Chapter XII: Part 12

During this interim the practice of duelling in England, but recently countenanced in the army by the Duke of Wellington, fell under lasting disfavor by the fatal outcome of an army duel, in which Lieutenant Hawkes killed Lieutenant Seaton. About the same time occurred the death of Thomas Hood, the poet and humorist. Born in 1798, as a son of a bookseller, he soon became a writer. As one of the editors of the "London Magazine," he moved among all the principal wits of the day. His first book, "Odes and Addresses to Great People," was written in conjunction with J.H. Reynolds, his brother-in-law. This was followed by "Whims and Oddities," in prose and verse; "National Tales," and "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," a book full of imaginative verse. Hood's rich sense of humor found scope in his "Comic Annual," appearing through ten successive years, and his collection of "Whimsicalities." Among his minor poems, "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt" deserve special mention.

[Sidenote: Death of Sydney Smith]

[Sidenote: Pungent satire]

Sir Sydney Smith, the essayist, died shortly before this. Born in 1771, he studied for orders and became a clergyman. At the opening of the Nineteenth Century he entered the field of authorship with the publication of "Six Sermons Preached at Charlotte Chapel." Then came the famous "Letters on the Catholics, from Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham." This book established Sydney Smith's reputation as a satirist. For nearly twenty years he published no more books, though a constant contributor to the "Edinburgh Review." Some idea of Sydney Smith's pungent style may be derived from his famous remarks on England's taxation during the wars with Napoleon: "The schoolboy," he said, "whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of one hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and then he is gathered to his forefathers to be taxed no more."

[Sidenote: Meagre literary remains]

It was Sydney Smith, too, who asked the famous question: "Who ever reads an American book?" In 1824 Sydney Smith broke his long silence as an author, with the fervent pamphlet "The Judge that Smites Contrary to the Law." This was followed by a long series of open letters on clerical and political questions of the day. Shortly before his death he brought out a collection of sermons. A posthumous work was his collection, "Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy." Sydney Smith's case has been held up, together with that of Swift, as an example of political ingratitude. Despite all his labors for the Whig cause, but slender recognition was given to him by his political friends in office. The excuse for not making him a bishop was that his writings were generally regarded as inconsistent with clerical decorum. Like Jeffrey, Wilson and other distinguished contributors to English periodical literature at this time, he left no truly great work to posterity.

[Sidenote: Elizabeth Fry's work]

Elizabeth Fry, the great English prison reformer, died on October 15. She it was that improved the condition of women prisoners at Newgate. Later her influence was apparent in most of the reforms introduced into the jails, houses of correction, lunatic asylums and infirmaries of England, the abuses of which were so eloquently voiced by Dickens.

[Sidenote: Peel recalled]

[Sidenote: A premature announcement]

Lord John Russell's attempts to form a new Ministry proved unsuccessful, largely because Lord Howick--who by the death of his father had become Earl Grey--refused to join the new Ministry on account of his objections to the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston. Sir Robert Peel was presently recalled. All of his colleagues retained their posts, except Lord Stanley, superseded by Gladstone. Soon after Peel's re-entry into office, the London "Times" announced that the Cabinet had decided on proposing a measure for the repeal of the corn laws. This premature announcement was one of the most startling journalistic achievements of the time. Notwithstanding all the published denials it was generally believed, and was followed by a great fall in the price of corn.

[Sidenote: War with Sikhs]

[Sidenote: Moodkee]

[Sidenote: Ferozeshahar]

In the mind of the Ministry, as well as of the country at large, the threatening state of foreign affairs claimed precedence. In Autumn the Sikh army of the Khalsa had crossed the Sutlej, to the number of 60,000 warriors, 40,000 armed followers and 150 guns. Sir John Little marched out of Ferozepore with 10,000 troops and 31 guns to offer battle, but the Sikhs preferred to surround them. Meanwhile, Sir Hugh Gough and Sir Henry Hardinge, the new Governor-General, hurried toward the frontier with a large relieving force. On September 18, they met the army of Lal Singh at Moodkee and won a slender success. But for the flight of Lal Singh, the Sikhs might have claimed the victory. The British troops now advanced on the Sikh intrenchments, Ferozeshahar, where they effected a junction with Little. On December 21, the British advanced in force, but encountered such stubborn resistance that the day ended in a drawn battle. Not until after sunset did Gough's battalions succeed in storming the most formidable of the Sikh batteries. After a night of horrors the battle was resumed. The Sikh soldiers, who had risen in mutiny against their own leaders, fell back and yielded their strong position. The second army of the Sikhs under Tej Singh came up too late. After a brief artillery engagement, all the Sikh forces fell back across the Sutlej River.

