Federal government to coerce a State, and the expediency of concessions. Two peace schemes were conspicuous among several under consideration. One was the Crittenden Compromise. The Senator from Kentucky, whose name it bore, introduced it. The essential idea of it was a proposed amendment to the Constitution, fixing the old Missouri compromise line, latitude 36° 30', as the division between free and slavery territory in the West, prohibiting Congress from abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State, and providing for a more effectual enforcement of the fugitiveslave law. The other project was submitted to Congress by a peace convention made up of delegates from the various States, called by Governor Wise of Virginia. This body met in February. It adopted a plan forbidding interference with slavery wherever it existed, and allowing new States to decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery, and forbidding the annexation of new territory to the United States without the consent of the South. Neither of these measures was adopted by Congress. Mr. Seward, who, as Lincoln's chief rival in the nominating convention, was looked upon as probable Secretary of State and spokesman for the incoming administration, met them with a third project-to call a national convention to consider what amendments were necessary; but this was rejected also. Without waiting for these topics to be disposed of, the Senators and Congressmen from the eleven States which had then seceded withdrew from the National Legislature in Washington. South Carolina's senators resigned in November. Most of the withdrawals were in January, and a few of them were prefaced by short formal speeches. Jefferson Davis was one of those to indulge in this ceremony. This reduction of the Democratic strength made it practicable to admit Kansas, the thirty-fourth State, to the Union in February. The Morrill Tariff Act, which Southern free-traders would have antagonized, was also passed; and only the ordinary appropriations, amounting to seventy millions of dollars, were made for the coming year.

Long before the actual outbreak of the war the local State militia had taken possession of nearly every fort, arsenal, navy-yard, revenue-cutter, mint, sub-treasury, custom-house, post-office, and other Federal posts in the South. Anticipating this, Major Robert Anderson, at Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, removed his little garrison of United States troops to Fort Sumter by night in December. Fortress Monroe, at Hampton Roads, Va., was also in Federal hands; Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, and works at Key West and Tortugas, Fla., also; and this was all that was saved. Some thirty forts, hundreds of cannon, and munitions valued at twenty millions of dollars, fell into Southern hands. John B. Floyd, Buchanan's Secretary of War, who afterwards became a Confederate general, was accused of stocking the forts and arsenals in the South quite fully, with the view of thus aiding the cause of secession. The way in which the navy was dispatched to foreign waters

during the winter was also thought to be dictated by a desire to help the Confederacy by disabling, for a time, Lincoln's administration. Mr. Buchanan believed that he had no authority to check secession, and pursued a passive policy, aiming, however, to preserve peace until his successor should come in. Indeed, he practically pledged himself, by a commissioner secretly sent South, to remain neutral.

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The first shot fired at the Stars and Stripes in this contest, perhaps, was that aimed at the steamer Star of the West, sent down to Fort Sumter with provisions, in January. She left New York on the 4th, and reached Charleston harbor on the 9th. As she came up the bay that morning, a cannon-ball was sent into her from Fort Moultrie. This was the act of the South Carolina militia. As yet but one State had seceded There was no Confederacy. Without trying to communicate with Major Anderson the steamer turned about and left the harbor. This was the signal for a rapid occupation of other fortifications by Southern forces. The first decided act of war came three months later. On the 11th of April, General G. T. Beauregard demanded of Major Anderson the surrender of Fort Sumter to the Confederate forces, and this being refused, he began a thirty-four hours' bombardment next day. The fort was badly damaged, and Anderson's rations were exhausted, with no prospect of relief. He therefore surrendered. The news of this aggression thrilled the country. Lincoln immediately called for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months' service in suppressing the rebellion; and May 3d, for eighty-three thousand, including seamen, for three years or the war." Massachusetts and Pennsylvania soldiers were attacked by a mob while passing through Baltimore April 19th, and, one being killed, fired on the rioters, killing eleven. General B. F. Butler commanding Fortress Monroe, at the mouth of James River, attempted, June 10th, to take Bethel Church, near by, without success. General T. A. Morris, with Indiana and Ohio troops, invaded Virginia from Parkersburg, and won a slight victory at Philippi. General George B. McClellan, taking command in Western Virginia, followed this up with another more decisive, at Rich Mountain, July 11th. Another battle, September 14th, won by General W. S. Rosecrans, practically secured to the Union the region now included in West Virginia. Colonel Lew Wallace drove a small Confederate force from Romney, west of the Blue Ridge, June 11th. General Robert Patterson was thus enabled to safely invade the Shenandoah Valley from the north. He occupied Winchester, and was instructed to keep General Joseph E. Johnston's Confedcrate troops from going eastward to Manassas, where now the chief battle of the year was to be fought. The main Union army under General Irwin McDowell, advanced westward in July from Alexandria, Va. A skirmish with Beauregard's troops occurred near Bull Run, the 18th; and a battle ensued the 21st, at Manassas. The invaders seemed victorious at first; but after noon six thousand of Johnston's soldiers arrived,

