1818.

original number of States, and as many stars as there may be States in the future.

Illinois is admitted as a State (3 Dec.).

Gen. Jackson enters Spanish Florida to continue the fight against the Seminoles. He overcomes the Indians, and puts to death Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, who had incited the Indians to war. He seizes Pensacola, a Spanish possession, but the Government later gives it up to Spain.

The Indians cede additional tracts of land in Illinois and Indiana to the U. S.

The western State Banks, in consequence of an over-issue of notes, suspend payment.

The first steamboat on Lake Erie begins running.

The first Methodist newspaper in the U. S. is started in Boston.

The Baltimore Quaker yearly meeting petitions Congress to make further provision for the protection of free colored persons. Congress passes a Bill for the suppression of the foreign slavetrade, by which the burden of proof is thrown upon those in possession of negroes found upon ships.

The national expenses for the year are $35,164,875; the debt is $103,466,633; the imports are $121,750,000; and the exports, $93,281,133.

1819. Spain agrees to cede Florida to the U. S. in extinction of all American claims, the U. S. paying Spain $5,000,000.

Congress passes an Act allowing a premium of $50 to the informer in every case of illegal importation of an African into the U. S. An attempt is made in Congress to punish slavetrading with death, but it fails in the Senate.

The first trip across the Atlantic by a steamer is made by the Savannah (June-July); the latter part of the voyage is made by sail alone.

Emigration from Europe to the U. S. increases rapidly this

year.

The country suffers from a financial crisis; prices fall; manufacturers begin to demand a higher tariff.

Maine petitions to be admitted as a State.

A Bill to authorize the Territory of Missouri to frame a State Constitution is proposed in Congress, and the question of prohibiting further slavery in the proposed new State is discussed, and amendments to secure that result are defeated.

In consequence of the feeling aroused by the debate on the admission of Missouri, the American Convention for the Abolition of Slavery revives, and meets at Philadelphia (Oct.). Public meetings for the same purpose are heid at Trenton, N. J., New York, Boston, and in the other large cities in the North.

The American Farmer, the first agricultural newspaper in the U. S., is published at Baltimore (2 April).

The Odd Fellows Society is first organized in the U. S., at Baltimore (26 April).

Patent-leather is first manufactured in the U. S., at Newark New Jersey, by Seth Boyden.

An epidemic of yellow fever prevails in the larger southern cities. The town of Indianapolis is first settled,

1819.

The Watchman and Reflector, the first Baptist newspaper in the U. S., is issued (May).

Alabama is admitted as a State (14 Dec.).

The national expenses for the year are $24,004,199; the debt is $95,529,648; the imports are $87,125,000; and the exports, $70,141,501.

1820. Congress appoints a committee to inquire into the expediency of prohibiting slavery west of the Mississippi.

Congress passes the bill known as "the Missouri Compre mise" (2 March); by it, both Maine and Missouri are to be admitted as States (Missouri as a slave-state), with a provision thenceforward excluding slavery north of the line of 36o 30', the southern boundary of Missouri.

Maine is admitted as a State (15 March).

To meet a deficiency in the National Treasury, a loan of $8,000,000 is authorized by Congress.

Congress passes a Tenure of Office Act, by which the term of office of the inferior executive officers is limited to four years, at the end of which time a re-appointment is necessary.

A treaty is signed between the U. S. and Spain (24 Oct.), by which Spain cedes Florida to the U. S.

Monroe is re-elected President, and Tompkins Vice-President, with slight opposition, J. Q. Adams receiving only one vote for President, and R. Stockton 8 (Mass.) for Vice-President; Daniel Rodney 4, R. G. Harper 1, and R. Rush 1.

The first steamboat on Lake Michigan begins running.

The national expenses for the year are $21,763,024; the debt is $91,015,566; the imports are $74,450,000; and the exports, $69,661,669.

1821. Several bills for the admission of Missouri as a State, with and without slavery, having been rejected, the House, on motion of Henry Clay, 20 Feb., appoints a committee to meet a committee on the part of the Senate to devise a plan for its admission; Mr. Clay, as chairman, reports a resolution (26) defining the conditions on which the Territory may be admitted and embracing the Senate's compromise amendment; this resolution is adopted in the House the same day and in the Senate two days later, and under its provisions Missouri is admitted into the Union, 10 Aug.