1846

[Sidenote: Battle of Sobraon]

[Sidenote: End of first Sikh war]

In January, the hostile forces on both sides of the Sutlej River in India were reinforced. The Sikhs recrossed the river, entered British territory, and hostilities were renewed. On January 27, Sir Harry Smith defeated a part of the Sikh forces at Aliwal. The Sikhs threw up intrenchments at Sobraon. On February 10, the British army advanced to the attack under Gough and Hardinge. The battle proved one of the hardest fought in the history of British India. Advancing in line, the British had two battalions mowed down by the Khalsa guns. Tej Singh broke down the bridge over the river. After fighting all day, the British at last succeeded in driving the Sikhs into the Sutlej at the point of the bayonet. The victory was dearly won. The British losses were 2,000 men, while the Sikhs were said to have lost 8,000. This practically ended the first Sikh war. The British army crossed the Sutlej River by means of their pontoons, and, pushing on to Lahore, there dictated terms of peace. An indemnity of a million and a half pounds was exacted. It was paid by Gholab Singh, the Viceroy of Cashmere and Jamu, upon British recognition of his independence of the Sikh Government at Lahore. The British frontier was extended from the banks of the Sutlej to those of the Ravi.

[Sidenote: English internal affairs]

[Sidenote: Death of Clarkson]

[Sidenote: Disraeli]

[Sidenote: Repeal of corn laws]

[Sidenote: Fall of Peel's Ministry]

[Sidenote: Richard Cobden's reward]

[Sidenote: Modern progress]

[Sidenote: Astronomical discoveries]

[Sidenote: Sue's "Wandering Jew"]

In England, Sir Henry Hardinge's services in the Sikh war were rewarded by his elevation to the peerage. The distress of the previous year continued, owing partly to a commercial panic brought on by overspeculation in railways, and partly to a repeated failure of the crops. To relieve the potato famine in Ireland, Parliament voted L10,000,000 for that country. In the midst of this general distress the twopenny omnibuses made their first appearance in London, and the first issue of the "Daily News" appeared in the metropolis. Leigh Hunt brought out his stories from the Italian poets. Sir Aubrey De Vere, the Irish poet, died in his thirty-ninth year. A few years before his death he had published his "Song of Faith" and other poems. A posthumous publication was the poetic drama "Mary Tudor." Thomas Clarkson, the great anti-slavery advocate of England, died soon afterward, in his eighty-sixth year. Early during the first Parliamentary session Sir Robert Peel avowed his complete change of face in regard to the corn laws. The rage of the protectionists was voiced by Benjamin Disraeli, then known chiefly as a writer of novels remarkable for the wild exuberance of their fancy. He denounced Peel as a political trimmer and no more of a statesman "than a boy who steals a ride behind a carriage is a great whip." Peel, in speaking for the principle of free trade, declared that England had received no guarantees from any foreign government that her example would be followed. Notwithstanding their hostile tariffs, however, he showed that the value of British exports had increased above L10,000,000 since the first reductions in the tariffs were made. On June 26, a bill for the total repeal of the corn laws was at last accepted. It passed through the Commons by a majority of 98 votes, while in the House of Peers, largely through the efforts of the Duke of Wellington, a majority of 47 was attained. The wrath of the defeated protectionists found vent on the same day when another Irish oppression bill was brought before the House. Lord Bentinck, as the mouthpiece of the protectionist party, launched forth in vehement invective against Sir Robert Peel, "his forty paid janizaries, and the seventy other members who, in supporting him, blazoned forth their own shame." In conclusion, Lord Bentinck called upon Parliament to "kick the bill and the Ministry out together," exclaiming, "It is time that atonement should be made to the betrayed honor of Parliament and of England." After this speech the Ministry called for a vote of confidence. It was denied by a majority of 73 votes against the government. On June 29, Sir Robert Peel announced his resignation. In a final speech he gave all credit for the repeal of the corn laws to Richard Cobden. A few weeks later a testimonial of L80,000 was placed at the disposal of Richard Cobden for his eminent services in promoting the repeal of the corn laws. On July 16, Lord Russell succeeded Peel as Prime Minister. His Cabinet included the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, Earl Granville, Lord Auckland and Gladstone. The Duke of Wellington was retained in supreme command of the army. Unlike other heroes, he lived to see several monuments raised to his fame. Thus the grand Wellington Monument in London, made chiefly from captured cannon, was erected at the corner of Hyde Park. Otherwise it was a year of bridge building in England. At Newcastle a high level bridge was erected, while at Conway and at the Menai Strait work was begun on two of the greatest tubular bridges of England. In Germany, Schoenbein invented gun-cotton. About the time of the death of Friedrich Bessel, the great German astronomer, one of the greatest triumphs of abstract astronomical reasoning was achieved. In France, Leverrier had worked out the position of the planet Neptune, finally determining it on September 23. He communicated this to Johann Galle at Berlin, who discovered the planet on the same night. Adams, in England, a few months previous, had made calculations to the same effect, and communicated with Challis, but owing to delays Challis did not discover the planet until after Galle. The Royal Astronomical Society at London awarded its gold medal to each as equally deserving. Within a few days after this discovery, on October 10, a satellite of Neptune was discovered by Laselle. Eugene Sue, moved by the popular agitation against the Jesuits, wrote his novel of the "Wandering Jew," first published in serials.

