personally, now vied with his adherents in lauding the rare wisdom and goodness which marked his conduct and character. It was decided that his body should be interred at his home, in Springfield, Ill. The long journey was one great funeral procession, lasting from the 21st of April, when the embalmed body left Washington, till the 4th of May, when it was entombed at Springfield. The ceremonies at New York, on the 25th of April, were by far the most imposing ever known in that city. It was estimated that sixty thousand people marched in the procession. By the death of Mr. Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, elected as Vice-President, became the President of the United States, taking the oath of office on the 15th of April. Of those found upon trial as having been the accomplices of Booth, and abettors in his escape, four were hung on the 7th of July, three were sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for life, and one for six years.

An act was passed by Congress chartering the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company at Washington. The last warloan of $600,000,000, to be exempt from taxation, was authorized in March, just before Lee's surrender.

The civil war being ended in April, measures were necessary to bring the seceded States back into their proper relation with the Union, and protect the emancipated colored people therein from possible violence. President Johnson framed a plan of Reconstruction, which resembled that which Lincoln had contemplated. It was to appoint provisional governors in the Southern States, who were to call conventions of the people, which in turn were to order elections of complete State governments. The conventions were required to declare the acts of secession null and void; to declare slavery forever abolished; to repudiate the State debts incurred in aid of the rebellion, and to provide that the State officers elected should be safe and loyal men. If the reorganization failed, troops were to be on hand in every State to maintain order and authority. To aid this plan, April 29th, the President by proclamation opened the Southern ports to trade, except in arms, uniforms, and railroad and telegraph material, these restrictions being all removed subsequently. May 29th, a proclamation was issued granting "amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves" and lawful confiscations, to all the Southern people, except to specified classes of the leaders and officials of the rebellion. In May, June, and July the provisional governors were appointed, except in Tennessee, Louisiana, Virginia, and Arkansas, where the existing State governments were accepted as satisfactory. The plan of reorganization as outlined above was carried out at once, and before the end of the year State governments were in operation in every State. In a few months' time the social and commercial relations of the South with the rest of the country were thus re-established. The political conventions of both the Republican and Democratic parties in the North this year approved this plan. Some Republicans, however, were dissatis

fied with it, deeming that it inadequately guaranteed protec-, tion to the freedmen.

A resolution submitted by Congress to the several States for approval in March, as an amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States, was ratified by three fourths as required, and went into effect in December. The proposed amendment was rejected by Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey.

At the beginning of this year negroes were excluded from voting in all the States, excepting Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. In Massachusetts, all voters, white or black, were required to be able to read and write their names. In Rhode Island the ballot was only given to every male citizen, white or black, who owned real estate worth one hundred and thirty-four dollars, or rent of seven dollars a year, or, if a native of the State, who paid an annual tax of one dollar. Proposed amendments to the constitutions of the States of Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Colorado, by which the right to vote would be given to negroes, were voted upon in the fall by conventions of the people of those States, and were rejected in all.

The total debt of the United States on the 31st of October was $2,804,549,437.50. The circulation outstanding was $704,000,000, of which a little over $428,000,000 were in greenbacks, $185,000,000 in national-bank notes, $65,000,000 in State-bank notes, and the remainder was in fractional currency.

Another attempt to lay the Atlantic Telegraph Cable was made in July, and was unsuccessful. The cable, stored on the mammoth steamship Great Eastern, left Valencia Bay on the 23d,. the heavy shore-end twenty-six miles long having been successfully laid on the preceding day, and spliced to the cable on board the steamer. On the 2d of August, when the steamer was ten hundred and sixty-two miles from Valencia, and thirteen hundred and twelve miles of cable had been paid out, the cable chafed against the projecting rims of the hawse-holes, and finally broke, the end flying overboard, and in a few moments was lost in the ocean. About one half the entire length of the cable was overboard. Still it was hoped that it might be recovered, although the depth of water was twenty-five hundred fathoms. The Great Eastern steamed back a dozen miles and threw over a grapple attached to a wire-rope, capable of supporting a strain of ten tons; and the vessel steamed back and forth across the line in which the cable must lie. At 4 A.M. on the 3d of August, it was evident that the grapple had caught the cable, and the rope was hauled in. The strain of course increased with every foot of the cable that was raised. In six hours eleven hundred and fifty fathoms had been brought on board, when the rope parted, and cable and grapple and rope sunk again to the bottom. But the experiment showed that it was possible to fish up the cable from the bottom of the ocean. During the next four

1866

days the weather was unfavorable, and nothing was accomplished. Just before noon of the 7th another grapple was flung over, and after dragging until six P.M. the cable was again caught, and at eight the hauling in was begun. The next morning one thousand fathoms had been brought in when the rope broke. The 9th and 10th were spent in unavailing attempts to grapple the cable. In the afternoon of the 11th, it was again caught by the grapple, which was now attached to a rope composed of sixteen hundred fathoms of wire, the remainder of hemp. In three hours, when seven hundred and sixty fathoms had been hauled in, the rope broke, leaving seventeen hundred and fifty fathoms overboard. The Great Eastern, having no more rope on board for grappling, returned to England.

Wall Street in August was startled by the failure of one of the wealthiest banking-houses of New York, and the discovery of forgeries to a large amount committed by Edward B. Ketchum, a junior partner of the firm. In addition, securities had been abstracted from the vaults to the amount of three millions of dollars or more. The forgeries were about one half that sum, and consisted of forged gold certificates purporting to be signed by wealthy houses, which were negotiated at the banks as security for loans.

The first sheet-zinc manufactured in the United States was made at Bethlehem, Pa., in March.

Barnum's Museum, at the corner of Ann Street and Broadway, in New York, was destroyed by fire, with the contents, on the 13th of July.

