1859. First Atlantic cable laid. Lincoln-Douglas debates. Sept. 18. Mountain Meadow Massacre, Utah. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. 1860. Population 31,443,321. 1861. THE CIVIL WAR AND OUR OWN TIMES. Dec. 20. Secession of South Carolina. Secession of Mississippi on Jan. 9; of Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11 ; July 1. Battle of Malvern Hill; last of the seven days' battle before April 14. April 26. Assassination of Lincoln; Andrew Johnson President. Thirteenth Amendment ratified. Second Atlantic cable completed. Dec. 18. 1866. July 27. 1867. May 2. Reconstruction bill passed over veto. Purchase of Alaska. Admission of Nebraska. 1868. Feb. 24. President Johnson impeached by the House. Trial in the Senate fails. July 21. Fourteenth Amendment adopted. 1869. Inauguration of U. S. Grant. May 10. Pacific Railroad completed. 1870. Population 38,558,371. 1886. 1889. Presidential Succession Law enacted. Benjamin Harrison becomes President. April 22. Oklahoma opened to settlers. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington admitted into the Union. 1890. Population 62,622,250. Idaho and Wyoming admitted. McKinley tariff enacted. Sherman silver law passed. Chilians assault American sailors at Valparaiso. Wilson tariff law enacted. Dec. 17. Cleveland issues his Venezuelan message. William McKinley becomes President. 1891. 1894. 1895. 1897. July 24. Dingley tariff becomes law. 1898. Feb. 15. Destruction of the Maine at Havana. April 25. May 1. Congress declares war against Spain (existing from April 21). Battle of Manila. Samoan treaty made by the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. 1900. Allied Powers enter China to quell Boxer disturbances. Civil Government established in Alaska. Great disaster at Galveston, Texas. 1901. Jan. 1. The Hague Arbitration Court organized. May 3. Civil Government established in the Philippines. Sept. 6. President McKinley shot by an assassin. Dies on Sept. 14. Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. 1902. Cuban Republic established. May 12. Great Anthracite strike in Pennsylvania begins. 1903. Feb. 14. Cabinet Department of Commerce and Labor created. March 17. Panama Canal Treaty with Colombia ratified by the United July 4. Pacific Cable completed. Oct. 17. Alaskan Boundary Tribunal in London decides in favor of the Nov. 6. The United States recognizes the new Republic of Panama. Canal Treaty with Panama signed by Secretary Hay. Ratified by Panama Dec. 2; by the United States Senate, Feb. 23, 1904. INTRODUCTION THE history of the United States of America is a story of intense interest, not only to the American people, but to intelligent people of all countries. This has been especially true with regard to foreigners in the past few years, owing to two facts: first, the extraordinary prominence given to our country by the recent war with Spain and the consequent acquisition of a vast archipelago in the Orient; second, our wonderful commercial expansion in recent years, and the irresistible "invasion" of the European countries by our products. It may truly be said that the eyes of the world are turned upon our land to-day as upon no other, and that our history is now of greater interest than ever before. Mr. Bryce in his "American Commonwealth" points out three phenomena, peculiar to the United States, as new in the annals of the world: first, that our great population is the resultant of the blending of numerous European peoples; second, that besides the predominant white race there are seven millions of men belonging to a dark race,1 thousands of years behind in its intellectual development, but legally equal in political and civil rights; and third, no other people in history, speaking the same tongue and living under the same institutions, has occupied so vast an area. To these we might add the more important and striking fact that the United States government is the first in history in which the federal system has been successful. This great fact is inconspicuous because it is old and well established, and also because our system has in some measure become general by being copied in part by other nations, notably by Mexico, by various countries of South America, and by Switzerland and Germany. The fact remains, 1 Increased to 8,840,789 by the census of 1900. however, that America was the first great nation in history to solve the greatest of all governmental problems, to blend Nationality. and Democracy in perpetual wedlock under one government, in such proportion as to secure the benefits of both; to protect local self-government by the mighty arm of a great nation, which is strong enough to perpetuate its own existence. Other facts that render the study of our history important are, that our manhood suffrage is more nearly universal, our free school system more extensive, than in any other country; that our land first introduced religious liberty to the world; that in the past hundred years we have been the greatest colonizer of all countries, though this fact has been disguised by the further fact that our colonies have become coequal states, a thing unknown before in history; and that, on the whole, the growth and development of the United States during the nineteenth century is the most wonderful fact in modern history. There are other items also (of which we are too prone to boast), such as these, — our iron and steel products are greater than in all other countries combined; we produce more coal, wheat, maize, and cotton than any other country. Our railroad mileage far exceeds that of any other nation, so also our telegraph lines, our newspaper issue. In short, our nation, though still in its youth and in its most rapid period of growth, is already the richest nation on the globe. The New World, inhabited only in modern times by civilized man, has been divided, for the most part, into a dozen or more independent republics, and it is very remarkable that one of these republics stands without a rival and without a second among its fellows; that this one, as a civilizing force and as a military power, surpasses all the rest combined. A study of American history will reveal the fact that many of our institutions, customs, and characteristics are indigenous to our soil; but it must not be forgotten that most of the best things in our civilization have their roots in the far past, in the centuries that made their record in the world's life long before this Western Hemisphere was known to the white man. In art, in sculpture, we must still find our models in the old masters of other lands; in |