[Sidenote: Attempts to kill French king]

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon escapes from Ham]

Another attempt to kill King Louis Philippe by one Lecompte in April had been frustrated by the Guards. On July 29, Joseph Henry risked his life in the seventh attempt at the assassination of the King. Louis Bonaparte, the quondam king of Holland, who resigned his throne rather than submit to his brother Napoleon's demands, died in his sixty-eighth year. His namesake, Prince Louis Napoleon, imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, succeeded in making a sensational escape disguised in the garb of a stone mason. Once more he returned to his exile in England.

[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein question]

On July 8, King Christian VIII. of Denmark published an open letter in which he reasserted the union of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein with Denmark regardless of the differing systems of succession prevailing in these provinces. The question of succession was so intricate that the Chancelleries of Europe despaired of satisfactory solution. Inasmuch as Schleswig and Holstein had been recognized as German principalities entitled to representation in the Germanic Confederation, the German people as such objected to their absolute incorporation with Denmark. The storm raised over King Christian's letter was such as to forebode no other settlement than by arms.

[Sidenote: Gioberti]

[Sidenote: Pius IX.]

[Sidenote: Early Papal measures]

Pope Gregory XVI. died at Rome in his eighty-first year. At the time of his death the Papal prisons were filled with conspirators and reformers, among whom were some of his best subjects. His death gave new hope to the followers of Gioberti, whose political dreams depicted a new Italy, regenerated by the moral force of a reforming Papacy. Austria's candidate for the Papacy having failed to secure the requisite number of votes in the College of Cardinals, Mastai Ferretti, Bishop of Imola, was elected, and on June 17 assumed the title Pius IX. The choice of this popular prelate was taken to be a tribute to Italian feeling. The first acts of Pio Nono confirmed this impression. Universal amnesty was extended to political prisoners. Hundreds of Italian patriots who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life were set free. When, in addition to this, permission was given to the citizens of Rome to enroll themselves in the new civic guard, all Rome gave itself up to popular rejoicings. The climax of national enthusiasm was reached when the new Pope took occasion to voice a formal protest against the designs of Austria upon Ferrara.

[Sidenote: Revolt of Cracow]

[Sidenote: Anarchy in Austrian-Poland]

[Sidenote: Cracow incorporated in Austria]

[Sidenote: Tennyson on Poland]

For the time being the Austrian Government was too preoccupied with its troubles at home to carry its Italian policy to extremes. The Polish refugees at Paris had long determined to strike another blow for the freedom of their country. It was arranged that the Polish provinces in Austria and Prussia should rise and revolt, early during this year, and extend the revolution to Russian Poland. But the Prussian Government crushed the conspiracy before a blow was struck. In Austria the attempt was more successful. Late in February insurrection broke out in the free city of Cracow. General Collin occupied the city, but his forces proved too weak. The Polish nobles around Tarnow in Northern Galicia raised the standard of revolt. Some 40,000 Polish insurgents marched on Cracow. A severe reverse was inflicted upon them by the government troops. Now the peasants turned against the nobles, burning down the largest estates and plunging the country into anarchy. The landowners, face to face with the humiliating fact that their own tenants were their bitterest foes, charged the Austrian Government with having instigated a communistic revolt. In a circular note to the European courts, Metternich protested that the outbreak of the Polish peasantry was purely spontaneous. A simultaneous attempt at revolution in Silesia was ruthlessly put down. Austria, Russia and Prussia now revoked the treaty of Vienna in regard to Poland. Cracow, which had been recognized as an independent republic, was annexed by Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia, and against the protests of England, France and Sweden. New measures of repression against Polish national aspirations were taken in Russia. The last traces of Poland were blotted from the map of nations. It was then that Tennyson wrote his famous sonnet on Poland:

"How long, O God, shall men be ridden down,
And trampled under by the last and least
Of men? The heart of Poland hath not ceased
To quiver, tho' her sacred blood doth drown
The fields, and out of every smouldering town
Cries to Thee, lest brute Power be increased."

