the Mormons. The idea prevailed that at the connivance of the governor the Mormon leaders would be allowed to escape. To prevent this, a mob with blackened faces assembled on the evening of the 27th of June, fell upon and dispersed the guard at Carthage jail, and rushed into the prison where the two Smiths were confined. Smith was mortally wounded while attempting to jump from the window, and his brother was shot dead in the cell. The murderers were never identified. Upon the death of Smith, the choice of a new head for the sect fell upon Brig ham Young. Disturbances occurred from time to time after this, until in the year 1846 the Mormons resolved to remove beyond the limits of civilization.

The Fremont Exploring Expedition returned to Kansas, its · starting-point, on the 31st of July, having visited this year the southern end of the Great Salt Lake; the Pass in the Sierra Nevada, a point within two degrees of the Pacific Ocean, far south of the latitude of Monterey; and a portion of New Mexico. On their return they crossed the Rocky Mountains about one hundred and ninety miles south of the South Pass.

This year is marked by the introduction, by Professor Morse, of the magnetic telegraph, and vulcanized India-rubber invented by Charles Goodyear. As to the first, Professor Morse had interested Congress in his invention, and secured an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars for the construction of an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. The conducting wires were first put into tubes placed in the ground, but that system soon proved to be impracticable, and then they were strung above on poles. The wires were covered with rope-. yarn and tar, to protect them against the weather. By the month of May, the whole line was laid, and magnets and recording instruments were attached to the ends of the wires at Mount Clare Depot, Baltimore, and at the Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol at Washington, and messages were successfully transmitted. Mr. Morse then sought further government patronage, which was declined upon the advice of the Postmaster General, who, in his report upon the subject, declared his belief that the telegraph, although an interesting experiment, could never become of practical value, and consequently a very moderate offer made by Professor Morse for the sale of his entire invention to the government was declined. An appeal to the enterprise was then made to the business men of the country. In order to bring the invention to their attention, Mr. Ezra Cornell, who had superintended the erection of the experimental line, opened for exhibition a short line of telegraph in Boston. Finding but little encouragement in that city, the exhibition was soon abandoned there and transferred to New York, where an experimental line was opened in the autumn, between No. 112 Broadway to a point just above the present Metropolitan Hotel. So little attention did the invention then receive, that Mr. Cornell and his assistant found it extremely difficult to maintain themselves in the most humble manner upon the admission-fee of one shilling per head, charged to view

the exhibition. Early in the next year Mr. Amos Kendall, who had been selected by Mr. Morse as his agent for the purpose, made exertions with the public to secure capital for a line of telegraph from New York to Baltimore and Washington. Meeting with little favor, he thought best to attempt its construction first between New York and Philadelphia, and to limit the request for capital to the probable cost of that section. The estimated cost of a line from Philadelphia to Hudson River was fifteen thousand dollars, which sum was with difficulty secured, chiefly outside of New York. Mr. Corcoran of Washington was the first to contribute. It was provided in the original subscription that the payment of fifty dollars should entitle the subscriber to two shares of fifty dollars each. A payment of fifteen thousand dollars, therefore, required an issue of thirty thousand dollars stock. To the patentees were issued an additional thirty thousand dollars of stock, or half the capital, as the consideration of the patent. The capital stock was therefore fixed at sixty thousand dollars. Meanwhile an act of incorporation was granted by the Legislature of Maryland-the first telegraphic charter issued in the United States. The name of the company was entitled "The Magnetic Telegraph Company."