and the Union troops fell back in great disorder to Washing ton. The Confederate loss was two thousand and fifty; Union, about three thousand. The disaster disheartened the North. Lieutenant-General Scott, commander-in-chief, then resigned. McDowell was promptly superseded by McClellan; and Patterson, for not restraining Johnston, was replaced by General N. P. Banks. McClellan threw two thousand troops across the Potomac at Ball's Bluff in October; but on the 21st, before they could be supported, they were attacked and routed.

Missouri was invaded by Confederates from Texas and Arkansas in the spring. They were defeated by General Nathaniel Lyon at Booneville, June 17th; by General Franz Sigel at Carthage, July 5th; and at Wilson's Creek, August 10th. Lyon was killed there, after apparent victory; and Sigel withdrew. The Confederates took Lexington, which General John C. Fremont recovered October 16th. General David Hunter, and then General H. W. Halleck, succeeded to command in Missouri that fall. Before the year closed the Union forces practically controlled the State.

The Confederates had occupied Columbus, Ky., in the autumn, and Belmont, in Missouri, opposite. General U. S. Grant tried to dislodge them from the latter place, November 7th, but was driven out again by General Polk's men from Columbus.

The Union navy blockaded most of the Southern seaports this year, capturing many inward-bound vessels with war-munitions, and outward-bound vessels with cotton, and helped troops get a foothold along the coast. Commodore Stringham and General Butler took the forts at Hatteras Inlet, N. C., August 29th, and Commodore Dupont and General Thomas W. Sherman captured those at Port Royal, S. C., November 7th. Next day, Captain Wilkes of the San Jacinto stopped the British merchant-steamer Trent, from Havana to England, and captured James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate commissioners, bound on a diplomatic errand to London. The English people sympathized with the Confederacy strongly. The British Government resented the act, and a declaration of war seemed imminent. But Lincoln's Secretary of State, Seward, having first secured from England an important admission of the sacredness of neutral flags in time of war, the prisoners. were surrendered.

In Congress, practically nothing was done, during the close of Buchanan's administration, having any reference to the war, as the war was not then a certainty. After the attack on Fort Sumter, however, and President Lincoln had called out the troops, suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the insurrectionary districts, declared a blockade of the Southern ports, and taken other measures which he thought the emergency required, he felt the necessity of moral and pecuniary support from Congress, especially as the military operations in May and June began to indicate the seriousness of the conflict already inaugurated. He therefore called an extra session of Congress to meet on the 4th of July. Accordingly it convened on that

date, and, after passing measures recommended by the President, adjourned on the 6th of August.

On the 17th of July, Congress passed an act authorizing a national loan for two hundred and fifty millions of dollars. For the loan, coupon or registered bonds, or treasury notes, were to be issued-the bonds to bear seven per cent interest, and the treasury notes, of not less than fifty dollars each, interest at the rate of seven and three tenths per cent; or the Treasury might issue notes of less amount than fifty dollars, bearing no interest, or notes bearing three and sixty-five hundredths per cent; provided that no such note should be for less than ten dollars, and that the amount so issued should not exceed fifty millions of dollars. On the 5th of August, Congress passed a supplemental act, authorizing the issue of Treasury notes of a denomination of not less than five dollars, and such notes payable on demand, without interest, not exceeding fifty millions of dollars, and that they should be received in payment of public dues.

