Islands, nineteen of the slaves arose and took possession of the vessel to secure their liberty. In the struggle which ensued, a slave-vender was killed, and the captain, first mate, and ten of the crew were severely wounded. The vessel was then sailed to Nassau, and being on English soil, the slaves retained their liberty.

A riot took place at Cincinnati in September, lasting two days, incited by the mob against the abolitionists and blacks. Bands of armed men patrolled the streets in search of negroes; a colored meeting-house and several houses were demolished.

The first exportation of American clocks was made this year. They were sent to England, and the invoice appeared to be so ridiculously low to the custom-house authorities at Liverpool that they were at first seized for under-valuation. This venture proving successful, the business was continued, and developed into one of large dimensions; and clocks were sent to the different countries of Europe, to Asia, and South America. Before the use of brass movements, shipments were not made across the ocean, as the old wooden clocks then in use would be ruined, because exposure to the humidity of the sea caused the movements of the clocks to swell and ruin them.

The grain-drill for planting wheat was patented in March, and its introduction among the farmers attempted, but was only after the lapse of years that its value was recognized and acknowledged.

The first steam fire-engine in this country was completed and put to use in New York, under a contract made with the associated insurance companies. It was, however, afterwards sold and converted to other purposes, its great weight proving to be a fatal objection to its use.

The express business continued to make progress. It was continued this year as far south as Philadelphia, and west to Albany.

The New York Tribune issued its first number on the 10th of April, edited by Horace Greeley. It was about one third its present size, and commenced with about six hundred subscribers, procured by the exertions of a few of the editor's personal and political friends. The expenses of the first week of its existence were five hundred and twenty-five dollars; and the receipts, ninety-two dollars.

The Western Railroad was completed on the 21st of December, and communication was opened by railroad between Boston and the Hudson, opposite Albany. The railroad between Auburn and Rochester was also completed, thus making a continuous railroad between Boston and Rochester, excepting the ferry at Albany.

1842 It was provided in a treaty executed between Great Britain and the United States, that the latter nation should keep a force of one thousand men and eighty guns on the coast of Africa to assist in suppressing the slave-trade.

On the 1st of August, the colored people in Philadelphia attempted a celebration in commemoration of West India emancipation. Their procession was assailed by a mob, who executed many deeds of violence and bloodshed. A public hall and a church were burned, and several private houses demolished. Disturbances of like nature occurred at New Bedford, Nantucket, and other places. Anti-slavery meetings were broken up, halls damaged, and people assaulted.

Pennsylvania and Maryland this year made default in the payment of interest on their State debts.

A government expedition, consisting of twenty-eight Canadians and Creoles who were accustomed to prairie life, commanded by John C. Fremont and accompanied by the cele brated Kit Carson as a guide, left Choteau's trading-house, on the Missouri River, for the purpose of exploring the country between the frontier of Missouri and the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, on the line of the Great Platte and Kansas Rivers. On the 14th of July they reached Fort Laramie, on Laramie River, a post belonging to the American Fur Company, and inhabited by a motley collection of traders, with their Indian wives and parti-colored children. In August they came to their destination, and Fremont ascended the loftiest peak in that range of the mountains, about one hundred miles south of Oregon. This peak is thirteen thousand five hundred and seventy feet above the level of the Gulf of Mexico. On one side of the mountain could be seen innumerable lakes and streams and the springs of the Colorado, and on the other the Wind River Valley, where were the sources of the Yellowstone branch of the Missouri. Soon after the party set out on their return, and on the 17th of October arrived at St. Louis.

The Bunker Hill Monument was entirely completed on the 23d of July. The obelisk is thirty feet square at the base, fifteen feet square at the top, and two hundred and twenty-one feet high. It is built of Quincy granite.

Rhode Island was agitated this year by "Dorr's rebellion," as it was called. The old charter was and always had been the basis of the organic law for the State, and allowed the right of suffrage only to owners of a certain amount of real estate, and to their eldest sons. Mr. Dorr for several years, while a member of the assembly, exerted himself without avail to procure the substitution of a liberal constitution in place of the old charter. He then resorted to popular agitation, and organized a suffrage

party in opposition to the charter party. The suffrage party, after holding several large mass conventions, called a delegate State convention to frame a new constitution, which was submitted for ratification to the popular vote. It received fourteen thousand votes, a clear majority of the citizens of the State. The charter party, however, contended that a large proportion of the votes were fraudulent. Mr. Dorr and his party assumed that the new constitution was the fundamental law of the State, and proceeded in accordance with it to hold an election for State officers. Mr. Dorr was chosen governor, and a legislature, composed exclusively of his supporters, was elected. The charter party also held an election, polling fifty-seven hundred votes, while the suffrage party claimed to have polled seventythree hundred. On the 3d of May, Mr. Dorr's party attempted to organize at Providence. The other party formed a State government on the same day at Newport, with Samuel W. King as governor. Governor King proclaimed the State under martial law, called out the militia, and asked and obtained the aid of the United States troops to suppress the movements of Dorr and his party. On the 18th of May a portion of the suffrage party assembled at Providence under arms, and attempted to seize the arsenal, but dispersed on the approach of Governor King with a military force. They assembled again at a place about ten miles from Providence, but being attacked by the State troops they dispersed without resistance. Mr. Dorr took refuge in Connecticut and afterward in New Hampshire. A reward of four thousand dollars was offered for his apprehension by the authorities of Rhode Island. He soon returned to the State, was arrested, tried, and convicted of high treason and sentenced to, imprisonment for life. He was subsequently pardoned and restored to his civil rights, and the record of his sentence expunged. He lived to see his State under a liberal constitution, and his party in legal possession of the government.