Charles Goodyear, after experimenting more than ten years, and more than five years after he had discovered the secret of vulcanization, succeeded in conducting his process with absolute certainty. It was in 1820 that a pair of rubber shoes was seen for the first time in the United States. They were covered with gilding, and resembled in shape the shoes of a Chinaman. They were handed about in Boston only as a curiosity. Two or three years after, a ship from South America brought to Boston five hundred pairs of shoes, thick, heavy, and ill-shaped, which sold so readily as to invite further importations. In 1830, vast quantities of the raw gum reached the United States, covered with hides, in masses, of which no use could be made, and it remained unsold, or was sent to England. The raw rubber could then be bought in Boston at five cents a pound, and the idea of finding some means of utilizing it was suggested to Mr. E. M. Chaffee, a foreman of a Boston patent-leather factory. He experimented with the article, and succeeded, as he supposed, in making an invention of great value. He made some specimens of cloth spread with rubber, which, after being dried in the sun, presented a surface firm and smooth, that appeared to possess the good qualities of patent-leather, with the additional one of being water-proof. A number of capitalists were convinced of the value of his invention, and they formed a company in 1833 at Roxbury, with thirty thousand dollars capital. The success of the enterprise was astonishing, and within a year the capital was increased to one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Before another year expired this was increased to three hundred thousand, and in the year following to four hundred thousand. The company manufactured many articles of cloth covered with rubber, such as coats, caps, wagon curtains, coverings, and shoes of pure rubber without cloth.

The goods sold more rapidly than they could be manufactured. The prosperity of the Roxbury company called into existence similar establishments in other towns. Manufactories were started at Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, and Staten Island, with capitals ranging from one hundred thousand dollars to half a million, and all of them appeared to prosper. It was in 1834, when the business was most flourishing, that Mr. Goodyear's attention was called to a rubber lifepreserver, and he thought he could make an improvement in the inflating apparatus. He explained his contrivance to the agent of the Roxbury company, and offered to sell it. The agent, struck with the ingenuity displayed in the invention, took Mr. Goodyear into his confidence, and suggested his aid in overcoming a difficulty that threatened the company with ruin. He told him that the prosperity of the rubber companies was fallacious. Vast quantities of shoes and fabrics had been sold by his company at high prices in the cool months, but during the following summer the greater part of them had melted. Twenty thousand dollars' worth had been returned, reduced to the consistency of common gum, and emitting an odor so offensive that they had been obliged to bury it. Experiments made to overcome the difficulty had proved unsuccessful. Goods would become sticky in the sun and rigid in the cold. The agent urged Goodyear not to waste time upon minor improvements, but to direct all his efforts to finding out the secret of successfully working the material itself. This chance conversation with the agent led Goodyear to investigate the subject, and to continue his experiments year after year, against almost overwhelming discouragements and adversities. Meanwhile the business of all the rubber companies began to decline, and before the close of 1836 ceased altogether, resulting in a loss of about two millions of dollars.

The first operations in copper-mining in the Lake Superior region were commenced this year.

The second attempt in the United States to establish a theatre for operatic performances exclusively was made in New York by Ferdinand Palmo, who erected a building for the purpose on Chambers Street, in the rear of the City Hall. The enterprise was a failure, and the building was subsequently sold to William E. Burton, who used it for light comedy.

A treaty was made between the United States and China, by which the citizens of this country were permitted to frequent, trade, and to reside at the ports of Kwang-chow, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo, and Shanghai.

In June occurred a rise of the Missouri and the middle section of the Mississippi rivers, which far exceeded all former floods of those rivers ever known, destroying an immense amount of property.

The steamboat Shepherdess, while ascending the Mississippi, about eleven o'clock on the night of the 2d of January, struck a snag when about three miles south of St. Louis. In less than two minutes after the water rose to the lower deck, where many

of the passengers were sleeping. Upwards of forty lives were lost by this catastrophe. On the 25th of October, three of the boilers of the steamboat Lucy Walker burst, the boat caught fire, and over fifty lives were destroyed, besides several persons injured. This calamity took place on the Ohio, near New Albany, Indiana. More than eighty persons lost their lives by a collision between two steamboats on the Mississippi on the 1st of March. The concussion was so violent as to sink one of the boats in five minutes.

The first American newspaper established on the Pacific coast was issued at Oregon City, and called the Flumgudgeon Gazette, or Bumble Bee Budget. The Evening Journal was established at Chicago.