In August, Congress passed an act for confiscating property in transit, or provided for transit, to or from insurrectionary States, or used for the promotion of insurrection. On the 16th the President issued a Proclamation declaring the seceding States to be in a state of insurrection, prohibiting all commercial intercourse between them and the other parts of the Union without special permission from the Government, under the penalty of the confiscation of all goods or vehicles conveying them; and declaring that all vessels belonging wholly or in part to any citizen of the insurgent States found at sea, or in a part of the United States, after fifteen days from the date of the proclamation, to be forfeited to the United States.

Postal communication with the Confederate States was ordered to be closed on the first of June, and letters directed there to be sent to the dead-letter office.

At this period there were about sixteen hundred banks in the United States. Their circulation, on the 1st of January, was estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury at two hundred and two millions of dollars; of this circulation, about one hundred and fifty millions were in the loyal States.

Kansas was admitted into the Union on the 30th of January, with a constitution prohibiting slavery within her limits. On the 2d of March, Colorado, Nevada, and Dakota were formed into Territories.

The Pacific telegraph-line between St. Louis and San Francisco was completed on the 25th of October. For the eastern part of the line the materials and tools were taken to Omaha, at which point everything was gathered in readiness to start westward. For that part of the line were employed four hundred men, fitted out for a hard campaign, with a rifle and a navy revolver for each man, and with the necessary provisions, including one hundred head of cattle for beef, to be driven with the train and killed as needed. For the transportation of the material and the supplies for this army of workmen, five hun

dred oxen and mules, and over one hundred wagons were purchased by the company; and these not proving sufficient, other transportation was hired, making the total number of beasts of burden seven hundred oxen and one hundred pair of mules. The first pole was set up on the 4th of July, and the work to Salt Lake City proceeded to completion at the rate of about ten miles per day. At the same time that the work was progressing between Omaha and Salt Lake City, another party was building the western half of the line between the latter place and San Francisco, and the two divisions were completed about the same time.

California was visited during the autumn and early winter by a disastrous flood. The streams, swollen by continued rains, flooded the valleys, inundated towns, swept away mills, dams, houses, and destroyed property to the estimated value of ten millions of dollars. The rains commenced early in November, and continued to fall without scarcely any cessation for four weeks.

On the 14th of November, a destructive fire occurred at Concord, N. H., which laid a large part of the business portion of the city in ashes. A conflagration at Charleston, on the 11th of December, destroyed property in the business portion of the city, of the value, as reported, of upwards of five millions of dollars. A submarine cable was successfully laid between Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, after a third trial.

The feat of telegraphing from an aerial station was accomplished, for the first time, by the aeronaut Mr. Lowe, who ascended in a balloon from the city of Washington, to the elevation of about six hundred feet. On the 10th of August, the aeronaut, Mr. La Montaine, ascended in a balloon from a tugboat in Hampton Roads, to the height of three thousand feet, and successfully observed the position of the Confederate forces beyond Newport News and at Sewall's Point. On the 4th of October, Mr. La Montaine made another ascent in the service of the Union army on the Potomac. He rose to the height of one and a half miles, and was carried directly over the lines of the Confederate army, where, after making satisfactory observations, he threw out ballast and rose to the height of three miles, at which elevation he struck a current of air which passed the balloon over Washington, and finally it descended in the State of Maryland.

The first steel guns manufactured in this country were made at Trenton, and were ready for service on the 1st of July.

The banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston suspended specie payments in December, in consequence of the withdrawal of large amounts of gold by depositors for the purpose of selling it at a premium.

The market price per pound of Middling Uplands cotton in the New York market on the 1st of January was eleven and one half cents; on the 1st of April, twelve and five eighths; on the 1st of July, fourteen and five-eighths; and on the first of October, twenty-one to twenty-one and a half cents.