James Monroe, President, and D. D. Tompkins, Vice-President, are sworn into office for a second term, 4 March.

Matthew Carey is presented with a piece of plate worth $200 by the citizens of Wilmington, Del. (April), in approbation of his writings on political economy and national industry.

Spain ratifies the treaty with the U. S. for the cession of the Florida country, and Gen. Jackson, the newly appointed Governor, takes formal possession, 1 July.

English officers take up the remains of Major André, at Tappan, N.Y. (Aug.), and convey them to London, where they are buried in Westminster Abbey.

Miss Sophia Woodhouse, of Weathersfield, Conn., sends to the London Society of Arts samples of a new material for strawplaiting in its raw, bleached, and manufactured state, including a bonnet in imitation of Leghorn, the substance being

1821. locally known as ticklemoth grass; the bonnet is pronounced superior to the best Leghorn, and the Society votes her its large silver medal and 20 guineas for her discovery; a U. S. patent is granted her for manufacturing hats and bonnets of " grass," 25 Dec.

Gen. Stephen F. Austin plants the first colony from the U. S. in Texas, in the bottoms of the Brazos de Dios.

Amherst (Mass.) College; Columbian College, Washington, D. C.; the Medical Department of the University of Vermont, Burlington; and the National Medical College, Washington, D. · C., are founded.

A quarantine station, with a number of hospital buildings, is established at Castleton, Staten Island, N. Y.

Under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, a large tract of land is secured on the west coast of Africa and named Liberia, to which it is proposed to send such free negroes of the U. S. as are willing to emigrate.

Among the patents issued this year are one to George J. Newbury, N. Y., for printing with metallic and colored powder (bronzing); and to Minus Ward, Columbia, S. C., for an inprovement in steam-engines, consisting of an alternating or rotary engine which enables the piston-rod to describe a rotary motion upon its extreme end when turning a wheel.

The national expenses for the year are $19,090,572; the debt is $89,987,427; the imports are $62,585,724; and the exports, $64,974,382.

1822. The Merrimac Manufacturing Company, which founds the city of Lowell, Mass., is incorporated, 5 Feb., and starts its first wheel, 23 Sep.

By an Act of Congress, 30 March, Florida is erected into a Territory.

Gen. Stark, of the Revolutionary army, dies, 8 May.

The U. S. sign a treaty with France (commerce and navigation), 24 June.

Owing to the large number of piratical craft that are swarming about the West Indies and preying upon our commerce there, a naval force is sent out which captures and destroys upwards of twenty vessels on the coast of Cuba.

John Colt begins the manufacture of cotton sail duck at Paterson, N. J.

Messrs. David H. Mason and Matthew W. Baldwin, of Philadelphia, begin the first engraving of cylinders for calico printing in the U. S.

The cotton crop amounts to 210,000,000 pounds, 30,000,000 more than last year's; the exports of the staple aggregate 144,700,000 pounds.

The first extensive and successful use of iron conduit-pipes in the U. S., is made in the service of the Fairmount Waterworks, erecting in Philadelphia; they are cast in that city in sections of 9 feet in length and from 2 to 22 inches in diameter. Tubes or pipes of india-rubber for gaseous fluids are made and used by Thomas Skidmore, of New York.

Steam-power is first introduced in the sugar manufacture of Louisiana.

1822.

Cotton culture is first begun in Texas by Col. Jared E. Groce, in the bottoms of the Brazos de Dios.

The U. S. Government recognizes the independence of the Republic of Mexico and of the provinces in South America formerly under the dominion of Spain.

The Theological Department of Yale College (Cong.), and the Episcopal Theological School of Virginia, Fairfax County, are founded.

Among the patents issued this year are one to C. M. Graham, N. Y. (the first) for artificial teeth; William Hall and Joseph Hastings, Mass., a process for making isinglass, said to be superior to any imported; George Murray and James Puglia, Phila., a process for making bank-notes that cannot be conterfeited; Reuben Hyde, Mass., a machine for making pales for fences; Á. C. Baker and M. F. Biddle, N. Y., a mode of transferring impressions from paper to wood; Capt. John Rodgers, president of the U. S. Naval Board, a marine railway, which receives the President's indorsement in a special message to Congress by which $50,000 are appropriated to put the system into operation at the Washington Navy-Yard; Peter Force, Washington, D. C., printing paper-hangings; and to Christopher Cornelius, Phila., for light-house lamps to burn lard on the solar principle.