In Russia during this year Otto von Kotzebue, the great navigator and Arctic explorer, died in his fifty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Civil war in Portugal]

Almost simultaneously with the attempted revolution of Poland, another revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the constitutional army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.

[Sidenote: Spanish princesses married]

In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding, her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.

[Sidenote: Guizot's doubtful success]

Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The _entente cordiale_ between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.

[Sidenote: Oregon treaty signed]

[Sidenote: Rae's Arctic explorations]

Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty, signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the forty-ninth degree of northern latitude was accepted as the boundary between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English ships, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on the Island of Vancouver, as the most promising British port in the Pacific. During this same year, Dr. John Rae, by sledge journeys of more than 1,200 miles, explored the northernmost region, Boothia, wherein was determined the northern magnetic pole.

[Sidenote: Ether in surgery]

[Sidenote: Chloroform]

On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author, named the new method "Anaesthesia." The credit of the new discovery was claimed forthwith by several persons--notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon, Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with analogous effect.

[Sidenote: Mexican war begun]

[Sidenote: Mexican success]

[Sidenote: American reverse at Fort Brown]

[Sidenote: Palo Alto]

[Sidenote: Resaca de la Palma]

[Sidenote: Invasion of Mexico]

In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas, opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a fleet of seven ships brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there, he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel. The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown, and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor. With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor assaulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican infantry. The prairie grass between the two armies took fire. Both lines drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade, but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers, and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred. Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000 men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made President.

[Sidenote: Kearney annexes New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Fremont in California]

In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fe. On August 1, he annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at once assumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil War--Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.

[Sidenote: Tardy declaration of war]

The news of these events did not reach Washington until after Congress had declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of 40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure, announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation, was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.

[Sidenote: Assault of Monterey]

[Sidenote: Hoffman's stanzas]

[Sidenote: Long armistice]

General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras. On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies passed to the rear of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's "King Henry V.":

We were not many--we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if he but could
Have been with us at Monterey.

Our banners on those turrets wave,
And there our evening bugles play;
Where orange-boughs above their grave
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.

An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars, and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.

[Sidenote: Howe's sewing machine]

[Sidenote: Iowa becomes a State]

On the American side, too, little was done. On August 8, the Wilmot Proviso was considered. It was a proviso to the $2,000,000 bill asked by the President to arrange peace with Mexico, and it declared it to be "an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist therein." August 10 the proviso came up for final passage, but John Davis of Massachusetts, in order to defeat action on the bill, held the floor till the session expired. Congress adjourned on that day. Great agitation prevailed in the North over the defeat of this proviso. The Democrats lost their majority in the Twenty-ninth Congress, owing to the new tariff and the predominance of pro-slavery issues in the war. Polk had but 110 votes against 118 when the new Congress met. Now the new tariff went into effect. Howe, the American inventor, secured a patent for an improvement in sewing-machines, which embodied the main features of the machine used at present; to wit, a grooved needle provided with an eye near its point, a shuttle operating on the side of the cloth opposite the needle to form a lockstitch, and an automatic feed. On December 28, Iowa was admitted to the Union as the twenty-ninth State.

1847

[Sidenote: Santa Anna's advance]

[Sidenote: Buena Vista]

General Winfield Scott reached the harbor of Vera Cruz in January, and assumed command of all the American forces. He took with him the best officers and troops on the field of action, and left Taylor with only 5,200 men, most of whom were volunteers. Santa Anna, who had gathered 12,000 men eager to be led against the Americans, was approaching Saltillo. Leaving Monterey on January 31, Taylor reached Saltillo on February 2, and passed on to Aqua Nueva, twenty miles south of Saltillo, where he remained three weeks. Thence he fell back to a mountain gorge opposite Buena Vista. On February 22, his troops and those of Santa Anna were within sight of each other. Under a flag of truce, Santa Anna demanded Taylor's surrender, which was refused. The famous battleground, taking its name from the estate of Buena Vista, is a rugged valley from two to five miles wide, between rocky walls a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep ravines. Taylor placed his forces in groups on the crests of the bluffs, at the base of the eastern mountain, and in the southern edge of the plateau. The Mexican troops attempted to flank his position, but were driven off. The Mexican cavalry were sent to Taylor's rear to intercept the American retreat, but they were beaten back after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, led by Taylor himself. Santa Anna made his first attack in three columns. Two of these combined and turned the American left. The third, thrown against the American right, was forced to retreat, the Americans having formed a new front. Again the Mexicans sought to gain Taylor's rear, but with two regiments supported by artillery and dragoons, the American commander drove them back, firing into their heavy mass.

