1851

at Havana, which produced receipts, as it was stated, of upwards of seven hundred thousand dollars.

The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was completed from Chicago to Elgin, IlI., a distance forty-two miles. This was the first road built from Chicago running in any direction, and the first one in the State. It was chartered in 1836, but its construction was not commenced, on account of the financial situation of the country, until the year 1847, at which time the first rail was laid.

A fire occurred in Philadelphia on the 9th of July, destroying property exceeding one million of dollars in value, causing a loss of thirty-five lives, and injuring about one hundred more persons. The area swept by the fire was one of the most densely populated in the city, occupied principally by poor people, who suffered greatly by the calamity. A fire destroyed about three hundred buildings and much valuable property in San Francisco, on the 14th of June.

A new steamer, called the Anglo-Norman, left New Orleans on the 14th of December, on an experimental trip, having on board a large pleasure-party, consisting of two hundred and ten persons. Soon after starting, all her boilers exploded, kill. ing and wounding nearly half the people on board.

Congress passed an act fixing the rates of postage on letters at three cents on single letters if prepaid, and five cents if not prepaid, on all distances under three thousand miles, and double those rates over that distance.

An act was passed authorizing the President to send a government vessel to the Mediterranean to bring Kossuth, the Hungarian general, and other exiles among his countrymen, to the United States. In September, the United States steamship Mississippi sailed from Constantinople through the Dardanelles to Kutaya, where Kossuth and his comrades embarked. The ship proceeded to Marseilles, but being refused a passage through France by the French Government, Kossuth remained on board the steamer until she reached Gibraltar. Having determined to make a hasty visit to England, he left the American ship, and proceeded to Southampton in an English steamer. Having received a cordial welcome from the people of several parts of England, Kossuth embarked for the United States in the steamer Humboldt, and arrived in the harbor of New York on the 5th of December. He remained in that city for some days as its guest, receiving great demonstrations of respect and sympathy. His entry into the city was celebrated by a grand military and civic procession, amid a vast concourse of people assembled to welcome him. His address on the occasion was remarkable for its bold and dignified sentiments, and for the highest order of eloquence. On the 11th a banquet was given him by the city council, and afterwards various other entertainments were given him in the city, and deputations of citizens of different classes, and from various parts of the United States, waited on him with their welcome. From New York Kossuth proceeded to Washington, stopping on his way

at Philadelphia and Baltimore, where he was welcomed as in New York. On the 31st he was presented to the President of the United States, on which occasion he expressed his gratitude for himself, his associates, and his country, and for the encouragement and sympathy shown by our government for the Hungarian cause. Kossuth visited various sections of the Union, and was received everywhere with demonstrations of welcome and enthusiasm for himself and his cause. Kossuth at length returned to New York, whence he embarked for England, in July, 1852.

Another invasion of Cuba, by four hundred and eighty men under General Lopez, took place on the 11th of August. Many of his followers were killed, and others taken prisoners and shot. Lopez himself was taken captive, and executed on the 1st of September.

Several attempts were made in the Northern States by agents of Southern slave-owners to seize their fugitive slaves. Some of the fugitives were rescued by force and others by subscriptions raised and paid for their freedom.

Davenport, Iowa, was incorporated under a city charter. It Contained, at this period, a population of about two thousand.

The Hudson River Railroad was completed between New York and Albany, and opened for travel on the 8th of October. The New York and Erie Railroad was completed in April, from Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, to Piermont, on the Hudson River. The formal celebration of the opening of the road took place on the 14th of May, and among the distinguished guests who attended were the President of the United States and some members of his Cabinet.

The Wabash and Erie Canal, connecting the Ohio River at Evansville, Ind., with Lake Erie, at Toledo, a distance of four hundred and sixty-seven miles, was completed.

The first iron-front building in Indianapolis was erected.

The first number of the New York Times appeared on the 18th of September. The first newspaper published in Minnesota, outside of St. Paul, was issued during the last week in May, and called The St. Anthony Express.

Lola Montes, the famous danseuse, made her first appearance on the stage in the United States, at the Broadway Theatre, in New York, on the 29th of December. Her world-renowned adventures had given her name a celebrity, which attracted great crowds in New York and the principal cities of the country where she visited.

Crimes against property and the person had become so frequent in San Francisco, that numbers of the citizens formed themselves into a Vigilance Committee, and adopted measures for the punishment of crime more sure and summary than those furnished by the administration of law.

A conflagration in San Francisco, on the 3d of May, destroyed a large part of the business portion of the city. Twenty-five hundred buildings were consumed, involving a loss of three and a half millions of dollars. The custom-house, seven hotels,

and the post-office were among those burned. On the 22d of June another fire occurred at the same place, which destroyed five hundred buildings, involving a loss of three millions of dollars.

In Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and along the whole course of the Upper Mississippi, great damage was done, in June, by an unusual and long-continued flood of that river. Many towns of considerable size were quite overflowed. At St. Louis, during the greater part of that month, the levee was entirely submerged, and all the stores on Front Street filled with water to the depth of several feet. For a vast extent along the Mississippi, Missouri, and their tributaries, the bottom-lands were submerged for so long a time as to destroy the growing crops.

A sad accident occurred in New York on the 27th of November. In a large public school in the Ninth Ward one of the teachers was seized with paralysis. The circumstance alarmed her pupils, and their screams created a sudden panic throughout the whole school. Immense numbers rushed to the stairs, the banisters of which gave way, and the children fell one upon another, upon the stone floor below. Forty-three were killed by the catastrophe.

The steamer John Adams struck a snag on the Ohio, on the 27th of January, and sunk immediately, causing a loss of one hundred and twenty-three lives, mostly emigrants. Upwards of ninety persons lost their lives by a boiler explosion on the steamer Brilliant, on the Mississippi, near Bayou Goula. About sixty persons were killed, scalded, or mutilated, by a boiler explosion on the steamboat Oregon, near Island No. 82, on the Mississippi, on the 2d of March.