The Croton Aqueduct, for supplying water to the citizens of New York, was completed, and on the 14th of October the event was celebrated. Its length is about forty miles, and cost about twelve and a half millions of dollars.

The city of Dubuque, in Iowa, was incorporated. It is the oldest town in the State, it having been settled by the French in 1788.

The first manufacture of piano and damask table-covers by power-looms was commenced in Pennsylvania.

The first submarine telegraph in this country was laid on the 18th of October, between Governor's Island in the harbor of the city of New York, and the Battery in that city. It was invented by Professor Morse, and consisted of a copper wire insulated by means of a hempen strand coated with tar, pitch, and India-rubber. The next morning communications were beginning to be received through it, when the wire was caught by an anchor upon being hauled up, and a large portion of it destroyed. This disturbance of the experiment led Professor

1843

Morse to invent the method of transmitting the current across a body of water, by means of extending the wires a distance proportionate to the width along the banks on each side, and causing the poles to terminate each pair opposite each other in large metallic plates in the water.

The first introduction of wire-ropes was made by Mr. John A. Roebling, who manufactured them for use on the inclined planes of the Alleghany Portage Railroad, crossing the mountains and connecting the eastern and western divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal. Hemp-ropes had been heretofore used upon that railroad, at an annual expense of about twenty thousand dollars.

On the 21st of September, George Vandenhoff, who afterwards made himself universally popular as a dramatic reader, made his first appearance in America, at the Park Theatre in New York. On the 4th of October, Mr. John Brougham appeared for the first time in this country at the same place.

The railroad from Rochester to Buffalo, the last link in the line from Boston to Lake Erie; and the Philadelphia and Read. ing Railroad, were completed this year. The Concord and Nashua Railroad was opened for travel on the 1st of September.

On the 15th of April, the steamboat Medora, belonging to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, when about starting from Baltimore on a trial trip, exploded her boiler, killing twenty-seven persons and scalding and seriously injuring forty others.

About one thousand men, women, and children assembled at Westport, on the Missouri frontier, in June, and commenced an emigration to Oregon, where they arrived, after a laborious and fatiguing journey of more than two thousand miles, in October. Other emigrations soon followed, and before the close of the year over three thousand settlers were in Oregon.

A second exploring expedition, commanded by John C. Fremont, consisting of thirty-nine men, Americans, Creoles, and Canadians, left the town of Kansas, on the Missouri frontier, on the 29th of May, for Oregon and California. On the 11th of July, they came in sight of Pike's Peak, having passed numerous trains of emigrant wagons on their way, and on the 13th of August they crossed the Rocky Mountains at South Pass, which is about half-way between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. In September they visited the Great Salt Lake, and on the 25th of October they reached the Columbia River. On the 4th of November, they proceeded in boats to Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, about one hundred miles from its mouth, and on the 25th, started on their return journey by a southern route. A submarine telegraph cable was laid between Coney Island and Fire Island and the city of New York, by Mr. Samuel Colt, and operated with success. The cable was insulated by being covered with a combination of cotton yarn, asphaltum, and beeswax, and the whole inclosed in a lead pipe, gutta-percha being unknown at this time.

1844

Cincinnati was lighted with gas for the first time on the 14th of January.

The express business was extended from Philadelphia to Baltimore, under a partnership company called Adams & Company.

The first lake-propeller was launched at Cleveland. It used the screw of Ericsson's patent.

The Miami Canal, connecting the Ohio at Cincinnati with Lake Erie at Toledo, a distance of two hundred and fifteen miles, was completed. The work was formally commenced on the 4th of July, 1825.

The Georgia Railroad, one hundred and seventy-one miles in length, connecting Augusta with Atlanta; the Georgia Central, one hundred and ninety-one miles, between Savannah and Macon; and the Boston and Maine, between Boston and Berwick, were all opened for travel this year.

The renowned violinist Ole Bull made his first appearance in America on the 25th of November, at the Park Theatre in New York. Charles Walcott, for many years considered among the best light and eccentric comedians on the stage, made his début at the Olympic Theatre in New York.

The candidates of the Democratic party this year were James K. Polk for President, and George M. Dallas for Vice-President. The Whig candidates were Henry Clay and Theodore M. Frelinghuysen. The most important issue in the election contest was the question of the immediate annexation of Texas to the United States, the former party advocating it, the latter opposing. Some opposed the scheme because they feared the extension of slave territory, others that the United States would be involved in war with Mexico. The result of the election was successful to the Democratic candidates, Mr. Polk and Mr. Dallas each receiving one hundred and seventy electoral votes, and Clay and Frelinghuysen one hundred and five. Mr. Birney was again nominated by the Abolitionists for President, and received of the popular vote nearly sixty-five thousand.

The people of Illinois, in the neighborhood of Nauvoo, felt scandalized at the doctrines and practices of the Mormons. A newspaper was started to agitate the question of their expulsion from the locality. By the orders of Smith the Prophet, the obnoxious press was destroyed, the printing materials dispersed, and the editors were obliged to flee for their lives. At Carthage, warrants were prepared for the arrest of Smith, his brother, and sixteen others, accused of being accessories in the destruction of the printing-office. The constables sent to arrest them were expelled from Nauvoo. The people of the county were resolved to vindicate their laws, and the militia were ordered out. The Mormons fortified their city, and the governor of the State took the field in person. To avoid bloodshed, he parleyed with the Mormon leaders, and persuaded Smith and his brother to surrender themselves to the civil authority, with the assurance that they would receive protection and justice. The fiercest animosity existed between the people of Hancock County and