The national expenses for the year are $17,676,592; the debt is $93,546,676; the imports are $83,241,541; and the exports, $72,160,281.

1823. A second and larger naval force, under Commodore Porter, is sent against the West Indian pirates, and their operations are effectually checked.

The revenue laws are amended by an Act approved 1 March, declaring that no goods imported subject to ad valorem duties shall be admitted to entry unless the true invoice is produced, excepting goods from a wreck; by another Act, approved the same day, U. S. ports are opened to British vessels from colonial ports in America; an Act of 15 May, 1820, imposing a tonnage duty on French ships, is repealed, 3 March, and a discriminating duty of $2.75 per ton on French goods imported in French vessels is laid, to be diminished one-fourth annually for two years.

The first Railway Act in America is passed, 31 March, by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, incorporating a company for the construction of a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia, Lancaster County.

New Hampshire contains 28 cotton and 18 woolen factories; 22 distilleries; 20 iron mills; 193 bark mills; 304 tanneries; 12 paper mills; and 55 trip-hammers.

Thomas Ewbank, of N, Y., obtains a patent for manufactur ing and plating lead pipes with tin for stills, and one for manufacturing tinned sheet-lead; this is the first application in the U. S. of tin as a lining or coating to metallic tubes and plates. Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, O., begins the manufac ture of wine, with the muscatel or vevay grape, and produces a wine resembling Madeira.

1823.

The first lease of lands in the lead region of the Upper Mississippi, authorized by Act of 3 March, 1807, is made by the Government to Col. James Johnson, of Ky., who proceeds to erects smelting-works and invite immigration.

Benthuysen, a printer, of Albany, N. Y., sets up and starts the first steam-power printing-press in the country.

The Champlain Canal, connecting the Hudson River at Albany with Lake Champlain, the first portion of the great system of internal navigation between New York and the basins of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, is completed.

Trinity College, Hartford, Conn; the Kentucky Blind Asylum, at Danville; and the Berkshire Medical School, Pittsfield, Mass., are founded.

The first Session of the 18th Congress is opened, 1 Dec., Henry Clay, re-elected a Member of the House, is chosen Speaker by a vote of 139 to 42 for Mr. Barbour, Speaker of the preceding Congress; in his Message, the President renews his recommendation for a speedy review of the tariff, for the purpose of affording additional protection to manufactures.

Gen. Simon Bolivar, a leader in the South American Revolution, invites Mexico, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres to send delegates to a conference at Panama for the purpose of forming a confederacy for a more determined resistance to Spain and the greater security of their own independence; the Ministers of Mexico, Colombia, and Central America have frequent conferences on the subject with our Secretary of State, and a formal invitation is given (Nov.) to the U. S. to participate in the proposed Congress. In the meantime, the British Cabinet, through Mr. Canning, carries on a lengthy correspondence with our State Department on the expediency of a demonstration against an apprehended design of the Holy Alliance with respect to this continent; these events prompt the President, in his Message, 2 Dec., to assert that this Government will consider any attempt on the part of the allied powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.

Smith Thompson, Secretary of the Navy, is succeeded by Samuel L. Southard, of N. J., 9 Dec.

The national expenses for the year are $15,314,171; the debt is $90,875,877; the imports are $77,579,267; and the exports, $74,699,030.

1324. A charter is granted by the State of Virginia to the Chesapeake and Chio Canal Company, 27 Jan., for the construction of a canal from tide-water above Georgetown on the Potomac to Pittsburg, a distance of 341 miles.

A caucus is held in Washington, D. C., to secure the nomination of Mr. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, for the Presidency, 14 Feb.; only 68 of the 258 Republican" members attend; a motion is made to adjourn to 20 March, but it is opposed, and the meeting proceeds to ballot for a candidate; of the 68 votes given, Mr. Crawford receives 64; John Quincy Adams, 2; Andrew Jackson, 1; and Nathaniel Mason, 1; fol Vice-President, Albert Gallatin receives 57 votes.