1852 At the presidential election this year the candidates of the Democratic party were Franklin Pierce for President, and William R. King for Vice-President, each of whom received two hundred and fifty-four electoral votes, and were elected. The Whig party nominated General Winfield Scott for President, and William A. Graham for Vice-President, and they received forty-two electoral votes-those of four States only, viz., Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The FreeSoil, or Anti-Slavery party, nominated John P. Hale for President, and George W. Julian for Vice-President. A portion of the abolitionists nominated as candidates William Goodell for President, and S. M. Piper for Vice-President. The slavery question was now growing into an important issue in national politics, and divisions existed in the two great political parties of the country upon that subject. While Democrats of the Northern States were willing to consider the question of the. extension of slavery as settled, those of the South were divided into what were called "Union men" and "Southern-rights men"-the latter holding the doctrine of the right of a sovereign State to secede from the Union whenever the rights of the State were violated by the action of the general government. This Southern-rights section comprised a large majority

of the Democratic party in most of the slave-holding States. On the other hand, the great body of the Whigs at the South were Union men, and satisfied with the measures of the last Congress. But, in the Northern States generally, the largest portion of the Whig party were dissatisfied with some of the compromise measures of Congress, although acquiescing in the same, and had on all suitable occasions, through their representatives in Congress and otherwise, opposed the extension of slavery in the Territories of the United States. The abolitionists, so called, were a distinct organization on the subject of antislavery, and composed of persons drawn from both the Democratic and Whig parties.

The number of the emigrants to Oregon, this year, was estimated at ten thousand.

The East River between New York and Brooklyn was frozen over on the 20th of January, and a stream of travellers crossed from one city to the other for a few hours in the forenoon.

Williamsburg, L. I., organized under a city charter, on the 1st of January. A ferry was established between Greenpoint and New York. Manchester, N. H., was first lighted with gas in September, and Easton, Pa., in November.

A system of telegraphic fire-alarms was devised in Boston and adopted in that city.

The manufacture of galvanized iron was first commenced in this country at Philadelphia, this year.

The first working model of Wellman's self top-card stripper was exhibited, and in the next year patented. It is stated that the average cost of stripping by hand was three hundred dollars per annum, all of which was saved by this invention, which also saved from one eighth to one quarter of a cent per pound on the raw cotton.

The lens system of illuminating the lighthouses on the American coast was commenced, and it soon superseded the reflectors which had been used exclusively since their introduction in 1812.

Signora Alboni, considered the most distinguished contralto singer of this century, arrived in the United States in June, and for upwards of a year sang in operas, concerts, and oratorios in the principal cities with great success.

The Michigan Southern Railroad from Monroe, Michigan, to Chicago, was completed and opened for travel on the 20th of February. This was the first road from the East that entered that city. The Michigan Central followed, and was opened the whole distance between Detroit and Chicago on the 21st of May. The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad was opened for travel between Chicago and Joliet, a distance of forty miles, on the 18th of October.

About three fourths of the city of Sacramento were destroyed by fire on the 2d of November. About forty blocks were burned over, consuming about twenty-five hundred buildings, and depriving of shelter nearly one half the inhabitants of the

1853

city. Several lives were lost, and the value of the property destroyed was estimated at over five millions of dollars.

An unusual number of accidents occurred on the western

waters this year. On the 3d of April, the steamboat Glencoe, from New Orleans, arrived at St. Louis, and had just been moored at the levee when three of her boilers burst, causing the death of more than eighty persons. The houses for several squares around appeared to reel under the force of the concussion. On the 2d of the same month, more than twenty persons were killed on the steamboat Redstone, by the explosion of its boilers, while on the Ohio River, near Carollton. On the 9th of April, the steamer Saluda, bound for Council Bluffs, burst her boilers near Lexington, Mo., killing nearly one hundred persons, most of whom were women on their way to the Great Salt Lake. On the 5th of July, the steamboat St. James exploded her boilers on Lake Ponchartrain, near New Orleans, while carrying a large number of passengers returning from the celebration of the previous day. More than forty lives were lost by this disaster. A flue of the steamboat Franklin collapsed when near St. Genevieve, on the Mississippi, on the 22d of August, causing the loss of thirty-two persons. A catastrophe occurred on Lake Erie, before daylight, on the morning of the 20th of August, from a collision which occurred between the steam-propeller Ogdensburg and the steamer Atlantic. More than one hundred lives were lost by this disaster, the greater portion of them being Norwegian emigrants, who were unable through their ignorance of the English language to avail themselves of the means of safety suggested.

The burning of the steamboat Henry Clay, which occurred on the Hudson River on the 27th of July, probably caused greater excitement throughout the community than any other disaster of the year, partly because of the criminal recklessness displayed by the officers of the boat. The steamer left Albany in the morning with a large number of passengers for New York. During the greater part of her way down she ran a race with a rival boat, carrying an extraordinary head of steam, and becoming so intensely heated by the large fires kept up that it became difficult to pass from one end of the steamer to the other. The passengers remonstrated with the officers, but without effect. In the afternoon, when opposite Yonkers, the boat took fire, was run ashore, and it burned to the water's edge. Over seventy lives were lost by drowning and the flames. Another accident occurred on the Hudson River about forty miles below Albany, on the 4th of September. The connection pipes of the steamer Reindeer burst, killing twenty-seven persons and seriously injuring fifty more.

Franklin Pierce was inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th of March, and William R. King took the oath of office as Vice-President.

Congress passed an act erecting a new territory out of the northern part of Oregon, with the name of Washington Territory.