[Sidenote: Taylor's order to Bragg]

[Sidenote: Conflicting claims of victory]

At one point in the engagement, an Indiana regiment, through a mistaken order, gave way, thereby placing the American army in peril. But the Mississippians and the Kentuckians threw themselves forward; the Indiana troops rallied, and the Mexicans were repulsed. General Taylor, standing near Captain Bragg's battery, saw signs of wavering in the enemy's line. "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg," he exclaimed--a command which was repeated all over the United States during the political campaign two years later. The Mexican column broke, and Taylor drove it up the slope of the eastern mountain. By means of a false flag of truce the endangered wing, however, escaped. Santa Anna, forming his whole force into one column, advanced. The Americans fell back, holding only the northwest corner of the plateau. When morning broke, the enemy had disappeared. The Mexican loss was 2,000, that of the Americans 746. Henry Clay, a son of the Kentucky statesman, as he lay wounded, was despatched by a Mexican vacquero. Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded with distinction a regiment of Mississippi riflemen. Buena Vista was Taylor's last battle. Its fame was heralded throughout America. Both sides claimed the victory. The Mexicans chanted Te Deums. In the United States the poet Kifer sang:

From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine,
Let us all exult! for we have met the enemy again.
Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their pride,
And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide;
Where the enemy came surging swift, like the Mississippi's flood,
And the reaper, Death, with strong arms swung his sickle red with blood.

After the battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor returned to the United States, his task finished. The exploit shed such lustre on his name that he was soon regarded as the fittest candidate for the Presidency.

[Sidenote: San Juan d'Ulloa captured]

[Sidenote: Battle of Cerro Gordo]

[Sidenote: American advance into Mexico]

In March, Scott's army of 12,000 landed at Vera Cruz. After four days' bombardment by land and water, the city and castle of San Juan d'Ulloa surrendered. General Worth was left in command at Vera Cruz, and Scott started on his march to the City of Mexico, two hundred miles away. Santa Anna, with the flower of his army, awaited him in the strong position of Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest. General Twiggs turned the Mexican left flank. On the following morning, April 18, the Americans attacked in three columns. Pellow advanced against the Mexican right, where three hills at an angle in the road were crowned with batteries. Shields' division, climbing by a pass, fell upon Santa Anna's right and rear. Twiggs and Worth, bearing to the right, covered the El Telegrafo Hill, and attacked the height of Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna commanded in person. Carrying this position, they turned its guns on the retreating Mexicans. Caught between the columns of Pellow, Twiggs and Worth, Santa Anna's forces surrendered. The American troops thus gained the national road to the capital of Mexico. They had made 3,000 prisoners and taken forty-three cannon, with $22,000 in silver and immense munitions of war. They lost, at Cerro Gordo, 481 killed and wounded; the Mexican loss was 2,000. Jalapa was occupied on April 19, and on the 22d the American flag waved above the Castle of Perote, fifty miles beyond. Puebla, containing 80,000 inhabitants, was occupied without opposition on May 15. On account of the sufferings of the men in the hot climate, General Scott rested at Puebla for several months.

[Sidenote: Doniphan's exploit]

The authority of the United States was established on the Pacific Coast, after a final defeat of the Mexicans at San Gabriel. Colonel Doniphan of Kearney's command, having been left in charge in New Mexico, compelled the Navajo Indians to enter into a treaty of peace, after which he set out with 1,000 Missourians to join General Wool. At Bracto, a Mexican commander with a superior force sent a black flag demanding his surrender. On refusal of this summons notice was given that no quarter should be granted. The Mexicans then advanced firing; the Americans lying down to escape the bullets. Cheering, the Mexicans ran forward, when suddenly Doniphan's command rose and fired, killing more than 200 Mexicans. The rest turned and fled. Near the capital of Chihuahua, Doniphan, after a sharp encounter, dispersed 4,000 Mexicans. The Stars and Stripes were raised above the citadel. In May, Doniphan rejoined Wool at Saltillo. Then followed a long lull in the Mexican campaign.