The Polka dance was introduced this year into this country; and a piece entitled "Polka Mania" was played at a theatre in New York, where the dance, from its novelty, attracted great crowds to witness the performance.

1845 On the 4th of March, James K. Polk and George M. Dallas commenced their terms of office as President and Vice-President of the United States.

Congress passed a bill for the annexation of Texas to the United States, which was signed by President Tyler on the 3d of March. The debate upon this subject had been long and violent. On the 16th of June, the Texan Congress accepted the terms of annexation, and on the 4th of July it was made complete. In December, Texas was admitted into the Union as a State, with a constitution permitting slavery within her limits. The Convention of Texas having authorized and requested the President of the United States to occupy and establish posts without delay upon the frontier and exposed positions of that republic, and to introduce such forces as were deemed necessary for the defence of the territory and people of Texas, an "army of occupation" was despatched from the United States, under the command of General Taylor, and on the 26th of July a body of United States troops landed from steam-vessels, at Aransas Bay, on which day the American flag was first planted in Texas, upon the south end of St. Joseph's Island. This movement and the measures of annexation agreed upon by the United States and Texas, were looked upon by the Mexican Government as acts of hostility towards Mexico, and preparations were made by the republic for an appeal to arms.

Congress passed acts admitting Florida and Iowa into the Union.

Congress reduced the rate of postage, making it five cents on single letters not exceeding three hundred miles, and ten cents over that distance.

Congress passed an act fixing the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the day of the presidential election in all the States. Heretofore the election was held at different times in the different States, and frequently its result was finally influenced by the votes in the States which held the first elections.

1846

The first Express business established west of Buffalo went into operation in April, under the name of Wells & Company. Petroleum was obtained in boring for salt near Tarentum, on the Alleghany, thirty-five miles above Pittsburg. Before this, the Seneca Indians gathered supplies of it, and it was known as Seneca oil, or Genesee oil, from its being found also near the head of the Genesee River.

Atlanta, Ga., was laid out as a town.

Improvements in the manufacture of carpets were introduced, by the invention of machinery for making Brussels and tapestry goods, by which eighteen to twenty yards of those carpets could be manufactured in a day, against four or five heretofore made by hand. By the improved method of producing figures, they would match, which operation when done by hand would match only imperfectly.

A conflagration occurred at Pittsburg, on the 10th of April, by which a large portion of the city was laid waste, and a greater number of houses destroyed than by all the fires which had previously visited the city. Twenty squares, containing about eleven hundred buildings, with their contents, were destroyed, involving a loss, as estimated, of ten millions of dollars. A conflagration occurred at New York on the 19th of July, destroying property of the estimated value of over five millions of dollars, including three hundred and forty-five buildings. The burned district embraced New, Broad, Beaver, Marketfield, Stone, and Whitehall streets, Exchange Place, and lower Broadway.

As the steamboat Marquette was leaving her wharf at New Orleans, on the 1st of July, all her boilers exploded simultaneously, killing about fifty persons. On the night of the 8th of January, the steamboat Belle Zane, while on her way from Zanesville, Ohio, to New Orleans, struck a snag in the Mississippi, and immediately capsized. Of the ninety persons on board, only fifty escaped drowning, and many of those who succeeded in reaching the shore were afterwards frozen to death. Others suffered amputation of their limbs, which were badly frozen.

Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt, a very popular actress, made her début at the Park Theatre, in New York, on the 13th of June. The northern boundary of Oregon was settled by treaty between the British Government and the United States, on the 15th of June, to be on the forty-ninth degree of north latitude. By this treaty the last remaining subject of controversy between the two nations was removed, and the relations of the United States and Great Britain were thus placed on the most firm and amicable footing.

Congress declared war against Mexico on the 13th of May, and soon passed other acts for carrying it on with vigor. The army under General Taylor arrived at the left bank of the Rio Grande about the last of March, and occupied a position opposite Matamoras. The Mexican generals commanding their troops on the Rio Grande declared that the advance of the