About twenty persons were burned to death, and half a million dollars' worth of property destroyed, at a fire in Philadelphia on the 8th of February.

On the 31st of March, the steam-transport General Lyon, from Wilmington for Fortress Monroe, having on board between five and six hundred persons, caught fire when off Cape Hatteras, and was entirely consumed, and nearly all of those on board perished.

The following was the published scale of prices for paper in New York, in January: For note-paper, first-class, 55 to 60 cents per pound; good, 50 to 55 cents; common, 45 to 50 cents; for letter and foolscap, five cents per pound less than notepaper; for news, rag, 22 to 25 cents; for news, straw, 20 to 22 cents; for manilla wrapping paper, 18 to 20 cents.

The price for Middling Uplands cotton in the New York market on the 1st of January, of this year, per pound, was 118 to 120 cents; on the 1st of April, 45 to 48 cents; on the 1st of July, 43 cents, and on the 1st of October, 45 to 45 cents.

The price for gold per dollar was quoted in the New York market on the 1st of January, at 2274 cents; on the 1st of April, 154 cents; on the 1st of July, 136 to 138 cents, and on the 1st of October, at 1431 to 144 cents.

Hostility to President Johnson's policy in relation to the Southern States showed in Congress, and led to the appointment

of a Joint Committee of Fifteen to consider Reconstruction questions, soon after the opening of Congress in December, 1865. This action was the beginning of a disagreement between Congress and the President. At the instance of this committee, the Civil Rights Bill on the 9th of April was passed, and an act enlarging the scope of the Freedmen's Bureau. These acts were vetoed by the President, and passed over his vetoes. The Civil Rights Bill ordained that all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, were to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery and involuntary service, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party should have been duly convicted, should have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, to be sued, be parties and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as are enjoyed by white citizens; and should be subject to like punishment, pains and penalties, and to none other; any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. President Johnson's objections were that the act was inexpedient, and that the subjects embraced in the enumeration of rights contained in the bill, had been considered as belonging exclusively to the States. On the 18th of June, the Committee on Reconstruction made a long report to Congress, declaring that none of the Southern States had yet placed itself in a position to secure satisfactory relations to the Union, or representatives in Congress, and advised new legislation. On the 8th of July, Congress adopted a resolution proposing the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, establishing the citizenship of all natives of this country, imposing legal disabilities on the Confederate leaders, and prohibiting the payment of the rebel debt or pensions.

On the 25th of July, Congress passed an act reviving the grade of general in the army, and creating the grades of admiral and vice-admiral in the navy. The title of general was bestowed upon Grant, and lieutenant-general upon Sherman, while those of admiral and vice-admiral were conferred upon Farragut and D. D. Porter.

There were two or more expeditions organized by the Fenians in the United States for an invasion of Canada and New Brunswick. One, numbering about five hundred men, quietly gathered in April, at Eastport, in Maine, with an intention of making a descent upon the island of Campobello, belonging to New Brunswick. After a delay of several days, which were spent in holding meetings and parading the streets of Eastport, a schooner arrived from Portland with seven hundred and fifty stand of arms from the Fenian sympathizers in that city. The British consul at that port complained, and the arms were seized by the United States Government. A. British war-steamer anchored off Campobello, and troops were summoned to prevent

the invasion of the Province, and a detachment of United States troops were sent from Portland to Calais, at which point many of the Fenians had congregated. General Meade arrived on the 19th of April, and assumed the command of the United States troops. A few days later, the Fenians, discouraged at the lack of support from their friends in New York, abandoned the enterprise and returned home. On the 19th of May, twelve hundred stand of arms were seized by the United States authorities, at Rouse's Point, in New York, near the Canadian frontier. On the 30th of the same month, the Fenians, coming from different parts of the country, assembled in secret convention at Buffalo. On the same day, twelve hundred stand of arms were seized at St. Albans by the United States authorities. Canada was thoroughly aroused at the prospect of an invasion, and companies of troops were moving to the threatened points. On the 1st of June, a force of twelve to fifteen hundred Fenians crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo, in canal-boats, and took possession of Fort Erie, an old work then unoccupied. On the 2d, a skirmish occurred between some Fenians and Canadian volunteers, in which some of the latter were reported killed and a large number wounded. On the night of the same day, the Fenians being without supplies, artillery, or reinforcements, attempted to retreat into the United States, but they were intercepted by a United States gun-boat, and about seven hundred of their number arrested. General Barry, then in command of the United States forces in that vicinity, accepted a parole from over thirteen hundred of the Fenians, who promised to abandon the enterprise. The officers were relieved by giving bail that they would appear when_required for trial for an infraction of the neutrality laws. Fenians, however, continued to arrive from various parts of the country, but were ordered home by their commanding officers. Simultaneously with the movement from Buffalo, Fenians were reported to be assembling on the border in Vermont, and Malone, N. Y., and General Meade, commanding the United States troops, proceeded to Ogdensburg to commence operations for preventing the invasion. On the 7th of June, the Fenians, numbering over one thousand, crossed the frontier and took possession of St. Armand, which had been evacuated by the Canadians. On the same day one of the chief officers of the Fenian organization in the United States was arrested at St. Albans, Vt., another at New York, and several other leaders at Buffalo. On the 9th, upon the advance of the Canadian troops at St. Armand, the Fenians retired and recrossed the frontier. General Meade arrested large numbers of the Fenians, accepted their parole, and provided them means of transportation, for all who required it, to their homes.

A severe hail-storm passed over Baltimore, on the night of May 1st. Many of the hailstones measured from three to four inches in circumference. The destruction of window-glass was very great, the amount being computed at twenty thousand panes. On the southern and eastern sides of the city, where