[Sidenote: Slavery controversy revived]

The question concerning the power of the American Congress to legislate on slavery again came up in connection with the bill for the establishment of the Oregon Territorial government. In February Calhoun had introduced his new slavery resolution, declaring the Territories to be the common property of all the States, and denying the right and power of Congress to prohibit slavery in any Territory. Thus began the agitation which led to the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. By the terms of an amendment offered for the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, slavery was to be excluded from all future territory in the West. This amendment was lost, but the bill passed with another, incorporating the anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787. Calhoun declared that the exclusion of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of the Union, and proclaimed "the separation of the Northern and Southern States complete."

[Sidenote: John Franklin's career]

[Sidenote: Long overland journey]

[Sidenote: The Northwest Passage]

In British North America a new era of home rule began after the Earl of Elgin took his oath as Governor-General of Canada in January. The imperial government abandoned all control over the customs of Canada. The building of the first great Canadian railroad was begun on the main line of the Grand Trunk system. Discouraging reports from the extreme northern regions of America at last confirmed the impression that Sir John Franklin, with the other members of his expedition, had perished in the Arctic regions. A romantic naval career was thus brought to a close. Born in 1786, John Franklin entered the British navy at the age of fourteen as a midshipman, and soon saw his first active service at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. In the following year he was taken on his first trip of exploration to Australia by his cousin, Captain Flinders of the "Investigator." In 1818 he was a member of an expedition sent out by the British Government to attempt a passage to India by crossing the Polar Sea. His bold seamanship during this voyage brought him into such prominence that during the next year he was appointed by the Admiralty to command an expedition to travel overland from Hudson's Bay to the Arctic Ocean. During the course of this expedition he and his companions walked 5,560 miles and endured many hardships, of which Franklin wrote a thrilling narrative on his return to England in 1822. He then married Eleanor Porden, the author of the heroic poem "Coeur de Lion." In 1825 he was appointed to the command of another overland Arctic expedition. When the day of his departure arrived, his wife was dying of consumption. Lying at the point of death as she was, she would not let him delay his voyage, and gave him for a parting gift a silk flag to hoist when he reached the Polar Sea. On the day after Franklin left England she died. When he returned again he was knighted and showered with honors by various scientific societies of England and France. After serving as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John, in 1845, was appointed an admiral, and then another Arctic expedition to discover the Northwest Passage was organized. He sailed from Sheerness on May 26, 1845, and was last seen by a whaler in Baffin's Bay. Many years later a record was found on the northwest shore of King William's Land, announcing that Sir John Franklin died in the spring of 1847, and that the survivors of his expedition had attempted to make their way back on the ice to the American continent. To Sir John Franklin belongs the honor of the first discovery of the northwest passage leading from Lancaster Sound to Behring Strait.

[Sidenote: O'Connell's last speech]

[Sidenote: Death of O'Connell]

On February 8, Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish Parliamentary leader, made his last speech in the English House of Commons. The question on which he spoke was a proposed bill for the relief of famine in Ireland: "I am afraid," he said, in the course of this address, "that the English people are not sufficiently impressed with the horrors of the situation in Ireland. I do not think they understand the accumulated miseries which my people are suffering. It has been estimated that 5,000 adults and 10,000 children have already died from famine, and that one-fourth of the whole population must perish unless something is done." Failing in health himself, O'Connell went to Italy. At Rome, Pope Pius IX. prepared a magnificent reception for him. Before he could reach the Eternal City, O'Connell died in his seventy-second year. Lacordaire, who but shortly before this had pronounced his greatest of funeral orations over the bier of General Drouot, thus spoke of O'Connell: "Honor, glory and eternal gratitude for the man who gave to his country the boon of liberty of conscience. Where is a man in the Church since the time of Constantine who has at one stroke enfranchised six millions of souls?" When the body of O'Connell was buried at Glasnevin, it was followed to the grave by fifty thousand mourners, among whom Orangemen and Ribbonmen walked side by side. In England, O'Connell's death was regarded with a feeling akin to relief. There his persistent demands of "justice for Ireland" had come to be regarded with derision, bringing him the nickname of "Big Beggarman."

[Sidenote: Death of Thomas Chalmers]

[Sidenote: "Vanity Fair"]

[Sidenote: "Jane Eyre"]

[Sidenote: Jenny Lind]

Another spirit that won religious renown in England passed away with Thomas Chalmers, the great Scotch divine. As a teacher of theology at Edinburgh he wrote no less than twenty-five volumes, the most famous of which is his "Evidences of the Christian Revelations," a reprint of his article on "Christianity" contributed to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." In other respects it was a notable year for English letters. Charles Dickens had just published his famous stories "Dombey and Son" and "The Haunted Man." The success of these novels was surpassed by that of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair." Three writers now made their appearance. Anthony Trollope brought out his "MacDermotts of Ballycoran"; Emily Bronte published her first novel, "Wuthering Heights," while her sister, Charlotte Bronte, at the same time achieved an immense success with her story of "Jane Eyre." These successes were more than rivalled by that of Jenny Lind, the great soprano singer, who made her first appearance in London during this season. Another event for intellectual England was the sale at auction of Shakespeare's house at Stratford. It was acquired by a united committee of Shakespeare lovers for the sum of L3,000.

[Sidenote: Jewish disabilities reconfirmed]

The oft-mooted question of the civil disabilities of the Jews in England was brought up again by the election of Baron Rothschild as a member of Parliament for London, together with Lord John Russell. The Premier, whose name was already identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty, made another strong effort to obtain the recognition of his colleague's claim to his seat. He was supported in this not only by most of the Whigs in the House of Commons, but also by three such prominent men of the opposition as Lord Bentinck, Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, himself of Jewish lineage. As heretofore, this proposed reform was accepted by the Commons only to be rejected by the Lords, now installed in their new House of Peers. Otherwise, Lord Russell's Ministry followed largely in the footsteps of their immediate predecessors. Palmerston pursued his wonted vigorous foreign policy.

[Sidenote: Don Pacifico affair]

[Sidenote: British retaliation]

[Sidenote: Palmerston obdurate]

It had been customary in Greek towns to celebrate Easter by burning an effigy of Judas Iscariot. This year the police of Athens were ordered to prevent this performance, and the mob, disappointed of their favorite amusement, ascribed the new orders to the influence of the Jews. The house of one Don Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew of Gibraltar, happened to stand near the spot where the Judas was annually burned. Don Pacifico was known to be a Jew, and the anger of the mob was wreaked upon him accordingly. On April 4, his house was sacked. Don Pacifico made a claim against the Greek Government for compensation. He estimated his losses, direct and indirect, at nearly L32,000. Another claim was made at the same time by another British subject, Finlay, the historian of Greece. The Greek Government, which was all but bankrupt, was dilatory in settling these claims. A British fleet was ordered to the Piraeus. It seized all the Greek vessels belonging to the government and to private merchants that were found within those waters. The Greek Government appealed to France and Russia as Powers joined with England in the treaty to protect the independence of Greece. France and Russia both made bitter complaint of not having been consulted in the first instance by the British Government, nor was their feeling softened by Lord Palmerston's peremptory reply that it was all a question between England and Greece. It was on this occasion that Palmerston made the famous speech harking back to the sentiment expressed in the old Roman boast "Civis Romanus Sum."

[Sidenote: Troubles in China]

[Sidenote: Bogue forts recaptured]

[Sidenote: A Chinese protest]

Next, new troubles arose with China. During the previous year riots broke out in Canton, by reason of a superstitious belief that a weather-vane on top of the flagstaff over the American Consulate interfered with the spirits of the air. A Chinaman was shot during the riots. The British had to interfere on behalf of the threatened Americans. The outraged feelings of the Chinese populace were allayed by a conciliatory declaration of Emperor Taouk-Wang, to the effect that the Christian religion could be commended as a faith for inculcating the principles of virtue. At the same time he sent a special commissioner, Ke-Ying, "amicably to regulate the commerce with foreign merchants at Canton." Trouble again broke out in March, when a small English hunting and fishing party violated the agreement confining them to the foreign concession at Canton. They were pelted with stones by the natives. Sir John Davis denounced this incident as international outrage, and, in disregard of the accepted treaty provisions, proclaimed "that he would exact and acquire from the Chinese Government that British subjects should be as free from molestation and insult in China as they would be in England." On April 1, all the available forces at Hong Kong were summoned to Canton. Three steamships, bearing two regiments of soldiers, convoyed by a British man-of-war, attacked the Bogue forts. The Chinese, acting under orders from Ke-Ying, made no resistance. A British landing force seized the batteries and spiked the guns. Next, the forts opposite Canton were captured without a blow. Without a shot fired, Canton, on April 3, lay at the mercy of the British guns. Ke-Ying accepted the British ultimatum that the whole city of Canton should be opened to Englishmen two years from date. The agreement was closed with this significant statement on behalf of the Chinese Emperor: "If mutual good-will is to be maintained between the Chinese and foreigners, the common feelings of mankind, as well as the just principles of heaven, must be considered and conformed with."

[Sidenote: Nicaragua coerced]

[Sidenote: Threatened intervention in Portugal]

A new phase in Great Britain's boundary dispute with Nicaragua was reached by a British squadron's abrupt seizure of the harbor of San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua's only seaport on the Atlantic coast. In regard to the demands made for the free navigation of the La Plata River, the Argentine Republic at last came to terms. The joint squadrons of England and France thereupon raised their blockade of Buenos Ayres. At London a conference of English and French statesmen, to which Spain was likewise admitted, had come to an agreement to interfere on behalf of Queen Maria II., in Portugal. When this was made known, Bandiera, one of the chief partisans of Dom Pedro, announced his submission. Nonetheless, Pedro's followers persevered, and on June 26 the Junta at Oporto had to capitulate to Pedro's army.

[Sidenote: German Parliamentary essays]

[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein issue]

In Germany, in the meanwhile, the agitation for Parliamentary government steadily gained ground. In Bavaria, where King Louis's open liaison with the dancer Lola Montez had turned his subjects against him, the deputies of the Landtag exerted their power to abolish the crown lotteries by a unanimous vote. In Prussia, King Frederick William IV. at last issued his long-promised summons for a united provincial Diet. A semblance of representative government was established. It was at this time that Frederick William became Elector of Hesse-Cassel. The agitation for a representative government grew. On September 12, the Liberals held a meeting at Orthenburg. Within a month the Constitutional party met at Heppenheim, in Hesse. At length a united Prussian Parliament, called the Landtag, was convoked at Berlin. The first question to claim the attention of this Parliament was that of Schleswig-Holstein. The gauntlet recently flung down to the German population of Schleswig and Holstein, by King Christian VIII. of Denmark, was picked up not only by the anti-Danish Holsteiners, but by the whole German nation as well. Little Schleswig, with its 160 square miles and 400,000 inhabitants, was claimed by every German as German borderland. King Christian at this time was failing in health. His condition had been aggravated by the recent great fire at Copenhagen, which, amid other costly properties, destroyed invaluable records of Icelandic literature, including more than 2,000 unpublished manuscripts.

[Sidenote: Death of Mendelssohn]

[Sidenote: "Songs Without Words"]

An event of like international importance was the death of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, at the age of thirty-eight. He was the grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and the son of the gifted Lea Solomon-Bartholdy, from whom he received his first piano lessons. At the age of ten he joined the Singing Academy of Berlin, where a composition of his, the "Nineteenth Psalm," was performed shortly after his entry. In 1825 his father took him to Paris to consult Cherubini, as to his future. Cherubini offered to take him as a pupil, but his father preferred to bring him up in the musical atmosphere of his own home. There the boy perfected himself as a piano player and wrote a host of early compositions. The overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1826, when Mendelssohn was but seventeen years old. Two years later his first opera, "The Marriage of Camecho," was given at the Berlin Opera. In Berlin, Mendelssohn became the leading figure in the propaganda for the music of Bach. Having undertaken a journey to England, at the suggestion of Moscheles, he gave a series of concerts there, after which he travelled throughout Europe. It was at this time that he wrote his "Songs Without Words," and composed the overture, "A Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage." After filling a musical directorship at Duesseldorf, he was summoned to conduct the orchestra of the Gewandhaus there. This proved an important turn in his career. In 1841, Frederick William IV. of Prussia invited him to Berlin, where he organized the famous Cathedral choir. Returning to Leipzig, he founded the musical conservatory in that city. The sudden death of his favorite sister, Fannie, gave him such a shock that he died within a few months after her. Mendelssohn exerted little influence as an operatic composer, but achieved the highest rank by such vocal compositions as the oratorios "St. Paul" and "Elijah," and some of his beautiful songs, which have become folksongs. Of his orchestral pieces, the most famous are his concert overtures, such as that of the "Midsummer Night's Dream," or "Ruy Blas," and his "Funeral March." The most celebrated of his piano pieces are the popular "Songs Without Words," the "Wedding March" and the brilliant "Rondo Capriccioso."

[Sidenote: Death of Marilhat]

[Sidenote: Gautier on Marilhat]